Bittersweet Hallway #13

Sustained Investigation #13

5 x 7

Digital Art

This is my 13th Sustained Investigation where I drew one of the school hallways. My inquiry question is, "How can I use color and texture to concentrate on the emotions of landscapes?" For this project, I wanted to focus on the bittersweet feelings I get at school because I think about going off to college, and it feels very nostalgic and sad but also relieving at the same time growing up. I originally started this project with marker and color pencil, and soon realized I did not like how it looked. I wasn't able to capture the saturation I wanted to, and my lines were getting messed, that I decided to restart using digital art. I haven't made digital art yet this year, and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try something new. Using an iPad and drawing digitally helped me reach my goals of perfecting my proportions which I think look very accurate to the reference photo. I also went in with shadow techniques and highlights to capture more details and help this project look a bit more realistic. I knew I wanted to have another split in this project, looking at the normal hallway and contrasting that with the way I feel in the hallways, which is kind of blue and sad. I also wanted to support the idea of going off to college, which is why I also included college flags that I drew, and I focused on Maine Universities to make this project more personal to me. I'm really happy I decided to switch to drawing digitally because I was able to incorporate my goals more easily, with the college flags being drawn, the proportions for more of a realistic look, and having clear saturated colors that are both accurate and also replicate the bittersweet feeling I was trying to portray. I chose to do this hallway rather than a different one at my school because I see myself walking in this hallway the most this year, and also every year. Freshman and sophomore year, my friends and I always met at the water fountain during breaks or before lunch so we could all walk down together, and this hallway includes one of my favorite classrooms, the art room, as well as the guidance office which currently advertises many colleges and university outside the room. Overall, I'm really happy with how my revision turned out, and I am glad I was able to try a new media before the year ended.