[3] After graduating with a small gold medal, he travelled along the Black Sea coast with Count Pavel Kutaisov, then worked as a draftsman for Auguste de Montferrand on Saint Isaac's Cathedral.

[3] From 1833 to 1836, he was in the service of Mikhail Vorontsov, Governor-General of Novorossiya, travelling throughout Crimea, sketching nature, ruins, and ethnic customs.

[2] After 1838, he accompanied his brother, Grigory, and Anton Ivanov-Goluboy along the Volga in a specially equipped boat/studio, making numerous sketches that were later turned into a panorama that was 700 meters (2300 feet) in length and was wound on a roller.

[2] During the 1840s, the brothers paid several visits to Italy and the Eastern Mediterranean, but their book of lithographs, Palestine: Views Drawn from Life by the Academicians N. and G. Chernetsov in 1842–43 was not very successful.

The academy provided 200 Rubles and, after much negotiating, agreed to buy their remaining portfolios and paintings in installments over several years, but this process was never completed.