How do I into composition?
I recently started a major illustration project for practice and to test my skills. Posted my progress on /ic/ after many hours and learned that I really lack composition skills needed to do illustrative work.
Just finished my 1st year in fine arts so I have learned the very basics like the golden ratio, guiding lines etc, but where can I learn more advanced composition that would allow me to do thumbnailing practice like in pic related?
>>2559839
http://www.floobynooby.com/comp1.html
This is mostly about storyboarding, but got something about composition also.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbdyjrrJAjDIACjCsjAGFAA is basically only design/composition.
>>2559839
>golden ratio
Literally meme tier. Don't be a retard plz.
http://www.floobynooby.com/comp1.html
>>2559846
>>2559839
>How do I....
You do it. Over and over like you'd study anything else. Do small composition sketches for fake projects and for each idea practice different comps.
It's learning through trial and error over and over. You can look up some information about basic composition beyond what you have learned so far but ultimately it'll boils down to you just drawing comps over and over to see what looks good and what doesn't.
So many skills in art rely on other skills it's hard to say "study this" and you'll learn composition. I use facebook groups, (like spitpaint for example) that post daily topics and then just do 5 or 6 sketches for the topic that most interest me. I take a half hour or hour before I start work every morning and use it as a warm up exorcise.
>>2559839
>How do I into composition?
watch movies anon, there's no shortage of tasteful compositions to analyse
>>2559846
Holy shit didn't know FZDs youtube channel had this much content, thanks man.
>>2559847
>>2559848
Those are very insightful, do you have source on those? Couldn't find them in the storyboarding tutorial.
>>2559851
But will I just get better at composition that way? When i've finished my normal drawings I can usually easily tell whats bad and what I should improve on, but when it comes to composition I'm just completely lost on whats good or bad.
>>2559857
"Art of Zootopia", it's also on Matthias Lechner site, he was art director of environments on "Zootopia:
http://www.matthiaslechner.com/zootopia.html
>>2559857
no problem family, additionally a good way to learn composition is watch others do good shit, but actively look why it is working so well. Normally we just watch movies, but when you are actually looking how certain things are shot you get a lot moire out of it, also
https://film-grab.com/ ist pretty cool for such things.
Btw, sorry for spamming, but also check on flooby nooby how he deconstructs "The Incredibles" and how he thinks it's awesome film because of very strong composition in nearly every frame:
http://floobynooby.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-cinematography-of-incredibles-part-1.html
>>2559858
Not my thumbnails, just an example on what type of practices I'd like to be able to do. But I heard some mixed shit about FZD, like some saying that you have to sign a contract that disallows you from talking shit about the school afterwards etc. The youtube channel does look very useful though, and Feng Zhu is definitely talented.
>>2559855
>>2559864
Never thought about watching movies that way. So something like breaking scenes into its basic shapes, values and lines perhaps would be useful, or is it enough to just pause and look? We did something similar at my school for a painting by cutting out pieces of white and black paper and trying to replicate the scene with as few shapes as possible, but I didn't really understand how that helped me afterwards.
>>2559867
>>2559861
Awesome, thanks man.
edgar payne cheat sheets incoming
the book is composition of outdoor painting, and if anyone has actual scans by all means link that shit
>>2559887
Wow these are really interesting and easy to understand, need to see if I can get a hold of that book.
http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=manga&illust_id=55893118
this one mostly focuses on the rule of thirds, plus it's in moonspeak, but the pictures are helpful.
This guys talks quite nicely about composition, says some things that aren't in other tutorials: that high contrast between elements draws eyes immediately to that area or that high variation of saturation between similar elements can make one stand out a lot more.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8i7OKbWmRM
Also I guess EveryFrameAPainting can be interesting for you OP:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doaQC-S8de8
>>2559897
>>2559900
These looks really nice as well just skimming through, added to the list.
So glad I made this thread, simple googling usually just leaves you with the most basic / most advertised stuff on the web and I would probably not have found stuff like this if I didn't ask here.
So thanks everyone, this is all extremely helpful and motivating advice.
>>2559908
sometimes /ic/ can be helpful!
to be fair though, we're just as likely to trash your attempts later.
>>2559913
Ofc ic is decent on composition. You can watch videos on it without the need to draw and get better.
>>2559913
I hope you will, imo the harsher feedback is usually the most genuine. Also from my experience whenever I ask people in real life its always sugarcoated or forced. Will definitely come back here for a slap in the face when I get comfortable and lazy with my art so that I push myself even further.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFUKRTFhoiA
>>2559913
I like coming to /ic/, the critiques here are hilariously harsh but they're not wrong for the most part. I don't agree with some critiques people give eachother, there's definitely some tryhards, but most of the time I agree.
>>2559968
Well due to the very judgmental nature of this place people who are trying too hard and are just talking out of their ass usually get blown down by other comments. Also in real life when you ask someone like a teacher, usually I feel like they want to prove their authority and professionalism by pretending that their opinions are artistic facts.
For example when I did a modelling task at my school a few months ago I had one teacher come in and note that my piece looked too organic which didn't contribute at all to the piece, then later another teacher came in and said she really liked the organic look and that I should empathize on that more.
>>2559979
There's no such thing as objective criticism. Closest you can get is observations without an explicit judgement attached.
>It's very blue
>You seem to mostly draw women with gigantic tits
>The picture doesn't seem to follow traditional perspective
Occasionally, awkward or "wrong" compositions are interesting. There's few things I'd want on my wall less than another formally composed landscape of a river and forest in a temperate climate.
ofc it's a different thing with commissioned or client based work, where occasionally you wind up making shitty choices to suit their shitty taste.
>>2559851
Can you give a suggested list of fb groups for these art challenges/topics?
>>2559908
thanks also for this thread, I've been struggling with composition too, so it's good you asked and the stuff has been gr8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsI8UES59TM
