Saturday, March 31, 2012

Virtual Paintout - St. Petersburg, Russia

Fabriano Venezia sketchbook - 12x18
Faber-Castell Pitt pen size F
Grumbacher watercolor
The March location for the Virtual Paintout with Bill Guffy is St. Petersburg Russia.  I had grand plans of practicing my architecture drawing skills in preparation for my June trip to Europe but instead I found this view from the Kronshtadtskoye Shosse, which is the main freeway, on an island in the Baltic off the coast of St. Petersburg.
I wanted to challenge myself to achieve the deep shadows in the tree cover while still maintaining the white of the fence. I was originally drawn to the view by the birch trees, they are one of my favorites.  I am also challenging myself to continue to use this sketchbook, a 9x12 Fabriano Venezia, which feels gigantic especially when working across the spread (12x18 total page size).
Painting around those tiny fence pieces was a challenge, especially trying to get the color to transition smoothly.
The crazy thing is this could be a view from the street right here in Minnesota, rather than a view from a Google camera half a world away.  Small world.

2 comments:

  1. Suzanne, I love this and love seeing you work large in this book. I know you like the smaller size accordion books you're making, but it's fun to see what you do when you have a really large surface!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Roz! I am having fun working bigger and feel that I will soon need a break from my accordion streak and am looking a bit bigger and maybe some toned paper for a big change.

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