Environmental Storytelling - The Quarry in 5 drawings

 First I wanted to capture the contrast between the beauty of the natural environment and the man-made tyre tracks that I found on the hill leading up to the quarry.

  

For this, I used the medium of watercolour and gouche, to give me that nice sensitive colour pallette to expose the beauty of the natural trees. I applied the paint in a very messy manner, using a gluestick to apply the paint in blocks of colour to really bring out the bark that I have been exploring with my sketches. I also applied this technique to the trees and the tyre tracks. For the tyre tracks I mixed sugar in with my paint to give it a more defining texture, bring out the destruction of the soil so it stands out in the natural environment. I used yellow to represent the quarry soil. You can picture a character jumping up the hill eager to see whats on the other side.

 

 Inspired by the background in The Pride of Strathmoor, I tea stained the paper and used ink and biro to create a setting. This, like The Pride of Strathmoor animation, sets an austere feeling and atmosphere, conveying my feelings towards the quarry perfecty. The lack of objects in the foreground expose the isolation I felt too. The contrasting blackness of the ink on the white paper also stands strinking, bold, and makes it seem very chilling. The tea staining adds a dated and complements the destructive look with the messily applied biro. With this background you can picture a macabre spindly creature, making his presence in the austere setting.

 

I used watercolour and gouche to create this setting, using the same technique as my first one with mixing in sugar and applying paint in blocks with a glue stick to give a destructive look to the pile of bricks resting in the middle of the hills.

This is me again drawing a contrast between the natural and unatural. Sketching a pond scene, the nice long pieces of grass looking all beautiful and natural, with the contrasting dirty shopping trolley dumped in, which is a disgusting eyesore. I then made the pond look slightly polluted to enhance this. Yet again portraying my feelings of disgust for the litter I came across whilst in the quarry. With this background you can imagine a dirty creature living amongst the rubbish, making it his home.

With this sketch I went very dystopian. Using a pen wash with biro to create a chilling scene, where I filled a quarry landscape with the austere looking wooden posts standing erect, creating a really sinister feel. The posts look like they are hangman posts, further enhancing the sinister and dark aspect, also achieved with the monochromatic media.

I also created a charcoal version, which enhances this ghostly feel.

I then created a digital image to tie all my settings together. This image starts off with the tyre tracks leading up to the quarry then we see over the brow of the hill all the landscapes I have zoomed in on and drawn in more detail. 

Like it sets the scene and the camera pans and zooms in to the areas as the subject moves around the space.

I also added a blur effect to the composition, to add that far away feel and enhance the perspective.