My project in Illustration with Procreate: Draw Extraordinary Scenes course

My hometown in the Philippines is by the coast facing the Pacific Ocean. Our community is in the frontlines of the changing climate. In fact, in November 2013, super typhoon Haiyan made landfall in my hometown. So, for this exercise, I wanted to show a future where a huge iceberg would be stuck in our coastal village due to the unashamed greed of big polluters such as fossil fuel companies. I wanted to add the element of the astronaut to hint on unbreathable air and unhealthy environment; and the pink flamingo to hint on plastics.

I was faced with a challenge where it was hard to unite all the elements together. At first, my initial idea was to have a black ocean floor to allude to oil spill and unsafe waters/oceans... but, as a beginner, I found it very difficult to illustrate this dark ocean. The solution that worked for me was to go back to the initial idea, and ask: what message am I really communicating? This helped guide me to make the "future" scenario more subtle by putting it on the reflection of the astronaut's mask almost similar to how crystal balls are used in fortune telling or to look into the future. I like to think that the bright purple background and pink flamingo together with the astronaut brings a sort of whimsy/cute image inviting the viewer to look and then contrasts with the crystal ball image which tells a grim story.

Thank you Óscar for this journey!