One day projects week 2 - Origin of colour 30/01/2023

One day projects week 2 - Origin of colour

Daisy Jackson / 30/01/2023

For today's one day project, we were told to look at our favourite colour and look into the origin of that colour. We were also told to make either a drawing or a story based on the facts we have found out about this colour we have chosen.

For my colour I chose green:

For the colour green I found out quite a lot of interesting facts. In modern day, green is associated with nature and growth, however in other cultures, it symbolises death and even the devil. The devil actually used to be green. I found this fact in particular quite fascinating as I always associate the devil with the colour red, hense the negative connotations to red such as death, poison, heartbreak etc.

This then led to idea generation:

I really loved the idea of a nature devil. This shows what the colour green can be associated with in comparison to now. When googling imagery for a green devil, I came across the alcoholic drink which was inspired by this. I wanted to include modern day items in my drawing so decided to include this. The bottle is pouring out leaves associated with the most common associations to the colour green - nature (leaves etc). I then added a smoke skull above the symbolise death as well. 

Alongside this, I featured an Egyptian temple as the Egyptians mostly used the pigment green. This is as well as looking into death and featuring a skull in a leaf.

I then decided to make my final piece digital like so:

I really loved the idea of carrying on what I tried out last semester - rather than using black for outlines, I use a darker shade of the main colour. This adds more of a playful and cartoon effect which I love. I decided to have a dark red background as this shows the most common association with the devil currently - this also contrasts to the green used for the devil in the illustration. I also wanted to try out an interesting style of including a real image in my work so I kept the 'Green Devil' the same. 

This is my favourite piece (final):

I really love the rough effect for this background and I love how the light green contrasts nicely against the dark red. It really makes the main illustration 'pop out' and is not too much of an overpowering shade where it drifts your concentration. I love it! There is a lot of personality in this illustration and I have tried quite a few different styles and approaches which I love.