How to draw sketches in watercolor. Sketches in watercolor: how to develop creativity
(1) When the word "motherland" was pronounced under Berg, he grinned. (2) I didn’t notice the beauty of nature around, I didn’t understand when the fighters said:
"(3) Here we will recapture our native land and water the horses from our native river."
- (4) Chatter! Berg said gloomily. - (5) For people like us, there is no and no
maybe homeland.
- (6) Oh, Berg, cracker soul! - the fighters answered with heavy reproach. -
(7) You do not love the earth, eccentric. (8) And also an artist!
(9) Maybe that's why Berg did not succeed in landscapes.
(10) A few years later, in early autumn, Berg went to Murom
forests, to the lake, where his friend the artist Yartsev spent his summers, and lived there
about a month. (11) He was not going to work and did not take oil
paints, and brought only a small box of watercolors.
(12) All day long he lay on the still green glades and looked at the flowers
and herbs, picked bright red rose hips and fragrant juniper,
long needles, leaves of aspens, where the lemon field was scattered
black and blue spots, fragile lichen of a delicate ashy hue and
withering cloves. (13) He carefully examined the autumn leaves from the inside,
where the yellowness was slightly touched by lead frost.
(14) At sunset, flocks of cranes flew over the lake with a cooing
south, and Vanya Zotov, the forester's son, said to Berg every time:
- (15) It seems that birds are throwing us, flying to the warm seas.
(16) Berg for the first time felt a stupid insult: the cranes seemed to him
traitors. (17) They threw this forest and solemn
land full of nameless lakes, impenetrable thickets, dry foliage,
measured rumble of pines and air smelling of resin and damp marsh
mosses.
(18) Once Berg woke up with a strange feeling. (19) Light shadows
branches trembled on the clean floor, and behind the door shone a quiet blue. (20) Word
"radiance" Berg met only in the books of poets, considered him lofty and
devoid of clear meaning. (21) But now he realized how accurate this word is
conveys that special light that comes from the September sky and the sun.
(22) Berg took paints, paper and, without even drinking tea, went to the lake.
(23) Vanya took him to the far shore.
(24) Berg was in a hurry. (25) Berg wanted all the power of colors, all the skill of his
hands, all that was trembling somewhere in the heart, to give this paper, so that at least
to depict in a hundredth part the splendor of these forests, dying majestically and
Just. (26) Berg worked like a man possessed, sang and shouted.
... (27) Two months later, a notice of the exhibition was brought to Berg's house,
in which he was supposed to participate: they asked him to tell how many of his
The artist will exhibit the works this time. (28) Berg sat down at the table and quickly wrote:
“I am exhibiting only one study in watercolor, made this summer, - mine
first landscape.
(29) After a while, Berg sat and thought. (30) He wanted to trace what
by elusive ways, a clear and joyful feeling of homeland appeared in him.
(31) It has been ripe for weeks, years, decades, but the last push gave
forest land, autumn, cries of cranes and Vanya Zotov.
- (32) Oh, Berg, cracker soul! he remembered the words of the soldiers.
(33) The fighters were right then. (34) Berg knew that he was now connected with
his country not only with his mind, but with all his heart, as an artist, and that
love for the motherland made his smart, but dry life warm, cheerful and
a hundred times more beautiful than before.
(according to K.G. Paustovsky*)
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Sooner or later one gets the feeling incomprehensible, touching relationship with the nature and culture of their country. K. Paustovsky in the story "Watercolors" described the worldview of the artist Berg before and after discovering this feeling in himself, raised the problem of love for the motherland.
How terrible it is not to notice the beauty of forests, full-flowing rivers and thin streams, not to draw inspiration and vitality from them! People of art feel unity with nature especially deeply. It is difficult to imagine a creator grinning at the word "motherland", and, nevertheless, Berg is like that. It is not surprising that he was called "rusk soul", adding: "And also an artist!". Yes, he was like that, but that shining morning changed him, helped him see the beauty of his native land and feel a new joy.
Summer is a wonderful time of the year. A riot of colors and aromas inspires you to take up paints and brushes. This lesson is dedicated to watercolor study with wild flowers.
The first thing that a novice artist sees when looking at a bouquet of wild flowers is a lot of small twigs, leaves and a variety of flowers. And immediately panic! How can you draw all this? Don't worry, . And so, let's get started...
First step. Make a harmonious bouquet: arrange the flowers in a certain order. small above and beyond. They create background. Flowers by bigger and brighter should be on foreground. Therefore, cut them so that the buds do not overlap the background. Place a table lamp to illuminate the bouquet. This will create more contrasting shadows.
To work on a watercolor sketch, we need:
- Watercolor;
- Watercolor paper;
- squirrel or synthetic brushes (No. 2, No. 5, No. 10)
- oil colorless chalk (it allows you to leave white paper, creating a film on the surface)
- Water in a container;
- Napkin (wipe brushes)
Step back from the edges of the sheet by 3-4 cm. This way you will get fields that cannot be stepped over. This will help keep the "air" in the picture. Sketch with a simple pencil preliminary drawing. Do not put pressure on the pencil, so as not to spoil the top layer of paper when correcting. Inscribe the composition in the geometric shape of an oval or triangle.
Consider the composition as a whole. Take in the entire bouquet. Squint and you will see a blur. Drawing all the colors at once creates fractionality in the composition. Choose large flowers and concentrate on them, studying the shape and color. They are.
background drawingGetting started with paints, prepare a selection of colors on the palette cold And warm shades that are present in our bouquet. Those places on the edges of the petals that we want to leave white are reserved with colorless chalk. Starting from the background. On the right, a lamp shines on our still life, so warm ocher tones predominate. In the shadows we use purple, emerald and ultramarine. Then we move on to the flowers themselves and outline warm pinks, yellows and light green shades. With a thin glaze layer of ultramarine color, we add shadows on the petals, thus creating the shape of a flower. Make sure that a lot of details and traced small details in the background do not appear in the bouquet. It must be written generally, preferably in a raw way, when the paint flows from one color to another, creating unique shades. So the picture is not painted, but alive.
draw wild flowersWhen the work with the main large forms is finished, add nuances with a thin brush: stems and leaves in the foreground. The sketch is ready, now it can be used in the future to paint a still life with oil paints
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Syktyvkar, Russia
(from work experience)
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This article discussesthe possibilitywatercoloras an arttechnologyand methodsstylingmotif, as a method offormingthe futurecreativityof the artist.
The author analyzes thetechnicaltricks andways of workinginwatercolors andcopyrightsare offeredrecommendationsfor the implementation ofwatercolor sketchesto withstandgraphicallyexpressivestyle ofwork.
Keywords:
watercolor, paintingtechnology, techniques, means of expression, Plein airwatercolor, watercolorsketch; artisttips;
The academic course "painting" in the system of vocational training is aimed at mastering the techniques of various painting technologies in the process of studying the theory of color science and coloring. In the classical teaching of "Academic Painting" it was advisable to start with the study of watercolor technology and therefore in the practice of teaching, students began to perceive "watercolor" as a technology of painting and, accordingly, training is built on the practice of mastering painting techniques. It is not popular today to start the course of mastering painting techniques with mastering the technology of watercolor paints, since the technology requires patience, perseverance, attentiveness from students, which is not always easy for students and is difficult to assimilate in the educational process. Nevertheless, the watercolor used in the process of teaching painting can form students' ways of creative thinking if they include training tasks in the training course that allow them to interpret the picturesqueness of watercolor techniques in graphically expressive spots and lines that enhance the content of the "motif" image.
Artur Fonvizin.
Bibliography
1.Magic watercolor by Artur Fonvizin. Access code
Application
Torlopova N.G. Gingerbread house. 2007, boom. watercolor
Torlopova N.G. Old birch. 2007, boom. watercolor
Torlopova N.G. hut. 2013, boom. watercolor
Torlopova N.G. Obyachevsky gave 2007, boom. watercolor
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Natalya Gennadievna Torlopova
Syktyvkar, Russia
GRAPHIC INTERPRETATION OF A WATERCOLOR STUDY
(from work experience)
annotation
The article discusses the possibilities of watercolor as an artistic technology and ways of stylizing a motif as a method that forms the creativity of a future artist.
The author of the article analyzes the techniques and technical methods of working in watercolor and offers the author's recommendations for the implementation of a watercolor sketch, allowing to maintain the graphically expressive style of the work.
This article discusses the possibility of watercolor as an art technology and methods styling motif , as a method of forming the future creativity of the artist.
The author analyzes the technical tricks and ways of working in watercolors and copyrights are offered recommendations for the implementation of watercolor sketches to withstand graphically expressive style of work.
Keywords: watercolor; painting technology; technique; means of expression; watercolor plein air; watercolor study; artist advice;
watercolor, painting technology , techniques , means of expression , plein air watercolor , watercolor sketch ;artist tips;
The academic course "painting" in the system of vocational training is aimed at mastering the techniques of various painting technologies in the process of studying the theory of color science and coloring. In the classical teaching of "Academic Painting" it was advisable to start with the study of watercolor technology and therefore in the practice of teaching, students began to perceive "watercolor" as a technology of painting and, accordingly, training is based on the practice of mastering painting techniques. It is not popular today to start the course of mastering painting techniques with mastering the technology of watercolor paints, since the technology requires patience, perseverance, attentiveness from students, which is not always easy for students and is difficult to assimilate in the educational process. Nevertheless, the watercolor used in the process of teaching painting can form students' ways of creative thinking if they include training tasks in the training course that allow them to interpret the picturesqueness of watercolor techniques in graphically expressive spots and lines that enhance the content of the "motif" image.
Watercolor is an interesting but complex art technique. With the help of watercolor, you can create wonderful picturesque sketches that convey a slight nuance of color and have gentle transitions from one color to another. The classical techniques of watercolor painting allow you to subtly betray the pictorial space and sculpt the volume of the depicted objects with an illusory transfer of materiality.
Watercolor was originally a graphics technology: it performed illustrations of manuscripts and books, architectural projects and sketches of artistic products. And today it is popular among graphic artists for creating illustrations and easel graphic sheets. In the practice of modern artists working with watercolors, the pictorial solution of the sketch is not so common, which technically represents a variety of shades and color nuances of the plastic spot. In order to make a sketch more picturesque, artists often use the "wet" technique, which allows paints to spread freely over paper, flow and mix arbitrarily, creating softness and greater associativity of the color used. But it is not a fact that only wet paper helps to solve painting problems. In the history of watercolor there is an example of a different approach. These are watercolor works by an outstanding Russian artistArtur Fonvizin.“Some artists and art historians believe that Fonvizin painted his watercolors on the wet surface of the paper. This is not true. The artist did not work on pre-moistened paper, when he is entirely dependent on the vagaries of paint spreading on wet paper. Despite the fact that the artist worked in the “dry-on-dry” watercolor technique, which involved careful consideration of the sequence of applying paint layers, the result was freshness and sonority of color, immediacy of execution and the apparent lightness of a watercolor spot. Some incompleteness of his works gives the impression of special conciseness and expressiveness.
Artistic work in watercolor implies high performing quality and requires the artist to be virtuosity and courage in mastering the artistic material. For many artists, watercolor remains the favorite technology in the realization of creativity. If, in the educational process with students, we use not only its pictorial potential, but also its real graphic possibilities in watercolor, setting tasks in educational sketches for the interpretation of a picturesque spot into a graphically expressive image of the elements of the depicted "motif", then this gives us real ways to form students' creativity . These can be tasks: to limit the color palette to 3 colors; taking into account the associative features of the color spot shape; taking into account the tone of the spot and its position, to solve spatial plans; solving the sketch with lines that are different in technical execution and the nature of pressure, or lines that vary depending on the nature of the equipment used (brush, poke, palette knife, bristle brush, comb ...), etc.
Among the artists of our republic, there are several names who, of course, give preference to this technology in their creative activity and use its technical capabilities according to their personal method of interpretation. These are Vladimir Kokachev, Tatyana Vasilyeva and Vitaly Trofimov. Thus, the works of V. Kokachev, made in the “wet” technique, give the impression of soft plasticity, lightness and unusually cheerful, because the author is not afraid to introduce pure color into the picture. Tatyana Vasilyeva's watercolor works are poetic and subtle in color nuances, contain a kind of author's: gentle, lyrical and feminine interpretation. Vitaly Trofimov's watercolor landscapes are energetic, powerful with their wet fills and at the same time rich color elements, skillfully organized in a restrained northern color, conveying the impression of monumentality and significance determined by the limited palette of colors used by the artist. That's what makes his watercolors so strong, that they implement the artist's favorite theme - a unique circumpolar landscape. Each artist knows how to find adequate techniques in watercolor, corresponding to their personal perception of the world around them. Their work lives on the verge of the types of "painting" and "graphics".
For an artist to gain practical experience in watercolor, in addition to working in a training workshop, it may be more useful to go to the open air. The rapidly changing light environment limits the time to complete the study, during which the artist's experience and knowledge are focused, which intuitively lead the artist's hand and instantly interpret the observed into an artistic image. Thanks to its unpredictable fluidity, plasticity, lightness of tone, combined with a variety of techniques and a variety of equipment, it is possible to complete a sketch, both by means of pictorial coloring, and solve its image using graphic sketching tools. A graphic sheet can also be created from memory in a workshop on the basis of a picturesque watercolor sketch created in an open air environment, which will allow you to think out the composition of the work, the course of its implementation, so to speak, directing and building an “image”.
Watercolor sketches, performed by us in the open air, can be defined as the genre of "reportage graphics". Quick sketches capture a landscape or architectural motif, the state of light or the color richness of the natural environment, almost like "photo reports" from the scene. But almost every motif created in the process of observing the state of nature and executed with watercolors brings its own personal, emotional experience. The album with sketches and studies preserves in memory what the indifferent viewer saw: landscapes and architecture, sights and landscape features. In an etude, the artist can fix the momentary impression of the time of day or season, which can be expressed by the choice of a palette of colors, the color or character of the execution of spots in the images, or their combinations. Also, the state and content of the work is affected by the emotional impulse that the artist experiences when he perceives this or that landscape through which he is currently traveling. The light state of the environment is changing so rapidly that in the open air there is no need to strive to do long studies. Not necessarily in the process of performing a watercolor study, we strive to convey only an exact "copy" of the observed phenomenon or the chosen landscape motif, or the color of the environment. In the process of working on the sketch, there is a one-time interpretation of what he saw in the image on the sheet. The shape and configuration of the spots enhances the artistic image that the artist creates. His choice of color and color-tonal solutions, the variety or, conversely, the limitedness of shades enhance and concretize the depicted. The formed outline of color combinations and spots brings aesthetics to the finished study. The time for the execution of the etude is as short as possible, it is performed within 20-30 minutes, therefore it requires the performer to concentrate maximum attention when observing. After filling the main spots of the motif with color, the first layer is given the opportunity to dry. Details are finished dry, while changing the size and nature of the brush, or other equipment is used (palette knife, dry bristles). The described method of performing the etude reflects our individual manner and authorship of the performing style in plein-air watercolor etudes. Such a decision does not arise from scratch; this requires technical and creative experience accumulated in watercolor.
The formation of his own watercolor graphic style was helped by numerous experiments to consolidate the provisions of the theory of color science and a painstaking study of the compositional means and techniques of the audience when performing various still lifes.
The sequence and some methods of working with watercolors when creating a sketch of a landscape motif, stylistically generalized into a graphic sheet, we will try to reveal in this article and offer some recommendations for students to master such an experience.
What defines our watercolor sketches as graphic images? The expressive means of graphic art are the tonal spot, the line and the dashed manner of getting the spot, which largely depends on the temperament of the artist. Images in the graphic sheet have expressive tonal gradations and clearly identifiable silhouettes or outlines. In the process of writing a landscape motif, the initial moment of thinking over the order of applying color spots is very important: large and medium, which determine the large tonal relationships of the depicted. Then, the scales of the elements, their shape and dynamics of silhouettes, the arrangement of combinations of spots in a given format are assumed, so that their stable balance is obtained. And only after that we proceed to the sketch. The drawing should be thorough and detailed enough. In it, we immediately solve the problems of the overall composition of the motif, taking into account the scale of large masses of the landscape: sky, earth, panoramic objects and images, elements that determine the compositional center and the idea of \u200b\u200bthe motif. When working on a landscape drawing, you should not actively use an eraser that damages the surface of the sheet. When performing a long, multi-session study, it is best to make a preliminary detailed cardboard on thin paper and carefully transfer it to the torchon. If the study is performed in one session, then we recommend that the drawing be done with diluted ultramarine using a thin brush.
Before starting work in paints, it is necessary to moisten the entire surface of the sheet with water with a sponge to get rid of excess glue, dust or excessive dryness of the torchon. Work in color should begin with the lightest tones, and finish with dark, warm and dense colors and semi-dry brushes.
For each individual work, we limit the group of colors, the so-called color palette: it is better to limit it to 4-5 colors. Paints, which, thanks to their diverse mixing, allow you to create both tonal richness and holistically combine the elements of the motif into a necessary and unified color. In order to achieve a richness of color contrasts and highlight the compositional accents of the motif, the selected group of colors always contains colors of warm and cold tones.
When working with watercolors, it is very important to follow the technology of mixing paints and the sequence of applying them to the worksheet. Each subsequent layer is applied over the thoroughly dried previous one. It takes us from twenty minutes to an hour to complete a sketch of a landscape motif, paradoxically, haste in work is not needed, and even harmful. Why is it so important for beginners to follow the technological chain in watercolor? This is connected, first of all, with the technical features of watercolor and with the preservation of its main property - transparency.
Traditionally, we start work on a landscape study by filling in the sky, while trying to immediately create a possible cloud graphics, if any. Or with a wide brush filled with color, we dynamically play and pour the color over the surface, which we define as the sky. As long as the paint glides freely on wet paper, it is possible to complicate the color scheme when adding other colors, such as ocher or pink. When working on a spot of the sky, you should act with a brush quickly and carefully in order to leave areas of white paper in some places to solve the light, pattern or glare of some parts of the clouds, the sky.
When working on an etude, one should also take into account the spatial features of warm and cold tones, which help to correctly solve the tonal problems of pictorial plans. Therefore, you can take on a brush a lot of blue (ultramarine, FC, cerelium or cobalt, depending on the state of the day) and while the paper is wet, outline the line of the background with a dynamic horizontal stroke. Details are not needed here, it is important here to get the contrast between the sky and the ground line.
The graphic style of the study is also characterized by the way or by what methods we introduce color spots into the space of the format being developed. Aerial perspective requires the competent use of the spatial qualities of color: tonal development of plans requires the use of blue paints and colors diluted with water in the image of the background; and warm images of large elements with strong color contrasts when depicting the foreground of the study. The silhouettes of the elements of the motif depicted by us are clearly revealed by the method of flatly poured and stylized spots, without conveying the illusion of volume. The color of the spot in the studies will never turn out to be uniform and one-color, because. this will not allow you to make the watercolor itself - fluid and mobile. At the first stage of registration, we fill the format completely, with lighter tones and colors, which will then allow us to enter the elements of the foreground at the next stage, according to the previously written color pad. One of the important features of watercolors is manifested in obtaining a color spot that is clearly visible on paper, even with a low saturation of its color. Therefore, it is not necessary to achieve a really observable tonality and color of the depicted objects (you can take a couple of tones lighter or, conversely, darker). But the light-tonal relationships between the large elements of the landscape and in the transmission of lighting and the volume of details must be observed as accurately as possible.
After determining large color-tonal relationships, when there are practically no sections of white paper left, we begin a more detailed study of individual expressive silhouettes: the most expressive and characteristic details of the landscape motif are introduced: houses, trees, grass, etc. (see "Old Birch"). Their spots do not have to have a dense uniform plane, the color in it can be distributed from light to dark, or vice versa. In the spot itself, it is possible to fill with various shades, but of a single tonality. It should not be forgotten that the color of the etude is conditional. All this allows you to correlate this spot with a specific image, for example, the crown of a tree can have one spot, which is enriched with various shades in a free “a la prima” manner in one step, but not more than 2-3 colors. At this stage of work, the organization of the composition of the sheet, thought out earlier, helps us: directing the main elements and details, selecting important and characteristic details. The work is done with brushes of medium size, the fills are made when it is richer, and when it is more transparent. The shade of the color of the object is achieved both by mixing several paints, and by a pure color diluted with different amounts of water. This is allowed on the chart. You can very carefully introduce solutions of soot gas, since this paint allows you to muffle a very bright tone of the spot or take it into the depths of the space of the study. To clarify the spatial relationships in the sketch, it is useful to use diluted ultramarine or emerald paints, which have the subjective quality of removing the image into the depth of the format and have the qualities of glazing.
To form the tonal masses of the elements of the landscape in the work, you should use the various technical potential of artistic brushes and equipment. For heaven and earth: wide flute brushes or round large numbers. For details - the thinnest thread first numbers "squirrels" and "columns", fan or even bristle brushes. For large format sketches, you can also use a sponge. For graphics and detailing of elements, the following techniques can be used: “splashing”, “poking”, “scratching” with a comb, knife, reverse end of the brush or palette knife; to create a texture or a kind of graphic pattern, the “embossing” technique is used: when a fragment of textured materials (knitwear, corrugated cardboard, leather, etc.) is applied to a wet colorful surface. The choice of reception is unprincipled, it is prompted by our emotional mood in work and the material at hand.
To complete the study, you can once again pay attention to the graphic linear elaboration of details in order to give the landscape a stylistic graphic completeness. The work is done with thin brushes. You can also draw lines that refine the shape and characterize some of the fine details of the images. The openwork of the drawing can be suggested by the silhouette fill itself or by the outline of the main elements of the landscape image. The introduction of such a technique softens the excessive contrast of the silhouette and gives the drawing softness and plasticity. Fine-tuning, thus, an etude is typical for work performed in several sessions.
In some works, this stage is omitted. This happens when, during the initial development of color-tonal relationships, laconic and characteristic color spots are obtained almost immediately, clearly delineating the necessary elements of the motive and accurately characterizing them. Such sketches reflect the “a la prima” method known in painting practice. In this case, drawing with small brushes is appropriate for working out the details of the foreground.
On the basis of the described practical experience, a number of recommendations can be made. A watercolor sketch of a landscape in a graphic manner is, without fail, a solution to the following tasks:
1. observation of image objects, highlighting characteristic and typical in them;
2. creation of clear spatial plans (far, middle and foreground);
3. compliance with the technological chain in working with watercolors;
4. obtaining a beautiful and expressive silhouette, performed by watercolor filling;
5. working out the technique of filling a spot of the silhouette of an image object, creating a combination of thin spots in color and transparency;
6. graphic refinement - the lines of the drawing of the motif and elements, made with thin brushes.
Bibliography
1.Magic watercolor by Artur Fonvizin. Access code http://mizrah.ru/post155983442/
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To ask questions.
When the word “motherland” was uttered in front of Berg, he grinned. He didn't understand what that meant. The homeland, the land of the fathers, the country where he was born - in the end, it doesn't matter where a person was born. One of his comrades was even born in the ocean on a cargo ship between America and Europe.
Where is this person's home? Berg asked himself. - Is the ocean really this monotonous plain of water, black from the wind and oppressing the heart with constant anxiety?
Berg saw the ocean. When he studied painting in Paris, he happened to be on the banks of the English Channel. The ocean was not like him.
Fatherland! Berg did not feel any attachment either to his childhood or to the small Jewish town on the Dnieper, where his grandfather went blind for the fight and the shoe awl.
The native city was always remembered as a faded and poorly painted picture, densely infested with flies. He was remembered as dust, the sweet stink of garbage heaps, dry poplars, dirty clouds over the outskirts, where soldiers - the defenders of the fatherland - drilled in the barracks.
During the civil war, Berg did not notice the places where he had to fight. He shrugged his shoulders mockingly when the fighters, with a special light in their eyes, said that, they say, we will soon recapture our native places from the whites and give the horses water to drink from the native Don.
Chatter! Berg said gloomily. - People like us do not and cannot have a homeland.
Oh, Berg, cracker soul! - the fighters answered with heavy reproach. - What a fighter and creator of a new life you are when you don't love the earth, eccentric. And also an artist!
Maybe that's why Berg did not succeed in landscapes. He preferred the portrait, the genre, and finally the poster. He tried to find the style of his time, but these attempts were full of failures and ambiguities.
Years passed over the Soviet country like a wide wind - wonderful years of work and overcoming. Years accumulated experience, traditions. Life turned, like a prism, with a new facet, and in it old feelings were freshly and at times not quite clear for Berg - love, hatred, courage, suffering and, finally, a sense of homeland.
One early autumn, Berg received a letter from the artist Yartsev. He called him to come to the Murom forests, where he spent the summer. Berg was friends with Yartsev and, moreover, did not leave Moscow for several years. He went.
At a dead station behind Vladimir, Berg boarded a narrow-gauge train.
August was hot and windless. The train smelled of rye bread. Berg sat on the footboard of the carriage, breathing greedily, and it seemed to him that he was breathing not air, but amazing sunlight.
Grasshoppers screamed in clearings overgrown with dried white carnations. The Tsolustanki smelled of unwise wildflowers.
Yartsev lived far from the deserted station, in the forest, on the shore of a deep lake with black water. He rented a hut from a forester.
Berg was taken to the lake by the forester's son Vanya Zotov, a stooped and veiled boy.
The cart thumped on the roots, creaked in the deep sands.
Orioles whistled sadly in the woods. A yellow leaf occasionally fell on the road. Pink clouds stood high in the sky above the tops of mast pines.
Berg was lying in the cart, and his heart was beating dull and heavy.
“Must be from the air”? thought Berg.
Lake Berg suddenly saw through a thicket of thinned forests.
It lay obliquely, as if rising to the horizon, and behind it, thickets of golden birches shone through the thin haze. Haze hung over the lake from recent forest fires. Fallen leaves floated in the clear, black as tar water.
Berg lived on Lake Berg for about a month. He did not intend to work and did not take oil paints with him. He brought only a small box of French watercolors by Lefranc, still preserved from Parisian times. Berg valued these colors very much.
For whole days he lay in the glades and looked at the flowers and herbs with curiosity. He was especially struck by the euonymus - its black berries were hidden in a corolla of carmine petals.
Berg collected rose hips and fragrant juniper, long needles, aspen leaves, where black and blue spots were scattered across the lemon field, brittle lichen and withering cloves. He carefully examined the autumn leaves from the inside, where the yellowness was slightly touched by a light lead hoarfrost.
Olive swimming beetles ran in the lake, fish played with dull lightning, and the last lilies lay on the still surface of the water, as on black glass.
On hot days, Berg heard a soft trembling ringing in the forest.
The heat rang, dry grasses, beetles and grasshoppers. At sunset, flocks of cranes flew over the lake to the south with a cooing, and each time Vanya said to Berg:
It seems that birds are throwing us, flying to the warm seas.
For the first time, Berg felt a stupid insult - the cranes seemed to him traitors. They abandoned without regret this deserted, forested and solemn region, full of nameless lakes, impassable thickets, dry leaves, the measured rumble of pines and air smelling of resin and marsh mosses.
Freaks! - Berg noticed, and the feeling of resentment for the forests emptying every day no longer seemed to him ridiculous and childish.
In the forest, Berg once met grandmother Tatiana. She dragged herself from afar, from the Fence, picking mushrooms.
Berg wandered through the thickets with her and listened to Tatyana's unhurried stories. From her, he learned that their region - the wilderness of the forest - was famous for its painters from ancient times. Tatyana told him the names of famous handicraftsmen who painted wooden spoons and dishes with gold and cinnabar, but Berg never heard these names and blushed.
Berg spoke little. Occasionally he exchanged a few words with Yartsev. Yartsev spent whole days reading, sitting on the shore of the lake. He didn't want to talk either.
It rained in September. They rustled in the grass. They warmed the air, and the coastal thickets smelled wild and pungent, like a wet animal skin.
At night the rains rustled unhurriedly in the forests along the deaf roads leading to no one knows where, along the boarded roof of the gatehouse, and it seemed that it was destined for them to drizzle all autumn over this forest country.
Yartsev was about to leave. Berg got angry. How could one leave in the midst of this extraordinary autumn. Berg felt Yartsev's desire to leave now just as the cranes had once departed - it was a betrayal. What? Berg could hardly answer this question. A betrayal of forests, lakes, autumn, and finally, a warm sky that drizzled with frequent rain.
I'm staying," Berg said sharply. - You can run, it's your business, but I want to write this autumn.
Yartsev left. The next day, Berg woke up from the sun.
There was no rain. The light shadows of the branches trembled on the clean floor, and behind the door shone a quiet blue.
The word "radiance" Berg met only in the books of poets, he considered it lofty and devoid of a clear meaning. But now he understood how accurately this word conveys that special light that comes from the September sky and the sun.
A web flew over the lake, each yellow leaf on the grass burned with light like a bronze ingot. The wind carried the smell of forest bitterness and withering herbs.
Berg took paints and paper and, without even drinking tea, went to the lake. Vanya took him to the far shore.
Berg was in a hurry. The forests, obliquely illuminated by the sun, seemed to him heaps of light copper ore. The last birds whistled thoughtfully in the blue air, and the clouds dissolved in the sky, rising to the zenith.
Berg was in a hurry. He wanted to give all the power of colors, all the skill of his hands and a keen eye, all that was trembling somewhere in his heart, to give this paper in order to depict at least a hundredth of the splendor of these forests, dying majestically and simply.
Berg worked like a man possessed, singing and shouting. Vanya had never seen him like this. He followed Berg's every move, changed the paint water for him, and handed him china cups of paint from a box.
A dull twilight passed in a sudden wave through the foliage. The gold faded. The air dimmed. A distant, menacing murmur swept from edge to edge of the forests and died away somewhere above the burnt areas. Berg didn't look back.
The storm is coming! Vanya shouted. - We must go home!
Autumn thunderstorm, - Berg answered absently and began to work even more feverishly.
Thunder split the sky, the black water shuddered, but the last reflections of the sun still wandered in the forests. Berg was in a hurry.
Vanya pulled his hand:
Look back. Look, what fear!
Berg didn't turn around. With his back he felt that wild darkness and dust were coming from behind - already the leaves were flying in a downpour, and, fleeing from a thunderstorm, frightened birds were flying low over the undergrowth.
Berg was in a hurry. There were only a few strokes left.
Vanya grabbed his hand. Berg heard a rapid rumble, as if the oceans were coming at him, flooding the forests.
Then Berg looked back. Black smoke fell on the lake. The forests swayed. Behind them, the downpour rumbled like a leaden wall, cut by cracks of lightning. The first heavy drop hit my hand.
Berg quickly hid the study in a drawer, took off his jacket, wrapped the drawer around it, and grabbed a small box of watercolors. Water spray hit my face. Wet leaves swirled like a blizzard and blinded their eyes.
Lightning split a nearby pine tree. Berg is deaf. A downpour fell from the low sky, and Berg and Vanya rushed to the canoe.
Wet and shivering from the cold, Berg and Vanya reached the lodge an hour later. In the gatehouse, Berg discovered the loss of a box of watercolors. The colors were lost - the magnificent colors of Lefranc. Berg searched for them for two days, but of course found nothing.
Two months later, in Moscow, Berg received a letter written in large, clumsy letters.
“Hello, Comrade Berg,” Vanya wrote. - Write down what to do with your paints and how to deliver them to you. After you left, I looked for them for two weeks; Dad says I had pneumonia in my lungs. So don't get angry.
Send me, if possible, a book about our forests and all sorts of trees and colored pencils - I really want to draw. We already had snow falling, but it melted, and in the forest, where under some kind of Christmas tree, you look, and a hare is sitting. In the summer we will be waiting for you in our native places.
I remain Vanya Zotov.
Along with Vanya's letter, they brought a notice about the exhibition - Berg was supposed to participate in it. He was asked to tell how many of his things and under what name he will exhibit.
Berg sat down at the table and quickly wrote:
“I am exhibiting only one study in watercolor, made by me this summer - my first landscape.”
It was midnight. Shaggy snow fell outside on the windowsill and glowed with magical fire - the reflection of street lamps. In the next apartment, someone was playing Grieg's sonata on the piano.
The clock on the Spasskaya Tower chimed steadily and far away. Then they started playing "Internationale".
Berg sat for a long time smiling. Of course, he will give Lefranc paints to Vanya.
Berg wanted to trace the intangible ways in which he developed a clear and joyful sense of his homeland. It has matured for years, decades of revolutionary years, but the last impetus was given by the forest region, autumn, the cries of cranes and Vanya Zotov. Why? Berg could not find an answer, although he knew that it was so.
Oh, Berg, cracker soul! - he remembered the words of the fighters. - What a fighter and creator of a new life you are when you don't love your land, eccentric!
The fighters were right. Berg knew that now he was connected with his country not only with his mind, not only with his devotion to the revolution, but with all his heart, as an artist, and that love for his homeland made his intelligent, but dry life warm, cheerful and a hundred times more beautiful, than before.
At the moment I am on a long road trip across Russia. I write my travel notes with impressions of cities and towns along the way here:. I would be glad if you come and comment on my entries, tell me which cities are worth visiting.
One of the most beautiful places on our way - Lake Baikal.
So, this is what the landscape itself looked like. In it, I was attracted by a tree and a fishing boat on the shore.
1. I am drawing a landscape with a pencil.
In it I find the main masses, sizes of objects, without drawing details. It is important to mark where everything is, to create a strong composition.
2. Blue color.
I start painting with shades of blue. This is the sky, water, shady parts of trees.
Blue is part of the shadow side, so it's everywhere.
The sky in the upper part is more blue, for it I take a mixture of blue fts and ultramarine. For the bottom - lighter shades of blue. I stretch these colors, and while the layer is wet, I choose with a brush the place of white clouds.
The water reflects the sky. Therefore, it has the same color, but darker.
Prescribing the shadows on the trees and falling, I figure out what they are in terms of lightness, I select the appropriate tone.
3. A layer of yellow.
Yellow as part of the illuminated side is also present on all objects. I assign it to the illuminated part of the tree crown.
I paint the distant trees with ocher. This allows you to create a more complex shade of color and visually remove these trees into the distance.
4. Greens.
Now I'm starting to prescribe shades of green. Partially this layer overlaps the shades of blue and yellow laid earlier.
I watch the change in the shade of green near and far. Closer it is brighter, darker, away - lighter, grayer.
When writing greenery, I change the principle of writing on different trees. Far I write with broad strokes, a flat brush. The front tree was also originally painted by him. But in the future, I change the brush to an elastic round one in order to prescribe smaller foliage.
