The winning artwork!

My art teacher Ms. Gokul had given us all a piece of paper to take home. It was for the competition. The theme was “Where preservation fails, pollution starts", with reference to oil and petroleum companies. Anyways, I had 2 days to do it and then submit it to my art teacher.

I spent the first day planning out my sketch. I wanted to sketch a pelican trying to fly but failing. I decided not to. I then tried drawing a seal but I knew that it wasn’t that touching. Lastly, I tried a pelican sitting on the beach with plastic around its neck, oil on its open wings and litter on the shore. I started out. I drew the pelican outline, the line that separates the beach from the water and the horizon. I kept improvising on my drawing.

I drew a blast from an oil rig on the horizon and smoke bellowing out. I used cotton and charcoal to make the sky look dark and ominous. I lightened areas where there was no smog. I thought I was doing terrible, but my dad didn’t let me think it was bad and both of my parents urged me on. Finally I drew the sea and the plastic cups of litter. I worked on the painting quite a bit after school from 5-9pm that evening. Finally I was done for the day.

I wrapped it in newspaper because charcoal smears quite a lot, and handed it to my teacher. Everyone was viewing each others’ artwork. There were many good pieces of art and I knew I wasn’t going to make it.

I was in my classroom one day when many students came in and patted me on the back and said, “Congratulations Pranav!” I was curious and asked, “What For!” “For winning the Times of India art competition,” they said. I was the winner from my school, though the judges had picked someone else’s artwork as the best in the whole competition. When I found out I won I was overjoyed. It was the proudest moment of my life.