Enhancement Week: Virtual Tour of Chernobyl – Pripyat (Self-directed)

During Enhancement Week, the task was to look at and draw a scene inspired by the virtual tour of Chernobyl. I chose the nursery school without children because of the gloomy mood and tone of the scene.

https://www.360cities.net/image/nursery-school-without-children

I wanted to use gouache again as my medium to see how much I can improve after learning how to use them. With my idea was to recreate the scene of the abandoned nursery with brighter and more saturated colours. To convey how " despite being abandoned, the place is still as bright as if the children are still here "

Process

I first draw out the room with grids as measurements to get the picture as accurate as possible.

I first paint the larger area of the room which is the wall, with blended greens and brush texture to create the rotting/peeling wall paper/mold texture

I then added the door and the object near it. Slowly working my way through the piece from left to right. I took a long break from it from illness again.

After the recovery, I started with the floor. I messed up and added too much water too the paint. Panicked, I splashed more colour into it instead of cleaning it with tissue, in hopes the colour can fix the watery base. It was a happy mistake because I now have beautiful texture as a base that I can paint over.

Final Piece

A3 size sketchbook, gouache

I finalized and added more detail, painted in thin layers of paint to create a shadow on the floor and bright colour for the lighting. With a white marker, I also add the rim light to the edge. Finally, I added the white pieces of peeling wallpaper to finish it up. I am really happy with how this turns out and I can see myself improving from the last gouache painting I did. The experimental technique of shaking the brush to create dots and texture on the floor to create mould was very fun. I can see myself improving more in the future if I have the chance to use gouache as a medium again