The publication was recognized as the best children's book by the Zaporizhzhya Book Fair. Huge format, high quality paper and printing. The most popular Ukrainian fairy tales are "Telesyk", "Koza-Dereza", "Kotigroshko", "Pan Kotsky" and lullabies in incredible graphic design. Children get acquainted with the art of graphics, with black and white, which resonates with the good and evil of folk tales. And children will be able to paint the world thanks to the coloring book, which they will find in a book pocket at the end.
Interview with artist Irina Potapenko: "If you look at black and white drawings for a long time, your imagination begins to saturate them with color." What made the artist draw black and white illustrations for a children's book, what is her favorite fairy tale and where she takes inspiration to draw so elegantly and easily - read in our interview.
- Do children need to show black and white drawings? Now there is no black and white left in the world of books and against the background of this trend the book looks, at least, strange.
- I think it is possible and necessary to show black and white drawings to children. Figure is information. I read that scientists have studied babies in the first year of life. The child does not immediately form color perception. At first, children are most sensitive to tone, contrast and black and white drawing. For a child, such a picture is understandable. Here's black, here's white. Here is the line. You can follow her with your eyes. Consideration of such a drawing has a meditative effect on the child. This is a kind of journey into the world of images and fairy tales. A little later, the child gets acquainted with the color, learns to distinguish different shades from the background, reacts to the color emotionally. In addition, black and white illustrations are becoming popular. There are different directions and techniques of graphics execution.
- How did you agree to such an experiment (to publish fairy tales with black and white illustrations) with the publishing house "Hour of Masters"?
- I'll tell you how the idea for the book was born. The first drawings appeared when the events on the Maidan began. They drew spontaneously. I am an artist. I draw and thus express my attitude to everything that happens to me and around me. Then I was in pain, there was confusion and despair. I felt the pain of my homeland, the death of people. And I began to draw a tale about Ivasika-Telesika. For me, he became a symbol of Ukraine. I love this tale. I knew that Telesik would be saved and I believed that Ukraine would also survive in difficult times.
And then at the book exhibition in Lviv I met Oleg Simonenko. I brought my drawings. A whole roll. She showed Oleg, he liked it, and so we decided to make a book of Ukrainian fairy tales. I'm happy it happened. Our children will read, and I hope they will love these tales.
- What is new about this book? Because the b / w format was already in children's literature (10-15 years ago, 90% of children's books were with such illustrations)
- Now many children's books on the market. Such an abundance that parents sometimes get lost in what to buy for their child. Literature of different levels and qualities. I am sure that our book of fairy tales against the background of this diversity and multicolor will definitely catch the eye. It is a large format, printed on good paper, and most importantly, each illustration is a deep experience, it is woven into the patterns of lines of the cultural code of our people, Ukrainian rhythms, our history, which is transmitted through a fairy tale.
- Have you studied the previous experience of illustrating children's fairy tales of your colleagues. What new did you want to add to this edition?
- Of course, I watch the works of my colleagues on the Internet. I visit exhibitions of illustrations, book exhibitions. I like to go to bookstores and hang out there for a long time, buying my favorite books. I like Katerina Shtanko, Vladislav Erko, Kostya Lavro. They inspire me.
I would like our publication of fairy tales to inspire children to read and draw more. There is a coloring book for each fairy tale in the book. It is made so that after reading the fairy tale, the child could stay in the space of this fairy tale for some time and come up with its continuation. The book encourages active creativity, writing, fantasizing, creating illustrations already in color. The child may feel that he has to some extent even surpassed the artist in filling the book with color.
- Wasn't it tempting to add a background to the graphics? Now such illustrations are often found
- I did not have such an idea. Color immediately switches attention to itself. And the mesmerizing magic of the lines fades into the background. I would like the reader to immerse himself in the black-and-white narrative, in the rhythm of the fairy tale. It's like rhythm in music. You need to hear it, catch it, and then you can "dance" with your imagination through the pages.
I'll tell you a secret. If you look at black and white drawings for a long time, your imagination begins to saturate them with color. And everyone has their own color. Color from childhood, from memories. So it turns out - the book is one, but everyone has their own unique.
- Which fairy tale (or individual drawing) was the hardest to work on?
> It wasn't hard for me to draw. Each drawing is a fabulous door, a whole world that you guess on a white sheet. When I draw, it seems to me that the drawing just shows up on paper. It's as if it's already drawn there. I stare first, and he begins to appear. Nothing complicated.
- Have modern realities (the war in Donbass, the occupation of Crimea) been reflected in the embodiment of any images?
- This book was drawn against the background of all these events. But it was not drawn in the political space where there is a war between nations and states. It was painted in an ethnic space, where there is a connection between people with a common root, a common land, a common culture. I want the book to unite Ukrainians and nurture love and unity, not hatred.
- How exactly did you come to the schedule? What features did you find in it?
- Graphics itself came to me in my childhood. She went with me to kindergarten and school, decorated all my notebooks and notebooks. Then we studied together at the institute. Then he worked in an animation studio. Now it is conveniently located on the pages of children's books.
- Is it difficult to illustrate children's publications? Is it difficult to convey to the child through drawing the whole meaning of the illustration?
- It is not difficult to illustrate children's books. It's a lot of fun and exciting. You need to remain a child, then children will understand you and adults. I always want to draw. I can't get enough of it. I want to draw another million books. I have a million ideas in my head. They don't let me sleep. I sometimes get up at night and draw. And I laugh. I am happy with the process. One day I was drawing on a train all night. She was sitting on a mountain of drawings, rustling and scratching paper with a pencil. Adults do not always understand such work, they consider it a pampering. But children buy books. And that's good. Because children are our audience.
Ekaterina Kundelskaya talked to the artist
