Composition
Composition is simply a technique to arrange or place the object to make our art more standout and improve readability.
There’s many factors to support better composition.
And here I want to share at least the techniques that I usually use.
composition is an essential early stage. It is recommended to use a simple grayscale thumbnail. This can help you visualize and plan the overall composition of your artwork and not get lost in details.
Focal Point
Determine the subject you want to stand out or to be your main focus (Usually the main character). Focal point can more than one in composition.
Your focal point must easy to understand, so your audience will not get confused.
Rule of Third
The Rule of Third is a guideline that divide the canvas or image into two horizontal lines and two vertical lines, creating nine equally sized sections. This is used to arrange subject composition in Visual Arts as well in photography and Movie or cinematography.
To use it you can place object on the intersection line or inside the box.
Leading Line(Flow)
As the name itself implies, a leading line is used to leads our eyes to the focal point of an artwork. Artist usually use a line, curve line, Triangle shape and more
here are some examples:
By using perspective (1 point perspective) , my plan was i want to drive people eyes into the character in the middle.
You can create perspective in CSP by Layer > Ruler/Frame > Create Perspective Ruler and then chose the perspective you want.
Depth / Distance
By utilizing Depth you can manipulate and visualize Leading line to your main focal point or your character.
To create this illusion you need to know the basic. Here’s how :
Depth Affect the Size
The Far the object from the camera or eyes the more small its get and vice versa.
sound familiar ? yup! its perspective.
The topic you love😂
As shown below where the right picture is more chaotic than the left picture Because lack focus and size variation.
Depth Affect the Color and Contrast
The more close object to Camera the more dark it is and vice versa the more far from the camera the more light the object.
By using size and value variety you can tell your audience which is first or most important and which is last or less important.
Comparative Study
The left side is better than the right picture is have less size variation and less contrast in value so the image look confusing.
As you can see, the closest character to the camera appear more big, while the more far appear more small, and in this piece i want to tell my audience that the character is not running in a parallel and so the artwork feels believable .
Contrast
contrast can also help you utilize depth. by using different values, you can guide the viewer and create the illusion of different depths.
Think as if you using Multiplane technique
if you don’t know what multiplane is, its basically camera technique that use to create depth illusion By Layering image on top of another and its used in old cartoon like Disney or Old CG.
the key to make good illustration is to think / decide the Foreground - Midground - Background.
if your focal point in the midground like image above, you can use blur effect for the foreground to trick your audience so they can focus more on the character.
Play With Shots and Angel
With different types of shots, artists can emphasize different feelings in their artwork so that the mood that they want to convey according to the initial theme can be achieved.
Extreme Close Up
Used to shown the full details of the object. Often use on facial features like Eyes, and show limited emotion.
Close Up
Used to show full emotion from the character, you can use this shot if you want to show the full facial expression or emotion your character.
Medium Close Up
Same like Close up but with more a distant but not so far like medium shot and can show the shoulder gesture, roughly from Chest-up.
Medium Shot
Medium shot shown roughly from waist up and the hand gesture can also help emphasize the emotion and the background can also be more visible.
Medium wide shot or Cowboy Shot
A shot that can show the badass moment of your character because this shot can be used to show more the gesture/pose and also the background can have more use to add mood.
This shots start from thigh-up and if you lower a bit you can get Medium wide shot that start from Knees-up.
Full Shot
Displays complete character features (Full Body), can be used if you are creating or presenting a character design. This type can be used to compare size and height.
The background can also appear wider and add more part to the mood or overall feeling for the illustration.
There’s also Wide Long Shot that used to show more wide of the surrounding area (background) than the long shot.
Angle
Both the Low and High shots can be used to add a more dynamic feeling to your artwork. However, it's also more difficult if you don't understand perspectives and foreshortening such as point 2 and point 3 perspective. So if you have difficulty it's best to learn them first so you don't get frustrated .
In the other hand Eye level shot is really friendly for beginner because not many perspective or more neutral.
Give space in your art
By giving space to your work, you can emphasize your focal point and also you can give emotion and mood to your work. And why is it ? In this case its because our eyes are naturally drawn to focus on the dividing line first.
You can use the 8:2, 7:3 or 9:1 formula, there is also the 50:50 formula used to add a balanced feel to each work.
You can play with aspect ratio like 16:9 (common used) or cinematography size 1.85:1 and 2.39:1. to give your art different feeling
You can play with any dividing line angle not just horizontal line.
How to Study and Improve Better
well it’s actually you already know or heard before, its Learn from others aka use a reference.
you can watch movie and then try to recreate the composition that you like, try simple one first, Or find the artist you like then 1O1 study with it.
Or you can also use website called :
This website provides you screenshots of various scenes of the movie.
And if you pay close attention, the fundamentals we talked about earlier can really be seen in the film scenes.
The best practice is “Studying is important but its also crucial to use your study (knowledge) into practice”.
I hope it will help your art Improve better, don’t stop to learning !!.
Have a Nice day~.
want too see my art ? visit my instagram
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