Deforestation

In this post, I shall be discussing my chosen subject on that I have decided to base my character designs for the major project. I want to develop a character for a campaign that helps raise awareness of Deforestation showing the importance of nature, and connecting to a younger audience.

Taken from around University, I took photos of the floor in green areas to show parts of nature and how unique it can be. With everything scattered and placed in a way, each leaf and branch tells its own story, whether is been crushed or broken. I want to be able to make my character unique like this in order to express a message to my audience, making them in a way communicate with nature.

What does Nature provide?

Nature performs miracles every day, from giving us nice views to regulating the weather, and keeping us supplied with fresh air, water and food. “The effect that human beings are having on the natural world is profound. Because we are out of touch with the natural world… most of us don’t see the effects.”(Attenborough, 2017)

– Trees enable cool spots and trap pollution from the air.

– Animals such as bees pollinate our crops to generate food.

– Healthy seas regulate the temperature of the planet.

Without a balanced nature and a healthy environment that’s functional, we would be lost.

Animals are becoming extinct, and now that species are becoming less and less available it is possible that the natural systems that support all life on this planet are being eroded faster than ever.

Our future is in our hands we need to act now before changes get worse. We don’t want to be the next extinct, let’s go green!

See the source image — This image is taken from an article based on environmental awareness by Allyson Peck, she talks about all things nature and why it’s important to look after it. The picture indicates everyone coming carefully together with nature, by working as a team we can improve the environment.

What is Environmental Awareness?

In order to understand clearly what environmental awareness is, we need to have knowledge of the environmentalism movement. It’s a movement that focuses on reducing human activities that involve damaging the Earth and its Wildlife.

This has evolved over time to reduce the environmental effects of global climate change by creating sustainable societies. With each person taking part, it can help lower non-renewable energy usage making the world a safe place for all. “Environmental awareness is also a process of learning to be quiet and listen; to be conscious of the natural world within which we live.”(Tishmack, 2019)

Some Major Environmental Issues –

– Global Warming (Fossil Fuels)

– Pollution (Air, plastic, etc.)

– Deforestation

– Melting Ice Caps

– Food Waste

If we as a community become more aware and act upon all of these issues we will make the world a better place, in my opinion, whether it’s an action such as recycling every little helps to make the Earth a better place. Within my project, I want to focus on one of these issues to help raise awareness.

As there are a whole load of issues to do with the environment, I decided to make a mind map narrowing down to two examples that I use for the concept of my character design, the focus being Pollution and Deforestation.

Produced within my sketchbook, I have made this mind map to narrow down the issues of each of these subjects and branched off the causes with the impacts that it has on the environment.

Constructing this mind map has enlightened me on what to base my subject matter on for the character, I want to mainly focus on Deforestation how it affects the environment and why it’s so important to look after nature. Pollution also falls into the same category so I will be able to hopefully raise awareness in both fields within my character.

What is the impact of deforestation?

Deforestation is defined as the clearing of forested land. It leads to climate change, which leads the ecosystem losses. When deforestation occurs, temperature variates more drastically from day to night and this extreme change can often prove fatal for many animal species. (Igini, 2022) It’s one of the main causes of pollution and habitat loss.

How can we stop Deforestation?

There are many different ways we can help fight against Deforestation, here are a few examples below of how we can achieve this:

– Plant Trees

– Reduce paper use

– Eat less meat

– Communicate

Photography –

For this topic, I thought I’d gather my own photography of flowers and plants found around campus that could potentially influence my character’s appearance and sketches towards the major project. I love the way these photos have come out, the clarity and vibrance of colours within each petal define the flowers perfectly.

Here are some photographs of flowers taken around campus, I will be using these to possibly influence my character’s designs and shapes.

In the next post, I will be creating a Synthesis for the project on how I can cross over the idea of character advertising and nature, bringing them into one project.

Reference:

Importance of nature | Friends of the Earth (Accessed, 9/11/2022)

Why’s Environmental Awareness Important? | Startup Fredericton (Accessed, 12/11/22)

How does nature communicate with us? – Beyond Words Publishing (Accessed,12/11/22)

Environmental Awareness: Definition, History & Importance – Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com (Accessed, 14/11/2022)

How to Stop Deforestation – americanlands (Accessed, 14/11/2022)

Environmental Awareness – Resilience (Accessed, 14/11/2022)

13 Biggest Environmental Problems of 2022 | Earth.Org (Accessed, 16/11/2022)

How Can We Stop Deforestation? (theworldcounts.com) (Accessed, 16/11/2022)

How Does Deforestation Affect the Environment? | Earth.Org (Accessed, 18/11/2022)

Deforestation | Andy Carter MP (Accessed, 20/11/2022)