• Did you use technology as a tool?

Yes and on more than one occasion. I first used a digital grid on my photo because the printed version can often turn out blurry, too dark or just of a lower quality, so the digital grid was a big help. The second time was when I had to draw the mountains in the background. I am not very familiar with drawing snowy mountains (or water for that matter) and certainly not with charcoal. So, I did some digging on YouTube and found some videos that showed me a few techniques that really came in handy in the end. 

• Did you use a source for inspiration, then combine it with your own ideas to make it original?

I knew I wanted to draw an image with an Orca jumping out of the water. I chose this particular photo because of the huge mountains in the background which I thought could serve as a kind of tribute or representation of the famous Rocky Mountain range in B.C. However, when I started to sketch out the mountains I realized that they were kind of flat and I wanted to add more dimension and details that were not just rock and snow. So, I took some creative liberty and added some more peaks and moulded the mountains until there were valleys and craggy slopes and many indications of evergreens scattered down the mountain side. If you take a look at the original photo and my final drawing you can see that they have two different mountains in the background, which is kind of what I was going for. I really wanted to use my own creativity in this piece and make it all my own.

• Did you try something that you weren’t sure about as part of this project?

Absolutely! Mountains have never been a strong point for me and honestly, drawing them kind of intimidated me. However, with the help of Brie, my art teacher, and a couple of YouTube videos I was able to break the mountains down into more manageable pieces, like outline, then shadows, then highlights, etc.

• How is this artwork about who you are or what you like?

I have never actually seen a real mountain and going out west to see the Rockies has always been a dream of mine. I have gone camping out on the Canadian Shield in different parts of Ontario and the Shield’s beauty and majesty has always taken my breath away. So I can hardly even imagine the spellbinding beauty the huge Rocky Mountain range must hold. 

• When did you step back and analyze your work during this project?

I stepped back to analyze my work many times during this process., One time this really helped me was when I was drawing the large dark rocks at the edge of the water. I wanted these to look realistic and, as I was working, I got really frustrated because it wasn’t looking the way I envisioned it. However, when I took a step back from the paper, I realized that it did in fact look realistic, just not when my face was two centimetres away from the page. I fixed up the highlights on the rocks and, in the end, I was actually very happy with them.