The Last Stand
Project 8
INQUIRY: In what ways are humans impacting the environment?
Size: 28.4(w) x 37.9(h) inches
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Date of Completion: Feb 4, 2022
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Ideas: personify the selflessness of trees despite their unfair treatment
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Materials: Made on the iPad with an apple pencil, used Adobe Fresco
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Process: utilized leading lines to lead movement to focal point with juxtaposition of colors
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Inspiration
Vitruvian Man
The artist behind this piece is Leonardo Da Vinci and he made the famous sketch using pen and ink. The Vitruvian Man is more or less a study on the human anatomy, mainly the human proportions and the relationships between the body parts. This was done because Da Vinci believed that the human form was in some way connected to the universe.
Although the Vitruvian Man symbolizes the connection of art and math, as well as many other complicated stuff, I am simply attracted to it due to its structure. The pose with four extra limbs sparked an image of a tree in my mind, with the two arms being the branches and the legs being its roots. As I was still sketching on the topic of my next artwork, it became pretty clear what direction I was going to take with the inspiration. I plan to personify a tree as a womanly figure, similar to how nature is often refer to as mother nature and then have her pose similarly to the Vitruvian Man.
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The
Planning
With this piece, I finally chose to illustrate on the topic of deforestation and from the beginning, I had an idea of drawing a group of trees in human form to emphasize/remind people that they are living. Since my inquiry questions how humans play a role in the changing environment, I decided to add humans to act as a threat in the piece with their scary tree cutting machines and axes. I wanted there to be a leader figure among the trees that remains its composure while the other trees look with respect, as you can see in the sketch on the left. The pose of the standing woman was made to resemble Jesus on the cross as to show how she is sacrificing herself for the "betterment" of mankind, since she hope that the resources from her death will improve the lives of many.
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After I saw the Vitruvian Man, I was inspired to add more limbs to the tree and have it be holding fruits to represent how trees are only there to help us even till the end. I then edited the feet to be tree roots instead since it would be obvious as to what the woman was actually personifying to viewers who don't know the context. I removed the other tree figure since it would shift the attention from the central figure and also contradict my message about trees, which forced me to change the narrative of my art from a group of trees accepting their fate to a last standing tree that does it purpose till the end.
The
Experimentation
I wanted there to be a more complex shading on the mountain that's farthest back so I decided to experiment with some brushes that would bring out the best look. ​
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The first trial was using a hard pastel as base and shading with gradient, which I had been using with the rest of the artwork. This combination blends pretty well as it result in a smooth mixture.
The second trial was using a soft pastel as the base, but that didn't make any big differences compared to the first.
The third trial used the same materials as the first, but with the addition of a pastel square brush. The 2 brushes didn't blend pretty well, but it made the dark shade of brown more defined.
The fourth trial only used soft chalk for both the base and shading, which gave it more texture, but it was messy.
The
Process
I like the boldness of the dark shade in my third trial, so I decided to use that method to revise my original mountain range, which had a pale shading. What I did was use the pastel square for the dark brown and then blend the contrasting two colors of light and dark with the gradient tool since on its own the pastel square doesn't mix well.
I made several revisions in this piece in different areas after having a critique session with two of my friends. They suggested that I should change the shape of the leaf covering the private part to a maple leaf because the original shape was awkward, and the maple would be more fitting since it is symmetrical. After completing a rough design of it, however, the rough and sharp cuts of the leaf disturbs the smooth and round edges of the body, so I looked up online for other types of leaves that would complement rather than contrast and chose to go with a birch leaf instead.
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What I first did for the hair of the tree was incorporate long strands of individual leaves of different shades that compiled into a silky, flowy hair, but it didn't match the image of a tree. This was when I was inspired by the afro hair, which is a type of hairstyle in which hair is compacted into a round shape, which is similar to the characteristics of leaves on a tree. The change was significantly better and blended easier into its surrounding.
The
Reflection
As an artist, I've definitely developed my ability to draw hands with this piece because I used to avoid including them just because I wasn't good at it, but with practice, I've become pretty confident with my skills. The biggest problem I had with this piece was the mountains in the background because I didn't really know how I wanted to approach them. My main point of having them in the first place is to show how all the other mountains have also been derived of trees and that the tree in the picture is indeed the last one. Looking back, the mountains could use a revamp or just more shading. However, my favorite part was working on the fruits and the hands since they were the only parts where I was comfortable in my abilities, but the ribs and the tree roots, for example, was something I've never tried so it was a bit stressful. Overall, The Last Stand turned out pretty much how I envisioned it prior to making, but there is still room for improvement such as the clashing of colors blending between the body and the background so I will go back and make the blue darker.​
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