Me vs. Heroes... help me break these down :-)

Sarah LuAnn

So I finally narrowed down my list of illustration heroes to 8. I limited myself to living, working illustrators (bye, N.C. Wyeth, J. C. Leyendecker, Beatrix Potter.... the list goes on...), but even then it was hard to narrow it down! Here is what my layout looks like:

So, what commonalities are you seeing between my heroes? What do I need to work on? A lot, obviously.... this is an incredibly humbling exercise!

Whats jumping out at me is:

Strong, deliberate silhouettes and value relationships (something I am DEFINITELY working on!)
Muted and/or limited palettes
Texture
Selective detail

I feel like there are more but I'm having a hard time finding words. Help?

Miriam

@sarah-luann I agree with the things you mentioned. What else? ...

mysterious feel
1 to 3 characters
a strong frame around the subject
subject in the center
graphic-style, bold shapes (rather than realistic, natural shapes)

Sarah LuAnn

Good ideas! Thank you.

Heather Boyd

Commonalities I see Include:

Dramatic Use of Line
Emphasis on Shape
Mono tone colour palette / or Pastel
Sharp crisp line
Not overly blending colours

In these image selections I like Shaun Tan's colour palette and comic look, and Jon Klassen's texture and subject matter.

Sarah LuAnn

Good ones. I think I would re-word "Not overly blending colors" to "using mostly flat colors with texture". Which is not a huge difference, but I think its what I am drawn to. Thanks