Dumpster Diving
Project 3
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: Oct 29th, 2021
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Ideas: show effects of landfills and pollution on habitats
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Materials: Made on the iPad with an apple pencil, used Adobe Fresco
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Process: contrasting environments are juxtaposed to indicate invasion and threat
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Inspiration
JoeLius DuBois
I came across JoeLius DuBois on my twitter timeline about a year back and has been intrigued by his pieces ever since. What makes his art different from other artist's that I usually see online is the story telling capability in which every picture has a somewhat clear narrative. "Sunday Evening", for example, tells a story of a man in love as he plays a love letter to his partner beside him using the form of communication he knows best: music. On the other hand, "All-Stars" depicts an aspiring basketball player as he dribbles the ball around his opponents with ease. Through his unique art style and usage of color, DuBois creates a captivating world of his own.
"All-Stars"
One of many inspirations that I would like to cultivate from DuBois' pieces is being able to tell a clear story that still has room for interpretations. He does this through his subject's facial expressions and posture that can help determine the mood and paint a story. I plan to utilize this method by careful planning of my own subjects during the sketching stages in order to better assist the audience's ability to comprehend my artworks. From viewing his work, an improvement I can start making to my future pieces is shading and adding texture to areas with plain hue since it enhances the quality of the overall piece. Like DuBois, I also want to eventually develop a style that will make me distinctive from the rest.
“Joelius Dubois's Portfolio.” JoeLius DuBois, https://www.joeliusdubois.com/9406848-2021#9.
"Sunday Evening"
The
Planning
Prior to making any art, I always refer back to my Bucket of Themes that I initially brainstormed for my first artwork. It is an ever developing list of ways that humans are impacting the environment negatively and though many of the themes I write down will ultimately be chosen by the end of the year, I select a certain topic based on the success of the mindmap that I'm able to create from it. This is done to judge the amount of ideas I have for the theme and whether I'm feeling it or not at that moment.
For this third project, I chose the theme of pollution, but soon realized it was too broad since there are various types of pollution that can be its own category. But once I had written it on the mindmap, I couldn't get my mind off of the word landfill and instantly knew that I wanted my next piece to somewhat be related to a dump. I connected some other topics that were quite similar and made ideas along with very rough sketches.
However, most of the ideas for my artworks are spontaneous and this was no exception. From viewing the result of a doodling session I made a few days before, another idea spawned. Like DuBois, I wanted to make something that has storytelling capability so I thought about making a landfill being visited by ignorant creatures that see it as a wonder, but is unaware of the threat it'll bring.
Starting on my sketch, I thought it'd be better to have two thirds of the entire image to give off this adventurous innocence type of feel and juxtapose whatever's left with the chaotic ugly trash dump. I also thought it'd be telling to have the creatures interacting with some of the spillover plastic waste as
a way to show their curiosity and awe in something so detrimental to their habitat. The background on the left will illustrate the untouched beauty of nature and be contrasted with the man made mess on the right.
For the final stage of my planning, I did a more detailed and updated sketch in order to make it closer to
the way I envision it and then started with the actual piece.
Oct 17th Doodle
The
Experimentation
During the early process of my work, I realized that the grass I painted was very underwhelming. Though the values were somewhat acceptable, it wasn't giving an illusion of depth at all. In addition to this, there was no texture that resembles a grass field moving gently in the breeze, a scene I had in mind to illustrate the picturesque setting that's unaffected by trash. Disappointed, I wanted to add on to what I have, so I decided to experiment with new tools.
Having only used a single oilpaint brush (oilpaint flat), I thought it'd be nice to try out other brushes for the grass. To me, oilpaint round initially looked lame since it was very cartoonish and gives a blurred effect while the oilpaint detail looked more realistic and... detailed. However, realizing that my art style wouldn't fit the realistic look, I tried to improve the round one by adding highlights and shadows which turned out really well. Since it looks blurred, I also wouldn't have to worry about it shifting focus from my main subjects.
Through this experimentation, I also came to notice how my strokes were rigid and stiff in the beginning trials which is unnatural. In order to convey a breeze, I must have the grass behave realistically and that is to make it flow by painting it with curvy strokes which is demonstrated in my later trials.
Developing these new learnings into my artwork, I paid more attention to each stroke and made sure it wasn't the same as the last, but similar enough in direction to still show rhythm. By changing the proportions of grass size and different values of green, I'm now able to create depth and make the field uneven as a realistic approach. The patches of grass in the lower levels are smaller and darker, while those that are higher are hinted lighter. I went on to add highlights and shadows later on as touch ups.
The
Process
My main objective with the third piece is to show the effects of pollution to animals on the environment. Initially, I had the idea of drawing a wedding between a creature and a plastic bottle to show how our waste can go on to do unpredictable things to animals, but I thought them developing a relationship might have a positive connotation, which I didn't want, so I scratched that idea. However, I did a little sketch for it of the creature embracing the bottle and that pose was adopted into my later work.
A major revision that I had with this piece was the landfill. Originally I thought it'd be unique to combine oil paint and hard pastel together, but obviously that didn't work. The hue of each bag looked very plain and the pencil marks shaping it made them look out of place when seen with the rest of the work. I repainted each bag with the same color, but this time using the oil paint brush. Seeing that the pencil marks were distracting, I removed them entirely and decided to refine the bags by adding shadows. The result was better than I expected as it elevated the whole painting and my plan of adding a gate/barrier between the two contrasting areas was also crossed out as it interfered with it more than anything else.
I also want to point out how I picked the colors of the trash bags. Before coloring them, I did research by studying actual images of dumps and saw how most places were overran with a predominant color, usually dark brown or white. For every 5 square meters or so, there'd be around one or 2 bags that possess a highly saturated color and that is how I decided. It wasn't really based on the hues per se, since it didn't really matter, but the saturation of it where most of the colors I picked were dull with occasional ones with high intensity.
The
Reflection
As you might notice already, I don't like sticking to a single brush and always try to employ new tools into each artwork, but working on this piece makes me question my methods. The look of oil paint really appeals to me and honestly, I don't think I did it any justice in this painting since I only touched the surface of its potential. I feel that working with a single tool will allow me to explore more and test its limits, which will increase my understanding and quality of work in the future. One way I really developed as an artist is not being afraid to restart to achieve what I really envision since that's what I did with the landfill and the grass. The biggest challenge I encountered on this project was the grass since I couldn't get it right multiple times, which is why it was my least favorite part to work on. It wasn't until experimenting that I discovered a style that fits perfectly. My favorite part was adding shade to the trash bags since I was able to see the progress of it being flat at first to having depth. In conclusion, I want others to view this work in particular with pity since they're witnessing the beginning of the end for these creatures. No matter how beautiful a scenery is, it is always overpowered by the ugliness surrounding it and that's the case with this painting where soon enough, the entire landscaped will be covered in waste that they're not responsible for.