I'm currently working on the roughs for a poem book for babies. Seems simple enough. Just create simple pictures, add some bright colors and I'm done. Right? Wrong. Sometimes the simpler the assignment the harder it seems to get it right. Why is that?Please weigh in on this subject by leaving your thoughts and comments. I'd love to hear not just from artists, but from creatives from all disciplines.
7 comments:
Oh Mark, don't we all know what you mean. I don't know what it is. Do we over think the darn thing? Do we think it's just to easy?? I really don't have answer. I have had a few projects just like this and I found that I over think the thing. Simple artwork is not that simple at all. The whole, "Less is more concept" takes so much to pull off. What is over kill and what is not enough? Sometimes I'm so gosh darn confused I don't know what to do and that's when I walk away from the desk and get inspired by people like Peter Reynolds, David Catrow or Quentin Blake. To me they seem to have mastered the simple. A few stokes here are there and a bit of color and there you have it! I don't know how they do it. I'm yet learning myself. My suggestion is don't over work the illustration. You can always go back in and add more.
That's just me. Wishing you the very best with the project. I would love to see it after you've finished!
I wish I had some good advice on illustrations...I don't. Cute baby though.
Yes--- letting "less" do "more" is hard. It's easy to want to fill the page or add extra detail that isn't needed. Believe it or not I occasionally draw with the wrong hand and work the page upside down just to keep it simple. Sounds silly bit it can work. I think from the look of it though, your baby looks great.
Good luck
Scott
The age old dilemma of knowing when to stop and where to leave out is always present in our world.
Your little cutie pie looks wonderful and very inviting.
Sometimes I think it was easier for me to say STOP to myself when I had first done all the heavy lifting of canvas to the third floor art room, sized the canvas with rabbit skin glue, stretched it on boards I had to saw myself and primed it with white housepaint... (It was all we could afford in school.) By the time all that was done I just wanted to create something simple.... and yet I remember my teachers still having to remind us that we must know when to stop.
Nice thing about digital is that you are able to remove a layer you don't like.
The value of white space cannot be underestimated.
Art for younger children is much harder as writing for young ones is so much harder than adult writing. (yet as you know some authors think it is easier)
Simple is not always a simple thing. Good luck- you do have a cutie face there going.
Kit
Thanks everybody for your great input on this subject!
It's going to be awesome!!
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