Though Anatoly Kaplan worked in many different artistic mediums, he would become most famous for the innovative way he employed a variety of color and shade to create breathtaking lithographs.

Vladimir M. Konashevich, a graphic artist, master of lithography, and friend of Kaplan, vividly recalled watching Kaplan work:

“Anatoly Lvovich was bent over the stone rubbing, inking, scraping, smearing with ink. He inked the stone repeatedly, scratching its surface with all the tools he could get. The artist was in an adamant, persistent battle: he attacked the stone, wrestled with it, trying to break the resistance of the stubborn material with all his might. As I watched, I wanted to see what this ‘tormentor of stone’ would achieve. And what did these efforts produce? The very first drafts of his work showed that he had broken through the stubbornness of the material, victorious beyond anything that I had ever seen . . . ”