Winter illustration for local magazine

[kylebeaudette]

I was tasked with drawing something to go with an article about local toboggan hills. I asked to draw animals instead of humans, they agreed to that and asked it be rabbits.
I'm about halfway here. I need to add more characters (this is supposed to have a 'where's waldo' vibe to it), also the hill needs more details and the sky needs to be painted in. Let me know what you think. Any help/ideas would be much appreciated

[kylebeaudette]

Well, I think this is it. It's supposed to have some Where's Waldo meets Richard Scarry vibes. I think it turned out okay

[kylebeaudette]

Added a little more in the background, cleaned up a few errors and added a character into the center.

[Miriam]

You did a good job coming up with different scenarios to look at throughout the drawing, like the styles you mentioned.

If you are looking for more to add, maybe you could try more variation in the body shapes & faces. You could try different sizes / shapes in the trees as well.
Other actions & things to add: playing frisbee, snow angel--I thought there was one at first, but it looks like it's actually a wipeout--so maybe it would be too repetitive with that guy already there, but you could have the angel-maker with their arms against their sides & just show the pattern in the snow. Do bunny-people have pets? Maybe a pet mouse (like bringing your dog to play in the snow). You could also add some little wild birds and/or animals on the side or in the trees.

I think the mesh fence needs to be thicker, since at first I was just noticing the posts. Or you could just take the fencing back out. Also, the footprints in the snow--next to the bunny in red, at the bottom right--are darker than the other footprints & run right into the bunny's arm.

I like how you changed the bottom of the slope & added the background. It adds a lot to have the hills layered behind the scene.

[kylebeaudette]

Thank you for the reply!!
Yes, the tree in the foreground should be bigger, true! Many of them should be displaying different heights to add depth, but I decided not to (besides that one family making a snowman) for no reason other than simplicity.
Different shapes (like a few heavier ones) is a good idea..
The fence..yeah. it's too thin. There was a fence that was super thick, and I dialed it way back to this. Should find a medium ground..

I love the mice pets idea!! I'll talk to my editor and see if I can make some of these changes

[NessIllustration]

Hi Kyle

Great work! A very fun illustration!

I feel like maybe the composition is a bit unbalanced. The top right is very empty and it feels a bit like this hill is alone in the world, you know what I mean?

I think 3 things I would do would be:
1- Add a big tree on the foreground to frame the composition and make it look a bit like we're peering at the hill from behind a tree
2- Add some clouds in the sky to populate that top right corner, but not draw the eye to it too much
3- Add a whit-ish mist around the horizon line to add a bit more winter atmosphere to the picture.

Quickly, it could look a bit like that:

What do you guys think?

[kylebeaudette]

@nessillustration ooo I like the mist..
That sky is likely going to have the article title in it, so I needed some big space.
Very true about it feeling 'alone'.

[KathrynAdebayo]

I think this matches the styles you mentioned hoping to pull together quite well. I really enjoyed looking at all the details. It did stand out to me that the bunny with the green jacket looks like she's standing on the ears of the orange scarf bunny. Thank you for sharing this with everyone!