In the early 1960s, he taught at the Kyiv State Art Institute, but after a short tenure, he was dismissed on charges of emulating Boychukism. In protest, his friend Heorhii Yakutovych resigned from teaching as well.
Havrylenko produced book illustrations, created designs for the publishers Molod, Detgiz, and Dnipro. He illustrated over 32 publications, including The World Teaches Wisdom by Stefan Kovalyv (1960), Chipka by Panas Myrny (1961), Vita Nova by Dante (1965), The Knight in the Tiger Skin by Shota Rustaveli (1966), Four Stories About Hope by Mykola Bazhan (1967), In the Stork Village by Yevhen Hutsal (1969), Dorobok by Mykola Bazhan (1979) and others.
His illustrations for Panas Myrny’s novella Chipka drew harsh criticism: censors equated his style with that of Mykhailo Boychuk, which caused difficulties for the artist.
Havrylenko’s artistic hallmark was the use of color spot as the main compositional element, allowing him to create expressive and vivid images. His work ranged from abstractionism to realism, spanning various painting and graphic techniques, including oil and tempera painting, watercolor, drawing, easel and book graphics, black-and-white and color linocut, which held a special place in his oeuvre.
He is credited with developing a pen-and-ink graphic style, also known as the “grid” technique. This style is characterized by strokes applied at a 45-degree angle, complemented by horizontal and vertical lines. He first used this technique to illustrate Dante’s Vita Nova.
Havrylenko also had a distinctive approach to watercolor painting: to achieve the desired color, he applied pure watercolor layers sequentially, waiting for each layer to dry, unlike other watercolorists who mixed paints on the palette.
He skillfully integrated Ukrainian artistic traditions with broader European visual art principles, all while preserving his unique artistic identity and leaving a lasting mark on Ukrainian graphic and fine arts.