Mediterranean Grill #10

Sustained Investigation #10

7 x 5

Colored Pencil and Marker

This is my 10th Sustained Investigation where I drew the Mediterranean Grill In Freeport, Maine. My inquiry question is, "How can I use color and texture to concentrate on the emotions of landscapes?" For this project, I used markers and colored pencils which I have not done this year yet, but I didn't want to use gouache or acrylic paint because of how time-consuming they are. I was inspired to use those materials by my classmates who use them too in their sustained investigations. My parents work a lot, and when I was younger this affected me a lot because I did not have a traditional daily routine at home, but instead at one of their restaurants, specifically Mediterranean Grill in Freeport. Every day after school, I would either get picked up or I would walk to the restaurant and have to stay there for the rest of the day until they were done with work because I was too young to stay home. I dreaded going to the restaurant so much because I'd much rather be slumped on the couch watching TV, or in my room playing. As I got older and became more independent, I started to stay home by myself, but that dreading feeling for that restaurant never went away because it was the place my parents were all day every day, and I couldn't be with them at home enjoying dinner or talking about my day at school which I hated the most. To capture that dreading and dreary emotion I felt for the restaurant, I decided to go with a gray color palette. It represents a very dull almost sad feel because there is absolutely no color present, and It's very bland, unsettling in a way where you wouldn't want to be there, just like how I didn't want to be there. I used a lot of lines in my project, and a ruler helped strengthen my detail with the very clean and precise straight lines. This helped me create texturing with the additional bricks I decided to add. I did not add the words to the signs because I feel that they really do not matter. What I wanted to capture was how I felt, not exactly what the name of the restaurant was. It also helps to create a feeling of absence, which I felt when I was alone at home. I'm very happy with how this turned out, and in my future projects, I'm going to continue using color pencil and marker because I liked how well they blended and how easy they were to work with.