The man who paints the sky. Nadya Savchenko: “Compromising me is like painting the sky”

So, if you want to learn how to draw the sky masterfully, you should pay attention to the following points:

The importance of soft edges
Colored gray shades highlight the brightest parts of the picture
Aerial perspective
There is no pure white in the sky
Don't become a hostage to photography
Use large brushes
Most light shade even lighter than it seems
Thick layers of paint and glaze
Linear perspective in the clouds
Depicting clouds as solid objects

1. On the importance of soft edges and boundaries in the sky

When you're painting the sky, it's very important to keep the edges in mind. In all of nature you will not find other soft intersecting boundaries like some clouds.

It is also important to remember the balance between hard and soft edges. This will help you adjust the volume and transparency of the clouds.

Some clouds are so thin that the sky can be seen through them. To emphasize them, add the color of the sky to the color of the cloud, soften the edges of the cloud itself and the gaps in it.

In addition, the sky gradually changes its color towards the horizon. Use glazing and mixing shades to correctly draw such a transition.

An example of soft and clear cloud contours. Fragment of Robie Benve’s painting “Much Needed”.

2. Colored gray shades highlight the brightest parts of the picture.

I really love the bright colors that appear during sunsets. But at the same time, I know that a lot of intense shades are not very good for painting. To highlight the brightest and most saturated areas of your painting, you will need to add a few neutral, perhaps even “dirty” shades to your work.

You need “dirty” colors to make bright colors sound louder. A range of gray shades are a great complement to a colorful sky. Bright orange will look even brighter when placed next to gray.

Talking about gray color, I do not at all mean a shade obtained by mixing black and white, and of course we are not talking about a ready-made gray color from tubes or ditches. I like gray shades, which are obtained by mixing the colors that remain on the palette after painting the clouds, sky and other objects in the picture.

3. Aerial perspective

Looking into the distance, you can see how the colors and shades in the sky and on the ground gradually change. This is due to the air atmosphere effect.

The greater the distance between us and the object, the more pronounced this effect is.

Look at the landscape stretching to the horizon and notice the following:

the further away the objects of the landscape are, the lighter and faded they are; the closer they are to us, the more saturated their color becomes;
in the distance the colors of objects become cold, while in the foreground there are warm shades;
As you move towards the horizon, the contrasts smooth out and become less noticeable.

This is true both for painting vegetation and for working on the sky.

Remember one more important point: the sky above us is always darker, but becomes lighter towards the horizon.

Observe, explore the clouds as often as you can. This will help you draw them better.

4. The sky is not pure white.

The color of the light affects all other colors. I used to use white to draw the tops of sunlit clouds. Later I realized that the color of the clouds also depends on the lighting. There are no pure white areas in the sky.

Since then I have been mixing white with yellow, purple, violet or blue flowers depending on weather conditions and cloud cover. The very least I can do is add a little orange to the white to make it warmer.

I use zinc white for mixing the main shades and titanium for those shades that I will use in the most lit areas. I do this because titanium white is less translucent and tends to overshadow other shades, while zinc white is more transparent and allows me more control when mixing the paints to achieve the desired shade.

Robie Benve “Glimpse”

5. Don't become a hostage to photography.

If you draw from a photograph, do not be afraid to abandon certain elements in the photo that will not decorate the composition of your future work. It may be a good idea to, for example, adjust the cloud line or move trees, blur the shoreline, etc.

Allow yourself to make those changes that will make your painting more interesting. After all, your work won't hang next to the original photo, and no one will know what the actual shape of that cloud was or whether all the trees were the same size.

When drawing from a photo, it is important to remember one more thing: the camera changes color relationships. Dark areas look darker in the photo, and shadows lose a lot of detail. In fact, even in the shadows we can observe a sufficient amount of color, different color variations.

6. Use Large Brushes

I thought I was painting with good, appropriately sized brushes. However, I continued to feel dissatisfied with my work. They did not feel light, they seemed overloaded with details, overworked. Then I realized that I needed larger brushes.

Use the largest size brushes at the beginning of your painting and change them to smaller ones towards completion.

Think large shapes, in sections, and only at the very end move on to detail. Move from the general to the specific.

As you work on your painting, continue to use larger brushes than you are used to. Pick up the brush, then put it back and pick up another one, a size or two larger.

Add details at the very end, but don't go overboard.

7. The lightest shade is even lighter than it seems

This is another one important point, which took me a lot of time to realize at the very beginning. Yellow is light color, So? Then why doesn't the yellow sky at my sunset look bright enough?

While checking my drawing and photograph using a tone scale, I noticed that the light shades I had chosen were much darker than I thought.

We are talking about the difference in the perception of color when we mix it on the palette and then add it to the picture.

The perception of a color shade also depends on what surrounds it. For example, it may appear warm on the palette, but after we add the shade to the canvas, it begins to appear cooler.

I find myself usually mixing up some paint and testing it on the canvas to see if it's the shade I'm looking for.

As experience shows, even if you paint a foggy day, the sky will remain the brightest area in your picture.

Tip: If you want to get some light shade, take white paint and add it a little at a time required colors. It is easier to darken a color than to lighten it.

Tone scale

When looking at clouds, try to immediately pay attention to how they change as they go into the distance (in perspective), color, size, light, etc.

The photo shows a beautiful cloudy day.

8. Thick layers of paint and glaze

The sky is woven from air, steam, particles.

I like to start drawing thin transparent layers. At the very beginning of my work I divorce acrylic paints with water, and oil ones with an odorless diluent. After this, I begin to apply paint to the canvas, controlling the density of the layer, lightening or darkening individual areas depending on the object being depicted.

Initial work with dark and light areas allows me to organize and think through the composition of the painting. I always start with this approach, it concerns both the sky and any objects on earth.

After the preliminary underpainting is ready, I continue to work with layers, adding them in the places I need in the picture. I have found that dark areas look better if you add thinner to the desired paints and shades before starting work.

I apply the paint more thickly to those areas of the clouds that are closer to the viewer, and I want to emphasize their outlines.

Sometimes there are also such light clouds, tousled by the wind.

Robie Benve “Featherlike”

9. Linear perspective in the clouds

Lines and proportions in the sky are subject to the same rules and laws of perspective that apply to objects on earth, with vanishing points and lines leading to them.

If you look at clouds from an airplane, you see them floating parallel to the ground.

If you look at the clouds from the ground, you can easily imagine that they are like the top of a table, and we are under it.

Clouds get smaller as you approach the vanishing point, just like any other object when it comes to linear perspective.

10. Depicting clouds as solid objects

You may find it easier to draw clouds if you think of them as solid objects. Although they have jagged, jagged edges and are transparent, imagine them as geometric shapes– parallelepipeds or cubes.

This approach will help you understand how to correctly distribute areas of light and shadow on a cloud.

Make a preliminary sketch on a separate sheet of paper, imagining the clouds in the form of connecting cubes. Analyze where the light falls, which areas are in the shadow and penumbra, where the reflex is located.

Once you start working directly on the painting itself, look at your sketch from time to time. Don't forget to round and smooth the edges of the clouds to give them a nice, interesting shape.

Only by observing clouds, studying their dynamics, how they appear and change, can you learn to draw them masterfully.

I can spend hours looking at the sky and the ever-changing clouds. I especially like sunsets. They bring me quiet joy.

Because of my emotional attachment to them and the visual pleasure of contemplating them, several years ago I began to pay special attention to the sky in my paintings.

At first I was horrified by my painting. Painted on canvas, the clouds never looked the way I imagined them in my mind. They seemed very childish, amateurish.

But I continued to practice. I started looking into drawing books and reading chapters on the sky and clouds, and watching videos on this topic.

Self-study and practice in sky painting improved my skill over time.Every picture teaches you something new!

I don’t stop there and continue to work and develop further - I read art magazines and articles, watch master classes and educational videos, and of course I continue to draw a lot. This helps me understand which techniques work and which don't.

How to paint the sky with watercolors?

After all, there must be a completely different technical approach to mixing paints and stages of work!

Learn the basics of watercolor paintingwith a popular rate

Painting something in a dream means that in reality you will unwittingly give away your secret if you cover walls, objects, etc. with oil or other paint.

Painting lips, eyelashes, etc. is a sign of universal recognition, but eternal dissatisfaction with oneself.

Dying fabric, leather or fur items at a dry cleaning factory means that you will suddenly find something that you have long lost and have been looking for unsuccessfully.

Painting something dark white is a risky business that can bring either big profits or big losses.

Painting it black means bad luck, possibly the loss of a friend; if the face - to great grief.

Paint in green- a sign of finding hope, financial success, to come long trip or receiving business visitors from afar.

If you paint something red in a dream, it means that you will soon receive an invitation to a celebration; bright red color - improve your health on vacation.

The blue or light blue color in which you paint the walls in your apartment during renovation is a harbinger of fun about the happy fulfillment of your plans.

To paint it yellow or ocher means that in reality you will arouse someone’s envy with the successful progress of your affairs; you will be prevented in every possible way from completing them.

If you use when dyeing brown or tones close to it, say, coffee - in reality, big troubles await you in the family.

A dream in which you paint something with gold paint means that you will emerge victorious in a long and difficult struggle thanks to optimism and faith in own strength.

Interpretation of dreams from the Dream Interpretation alphabetically

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In mid-September, Anton flew to Armenia and was invited to apply emblems to military aircraft Russian base at Yerevan Erebuni airport. Anton told Sputnik Armenia about his love for aviation, his work and, of course, his long-term hobby. Interviewed by David Galstyan.

— Anton, start with your profession.

“It’s far from aviation, but it’s just as beautiful as flying.” I am an architect, I work in an office where we are trying to make our cities, our world, a little more attractive, cozy and socially comfortable.

— Is painting airplanes a hobby? How long have you been doing this?

— My life has always been, to one degree or another, connected with aviation, my father was closely connected with it, I studied in an aviation class as a child. It was in my DNA, although for some time I was far from aviation. But since 2005, DNA made itself felt, I began to be interested in the history of aviation, study airplanes, people who serve in aviation different countries. All of them are devoted both to their countries and to heaven.

— Have you thought about becoming a pilot yourself?

- I strive for this, at the moment I am a private pilot, I have my own plane "L-29", a former "aviation desk" Soviet Union. Almost all cadets who entered military schools flew on these planes. I was lucky enough to find a good plane, buy it, and now I’m flying it.

— Is it painted too?

— (Laughs) Yes, he is also painted, but so far his drawings are less vivid.

— Do you draw using another technique?

— I have a car, I also decorated it a little, but again on an aviation theme. I have friends in the Swifts aviation group, and as a gift for their 25th anniversary, I painted my plane in their colors, in the colors of the Swifts.

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—What do these emblems mean to you?

— When I was offered to put emblems on planes that had previously been named after saints, I, of course, first of all, began to study the history of each saint, to study what he did for Orthodoxy, for which he was canonized. For me, this, of course, meant broadening my horizons, studying the past, my land, my faith. When applying the face, I know who it is and what he became famous for. I also partly do educational work. Everyone who serves on the planes comes up and asks who this saint is, what he is famous for, why we should remember him.

— Do you know many pilots, do things change for them after painting?

— You know, aviation is a rather superstitious profession. I never apply the emblem without receiving the "blessing" of a technician or pilot. Yesterday, for example, I made an emblem for one of the helicopters, after my shift I went up to the technician and asked: “So how?” He replied: “Everything is fine.”

Nadya herself agrees to the interview but doesn’t reveal anything, saying “military secret”, “I haven’t read/heard”, “I’ll only tell you on a polygraph”, etc.
But there are still answers to some questions (from an interview with Strana).

Over the past three days, your recognition has increased dramatically. A number of experts, either jokingly or seriously, say that the authorities are working for your PR. Do you intend to somehow use the bonuses that fell on your head for politics?

If I were thinking about the political future, maybe so. Not all people think so. There are people who have nothing to eat, and they don’t think about it at all. But for some, politics is their bread, and they create such a picture. Unfortunately, this is an insignificantly narrow world compared to the problems of Ukraine. I heard a lot of similar thoughts when I was in a Russian prison. Sometimes people there look at you as if you had already died, as if you had come to life, and sometimes as if you had been resurrected. And when they begin to look at you as if you had risen, you realize that you have won. I'm in Russian Federation They often said that everything would be fine, that I would be a politician. One day Ella Pamfilova came to me. She told me what a great political future I had. And that she wanted Ukraine to look not only towards Europe, but also towards Russia.

What about you?

I told her that she would definitely look towards Russia when she looked together with Europe. It was funny for me to listen to these people. I didn't know if they would be right or wrong at that moment. At that moment, every day and every second was my last, and I know what I’m talking about and what I’m responsible for.

Let's get back to today's story.

Since I joined political life, every second, as in prison, as in war, as in captivity, is practically the last. And you cannot envy a person who lives and knows that he can be killed, imprisoned, blown up or something else. I tracked my political life. It is quite short - only two years. There are surges once or twice a year. Then I went to Moscow for the trial of Nikolai Karpyuk and Stanislav Klykh. Then I went to Minsk for negotiations with Zakharchenko and Plotnitsky. Then I went to a pre-trial detention center in the occupied territories of Donetsk and Lugansk regions.

Probably, what is happening to you today can be compared with the period Russian prison. Or what will happen soon.

Yes, very close. And I don't know which is worse. If you look at things cynically, then everyone in our country sooner or later becomes either a prime minister, like Tymoshenko, or a president, like Yanukovych, or a prosecutor general, like Lutsenko. For these reasons, I have a very bright political future. On the other hand, it happens when you are not just a cheap politician, like everyone else in our Rada. And when you are like the leader of a nation, like Chornovil, Kuzma Scriabin. People who could lift. Their fates are much sadder. Comparing with Joan of Arc, Jesus Christ, with whom else to compare them, I don’t know. These are worthy people. I don’t know who they were, but I know that they disappeared when it was necessary. Therefore, I cannot predict , what fate will I have? If you understood that now you are sitting and the sniper’s light is blinking at you, I don’t know if it would be so fun for you to ask such questions. But I understand it.

Do you even realize that you could be imprisoned?

Firstly, this scenario is no longer new. Even during this tenure there are deputies who came out from behind bars. Let's talk about what is worse and whether I realize the full horror of the situation.

Why did you bother them so much in parliament, if not with weapons? Why did you need to accompany you?

They approached me out of curiosity. Find out if what Lutsenko said is true. That's it. These were the people with whom we had been communicating since the Maidan, and they came to me first, because they were not afraid to do so.

Do you think there might be something on Lutsenko’s tapes that he has already announced that will harm your reputation?

Nothing except what I allowed them to do. My reputation has always been the last thing on my mind. She was always quite scandalous in any structure, wherever I was. In the theater, journalism, when I worked as a waitress, when I worked in the “Phone Sex” service. In politics or in prison I always have scandalous reputation. Compromising me is like painting the sky.