Introduction to Composition

Whether it's fantasy, realism, science fiction, or whatever genre you like; every kind of construction you design will be governed by perspective and composition criteria as a universal rule. Once you understand the basic principles that make these rules work, the rest is in your hands and practice. For this tutorial, I will draw a small rudimentary fantasy-style village and use CLIP STUDIO PAINT PRO.

Composition - First steps

First of all, let's remember that everything starts from a 3-dimensional volume or X, Y, Z axis (let's imagine a cube this time); A cube has vertical planes (walls), horizontal planes (upper and lower surfaces). Before composing, let's review some theory. There are 3 types of perspective:

1) One-point perspective: Imagine you have a cube in front of you. You can only see one of its front walls (or Z-axis), right? Well, that's the principle of this type of perspective: only the volume can be seen from the observer's view, with a slight deformation in how we perceive the depth of the volume.

2) Two-point perspective: Let's imagine the same cube, but now observe it from one of its sides. Similar to the previous one, we still see the volume from an observer's view, but in this case, the volume deforms along its X and Z axes (width and depth).

3) Three-point perspective: With 3 vanishing points, all three axes are deformed: height, width, and depth. Therefore, it ceases to be an observer's view and becomes an aerial view.

As you can see, the number of vanishing points depends on which parts (which axes) of the volume you are going to deform. Therefore, I believe that once you master 1-point perspective, the rest will be simple with practice and consistency (and many references!)

 

For this tutorial, I will use 1 vanishing point to make it visually easier to follow, but before that, when composing, I usually follow 2 rules:

 

1) Choose how many perspective points to use

2) Choose the most appropriate location for vanishing points: This is very important. To make an interesting composition, the movement and dynamism of the image must be taken into account, as this is generally very visually attractive. How to do it? Avoid having the center of attention in the center of your canvas!

 

Here are some examples:

 

 

When your vanishing point is completely centered, the image is perceived as static, therefore, there isn't much to explore. For this reason, play with the locations, avoid the center if you want a more interesting and dynamic composition.

 

(*) This only applies when dynamism is required, as it is also possible to need static compositions in other types of projects.

Sketch

As I mentioned, I will make a small village with one vanishing point. Using the methods explained above, I chose to place my vanishing point semi-centered on the canvas, and later I will refine the sketch little by little.

Now that I have the location of my vanishing point, it will be easier to apply the perspective ruler, for which you will need at least 2 guide lines (which is the same as a vanishing point; each vanishing point has two guide lines). In [Ruler -> Perspective Ruler], drag the guides to where the lines converge at the indicated vanishing point. Like this:

Now that we've used the tool, we can properly clean up the sketch without worrying about spoiling the perspective with a curved stroke. (Personally, my hand isn't too steady for drawing straight lines, so it's quite useful)

Line art

In case the perspective ruler is not enough reference for drawing details, you can always activate the grid view: In [Operation -> Object -> Tool properties -> Grid] you can activate the different XYZ axes that I mentioned earlier.

I will activate the XZ and YZ planes.

Now to draw!

You can always activate and deactivate the perspective ruler whenever you want by hiding and activating the layer (if your drawing is on a different layer) or by deactivating the [Snap to special ruler] option. I have deactivated it to be able to draw arcs and other curves.

Using 3D Material References

Now that we have the line art of the village almost complete, we can touch up some details.

Time to look for references, they can be photos, videos, etc.! In my case, I will use Clip Studio Assets 3D Materials because it will be easier to get the exact reference according to the drawing's perspective.

I have found a model that is quite similar to what I was looking for, so I will insert it into the drawing to finish drawing the windmill.

Go to [Materials -> Download] and drag the model onto the canvas

This material has several models, so to choose the appropriate model, select the icon that says [Select distribution preset] to open the catalog and choose the model that best suits your design.

I will choose the windmill.

Once we select the model, several icons for transforming will appear. I have grouped them into 4 categories:

(1). Zoom in/Zoom out: This icon will increase and decrease the size of the model.

(2). Rotate: As its name implies, this group of icons will rotate the model according to your selections (sideways, its front faces, or the entire model)

(3). Move: To move the model

(4). Perspective rotation: The last three icons are similar to category (2). The difference is that the rotations in this category deform one of the 3 axes.

 

All that remains is to rotate and transform the volume until it matches the perspective.

Now comes the easy part: Trace the model!

You can always add or remove things when you draw over it. Resulting in something like this:

Values - Grayscale

Grayscale values are important for getting an idea of what tones it will have once you start coloring.

In this tutorial, I will keep it simple and in black and white scales.

On a scale from dark gray to light gray, what is closer will be painted, towards the distance. (Logically, what is within your reach will be dark colors, while what is far away will be lighter colors). Of course, you are free to be as detailed as you want (defining shadows or lights, for example).

Resulting in something like this:

Let's finish this tutorial with something simple.

Now that we have the black and white values, merge all layers and in [Edit -> Tonal Correction -> Gradient Map] choose the tones you like.

You can always edit the colors until they are to your liking.

I chose these colors:

And done! We now have a grayscale version and another with a notion of color.

Finally, I hope this tutorial helps you better understand how perspective works!

 

I'll attach some of my social media links in case you're interested in seeing more of my drawings! Thanks for reading!