Week 2 at My Imaginary Art School: The Asheville Theme
This week’s theme is Asheville! Bears, birdsong, craft chocolate, and a chorus of memories from a town I used to call home.
Alright, it’s week two of the storytelling exercises at My Imaginary Art School! Yesterday and today’s tasks were theme selection and research. I decided yesterday that this week’s theme would be Asheville. I used Pinterest and Google Images to collect reference photos and ideas. When I think of Asheville, the Appalachian Mountains, hiking, fall foliage, destination weddings, bachelor parties, the Biltmore Estate, local beer, craft chocolate, birds chirping, and yes—bears—all come to mind. I also added a few of my personal favorite spots like local bakeries, BBQ joints, cafés, and the farmers market. Since I lived there for two years, brainstorming ended up feeling kind of nostalgic, like a little trip down memory lane. That’s where I wrapped up Monday’s work.
Today, I looked back at all the brainstormed ideas and image references from yesterday and narrowed things down. Then I started making some loose sketches. Asheville has its share of bear sightings, and I thought it might be fun to draw them in a more comical, light-hearted way—so I started doodling with that in mind. Another unique thing about Asheville is how birdsong echoes throughout the town, so I jotted down an idea about a chorus of birds too. I added a little star next to the ideas that felt the most promising, and that was the end of today’s session!
Tomorrow, I’ll take the ideas I picked today and start turning them into story-based sketches!