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THE COOPERATIVE WORK PROCESS
(From an interview by Professor Nikita Pokrovsky with the artist Anton Kumankov)

IV

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uch in the portrait depends on the technical methods used. Quick, tossed-off drawings, completed in one sitting with a pencil, naturally, will make less of an impression, although it's true that they are also important. Complex, hand-made works, with completely detailed figures and background, are much more impressive. Along with the technical method, the material used means a lot. So, there is a strong tradition of preference given to working with oil on canvas. Especially in a large-scale format. This, you could say, is the "High Style" model. (I myself don't work this way.) Artists work variously with pastels on paper, tempura, gouache, acrylic, watercolors, colored pencils, in black-and-white, etc., etc. -- with any available and well-known methods. Each material, each method, has its pluses and minuses. For example, we may say that oil looks traditional and impressive; however, strangely enough, it's not very long-lasting. Over time the oil colors darken and lose their clarity. Pastel, on the other hand, is a very soft material that easily crumbles off the paper and thus requires careful safeguarding under glass. But, along with these drawbacks, pastel maintains its color amazingly well--it practically doesn't fade.

work with colored pencils and pastel on paper and posterboard. Sometimes I add watercolor and gouache. Art scholars call this "mixed media". In other cases I switch to pure tempura. Friends and colleagues have told me, more than once, that using colored pencils to represent people is far from artistic--that they don't look "solid", almost like school materials for children. Also, that paper loses in terms of "solidity" when compared with canvas on a stretcher--that it's not quite right. However, first of all, the assortment of colored pencils (comprising hundreds of shades) that I use is a masterpiece of the art industry. They cost a great deal of money and in all ways they are more expensive than oil colors. Paper is also produced by the best worldwide firms. But the most important factor, regardless of what favorite material and methods an artist uses, is how exactly to execute the artistic task at hand.

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