Week 6 - Enhancement Week: Virtual Tour - Chernobyl

For the enhancement week task I had to draw an apocalyptic landscape or interior using the Chernobyl Virtual Tour as inspiration. 

While exploring through the tour I took screenshots of buildings and places that might be useful and that I could use as inspiration, particularly the gigantic cement blocks of flats, unfinished or abandoned, giving that ominous feeling of loneliness, coldness and deep silence. 

Screenshot: Chernobyl Virtual Tour https://3dmap.by/panorams/chernobyl/hight/

Screenshot: Chernobyl Virtual Tour https://3dmap.by/panorams/chernobyl/hight/

Screenshot: Chernobyl Virtual Tour https://3dmap.by/panorams/chernobyl/hight/

I then drew some thumbnails to decide on my composition. I was sure I would like an outside environment rather than an interior scene, but I still tried one in the last thumbnail.

I felt the third one was a bit too simplistic and wasn't very interesting in terms of composition. The second one was quite nice too, but I think the first one held the most detail and interest. 

I then made a sketch:

I changed the position of the tree from the original thumbnail because it was almost at the centre, so the positioning looked artificial and too intended. It was also cutting the drawing in half and cancelling the impression of space. I also added the boots and toy hanging in the tree to feed more detail and story into the foreground. I tried layering the objects into foreground, middle ground and background: I placed the branches of the bush very close to the viewer, the tree and waste barrels a bit farther away, in the middle, and the building and bridge in the background. I tried to use the perspective to my advantage, since it is very exaggerated in the case of the bridge especially, making it feel like it extends farther and farther away from the viewer. 

I then started to add colour:

Coloured pencils are not my strongest point I must admit, but I did my best to keep the colours blended. I used mainly cold colours, greys and blues to create the impression of that cold desolate feeling. 

I also added cracks and damage to the buildings. 

This was the final piece before feedback:

After getting feedback I realized the puddle of toxic waste seems to have a weird thickness to it that indicates more jelly like properties rather than liquid. That is because of the shadow. I will search for more references of puddles and liquid and do my best to fix that. I also now realize, looking at the example works given to us for the task, that I shouldn't have used pure black and rather tried to use colder and darker colours for the shadows. I will mix more colour into the black so I can mask it as much as possible. I also need to blend the colours more overall, since the toy is the only place that has purple and the yellow in the "danger" sign stands out too much. 

After turning the image to greyscale, I noticed there is more contrast in the background than in the foreground, which is another problem that needs to be fixed. 

I will update the post with the final work after applying the feedback.