Visual Language - Life Drawing in an animation context

Joanna Quinn is one of my great inspirations. The vigor, spirit and soul you feel in just her drawings before they even begin to move and ooze in life, it captures me. 

I believe one of the main reasons why there is so much soul within her characters is because of how importance she considers life drawing to be in the process of animation.

This extract from The Fundamentals of Animation by Paul Wells (2006) details;

In this book, Quinn makes the interesting interpretation of when things are observed from life, they can often turn out to be more exaggerated than our own minds would of abstracted. "we may think our imaginations are far more adventurous than real life, but for me the truth is always stranger than fiction".

This is really pronouncing the great details, the little details of life that you can get and capture, just by observing closely.

Joanna Quinn also exaggerates the importance of drawing what you see rather than drawing thinking about how 'good' a drawing it is. 

With life drawing you have a connection with what your drawing, a connection with the real instead of the fantasy, it is tangible. With Quinns sketches, you can feel this connection that she has with the subject and her pen. Models bring an energy and life force which has the potential to ooze out onto the spectators if captured effectively. 

Its not just animation where life drawing is important, but with film too. When we consider storyboard artists, drawing poses and certain movements of actors to pan out a scene, some concept of human anatomy knowledge is needed in order to pan out your ideas to be easily understood by others.

Visual Language - Life Drawing in an animation context of the digital era

With the digital age, animators now using more software than pen and pencil, people have the idea that this life drawing element becomes not so important anymore. This is not the case. When we animate digitally, especially 3D software, we still have to have a great deal of knowledge of the human form that we can obtain from life drawing, when applying muscle etc, even if your character isn't so human realistic; 

"You study anatomy structure and muscle tissue to understand how the machine works, but then filter it through a storytelling form by exaggerating the poses and projecting intent," - Mark MacDonnell 

However what does happen with most people using software to animate nowadays, is that they begin to suffer from a lack of these life drawing skills, however important they are, creating this barrier with being able to draw and consider the form during movement so effectively, and even draw in proportion, considering both form and function. 

"3-D art often suffers from a lack of those skills by the practitioners, they’ve become accustomed to manipulating a virtual reality puppet without the skills of a puppeteer, attention to natural movement. I’m finding that many of these digital artists attend my classes to see if they can get at some of the secrets behind the sense of movement and authenticity through studying the human structure." - Karl Gnass

With animators getting so adjusted to 3D surface rendering, there is that aspect that what is below the surface, the soul of the character could get lost, after-all it is character that comes from within. This soul that you can feel and sense within life drawing, life captured in one snapshot.

Life drawing, in comparison to flat digitalised image, gives you perspective, proportion and structure. Something vital to consider in moving image, not only how the subject will move but how it situates in a space, considering shot compositions.

Visual Language - Life Drawing in an animation context - Disney's emphasis

I came across an interesting article; Why Disney sends its animators to life drawing classes

Which details how Disney urges its employees to participate in life drawing classes. This to me, highlights the importance of life drawing in an animation context with one of the biggest animation companies in the world, giving free classes to its workforce, also giving them an incentive by the fact they are free.

This video solidifies the importance of life drawing in an animation context, it was a great watch and particularly educational. 

One of the most interesting points I found from this was; wether your doing something stylised or realistic, there has to be a basis that you are abstracting or designing from, if you start designing something that doesn't have a reference you are apparently abstracting from the abstraction or lying from a lie. This is what we saw in the medieval periods, as it wasn't recommended to draw from life. Instead of looking at the human form, these artists looked to Greek art, which therefore meant we had artists making copies of copies. Copies of the copies of the copies that were done from life, getting further and further away from any life and realism that was in there;

This lack of human reference is evident with the bad proportions, especially on facial features, but also within the sizing of the head in relation to arms etc.

What these artists did with drawing from Greek art, is the same thing nowadays with people 'copying' or 'replicating' a certain style that they like. What you draw, should be your own abstraction of reality, rather than copying someone else's as opposed to what they drew from to come up with their style. You can be "influenced" of course, but you still have to add your own truth.

They also highlighted form and function in relation to your character. You can illustrate a picture as beautiful as you like, but that might not necessarily translate to a physical thing you are building in 3D so you have to understand form and function and convey that effectively.

When we are presented with evidence of this lack of life drawing within art, it exposes how vital an element it is when it comes to drawing the life form, more especially in animation when we have to consider movement, and therefore how the human form flows through a space. This lack of life drawing is even evident in the infant stages of Disney, where characters have loss of form with boneless legs. 

You can have a character as stylised as you like, however he/she still has to move with some form, form referenced from life. 

Applied - Brush testing

After loving the effect of the charcoal sketches I did, I did some research and testing on how to achieve this effect on Photoshop;

I watched several tutorial videos and downloaded their brushes attached and tested them out;

What I have created is a wide variety of reference images, when I want a certain look I can refer to these tester pages and decide what brush fits the part best. These brushes have a lot of potential in helping me achieve the style I want, I cant wait to get stuck in testing them on my character.

I fell in love with the watercolour effect! How realistic it is;

I played with mixmatching colours

Then adding faint splatters

And a brush called watercolour salt, that added another texture to the watercolour. I feel this look would come in most effective in my backgounds in my animation.

I also loved the square charcoal and pastel brushes , they have a nice fluid and textured feel.

Applied - Narrative + Idea exploration

I began thinking of some ideas for how my campaign animation will pan out.

My first idea was one highlighting to "Bring light to Syria" which is part of the #WithSyria campaign which Oxfam are supporting.

Inspired by the #WithSyria campaign animation where a balloon is used as a metaphor for hope, In this idea a green light orb floats around to represent Oxfam bringing hope (green being Oxfams logo colour) and therefore bringing "light" to some peoples lives within Syria. In this idea It is evident I have been inspired by Marie Curies campaign ad, how the Marie Curie nurses are represented as light orbs to "bring light in the darkest hours". The narrative in this idea surrounds showing some refugees going about their day of hardship; For example a boy collecting water, and then being welcomed by a green orb that will bring light to their dark world.


My second Idea campaigns about the good Oxfam do as an All-round charity, not just the refugee crisis. Showing Climate change, water aid and crisis help. A continous animation with effective transformations through each scene;

For example a boy carrying water, he falls and the water turns into a flood where a woman and child are trapped in it (to show the effects of global warming on communities) Then the water turns into smoke to symbolise a bomb explosion to show the crisis aid Oxfam offer.


My other idea revolved around bringing to life some childrens drawings.

As an experiment I got a 7 year old child to draw what he thought was a Syrian refugee. I gave him my whole pencil case, he could use any colour and any medium he wanted.

This is what he drew;

He stuck to felt tip pens and pencil as his medium. The syrian refugee is in robes that look ruined and torn and his emotion is sad. He is surrounded by flames, his house has burnt down and is destroyed and a plane is in the sky dropping more bombs. I was quite happy that this child was aware of the crisis being bad, with him drawing the refugee sad and all the houses around him destroyed. Obviously he doesn't get the full picture, and he doesn't need to at his age, its just good he understands its negativity.

With him drawing such an emotional image, he even questioned me "why doesn't it just stop? What are the fighting for?" His naivity and innocence really shone out and it was actually really beautiful to see, how colourful their world must be. But also very upsetting to me to try answer in the most sensitive way possible...

For this idea I would make his drawings come alive using After Effects 2D rigging, and tell a narrative of a real life child refugee story.

However as of yet, I have been unable to find a written account story by a child, there are videos which have only snippets of what they have experienced. For example there are many here;

Which are very upsetting and it exposes the trauma these children have been through.

I would need a voice over from one of these children, however they all speak arabic and using an english child seems wrong and not very sensitive and subtitles would distract away from my visuals.  So it looks like this idea will not work. But still, I am blogging about it to show my primary research into testing this idea out by getting a child to draw their interpretation.

Applied Animation - Have we had enough of emotional campaigns?

I found an interesting article that questions the effectiveness of emotional charity campaigns.

http://www.theguardian.com/voluntary-sector-network/2014/sep/29/poverty-porn-charity-adverts-emotional-fundraising

As something that I have been questioning myself, I was highly interested to find an article that highlights it too.

First handedly I see my dad turning over channels when emotional ad campaigns come on. Their typical layout, showing an african child crying, showing a child on a floor crying, head in hands. Showing children thin to the bone. Distressing images that now, kind of have been desensitised.

The impact of these emotional images has been lost because we see them all to often on charity campaigns, you could almost say that that image of an african child looking helplessly up at the camera has been overused, and therefore the public has been desensitised to seeing them.

One of the good things about an animated campaign is that it isn't going to look like a regular charity campaign. Instantly I have got some individuality to play with there, something different.


I want to campaign of WHAT oxfam DO. WHAT oxfam has DONE towards the refugee crisis. WHAT they are DOING. As a way of getting donations . Sending out the message "we did this because of your help and need your help to continue this work" Sending out positivity as well as negativity.

What positive they are doing in a negative world.

I feel this is as important as highlighting the negative. Its all good showing us images of tragedy, drowning children etc, emotionally shocking, causing controversy, showing this negativity, exposing this negativity so we donate, but how about taking the different perspective of pronouncing that they are there to help, thanks to donations we bring aid, water sanitation, we are there with the refugees fisrt-handedly.

In my animation, I want to have that balance of negativity and positivity. By showing these refugees in emotional situations is exposing the negativity that is going on and needs to be exposed more, especially as the conflict enters its 5th year  and shows no signs of stopping. Having that green light there to show that Oxfam are there to support, is the positivity. How they are bringing light to Syria, how they are campaigning with the #WithSyria campaign to bring light.


I decided to also do some primary research of my own and I asked 15 people if they feel that emotional campaigns are still effective and the right way to persuade donations? And if not what do they think makes a good charity campaign?

The people I asked were in the 18-50 age bracket.

Here are a selection of the best replies I got;

- There is a creative way to go about making the audience feel emotion, the picture of a child looking upset has been over-used, you have to be creative.

- It just makes you guilty more than emotional, when we feel guilt we just kind of wallop in self-pity feeling bad about how we go about our lives, rather than wanting to vote

- No Im fed up with being shown emotional images, I would rather see your money making a difference.. I saw something recently that exposed that most of the main charity leaders were like multi-millionaires which doesn't sit right with me, so I would rather see the honesty of where the money goes and what the charity do.

- It would be nice for a change to see some people being helped instead of being pictured in need of help all the time.

- Theres too many of them in our society, to the point where we just get fed up with seeing them. I think with the fact your doing an animation, that will instantly look unique and stand out from all the other stuff that all is the same type of campaign to me.

- I think theres a balance of emotion that is good to have, but just showing crying kids and stuff is kind of over-used and it also makes you think, what have the campaign film-makers done to the child to make them cry? because surely thats just as immoral as whats happening to them.

- I find the emotional ones quite effective, it's just how you go about it. You don't want to go too overboard and show drowning kids and stuff because no one finds that nice to see, its controversial and it shocks but does it really make you donate?

Most of the consensus is that there is a balance to achieve in being emotional, how the medium of animation makes it stand out and capture peoples visual interests to get a point across, and how making you feel guilt from being overly emotional in such a way could deter you from donating.

http://www.theguardian.com/voluntary-sector-network/2013/sep/02/effective-emotive-appeals

I found another article that highlights this.

Where I found the quote;

"Fundraising is most successful when it's based on establishing good relationships with donors and developing a bond of trust between the charity and the donor,"

This relationship can be maintained by showing what the charity is setting out to achieve, in my case it would be a campaign showing Oxfam bringing light to Syria.

Also another interesting point was raised;
"Shang says that academic research has actually found that when people feel extreme negative emotion they go into a state of withdrawal, and are therefore unlikely to take action and give money."

This is part of the information I received from my questionnaire. I found it interesting how we can be made to feel so emotional about something yet not have that massive desire to put a stop to it or change it in some way (by donating).. It kind of reveals how complicated we are as a race. 

These extracts pronounce more positive feelings being more effective than the negative;

"The mistake charities make is that they keep going out with the need emotion because it works short-term, but they don't put enough emphasis on the reward emotions," he says. "These are important as otherwise people will just give up. We can only go so long without getting a reward."

"Others believe there is little place for guilt in particular, even with short-term giving. Bambos Neophytou, head of marketing and customer strategy at Virgin Media, and who co-authored the book Guilt Trip, says that guilt may work in driving awareness of a problem, but it is positive emotions that will result in people taking actions."

This really emphasises to me how I need to have that balance of negative and positive within my campaign, by showing some people in need and showing in a way oxfams help I feel is a great way of going about with that.

Applied - Visual Research

I decided to involve myself in the position of refugees by sketching them, portraying their hardships through choice of media and application of;

I feel the pen wash and charcoal style drawings portray this feeling of sadness because of their fragile smokey appearance. The smokey appearance also could reflect the war they are escaping from (or war that still haunts them) smoke being the essence of destruction. I also love the blotchyness of the pen wash, it is messy and looks quite destructive. The blotchyness I feel symbolising tears dripping on a page to show the sadness they endure, or even the blood spilt from the relatives that they lost from either escaping war or war itself.

"Light in the darkest hours"

The #WithSyria campaign are wanting to "turn the lights back on in Syria".

Since then, I have been interested in "Light" being a metaphor for "help"..

This is where I came across this charity campaign video by Marie Curie, where light is used to show exactly that;

In this beautiful advert, a light orb enters homes in the night, bringing light into their darkest hours. The terminal cancer patients talk to the light, they feel happier, they share stories to take away their pain.

In the end in then morning the light leaves and it is revealed the light is a Marie Curie nurse, she asks the question "Did you sleep okay?". From this we know she was their during the night, not only to bring light to the cancer patient, but to relieve the darkness in the family members life, who's job it is day in and day out to care for them 24 hours and end up getting sleepless nights because of it.

This advert demonstrates that not only does Marie Curie bring light to the lives of those shadowed in darkness, but it also shows that they work during the night, they are the light in the night, showing they are unique from other charities as that level of care is highly valuable.

The dark lighting is particularly powerful, as it really adds prominence onto the light source coming from the orb. Exposing the light that the Marie Curie nurses can add to the dark in peoples lives.

I love how the light source is animated. It isn't a cartoonish looking 3D orb, it is realistic and it even reflects off the camera and glares in a really effective way. A 3D orb wouldn't of looked effective and it would not of been approached with the same level of sensitivity.

On the website Creativity Online - Marie Curie I found out the VFX process;

"Created by Saatchi & Saatchi London and post-produced by MPC, the film was shot with real lightbulbs to create natural contact lighting on the skin and surrounding environment. The light rigging was removed in post-production and MPC VFX supervisor Marcus Dryden worked closely with the director to develop the light by repurposing the cluster of light bulbs to create one shining beacon."

It was interesting to find out that REAL lightbulbs were used, in order for them to capture the realistic light source emitting from the orb. I can't imagine the light orb being made better or more effective, it is perfect for what it represents. Beautiful.

After Effects Induction - puppets and MORE keyframing

What I enjoyed most of all in this induction was experimenting with the puppet tool;

It is hard to get to grips with it fully, the keyframes are very confusing when you have so many of them and its hard to achieve realistic movement with it. But for little bits of movement it is perfect.

This was me experimenting with parenting motion and yet again experimenting with keyframing. This was me keyframing motion, increasing the speed in increments to make a spinning brushed metal effect like that of a wheel. It is very hypnotic so I added the text "trees are good" as a joke.

This was me testing with the gradient effects tool, playing with patching it to create this static effect to which I made the title "The Swarm" as I thought the fuzzy gradient looked like a swarm of flies.

Greenscreen Induction

Firstly I applied a checkerboard effect onto a new solid, so I could distinguish what areas dissapear more effectively.

Then after bringing the solid behind and making it fully opaque, I selected the Keylight effect tool;

Then after using the eyedropper tool and selecting the greenscreen, the background dissapeared, however certain bits were left behind and some of his dress that had tint green fragments in had become transparent. So by changing the setting to "screen matt" and by then adjusting the white and black balance to make sure that the whole of the background was black and whole of my character by white, this then ensured that my character would not be slightly transparent. However I was warned that I should not go over the 50% value as beyond then your footage that you dont want to disappear will start being eaten up by the background and nosie will appear in the footage.

Then we made a mask so that all the bits of the background that had white bits in, was fully deleted. The mask was made with the pen tool.

I then was able to experiment myself.

Because of the hippie personality of my character I chose a psychedelic GIF as my background and applied it behind. I then added a few clouds to enhance that "godlike" "messiah" feel he has with his robes and hair, which I keyframed to fade in and out with his legs like the movement is shifting the clouds;

Ta da!

My results are both bizarre and amusing. His personality how SHINES out of him and I love it.

Light in the Darkness - #WithSyria Campaign

After coming across the #WithSyria campaign via Oxfam (who are supporters of it), I decided to visit their website; https://withsyria.com/

Where I came across this petition...

The petition detailled how 83% of lights have gone out in Syria now. I feel this campaign has a really effective message "turn lights back on for Syria"

Which I signed immediatly.

I was then shown this campaign video;

The video starts with a boy with a torch, we think he is in a tent, some wreckage in the dark. However it is revealed he is just reading a comic under his bed sheets in the comfort of his own home.... However when his father says "don't be afraid" we are shown a black screen and suddenly a dramatic scene transition where we see the boy in the rubble we pictured him in at the start... This scene transition shocks and is very effective... I would love to try out this sort of transition method to create a flow to the animation like it never ends, like the conlfict in syria never seems to be ending. But also to be used to shock and draw contrast like this video so effectively does, the impact it leaves is profound, from everything to nothing. The repetition of "don't be afraid" also makes it very poignant and powerful. The boy obviously lives in the destruction of his house, his only possession his comic, it keeps him going. He also finds another child in wreckage like him..

Yet again this is an example of children being used in campaigns to persuade more. This is really exposing to me how much more effective a child can make when being used to expose the tragedy of a certain situation.

#WithSyria Campaign

It is coming up to March 15th 2016, a date marking the 5th anniversary of the bloody conflict in Syria.

This campaign animation was released in 2014 to mark the 3rd anniversary and it is sensitively beautiful. The animation brings to life the well known Banksy artwork of the girl with the balloon;

An artwork with so much conceptual meaning, the balloon could represent so many things.

In this #WithSyria animation, it could represent hope, saviour. The child runs and catches the balloon, which seems to escape the girls grasp in Banksy's (Or has she let it go ..??? its open to interpretation) In turn the girl floats into the sky, flying away from the disaster. (A bomb explodes to show the conflict.) Till the end where we see all these people with red balloons, escaping the crisis, with nowhere to go. Refugees. 

The greyscale effect, as well as re-creating that Banksy aura, also sets this morbid atmosphere, the only spots of colour being the balloons, the strong striking colour of red, symbolising love (With the heart shape) which saves them.

In post production a sketchy, spray paint effect is applied which slightly distorts the characters, reflective of how their situation is effecting them, they feel emotionally distorted and effected.

The campaign asked;

 "Will we let the people of Syria lose another year to bloodshed and suffering? Will you stand with Syria?"

2 years on, we can now say that they have and still are till this day.

Maybe for its 5 year anniversary I can give this campaign a re-birth with my own emotional animation, which has conceptual concepts like this one. 

I have taken great inspiration from this animation, it isnt graphic or blindingly emotional in any way, it is conceptual in the way it uses the balloons as motifs. It gets the point across, it makes you think. 

This is what I hope to achieve, though I know it will be hard to.

Applied Animation - Research

I have finally decided that I will make my campaign for Oxfam.

There are 2 subjects that I want to cover the most;
-Climate Change
-Refugee Crisis

Both these subjects are on the main homepage for what Oxfam are dedicating money and work to. 

I feel the refugee crisis stands out the most because of how 'now' it is, it is even highlighted red to show it is a crisis and therefore giving it a sense of emergency. I feel it would be great to bring more exposure to it for that reason by creating a powerful and emotional campaign.

Oxfam have a big involvement with the crisis and I went on their website to find out exactly what;

In the Lebanon their job has been;

• Providing 3,200 hygiene kits (accompanied by hygiene promotion and awareness sessions), toilet cleaning kits, and 840 environmental cleaning kits, and distributing household, communal and municipal waste bins.
• Building and repairing over 1,100 toilets, ensuring that each is shared by no more than 20 people.
• Installing over 720 water tanks in communal areas.
• Delivering 10 million litres of water through water trucking, providing refugees with clean water for drinking, cooking and washing.
• Constructing or repairing 70 shared bathing facilities, and providing families with jerry cans and water storage containers.

They have also played a big part in the refugee camps themselves; 

In Jordan we work in both Za'atari refugee camp and in Jordanian communities that are hosting Syrian refugees. Za'atari camp is now the fourth biggest population centre in Jordan, housing around 90,000 Syrian refugees.

Oxfam currently works in three of Za'atari's 12 districts, supervising water and sanitation, refuse management and the cleaning and maintenance of wash blocks, we also co-ordinate hygiene promotion activities. In addition, together with UNICEF and other international actors, we are installing a water network in the camp, which will ensure refugees have safe access to water. To date, our response has included:

• Building 50 water, sanitation and hygiene blocks, including 318 toilets, 288 bathing areas, 72 laundry areas, and 100 water points, serving up to 15,600 people.
• Maintaining 120 water, sanitation and hygiene blocks in 3 districts benefiting around 25.000 people.
• Installing 270 portable latrines as a temporary measure.
• Distributing 75 commodes for disabled users.
• Provided 19 x 95,000 litre and 378 x 2,000 litre water tanks.
• Installed 10 hand-washing facilities in the market area.
• Built 24 toilets in youth centres, sports grounds and playgrounds.
• Constructed 10 water, sanitation and hygiene blocks (showers, toilets and water points) at border crossing areas.
• Distributed hygiene materials to 96,000 people across the camp.
• Design and preparation for construction of a piped water network to benefit all 90,000 people in Za'atari
• Solid waste management for up to 25,000 people
• Hygiene promotion and community mobilisation for up to 25,000 people (36,000 during water network construction)

Whilst offering aid (water and building lavatories and commodes) and hygiene solutions to these refugee shelters they also have campaigned for;

• The rights of all people affected by the crisis and to ensure that their voices are heard
• The delivery of a strong humanitarian response in Syria and the wider region
• Governments around the world to use their influence to find a political solution to the crisis.

These points could form the basis of what my animation promotes.

Oxfam's campaign for Climate Change is symbolised by a green heart.

This year on Valentines Day, Oxfam has asked us to consider the things we love, the earth being one of them. A plea to protect the things we love from the effects of climate change.

The campaign outlines how all politicians have agreed and signed a deal to limit the rise of global temperatures to 1.5C  "However despite the signed deal striving to limit warming to 1.5°C, we know that current commitments have us on a path towards 3°C of warming." This means more obviously needs to be done, making it a suitable campaign to highlight.

Oxfam takes a humanitarian approach to global warming. Worrying not for the future of the planet itself with the results of global warming, but the future of mankind ON the planet. 

"Climate change is causing more and more extreme weather. It’s destroying crops and food supplies. And it’s pushing the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people into poverty and hunger."

Environmental Storytelling - Park in winter in 5 drawings

After being so intrigued and interested in the moss growing on a garden shed that resembled an alien world;

I wanted to reflect this in one of my drawings;

Using gouache and acrylics I re-created this alien world using strong vivid greens to create this mystical feel. To further enhance this I layered over some acetate where I painted on some light orbs, inspired by the way Song of the Sea and Brave applies light enhance this magical aura. The layer of acetate also adds another dimension to the piece and is something commonly used in background cells for traditional hand-drawn animation. I feel I have done well here in creating a mystical set for a piece of animation, I can just imagine a small character jumping around the moss and grass, having fun.

For my next one I took a more ghostly approach;

 The charcoals and pencil makes this grim atmosphere, like the animation that would be going on here would be quite macabre. I love the style of the charcoal in creating this dark tone, the tonal look also enhances this feel. It is very dramatic. To create tone I used a rubber to make highlights and create this 3D depth, I also experimented with holding the charcoal stick differently to create tree leaf texture. This feel really reflects my feelings whilst there, with it being a seriously cold day, slightly foggy too.

After examining and sketching the trees I became interested in how they have a sinister appeal, so decided next to reflect this in a drawing;

Using the path in golden acre as a separator I showed the contrast between the sinister look of deciduous trees in winter to the full of life look of the flowers in summer. When drawing my flowers I used my dying winter flowers as reference, and made them look more alive in my environment.

This could bring an interesting effect to an animation. How one side could represent death, and the other, life. A character can be happily skipping down the path and then stop to realise the contrast...

Whilst at the park I was also inspired by the life below the surface of the water, which I found in the greenhouse, so I reflected this in a drawing;

Where I used the picture I took of the bubbles as reference;

 to create these cartoony realistic bubbles that are created from the waterfall. This setting is perfect to show some fish or other underwater creatures going about their lives. Using watercolours, I created a water texture in my piece which adds a nice dimension. If this background was used in an animation, this texture would move fluidly like it was water.

For my final drawing, I wanted to sketch the texture of the moss on the brick wall here;

Which I found really interesting;

I decided to contrast this dirty looking moss to the beautiful fiery root plants I came across;

I feel I have achieved the texture of the bricks really well, in contrast to the long spindly nature of the plant which I also captured well. You can picture a character stepping over the dip in the brick wall and getting lost in the forest of fiery plants. I feel this is a nice background for possible animation for that reason.

This is also an A3 expressive ink one that I created. It has that raw feeling because of how I have applied the ink (With a piece of cardboard). It is interesting how what you use to apply the medium can add this extra level of vigor and feeling. You can image this setting in a very dark animation. A person on a boat sailing along.

To tie all my scenes together seen as they look very different from each other, I created these extra 3 tiles;

In each tile I have digitally applied the paint in a different way, using slightly different colour palette etc. But they all have a running theme throughout, that cloudy feel, the paint isn't sharply applied and is very sketchy. The reason why I chose to apply the paint like this, is to represent the delicate feel to the nature I was surrounded with, it exposes its fragility and beauty. My feelings when I was in the park surrounded by nature.

These 3 can also be combined to create a panning scene;

Leading you on the different segments of the park that I have focussed on in my other drawings.  The wall, the lake in the far far background, the pond where I painted what I envisage under the water. To add to the perspective I gradually blurred to add that far away feel.