#art composition tutorial

[vintacha]

for all the artists out there, here are my favorite resources i use to learn!

Files

The Complete Famous Artist Course

Art Books and Resources

Art, Anatomy, and Color Books

PDF Files of Art Books

Internet Archive

YouTube

My YouTube Playlist of Tutorials

How to Draw Facial Features

Drawing and Art Advice

Drawing Lessons

Art Fundamentals

Anatomy of the Human Body

2D Animation

Perspective Drawing

Websites

Pinterest Board for Poses

Another Pinterest Board for Poses

Pinterest Boards for References

Reference Angle

Figurosity

Sketch Daily

True Ref

Line of Action

Human Anatomy

Animal Photo References

Humanae - Angélica Dass

Fine Art - Jimmy Nelson

Character Design References

CDR's Twitter Account

iamagco's Twitter Account

taco1704's Twitter Account

takuya_kakikata's Twitter Account

EtheringtonBro's Twitter Account

Drawabox

Color Wheel

Color Palette Cinema

Free Images and Pictures

Free Stock Photos

FILMGRAB

Screen Musings

William Nguyen Light Reference Tool

SketchFab - 3D Skeleton Model

Animation References - sakugabooru

Animation References - Bodies in Motion

[laboratoryrats]

“The limbs are connected, so draw them in order starting from the body...This will result in poor balance.”

“The limbs can be positioned freely as long as they are at the appropriate distance from the shoulders and hips.”

Source: PrivateAnime on Twitter

[phantom-nisnow]

NARRATIVE STORYTELLING + COMPOSITION

First thing I always think of before doing ANY drawing is: what’s the story I want to tell? What’s the mood/emotion it should give off? 

For The Visionary, I wanted to capture that feeling of seeing your hard work and creations finally come to life. It’s that satisfaction as artists, engineers, and creators we feel after seeing our hard work finally bear the fruits of our labor. It’s an exhilarating feeling and we feel a sense of pride. 

I can pick out some key words from those descriptions: pride, excitement, satisfaction. Now, how do I depict that in the illustration + what compositional tools can reinforce that feeling and therefore story?

I also knew I wanted to draw my character, Kala. To reinforce the feeling, I wanted to think of his action and, in general, what he would be thinking in the illustration. I did a few thumbnails like below and figured to have him writing in his book and depicting boats in the background, almost like he’s drawing them at the moment and they’re appearing in the background.

Action: writing in his journal, almost as if making the background come to life -> gives a sense of pride and excitement.

This forms the basis of my composition. Everything from here on out (every decision in the illustration) relates back to this.

When thinking of your own illustrations and what you want your characters to do, try this simple template (do this for each of your characters in the scene):

<character> <action> -> gives <mood/emotion> e.g. The rogue flees from the castle guards -> gives a sense of urgency. A witch backs away from her cauldron -> gives a sense of fear.

Kala’s placement is important as well. I purposely made him stand on one of the fourths of the canvas at the far left to make him feel almost like one of the boats (one of his creations). You know those scenes in pirate movies (or even just Navia Genshin Impact) where the character stands next to all their soldiers or a series of cannons? Yeah, I wanted to do something similar here.

After thumbnailing, I’ll start refining the drawing and getting the structure right before doing anything else. Often, I’ll take reference photos like this and put them together in Photoshop. This helps not only get more accurate drawings but you can even put yourself in the shoes of your character. Imagine how they’re feeling in your illustration and act it out. Your pose—and therefore, your character’s pose—might change depending on how you do it which can help with your drawing.

The boats get lighter in value as they recede to the background. I fix this later on in the composition, but since Kala is the focus, I had to make sure that he had the greatest amount of contrast. So I put a hint of light near his face so that his silhouette would pop well against the darker boat behind him. I later enforce this contrast through differences in color saturation which I will show soon. 

I felt the boats weren’t grand enough + the mast shapes were too busy, and therefore didn’t support the story as strongly as I wanted to. And to further add contrast + give Kala more focus, I made the boats a bit larger, drawing them more from a low angle to further emphasize their grandiosity and the pride Kala feels in his work. It’s great when something works both compositionally well and enforces the story:

General lines of action of objects for flow. The boats specifically are all angled differently, converging towards Kala, to draw the eye towards him more + not feel static. It creates a sweeping motion to draw the eye towards him, along with the placement of papers and the shape of his coat further adding to the flow. 

In general, you can strategically place objects in your drawing to follow certain lines of flow that go back to your focus. This helps guide your viewer around your piece while also giving a sense of motion and energy.

Every artistic decision you make should reinforce the story in some way. Even the tiniest things like the line art style. This idea came after looking through the Across the Spiderverse concept art book, specifically reading about the art style choices of Nueva York. Constructional lines and architectural diagrams are seen throughout the city and I wanted to bring a bit of that into this piece. 

It further enforces the idea that Kala is creating the background behind him while also making the boats recede into the background due to atmospheric perspective. Depth of field is determined by how refined the boat’s sketch is, so the boat furthest away is still in pure constructional lines while the one closest to him is fully rendered. I thought that was a big brain idea and I’m glad I went with it >:)

To add a bit of texture, I added a grid pattern off in the distance to help with the feeling of the background being drawn in. I also added sketches of engineering diagrams into Kala’s blue coat for a bit of visual interest. These further add to the fact my character is an engineer and is almost drawing the background himself. Plus, it just looks cool.

Quick breakdown of some visual choices + how they show the story: 

large value range: the values go from very dark to very light -> deeper contrast gives sense of drama and overall intensity to the image -> reinforces feelings of epicness

strong warm vs. cool color contrast: shows the sunrise lighting, gives the character more focus (red is a very intense color) -> gives of sense of pride

sketch-y depth of field: objects further away have a more sketch-y, drawn look -> helps with atmospheric perspective and shows that the character is an engineer. contrast with more refined foreground and character.

character pose: Kala is standing tall while also writing in his journal with a very satisfied look -> 

flowing papers in the foreground: intentionally placed to aid in the overall flow of the piece -> also enforces the idea that the character in question is very experienced + shows his hard work to get to where he is now

These are all my personal choices for the illustration based on my own experiences and intentions. But every choice, from the character pose, the value range, or whatnot was intentionally done to support the story I wanted to tell in the piece. You or another artist may have different choices given the same prompt, and that’s cool! It’s these kinds of intentional choices based on one’s own experience and emotions that make art awesome and inherently human.

Let me know if you like posts like this and I’ll do more, breaking down the process and my thinking in some of my other pieces!

[barananduen]

Art Advice: Composition pt. 1 - Leading Lines and Focal Points

Composition is a vast topic that would take a long time to talk about in full, so I'm breaking it down into parts of more manageable size. This article is for people who draw/paint and for photographers.

In this issue, we will talk about guiding the viewers' eyes using: I. Leading lines II. Focal points

Every artpiece (drawing/painting or photograph) has visual pathways that guide the viewer's eye from one point to another in the piece, whether you intended to include them or not. It's important to be aware of them and learn how to use them to your advantage.

I. LEADING LINES

One way to guide the viewer's attention through a piece is by using explicit and implicit lines. An imbalance in these can cause your drawing to appear lopsided. (Imbalance, however, can also be used to your advantage; we'll talk about that later in this article.)

"Cupcake Love" [link]

Explicit lines are easier to identify: they're actual lines in your drawing. Here, we have three explicit sets of lines:

The sprigs of greenery: the two main ones are shown by the solid green lines on the diagram on the right. Here, they have a top left ↔ bottom right motion;

The black and white lines on the coaster, running in the opposite direction; and

The creases on the cupcake paper, fanning out from bottom to top.

Implicit lines are harder to spot, but your subconscious does catch them, so it's important to train yourself to see them. Here, there is an implicit line, marked on the diagram by the red arrow, that goes from the strawberry on the bottom left (notice its alignment) to the "Love" sign on top of the cupcake (notice that the "L" also forms an arrow that points back to the strawberry).

There is also another implicit line (shown by the dotted green arrow) going from the strawberry on the bottom right and connecting with the explicit lines formed by the sprigs on the top left.

🌱Tip! For people drawing: While training yourself to see implicit lines, a good way to spot them more easily is to flip your canvas. When working traditionally, you can use a mirror or take a photo of your work (make sure you paper is straight/not bent, and that your camera or mirror is perpendicular to your paper). You may not notice where the implicit lines are, at first, but you're more likely to spot a skew/slant this way.

The "red" and "green" lines here are perpendicular to each other, giving the painting a balanced appearance, despite the cupcake being off-center. You may have noticed that, if we were to remove the "Love" sign, we would still have more bottom left ↔ top right lines, from the sprigs behind the sign. So there is not just one bottom left ↔ top right line; there are more, and this also contributed to the sense of balance.

II. FOCAL POINTS

Another way to guide the viewer's eye across the canvas, or make them pay attention to a specific area, is to use focal points smartly.

Here, I've marked with Xs the secondary focal points of the painting (the main focal point being the cupcake). These are the points on which a viewer's eye will rest (after spotting the main subject first).

Like with leading lines, you want to use these to guide the viewer's eye around your piece in the way YOU want. This visual pathway can vary from piece to piece. You can try to arrange them in such a way that you keep the viewer's eye within your drawing, as opposed to leading it off the canvas. In this painting, they form a circle, but they can have any number of shapes.

IMBALANCE CAN WORK FOR YOU...

So far, we've talked about maintaining a balanced composition and keeping the viewer's eye from wandering off the canvas, but there are situations where you may want to do the opposite, to achieve a certain effect. For example:

To create a sense of bigness of smallness, or of open spaces

To cause an uneasy feeling in the viewer

To guide the viewer's eye in a specific direction

Let's look at some examples:

from my photography account: @barananduen-photo

These two compositions have very strong bottom left → top right leading lines (explicit), and nothing bringing the viewer's eye back. The focal point(s) are also all clustered toward one end of this line (in these cases, they're in the bottom left). This is done intentionally to create a feeling of open-ness.

You could also use a group of leading lines all pointing toward one focal point off to one side, to create a feeling of both isolation and focus/stress on said figure ("all eyes on..." type of concept). On the other hand, keeping the focal figure on one side, but, instead of lines pointing toward it, using curves leading away from it, can create a feeling of exclusion or loneliness for the figure.

So, you can use imbalance in composition in different ways to convey different messages.

...OR AGAINST YOU

"Christmas Chocobo" [link]

This (the painting by itself), on the other hand, has pretty bad composition. I have one leading, explicit line: bottom right ↔ top left. If you take away all the stuff I placed on and around the sketchbook, that composition is not really doing anything for me. The subject is centered, and there's nothing in the spaces around it, so it's not creating a pleasant sense of open-ness. It just looks skewed. There's a weak implicit "swoop" in the feathers on the bottom right, but it's not enough. The figure balances off a little bit because it's very bottom-heavy, so the body of the bird is like a horizontal mass.

The photo as a whole is more balanced out, because there is an implicit line going from bottom left ↔ top right, from the orange/reds paint wheel, through the bird, and to the paints on the top right (and this line is top-heavy). There are also various items forming a circle around the painting. Also, the darker leaves on the top left blend more into the background, keeping the bottom right ↔ top left explicit line of the painting from extending farther (therefore not diminishing the effect of the bottom left ↔ top right implicit line mentioned before).

🌱So the important takeaway is: Learn to identify leading lines and focal points, and arrange them to suit your purpose, whether it be creating balance or breaking it, and experiment to see when breaking it is good and when it is not.

CLOSING

Composition is a very important skill for both drawing/painting and photography, but the way each of these two types of artists goes about it is usually the opposite: While, when drawing, you start with a blank canvas and fill it up, when making (I prefer this term, used in German, over the English "taking") a photograph, you usually (unless you're doing still life, etc) start with a whole scene that you have to figure out how to fit into the frame.

For this reason, I'd like to encourage both types of artists to try each other's medium as an art exercise in training your sense of composition, because changing your approach often leads to you discovering new things you can use.

For people who draw: Take your phone (or camera if you have one) and try to frame things "artistically," taking into consideration the things we've discussed in this article.

For photographers: Try making little stick-figure doodles (for drawing/painting, this is called "thumbnailing") of what you'd like a scene to look like. This is something you can use in the planning stage before a photo session, sort of like a "wishlist."

And, like I said, there are more topics in composition, but this is a good chunk to digest in one sitting, so we'll leave the other topics, including other ways to guide the viewer's eye, for future Art Advice Articles.

I hope you found this helpful, and see you next time! 💗

MORE ART ADVICE ARTICLES

You can find the index to all Art Advice Articles [here] including:

How to Deal with Art Block

How to Have a Positive Outlook

Advancing in Art: The 3 Ps

The Misconception Behind "Study Realism"

How to Develop Your Own Style (coming soon!)

How to Photograph Traditional Artwork (coming soon!)

etc.

[art-appreciation-dog]

How to use the rule of thirds

[pamelaaminou]

The thing about critics…..

I once received a comment about my images, suggesting that perhaps I should consider making them brighter, as they appeared too dark to the viewer’s eye. It’s not the first time I’ve heard such feedback, and it likely won’t be the last. The question arises: have I ever contemplated heeding this advice? The answer is a simple yes. But do I actually make my images brighter in response? No. Why? It…

[leafie-draws]

idk if this is helpful but I made a thing✨

[godofthestupid]

I figured out how to kinda draw in r1999 style

I'm a GOD

[improvewithtutorials]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Mitch Leeuwe (@mitchleeuwe)

[categorised-art-tutorials-tips]

Inking Tip: Line Weight

In contact with light = Thinner lines

Further into the background = Thinner lines

Credit: Helioscope PDX

[munohlow]

My one art/comic tip is don’t cross speech bubble tails, it can make your comic awkward to read and generally looks messy.

If the comic is simple and doesn’t require specific character placement, just flip the image. You might have to fix your character’s asymmetrical design.

Or stack the speech bubbles so the tails can point wherever freely

[bitterxalmonds]

Unleash your creativity with my drawing template low content book - perfect for artists looking to sketch, doodle, and brainstorm new ideas! 🎨✏️

[kulliare]

heavy is the head that wears the crown

[gotyouanyway]

i’ve started teaching myself (again for like the 6th time since i was 14) how to draw people and i’m rly enjoying it for the first time i’m so excited.. i’ve always wanted to be able to draw like people and objects and scenes yknow. art. but never had the patience or a learning mindset now i find i’m actually enjoying the process and even though i’m so bad at it i can see how i’ll improve and augh. feels good

[marusagorjup]

Another new tutorial (if you can call it that) is up on my Patreon!

It's available to everyone, even if you aren't a paid member!