Ecocide
By Aidan Vail 38.4cm x 25.7cm x2, December 2023 Illustration markers and gouache on canvas broads This project is inspired by the Freepik's illustration of a forest with the colorful landscape. The first of my two paintings is is a recreation of Freepik's illustration and my second one is a play on of Freepik's illustration. These two paintings are made from illustration markers and gouache on canvas broads.
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Inspirations
For my inspiration I used an illustration from Freepik. I chose this as my inspiration because I liked the cartoon look of the forest and how bright and alive the forest felt alive in the illustration. I plan to use this inspiration as my main outline for my first canvas and I also plan to use it as an outline but change it to make it look like humans have destroyed it. I plan to replicate this artwork's cartoon look by putting big shapes of color that don't mix together. I also plan to create a similar theme of the environment. The intent of Freepik when making this image was for people to use it as their background on their computers or photos to use on their presentation. This artwork is of a river going through a forest with a bridge going over the river. When I first saw this artwork I felt warm and calm I reacted this way because I saw a peaceful forest with a lot of bright colors. This artwork contains mostly organic shapes because it creates that warm feeling, if it was mostly geometric shapes then it would throw off the warm feeling with all of the sharp edges. The Freepik also used color to create the warm feeling with all of the bright blues and greens in this artwork. This artwork puts the most emphasis on the foreground, with hills on both the right and the left with the bridge connecting them. They put emphasis on this by making it the biggest thing in this artwork and by making it more detailed than the rest of the artwork. When I first saw this artwork my eyes started at the river then moved to the bridge and both sides of it then my eyes went to the background and the hills. This artwork made my eyes do this because of the size and depth it has. This artwork does a good job at making it feel that the foreground is close and the background is far away. It does this by making everything in the foreground big and detailed, while everything in the background is small with little to no detail. When I first saw this artwork, I felt the emotion of calming because of how peaceful the forest feels in this artwork. Planning After I found my inspiration I wanted to make a piece like it but I also wanted to change It a bit, to put my spin on my piece . I first started with making three planning drawings, with the first one wanted it to look like a forest with nothing from humans, much like if humans have never been there. The second drawing I made was a forest that humans have destroyed and have taken for granted. My third drawing a drawing I wanted to it look different from the first two so instead of looking at the going from the bottom to the top I wanted it to go from side to side. After making those I landed on my two favorites which are the first and third sketches. Now that I know what I wanted to make and how to show the point I wanted to get across in this piece of good vs evil, the environment vs humans. This piece will connect to my theme very well because it centered around my theme of the environment. I plan to use my theme to make more people think about how they affect the environment and how it is most of the time it's in a bad way. I want people to feel bad about what has been happening to the environment and make them think how they can be more sustainable in their day to day life. I'm planning on making a grid on both my canvases. I will start with the alive forest and then transfer the image to the other canvas and make it dead. I am planning to do this so I can make sure the images look the same but one is alive and one dead. I plan to make my piece horizontal because that is the way my inspiration was made. Then the next step is to add color and make this piece come to life. The dimensions of these two pieces are both 38.4cm x 25.7cm. Process Step 1 My first step in this project was to make a grid on both canvas. So I started by marking the canvas on each side with 2.54cm increments. This helped me plan out where I was going to put the lines of the grid. After I made all of the interments, the next part was to make the interments into full line that go across the whole canvas. Step 2 The next step to making my piece is by drawing on the first piece which will be my alive one. After I was done with my first outline then i moved on to my second one which was much easier because I knew where I wanted to put everything from the first outline. Step 3 After I had my outline all I needed to do was to add color to it. I am using a mix of illustration markers and gouache. I am using these materials to create the cartoon look that I am going for with this piece. While doing this step I could tell my technique with the brush makers was getting better because I was getting use to how they work and how they release ink. Step 4 My next step was to go through both of my paintings and touch it up by putting my color where the canvas is showing through the paint. This step was the shortest out of all of them, however it made a huge difference between before I did it and after i did it. Reflection In general, I would say my project went pretty well. I learned a great deal about how to use the materials that were. I don't think, I would do anything different if I did this project again. I took my time with this project and I created a piece that represents my theme of the environment but then I also showed how humans have been affecting the environment in a negative way. If I were to do this piece again I would do it better because near the end I felt like my painting skills with the gouache were a lot better near the end of this piece than when I started. Critique Comparing my piece to my inspiration there are many differences and similarities. The biggest difference between my piece and my inspiration is that I have a whole other painting showing a dead forest but also there are some similarities in the piece like the layout of the forest with the the bridge in the middle going over the river. With the alive forest there are many similarities because I used it as a reference when I was making my sketch for this project. The similarities between my alive forest and the inspiration are the colors because I wanted it to be very green and bright, another similarity is the layout of the forest because when I was making the outline I was looking at the layout of the inspiration. A huge difference between my artworks and my inspiration is that I did my canvas with paint and markers, while my inspiration was done digital so there is no brush stokes that mine have. Experimentation Since this was the first time using illustration markers and gouache, I had to do a large amount of experimentation to figure out how these materials worked. What I did the most during this project was using the materials on the pack of the canvas to see how the color came out on the medium. This helped to get a better understanding of where I wanted to put each color in my artworks. I also was experimenting with how the materials mixed to try to make new colors because I felt like I was using the same color too many times while working on this piece. I mixed the markers and gouache the most in the river of both the alive and the dead forest because I feel like that was the best way to get the color that I wanted in the end. Another thing I experimented with was layering the markers to try to make darker colors especially when it came to making the background of the living forest because I wanted it to have some colors and not just make it black. I feel like me doing experimentation with the markers and gouache greatly improved my painting because it gave a better understanding of how to use these materials. ACT questions Clearly explains how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork. My inspiration caused many components of my artwork but the biggest ones are the layout of the forest with the hills on the left and right with the bridge in the middle going over the river. Another thing that effected my artwork was the the style that I made it in with the cartoon look that it has. The last effected by my inspiration was the bright colors. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration? The author choice to approach the topic of the environment in a positive way by making it colorful. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration? The biggest conclusion that I could draw from from my inspiration id that it was made for people to get ideas about the environment and to care for it. What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research? What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research? The central idea of my research on the inspiration piece is based around how people look at the environment and the natural colors it has. After doing all of my research I could tell that this art piece wasn't supposed to be used to be a inspiration to any artists or anyone who makes art. MLA citation “Download Free Videos, Vectors, Photos, and PSD.” Freepik, www.freepik.com/. Accessed 12 Dec. 2023. “How to Paint with Gouache like an Artist.” Gathered, www.gathered.how/arts-crafts/art/how-to-paint-with-gouache. Accessed 12 Dec. 2023. |