Cultures

Welp, now it's done. I'm pretty happy with the drawing, overall. I realize that the shoes could've been given a more central role, as they were given by the others, but I decided early on to focus more on the landscape than on the shoes.

Investigation
I actually did quite a bit for this part, looking up references, practicing trees, and so on. First I looked up Norwegian landscape, particularly that of Sogn og Fjordane, where my father lives. All in all I found five references: Two from the river passing through Førde, Jølstra, One from Sunnfjord museum, which displays old Norwegian homes, One from Geirangerfjorden, and one from another river in Førde. Having drawn these, I then practiced some trees, and tried a boat, which didn't end up making it into the drawing.

Design
Now this took some time. I decided to smash the references together, creating a river curving to the right, with a little bridge, then a view of a small valley with a few houses. There was originally a mountain where the sea is now, but I decided to change it.
The Mountain and sea stand for two important parts, that helped shape Norway into what it is today. While not particularly cruel for the most part, the mountains stop us from building in a lot of places, and send us out into the sea for food. The river is for the various fjords and rivers spiderwebbing Norway, the houses for its past, the trees for the forests which cover large parts of Norway. The shoes were originally meant to be "projecting" into the image from behind, but I decided against it. Instead, I decided to leave them there as though they were lost, or the person making the drawing had taken them off for the moment. They are Mountain shoes, again symbolising the nature in Norway.

Create
I ended up running a bit short on time here, so I spent extra time after school to draw the trees, saving me an hour of work in the class. Time, isn't that always the issue. Still, If I'd have had forty years, I would probably not be finished till the last day anyways. I managed to make the storm clouds by drawing with a piece of graphite on a separate paper, then rubbing it onto the drawing with a piece of paper. Overall I'm pretty happy with it, it's the first landscape I've managed properly.

See y'all later, then!