Zaporozhian Cossacks of Ukraine Writing a Letter in Reply to the Sultan of Ottoman Empire

Reply of the famous historic painting by Russian artist Ilia Repin (1844-1930), size 230 cm x 150 cm.  I painted it many years ago, as teenager. It does not represent my style at present time but I like to share it with you, on my gallery, because with this painting I start to take seriously my inclinations to arts, being challenged at that time by the desire to learn how to to paint in oil colors human facial expressions and body movements.

Oil on canvas, 230 cm x 150 cm, Private collection

I was guided closely for all steps by my very good teaches in fine arts - my father having a uninterrupted hobby for photography techniques and my mother - who graduated the School of Fine Arts as a hobby and she continues to dedicate herself to oil painting. I managed to finish the picture in 3 months, spending one day to paint each human face and about another 2-3 days to complete the siluete and clothing.

Because painting is not standard size, frame support for canvas is hand made from pine wood in section 4 cm x 6 cm and further reinforced. I used canvas made ​​of linen with high density. I prefer the surface of linen for painting even is more expensive as cotton fabric because is more resistant in time. For primming the canvas I used an emulsion prepared by an old recipe that includes white zinc powder, bone glue and boiled linen oil. I put two coats on and I use also sandpaper to polish the painting surface. The third and last layer applied was a diluted solution including also bone glue, to correct the canvas permeability. The Photographic copy of the original picture on a A3 size is enlarged to canvas using millimeter scale using paper and is transposed on canvas with carbon paper. Human figures are painted with very small sizes (widths between 0.3mm and 3mm) to reply the details, for silhouettes and clothes I used brushes between 3mm and 7mm width. Areas of painting on which I returned during painting were varnished in advance. Painting is protected with a varnish layer applied after few months of drying.