Simplifying Two Asheville Illustration Ideas
Today’s class was all about cutting elements, boosting clarity, and giving my hiking and beer-loving bears room to shine.
Still working through this week’s assignment at My Imaginary Art School! Today’s task was to choose two of the three rough ideas I made yesterday and start simplifying them—reducing the total number of elements while making key expressions and small details more clear. I gave myself 15 minutes for each one. I started over on new paper and went through a little process of addition and subtraction. The two ideas I picked were the hiking one and the beer garden one.
For the hiking scene, I focused on including just the bears, the cliff, the distant mountains, and the clouds (plus I’m planning to add a golden glow to the background later when I color it). It felt kind of empty at first, but I think the bears stand out more now.
For the beer garden scene, I removed the background mountains and cut down on the trees, but added some fallen leaves to the table instead. I also simplified the plates and glasses, but drew some leftover pork rib bones on the table. I think that really helped make the “we’re stuffed and totally satisfied” vibe of the bears a lot more clear.
Tomorrow, I’ll choose one of these two ideas and try drawing it in three different compositions!