Three views of Santorini, Greece!

The drawing from Santorini, Greece, is finished - at last!

As I told in my last posting, I have spoiled the sky over the island Santorini and decided to prepare a "mixed technique" work by setting the island on blue papers. Thank you, my Facebook friends, for the "Pop-Up Art Discussion" meeting! The final combination of three separate papers was made yesterday, with the aid of my art school teacher Minna.

The man in photos number 2 and 3 is really me. The original drawing was made from the viewpoint of the "James Bond Style" man (me) in 2nd photo, high above (over 500 meters) over the Mediterranean Sea. Last photo shows that an elder, "not in so good condition" man should not try to climb on the top of Santorini Kaldera when temperature is some +30 oC. There is very sad - and true - story  about the famous glass artist and art teacher KAJ FRANCK who would climb the stairs from the shore to the top of the Santorini mountain and met his death during that trip. - Be careful, don't take risks when having holidays on the warm islands of Greece!

Orthodox Cathedral of Sortavala, Carelia

I will first thank Maria in Sortavala/Joensuu for this beautiful photo of Sortavala Church!

This cathedral seems to be in very good condition today. The colour of the roof and domes have chanced to blue (I have seen an old painting of it in Jyväskylä where the colour is different).

Some problems have caused a delay in the finishing of this acrylic painting.

I should start the drawing by making a decision about the vertical lines. My friend Petteri helped me by transferring them parallel (like in a photo taken with a tele objective). This, however, caused certain shortening of vertical lines (you can try it by taking a photo book and keep its upper side in a shorter distance from your eyes than the lower section). I finally got an agreement with myself by taken both the direction and the length of the lines into account (which means that the result is something between tele and normal objective views). I am not sure if I was right but "let it be"...

Next problem is the sky.

I like to draw (and I think that I am relatively good in drawing) but the colours are very difficult for me (actually, I am no painter yet). I will therefore thank my teacher Minna who helped me to correct the shade of blue (which was much too dark in the beginning)!

Last problem still stays: I started this work on a thin paper
by WINDSOR & NEWTON (excellent for drawing!) with pencils but, for some reason, decided to turn acrylic. Thin drawing paper does not suit to wet techniques! I shall now find a solution to this problem - how to get the even surface of the paper back again. "Let's see..."