The modern landscape painter oftentimes finds himself slavishly tied to nature, its motifs. Yet, finding tailor-made exemplary landscape compositions in nature appears to be a challenge of its own. Thus, enlargement of landscape sketches to the size of a painting, a rather prevalent technique, seems to be nothing but a blind alley. The optimal solution, however, is to produce a paradigmatic natural motif sketch and convert it into a painting, by designing a proper composition and portraying the state of nature that allows, better than others, to reveal the intended artistic image. In order to create such an image, the artist must change the natural motif, adding some elements or removing others, thereby transforming the landscape ensemble into a harmonious whole.

Remarkably, research rooted in the theory of landscape composition has so far largely neglected the principles and methods of composing panoramic urban landscapes. Meanwhile, a consummate arrangement of a city panorama is undoubtedly among the hardest tasks to perform. The aim of this paper, therefore, is to address the challenging endeavor in question: it describes the process of creating a large-scale landscape painting, made in multi-layer watercolor using a life sketch. Particular attention is paid, among others, to the development of the image, selection of the optimal composition and its center, adjustment of the perspective, space depth, portrayal of foreground elements, rhythm organization, choice of a suitable state of nature, as well as apt color scheme.

Unlike other art education institutions, the Academy of Watercolor and Fine Arts of Sergey Andriaka applies the method of visual instruction – the teacher performs tasks from the curriculum in the classroom. The scientific and methodological journal Secreta Artis unveils never published before graphic portraits made by the teacher of the Academy A. R. Davlashyan during her classes on academic drawing as part of pre-vocational and higher education courses. Portrait drawings are done quickly, in three to four hours, with the usage of various graphic techniques. As a result, students not only get insight into the methodology behind sequential development of the portrait composition, proportions, volume, transmission of light and air, etc., but also observe the process of drawing from the perspective of multiple techniques.

Moreover, it is important to underline that one of the fundamental principles at the Academy is the continuity of education. Such an approach, in turn, allows one to organize teaching by formulating a logical sequence of progressively more complex tasks, which are first to be performed by students in the pre-vocational programme. Likewise, more advanced assignments are devised for higher art education courses. The author of the article shares her personal experience of working on a portrait, enumerates effective author’s techniques and original principles of interaction with students; she further outlines diverse drawing exercises, as well optimal task sequence at the first stages of teaching portraiture with their gradual complication (namely, depiction of the emotional world of the person, creation of a portrait with a composed background). Seemingly, the methods of teaching portraiture have long been elaborated. Nonetheless, there always remains a necessity for unconventional creative approaches to teaching, accumulation of personal pedagogical experience and search for alternative tools of interaction with students.

The present scientific paper is first to describe the core elements of the methodology developed by the Merited Artist of the Russian Federation, Associate Member of the Russian Academy of Arts, A. B. Popov as part of his class on color etching technique (wet printing) at the Academy of Watercolor and Fine Arts of Sergey Andriaka. The authorial technique in question is elaborated and explained through an exemplary task: a step-by-step reproduction of a temple fresco painting with the usage of color etching (i. e. three plate printing with blue, red, yellow paints). The article touches upon a wide variety of questions: preparation sequence of copper etching plates; practical principles for accurate сontouring; methods of creating images on the drawing plate; techniques for transferring sketches from a drafting plate; challenges of working with images split into separate colors and paint ovelaying; dependance of color on the depth of etching, the number of plates, the order of printing and the use of different sized aquatint grain. The paper is illustrated by a series of photographs demonstrating each stage of the process, as well as reproductions of color etchings by A. B. Popov accompanied by close-up shots of the artwork printed from three plates. Article materials are intended to be used as a part of an academic course on the color etching technique taught in art educational institutions at the pre-vocational, post-secondary non[1]tertiary and tertiary levels.