Thank you very much for your positive reaction.
Given the rather minimalist composition, the impact of this picture depends on the shading to a great extent.
This is not an actual street that I might have come across in Greece during my holidays two weeks ago. I spent my vacation in France, Germany and Austria, but for some reason I felt like drawing something Greek.
It took me an hour to decide on the parts and how to integrate them within the whole. The street, for example, is quite straight, simple in terms of texture and regular in terms of shape, which is rarely the case with the real Greek stepped lanes I know. I debated whether to incorporate old, traditional buildings or contemporary ones. The same minimalist drive made me opt for something modern. Due to their moderate height, they do appear out of place, though. As for the light, I had to make my mind up as to where it comes from way before I started to outline every component. The entire picture took about eight hours to produce.
As for the lines, they may look machine-made but I had to struggle with them a lot because drawing the buildings and their elements by means of a vanishing point simply didn’t work out. I mean I tried it at first but everything looked unexpectedly ridiculous, like a stupid caricature, and I just couldn’t figure out why. To make the picture look realistic, I had to work with several vanishing points simultaneously and a well-trained artist could easily notice the elements where I hesitated. It wasn’t until I was done that I understood why I couldn’t keep a simple rule. On the one hand, the road is a little curvy and, on the other hand, the slope of the road is not constant – the lane is steeper in the foreground than it is in the background.
I showed it to my wife as soon as I finished it and she told me it reminded her of former Yugoslavia, not of Greece. I asked her what the theme was, in her opinion. Siesta in the Balkans, she replied. Okay, I said.
I hadn’t thought of a theme. In fact, the man in the bottom center was not part of the original plan. But after I carefully drew everything in the picture, I realized it looked barren and lacked something badly.
Adding the man was a risky move. I had made similar decisions in the past and the outcome was often a negative one. I especially remember a German square, on which I had worked for many hours and to which I added a man and a motorcycle. I took me forever to find the correct proportions and when I finally got them right, everything seemed too crowded. I felt rotten when I offered that picture as a gift.
But adding this guy to my Greek street was an unexpected success. I drew him in no time and suddenly the picture expressed something instead of nothing.
Drawing is a lot of fun. Right now I’m thinking of my new little project. I’m happy I’m not involved in any social media and I gave up playing games on electronic devices a long time ago. With a bit of luck and constant exercise I may turn drawing into a lucrative activity when I retire on a pension.
Thank you for your nice words.
