Lately I have been focusing on ocean pollution and the destruction that it causes to marine life. 🐠🐋Small organisms, like plankton, ingest the toxic chemicals found in plastics, radioactive waste, human waste, and pesticides that have streamed from the land into the sea. 🤢 These chemicals are hard to break down so remain in the planktons system. Bigger ocean creatures that eat lots of plankton subsequently intake a higher concentration of toxins. As the food chain progresses through to larger mammals, this level of toxicity increases until it reaches a large mammal such as a polar bear, where the concentration of chemicals has increased by 3 billion times more than when the plankton that initially ingested it! Coral bleaching is another horrendous consequence of manmade pollution as plastics become entangled in the corals, and allows diseases to infect marine life. This causes the coral stress by blocking out light and oxygen, and the corals loose algae from their tissues, allowing pathogens to take hold and once infected, they are drained of their colour 😞.
Is this not the most awful tragedy? Is it not our responsibility to save the natural world from the destruction that we have caused? 🐚 Please make yourself aware, learn, understand, and make good decisions that benefit the planet rather than reduce it to rubble. Combining subtle texture with flat colour and layering, to emphasise the beautiful ethereal quality of nature in contrast to the luminescent green particles of polluton.
Within this image I have added details of microscopic viruses, bacteria and pollution to emphasise the dystopian elements of manmade pollution within the ocean. As micro plastics take on a very simple form, small and round, I have looked into other aesthetically interesting design elements that can be integrated in order to reflect the toxicity of pollutants.
These are some recent practices with Gouache. This is my second time using gouache so I have a lot of practicing to do! I love the smooth textures to the line, however the tones and textures within the images are very solid opaque, and lack the alluring ethereal and translucent quality of the ocean. Maybe I should apply it as a lighter wash instead...
In these latest designs I have re-introduced the use of circles (a key element in my Pre-Major Project work), as without them I feel quite lost with my compositions. They help to structure my work, as well as subtly echo the sense of wholeness within the cyclic power of nature. These images are inspired by the ocean's ecosystems, focusing on the macro aspects of seaweed, coral and sea creatures. Whilst these select colours and compositions may seem a little strange, and not necessarily successful, they have helped me to make the transition from repeated pattern to colour and abstract form. This will help me to progress with my image making and hopefully shift the artist's block that I have been struggling with.
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