Sustained Investigation #2

Angry Gorilla

15.51’’ x 9.65’’

I think gorillas are fascinating creatures but their habitat and population is decreasing. I wanted to show that in this piece, so I made the gorilla (specifically and Eastern Lowland Gorilla) out of magazine pieces. Next, I cut out letters to make the words "CRITICALLY ENDANGERED" and then the name of the species I was focused on on the edge of the bottom border. I painted the background with green watercolor because I thought it would contrast nicely with the black. Eastern Lowland Gorillas are native to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, so I drew a map of the DCR in the background. I wanted to make the gorilla roaring/yelling to show his anger about the loss of habitat.

I first cut out pieces of National Geographic magazines and organized them by color. Then I looked at a reference image of a gorilla and used it to place where the different shades of gray should go. I used standard green watercolor for the background and a 2B graphite pencil for the map of the DCR. I also used a thick Sharpie for outlining the gorilla.

I compiled a lot of shades of gray and red (red for the mouth) and made sure they were placed in the correct places where they would be on a real gorilla. When I finished the mouth, I realized it looked a little weird, so I outlined it with Sharpie to make him stand out more. I was originally going to use magazine pieces to make a whole background of trees and fire (their habitat is being lost due to civil unrest in the country, mainly), but I decided it would take too long and be too busy. Instead, I added the map to show exactly where the gorillas live. For my next steps, I think I would add a little more detail to the background or maybe darkening the borders of the countries.