Our Planet Week
Our Planet Week was founded in 2020 by Asia Orlando, an artist who believes (as I do) that we can use our art to inspire positive change in the world.
This year the illustration challenge takes place between 21st and 30th March. The challenge is to create a piece of artwork for as many of the prompts as you like and then post your art on Instagram using the hashtags #ourplanetweek and #letsdrawthechange
The prompts this year are: Protect, Energy, Biodiversity, Reuse and Reduce, and Voice.
And the best part is, for every piece of art that is posted during the time frame, with the correct hashtags, a tree will be planted by One Tree Planted. How awesome is that?!
Biodiversity
With a love for the ocean and it’s many inhabitants, the prompt ‘Biodiversity’ stood out for me the most.
Climate change has had and is having a dramatic effect on the marine ecosystem and its biodiversity. And not in a positive way.
In my illustration I have included a diverse range of corals, sponges, fish and crustaceans in order to highlight the importance of protecting our oceans and ensuring the survival of all these wonderful species.
This illustration was created using a combination of watercolour paintings and Procreate.
Reuse and Reduce
My original idea was to combine all of the ideas above into one pattern, but as my drawing progressed, I added in a puffin, completed the turtle, and then decided I loved the tropical feel I had created and so altered my design!
Some of my previous patterns have a simple outlines in the background of related shapes, like these hermit crabs and shells.
So in keeping with this style, I decided to move the man-made objects to the background. In the end I cut out many of my original ideas, but that’s all part of the creative design process.
The message I would like to convey in my final piece is to reduce the use of single-use plastic, and to use reusable items instead. Not only for the welfare of marine life and seabirds, but also for other animals, plants, and us too. The whole planet really!
Voice
The last prompt of the challenge was Voice. Many other artists drew illustrations of people protesting or holding megaphones, speaking up for the environment.
Personally I wanted to do an illustration that was more in keeping with my style, using both watercolour paintings and digital drawings, focusing on animals rather than people.
I chose to mix both land animals and ocean creatures, using the tiger, rhino, sea turtle and sharks, as they are some of the first animals people think of when discussing the environment, climate change and human impact on the planet.
I hope that my final illustration inspires those that view it to be more conscious of the world around us and I look forward to taking part in Our Planet Week 2022!
Be the voice.
Let’s draw the change.
Reflections on Our Planet Week
It’s been a few weeks since the end of the Our Planet Week illustration challenge so I’ve had time to reflect. I really enjoyed taking part, it really pushed me to come up with some new ideas in a positive and imaginative way.
Our Planet Week is about inspiring and motivating change and awareness of the environment in a positive way, rather than shocking people with the imagery or putting them down for not being as environmentally conscious as you.
If you would like to learn more about the ocean, here are three good places to start:
blog.padi.com The environment section in particular has some excellent posts about coral reef restoration, ocean conservation and the need for biodiversity..
nationalgeographic.org The Resource Library is aimed at kids and teachers but is packed full of information in easy to manage chunks.
ocean-climate.org has a great selection of infographics and fact sheets.
For more info on Our Planet Week, visit ourplanetweek.com
