Blog Post: Simplifying Details - Using Texture and Suggestion in Illustration 🌿✏️✨ (Patreon)

Good morning everyone! 😊

One of the biggest things in my illustration process was quitting the need to draw everything. Instead of drawing every leaf in a tree or every brick in a building, I started focusing on the suggestion of these details, rather than the details itself.

In this blogpost, I want to share how I simplify details in my landscape illustrations using loose techniques and texture and why this approach not only saves time, but also makes an image feel more alive and expressive ✨

Why simplifying works

Our brains are incredibly good at filling in gaps. When an illustration suggests a texture or object clearly enough, the viewer does the rest of the work for you. This creates images that feel lighter, and often more engaging than very detailed drawings.

Simplification also helps you:

Keep the focus on composition and color

Avoid overworking your illustration

Develop a stronger, more confident style

Enjoy the process more ✨

Simplifying is not about leaving things out, it’s about choosing what matters most.

Using marks instead of details

Here are some of the techniques I often use in my own work when drawing landscapes. When I simplify my illustrations, I don’t think in terms of “drawing objects”, but in shapes, marks, and textures. I’ll walk you through five common subjects I use a lot in my landscapes and how I simplify each of them.

Greenery

Greenery doesn’t need leaves when the greenery is further away. Instead of drawing individual shapes, I focus on:

Mass and silhouettes

Darker and lighter parts

Directional strokes

Layering greens

I often use loose marks in different directions, that follow the overall shape of the bush or plant. By varying the pressure and color slightly, the greenery gets depth without becoming very detailed. My favourite strokes are creating the suggestion of leaves by drawing little circles (oval, round, etc.) which you can see in these three pictures.

Flowers

Flowers are perfect for simplification because we recognize them instantly, even with very little information. I simplify flowers by:

Using dots or small blobs of bright color

Grouping them instead of isolating each flower

A few warm-colored marks inside green surroundings already read as flowers. The exact shape doesn’t matter, but contrast and placement do. The closer the flowers are in the image, the more detailed they get, as you can see in the second picture. The flowers in the front are more detailed with recognizable leaves. The pink flowers in the back are just some scribbles.

Grass

Grass is one of the easiest subjects to get lost in detail. Instead of individual blades, I use:

Loose scribbles

Short directional strokes

Layered textures

I let the strokes follow the landscape: horizontal on flat areas, curved on slopes and more chaotic near water or edges. Leaving gaps where the underlaying colour shows through keeps it natural. Also here you can see that the grass in the front of the image is more detailed than in the back. On the third image it's only some strokes of green.

Trees

Trees work best when you separate them into simple parts:

Trunk

Foliage

Shadows

I often draw leaves using clustered marks or scribbles, similar to the shape of the foliage but slightly more structured. For the trunk, a single darker stroke or shape is usually enough. What really makes trees feel natural and real, is adding shadows.

👉 Focus on the shape first and details second.

As you can see in the first image, the trees in the back are just some scribbles, you don't need to draw trunks, only the suggestion of foliage. In the second and third image, there is a bit more detail and you can create different kind of trees with different kind of strokes.

Houses

Houses are all about clear shapes, a right perspective and tiny details. I simplify houses by:

Keeping the main shape very clean

Using short lines or strokes for windows

Suggesting texture with uneven color, and sometimes a bit of line work

Adding shadow in the right places (for more depth)

Instead of drawing bricks or wood grain, I let the marker or pencil texture do the work. A slightly imperfect edge often adds more than a precise one.

👉 If the silhouette is clear, the house works even with minimal detail.

I hope this post helps you even more to simplify your illustrations and have fun with it! Please let me know in the comments if it helped you!

I wish you a wonderful day! 🤗

Celyn 🌸