Steemit Engagement Challenge WOX S6W5: "Visual Art: New Year Eve in my hometown"

Happy New Year!

I decided to take part in a very interesting, thematic Steemit Engagement Challenge WOX S6W5: "Visual Art: New Year Eve in my hometown" and, having taken everything necessary for work, I sat down at the table and thought.

Yes, on the one hand, the task is not the most difficult, probably everyone associates the New Year with joy and laughter, with New Year's gifts and the fire of colorful garlands, with the aroma of a freshly cut Christmas tree and with the moment when the clock strikes 12 o'clock...

But, such an idea of ​​New Year's Eve is incomplete, perhaps it was like that before February 24, 2022, but after that day everything changed.

Yes, all the above attributes of the New Year are just a screen behind which real life is hidden without beauty.

Today, thousands of children in Ukraine are left without a roof over their heads and without parents, they are still just children, but they have become adults who have learned to survive in war-torn cities.

They learned how to gather and chop wood, they learned how to make a fire, they can boil water on a fire, he knows the value of a true friend and they know their enemy.

This is a gloomy picture, but I tried to find something bright in it.

In my work, I depicted a boy sitting on the steps of a flight of stairs in a dilapidated house in front of a fire.

He gently hugs his friend, a dog who, like himself, has become lonely, but, they have become friends and care for each other.

They are happy to see each other on this New Year's Eve, but instead of garlands, a fire and searchlights behind broken windows that are looking for enemy kamikaze drones in the night sky, instead of a Christmas tree, a calendar with an image of a decorated Christmas tree, and, instead of a festive table, a mug with boiling water, I had to melt snow on a fire, instead of parents and friends, the boy sees the dog, and the dog, instead of the lost owners, sees the boy that night.

I would like to call this New Year's story the word "fantasy", but no, it's a reality, and every city in Ukraine is my hometown.

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Tools and materials:

• Graphite pencils: HB and 2=HB;
• Eraser;
• Sharpener for pencils;
• A sheet of A5 paper.

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Sketch

Knowing what I was going to draw gave me the ability to sketch very quickly.

A dilapidated house without windows, and, outside the window, the ruins of the city.

Working on light and shadow

I had to think about how the light of the fire and the light from the spotlights outside the window would affect the lighting inside the room where the boy was.

I did the work in three stages, this is a light shading with a HB pencil, creating textures and, then, I hatched dark areas with a 2=HB pencil.

The main accents of the picture

The happy look of the boy, because he, next to a friend and, is the devoted look of a dog.

Another focus is on what happens behind the broken window.

Happy New Year! Be safe!

I would like to invite my friends @kaminchan, @bengy, @tonyz.

Author @barski