Sustained Investigation #3

My inquiry question is how do humans interact with nature, and so far I have only explored the positive side of that question. For this drawing I wanted to show the more negative way that humans interact with nature. I decided to use three images to tell a story about humans paving over nature and building cities. The first image is nature having been untouched by people with lots of life and color. In the second image a man is walking into the field and stepping on a butterfly in the process. The man is dressed in dark business type clothing. The third image is zoomed out to show what the man is leaving behind him as he walks which is a growing city. The city is all grey to create contrast with the colors of nature.

The materials I used for this drawing were colored pencils and graphite. I started by drawing the border and separating it into three parts like panels in a comic. Then I sketched out the drawing in pencil using thumbnails from my sketchbook as a reference. Before I colored the final drawing, I tested out different ways to use colored pencils for the grass in my sketchbook. I thought about going over it with pen for details and tried different colors before settling on yellow. I used multiple browns and yellows to create detail and depth in the grass. For the smaller dark details I just used graphite again.

I experimented with color in my sketchbook because I am still getting used to colored pencils and how different values of them work together. I drew each piece of grass going in the same direction except for a few that were out of place to create texture. I used space by showing different views of the same scene and having only part of the person in the middle panel. By having the man and the city be grey, I created contrast with the colorful field. The grass all leaning to the right suggests that there is wind and shows movement. In the first panel there is balance with two butterflies on each side and one in the middle, but in the other two panels, the man and the city make the left side heavier. There is also pattern in the grass but not in the city with its different shaped buildings. The only color in the buildings is the little bit of red on one building which creates some unity with the red flowers. My next step could be to continue exploring how humans interact with nature in both negative and positive ways.