One Earth Project

THEY'LL BE GONE

OCT. 22, 2018 — digital

In this project, we were tasked to create an image that expressed in some way the effects of climate change.

Initially, I had a different idea for this project—something pertaining to rainforests and fires—but after sketching that idea out, I found that it didn't really look good or make any sense. So I started brainstorming other ideas, and eventually I remembered a project that I did last year pertaining endangered frogs. I thought that it might be cool to take one of those frogs and put it in an environment; perhaps I could have two panels, one with a frog situated in flourishing wildlife, and one without a frog and with dying plants (so as to show the effect of climate change). That's the idea that I went with. I chose to use an orange frog, so I tended towards green colors for the leaves in the background (so as to create contrast), although I did add in a few pinks and purples. After the initial coloring, I added some shading and highlights to add some depth to the overall image, and I also went in with white and added some smaller details so that I would have a bit more contrast overall. Once that was done, I created the "effect" image—I used the same scene, except I removed the frog and changed some details on the plants so that it looked like they were dying. I also made it a bit darker (so that it looked like smog or something). Thus, I was done.

I'm not sure how to feel about the outcome of this project. On one hand, there are some aspects to it that I like—I think that I did a good job shading, and I'm pleased with the depth that I was able to create by layering. However, I don't like how dark the overall image is—I feel like it could've been lighter, and that maybe it should have been lighter so that more of the details that I added would be apparent. I also think that the composition is kind of boring, and that maybe I could have added some other animals into the image on the left so that the idea that that was the "pre-climate change" side would be more apparent. Aside from my nitpicking, though, I feel pretty neutral about this project.