Maslenitsa. Farewell to winter. 17th century

This is one of the color sketches for the composition of my small diploma at the Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, written in my third year. The end of Maslenitsa week was celebrated on a special scale and the culmination was the burning of an effigy as a rite of farewell to winter and cleansing of accumulated negative energy. Sacrifice to mother nature. Search for color accents and color harmonization in the environment, the task is to show the main action of the picture in the shadows, and the illuminated background at sunset, sanctified by the sun. The symbolic division of darkness and light in the picture, and the solstice in nature.