Assignment 4 – Final work and self-critique

Guilty Secret – Killing Lions

This is final illustration for my penultimate Assignment which required exploring and using different tools and materials for creating artwork based on still life. I had to choose one of the topic such as Disaster, Lost, Discovery or Guilty Secret. When I was starting this whole process I spent time searching for magazine articles which would inspire me to translate them into visual language. I had many options on my mind when considering Guilty Secret as a topic. From addiction to different kind of abuse, I eventually chose mistreating animals and specifically killing lions. This is subject that can also fall into category Lost or Disaster but killing lions is done secretly against all appeals and law and this is our guilty since we are their greatest enemies.

This was very demanding task which required a lot of research since I was struggling to find a way to portray it through imagery. I was gathering facts and objects associated with this horrible deed and further exploring way to use it. Big lion skull portrays death and symbolizes increased number of killed lions which is much bigger than number of survived ones. I made a play button and placed it on eye of the skull conveying sense of control our population have over lion’s destiny. For evil emotionless people, killing this beautiful predators is like playing game where they have fun, win a trophy and make some money. After experimenting with different buttons, I chose to create this red one since it creates good contrast because of its bright colors and smooth textures. Skull without button seems dark and scary but red play button as an eye gives also emotionless expression which I was aiming to. I wanted to draw also one living lion as one who tries to escape death but is already in the jaw. Playing with textures and prints were always one of my favorite parts of design process so I was very happy to make endless combination and alteration in order to find what suits best to me. I was changing those backgrounds all the time but I think I will stay with this design since I was aiming to create some chaotic environment, dirty, empty, contaminated, wasteland as a result of this secret ordeal.

It was also demanding when it comes to drawing. I have never drawn skull before with all those gapes, bulges, textures, shadows but it was valuable experience as it thought me have to be better in observing object. Drawing lion was also big challenge especially mane. Using combination of pencil, colored pencils, pastel and Photoshop helped me develop both drawing of skull and lion while prints made of colored inks helped me create abstract backgrounds.