LABASAD

These illustrations are from my thesis project for my Master’s Degree in Editorial and Advertising Illustration at LABASAD/The Barcelona School of Art and Design.

Our brief was to illustration an article originally published by Sustainable Earth on the subject of the role of artists and creatives in resolving the climate crisis through reimagining existing systems and thinking creatively on sustainability.

I had two goals for the illustrations that would accompany this article - to reflect the content and tone established by the author, and to fill in the gaps of what was quite a general text that provided the reader very few specifics. I think the quarter page illustrations demonstrate this - one quite abstract and even slightly surreal showing starlings inside and outside a painting on a canvas (showing the interaction between art and the natural environment), and the other showing the more practical application of art as two figures plot out a planted garden. To ensure consistency across these illustrations, I used a very tight colour palette, and tried to repeat motifs like birds in flight as well as specific tree species. also kept the brush-types consistent yet varied throughout, and used hazy overlay textures to give an impression of dreamlike landscapes, in reference to the aspirational or idealistic nature of the activism described in the text. chose a palette of heightened, saturated colours for the same reason - wanted these plants to appear brighter than reality, more striking anp slightly stranger than you might expect, to communicate that the future could be very different to the landscapes we are used to. This is also to contrast my depiction of industry - here I used very muddy, unappealing colours with little contrast to communicate that this way of doing things (without consideration for sustainability) is to be left in the past.