HS Art II & III - Man Vs. Nature

Students in High School Art II & III have been working on a project focused on surrealism and using PrismaColor colored pencils on black paper. The theme this time was "Man Vs. Nature." Drawing on black paper, rather than white, adds a neat effect to a work of art. Enjoy viewing our students' masterpieces and artist statements! 

(Click on each photo to see more closely.)

By Teagan M.

My idea for this picture was kind of I aspired by the plant from the Disney movie, Wall-E. I had fun with all the colors and patterns and I'm happy with how it turned out. 

By Kyler M.

This piece shows a display of a desert with a revolver in the middle. The desert represents nature and the revolver represents man.

By Emmett M.

I portrayed "Man Vs. Nature" with a train barreling through a forest. It shows how man's impact and growth affects nature. I used surrealism by making the train look out of place, but detailed. I also used one point perspective for the train.

By Jaron M.

I drew this with the idea of someone reading under a tree. 

This piece is more "Man and Nature" rather than Vs.

By Julien S.

For my project I chose to draw a shipwreck underwater. The broken ship and the skull represent man. The ocean and the plants growing on the ship represent nature for the Man Vs. Nature theme.

By Madelyn K.

In this piece I tried to display the nature of fire against the road and the lighters represent fake fire on the man-made lighters. I tried to make the fire on the road seem as realistic as I could and the lighters to have good proportions.

By Miranda L.

I portrayed the theme Man vs. Nature by putting the chandelier and lights inside the tree maybe depicting that someone visits there often as a secret area. I showed surrealism with the chandelier being out of place.

By John M.

My initial portrayal of "Man Vs. Nature" was originally going to be a man in a sword fight with a plant, but that sounded too formulaic so I tried to think more surreal. Suddenly, an image popped into my head, a donut pool tube floating in a glass of vibrant pink lemonade. So then I thought of replacing the donut tube with a swan and her babies oblivious to the fact that they're living in a glass. What made, or how I made, it surreal was mostly the fact that the animals don't normally live in a glass of PINK LEMONADE! I believe the message behind this art is how we use the water that our feathered friends live in. If I were to name this art, I would call it PINK LEMONADE.

By Jaxon B.

I chose to draw a train for the Man Vs. Nature project because trains are usually something that get in the way of nature because man needs to mend the natural surroundings of them in order for trains to function so for nature to finally take back it's surroundings gives a strong depiction of its power.

By Emily P. 

The flag is being taken over by nature, which would be the red vines. The discs in the background are also manmade and they are falling down, presumably behind the hill to be forgotten. The discs are an abnormally large size, falling in the background to give it a surreal look. The vines and sinister smiles are also surreal and meant to represent the nature and in this case, it is evil while the manmade thing represents hope or other good things.

By Paul S.

I decided to do this piece because I really liked the way it looked and thought it would look cool with Prisma Color pencils. I really like the way I did the small waterfall, but wish I would've done the sky a different color because it matches the water and looks kinda confusing.

By Hope T.

For the project I chose to do plants sprouting around a watering can. These plants are misusing the watering can but are still thriving. But the watering can is cracked and old, no longer able to be used as a watering can.