The series of drawings Illustrated Voyages are composed from the sketches made during my 2011 voyage to Europe. The artwork reflects my interest in direct encounter with various places and situations during my travels. I like to explore the moments of visual ecstasy in their real time. What I mean by saying this is the fact of uncontrollable temptation to catch this beautiful feeling of visual enjoyment, which was procured to my senses by the visual perception of experienced realities. To me it is the best way to explore the places I had the chance to visit. The fact of doing fast sketching of the viewed people, situations, and places at the time of my actual presence there induces me with an inexplicable creative thrill. It is a kind of intellectual drug to which I am totally succumbed with all my senses. The fact of drawing in direct is a kind of training camp for my professional skills. This time I decided to use various supports such as linen and cotton canvases for the direct drawing exercises. In addition to sanguine, colored pencils, and watercolors I tried to implement various water base and permanent ink markers. The sketching on canvas with permanent ink markers is not an easy experience. I needed to concentrate totally on what I was doing in order to avoid the perceptional mistakes. It is an interesting exercise. In order to be successful one need to be in total control of the coordination of his mind with his hand. It is always a challenging experiment to any artist exploring the enigma of drawing in direct.

The main purpose of me sketching in direct is to study the innumerable variety of forms and color nuances in order to prepare a source of information which I will explore even further when working on large size canvas. These sketches are for me a kind of coded notebook for the future paintings.

Click here to see images in the Portfolio