Sustained Investigation #8

For the second semester I have change by inquiry question to: how can I illustrate phrases inspired by nature using space? The first phrase that I chose to use as inspiration was "the sky's the limit." I wanted to make it look like someone was hitting their head on the clouds like it was a ceiling that was too short for them. I couldn't find a reference photo for the exact pose I wanted so I sketched a bunch of different poses with different perspective until I figured it out. I found one photo that was a view from the ground of someone walking that I used to help with the legs. I made the sneakers red because I already made a drawing of a person walking with red sneakers on so I thought it would be cool if the shoes were the same in both pieces.

I started out by drawing it in pencil first and then taking a picture of it so I could color it digitally. It was difficult for me to get a clear picture of it and my printer wasn't scanning it very well. I ended up using the scanning feature in my notes app. Then I opened the picture in Procreate and created a multiply layer. This allowed me to add color under the pencil lines. Doing this made the colors a little darker than I would have liked but I am happy with the end result. I also drew on top of some of the pencil lines because they were kind of messy.

Since space is part of my inquiry question, I made sure to use it in an interesting way. I did this by trying a perspective that I hadn't drawn before and adding details in the background without making it too crowded. I used the line of the road to draw attention to the city and create some depth. The clouds getting smaller also helped create depth. The pencil sketch that I colored under added texture. I made it more balanced by adding mountains on the other side of the page to balance the city. The background has a few different patterns in it including the clouds, trees, and mountains. There is emphasis on the front foot because it is closer so I made it bigger to show that. There are a few different values of blue on the pants so that they look like the texture of jeans. The shoes and the sweatshirt are both red with creates some unity between the top and bottom halves of the page. My project evolved as I changed the pose from standing to walking and added different background element to make it more interesting. My next steps could be to choose another phrase to illustrate and sketch out some different ways to use space. I think that the next phrase is going to be "hit the hay."