A Lethal Mirage
Project 9
INQUIRY: In what ways are humans impacting the environment?
Size: 37.9(w) x 28.4(h) inches
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Date of Completion: Feb 18th, 2022
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Ideas: illustrate the danger that comes with urbanization such as windows of high rise buildings for birds
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Materials: Made on the iPad with an apple pencil, used Adobe Fresco
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Process: utilized square-like brush strokes to indicate fiction and distinct reflection from reality
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Inspiration
Heta-uma
Heta-uma is an artistic movement sprouted from Japan that is concerned with a drawing style that capitalizes on imperfection. It "often emphasized unflattering or even grotesque elements of the human condition", which was quiet controversial during the early stages of the movement since it was considered ugly based on normal standards. However, the beauty of heta-uma is its semi-realistic illustrations and portrayals of life that provides a break from the usual customary art pieces.
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I wanted to take inspiration from heta-uma because my eighth piece was related to the subject of unintentional brutality towards animals through ​
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urbanization, more specifically how we as humans intrude the natural habitats of birds through our cities and this coexistence often collides resulting in the depletion of one population. I believe that this grotesque style will convey a scene​
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of normalcy in a different perspective​, showing how something that seems harmless to us like windows are great liability to birds. Similar to the message of the style itself, I also want to emphasize on the imperfections that comes with something that is fundamental to human development like urbanization.
The
Planning
For my eighth project, I wanted to do a piece showcasing urbanization and its effects, the most common being the death of animals due to our presence. Urbanization is the act of immigration from rural to urban areas and although it is of great beneficial to many people where they gain a higher standard of living and have easier access to jobs, these densely populated areas occupied by men and manmade structures offer great danger to the environment including the original occupants of that area. Some examples are roadkills and birds crashing into windows, which make for the leading causes of deaths for those living in cities.
While working on a more detailed sketch, I decided to incorporate aspects of third person and first person. From research, I found out that the reason many birds fly into windows is their inability to defer reflections from actual objects, so they perceive reflections of trees in the windows, for example, as actual trees. To illustrate this, I added greenery to the furniture to show how the bird perceives them.
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At first, I was brainstorming and drew a sketch each for each example, but I then decided that I wanted to work with the subject of birds and windows. I listed some emotions and moods I wanted to express in my artwork, which was done by recalling past memories of similar experiences and putting myself in the shoes of both the bird and the witness.
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With Ms. Shamburek's suggestion, I tried out different perspectives to see which one works best. I was in between choosing the first person POV of the bird and the low angle showing it as it is about to slam into the window, but decided on the former since it allows me to include the listed emotions through body gestures and facial expressions of the witnesses.
The
Experimentation
While the rest of the piece has been worked on with hard pastel, I wasn't sure whether I wanted to approach the same way for the leaves because I wanted to somehow indicate that they are not real (are mere reflections). I experimented two ways with the hard pastel brush and two new other brushes: rough pencil and soft pastel. The long strokes resulted in a very underwhelming look while the other three provided a more unique appearance, but I thought that the one with circular strokes could be too messy so I removed that option. I was indecisive between the last two so I decided to try applying both on the actual artwork just to see how it looks with the rest of the image. Although the soft pastel make for better leaves since the different shades easily blend together, it didn't really fit in with the rest of the artwork which was composed with minimal shading. On the other hand, the tap-like strokes using the hard pastel provides a distinctive look while maintaining that harmony with the entire piece.
The
Process
Unlike other projects, I started sketching this one with pencil on paper to switch things up and with the hope that doing so would possibly fuel my creativity. To transform this sketch to digital, I decided that I wouldn't trace over it with a pencil, but instead lower the opacity of the original image and then directly color everything in, which removes the black outline.
A minor revision I made was with the picture on the right. There was empty space behind the father which I wasn't sure what to do with it. However, I thought that it'd be a good chance to further establish that this is not a house, but an apartment since "urbanization=tall buildings". In addition to the kitchen and the countertop I added near the entrance based on the structure of most apartments, I decided to add a corridor to show that space is limited.
One difficulty I came across was with the pigeon where I needed help with its anatomy and color. This is why I used a reference picture of a common pigeon and used the color picker tool to help me construct its colors.
The
Reflection
Working on this artwork has been a rollercoaster for me because it took me longer than expected. Even though I used techniques inspired by heta-uma, which is to embrace imperfection and not make everything too detailed, I still somehow managed to take as much as time as other pieces. My favorite part to work on this piece was the leaves of the trees where I used different values of colors to construct them and I thought it turned out pretty nicely. However, one concern I have is how this whole piece could be seen as lazy, especially the pigeon. At close up, this artwork might look incomplete and messy, but I personally I believe that the composition falls in place when viewed from a distance, where the small scratches blend and form into one. I would say that overall, this was a pretty solid piece that combines my own style of art with heta-uma.