Tang Avenue

kalidraws:

Today I gave my students a quick presentation on some of the basic considerations for composition, which I am now sharing with you! I’ve given them separate talks about color and tonal value/contrast, which are also super important compositional concerns. (I’ll be sharing those presentations too once I properly format them)

I personally love learning about different compositional techniques. It’s fun to think about the ways that the brain views & sorts images, and how we can trick it into feeling a certain way or looking at certain aspects of an image first! It’s easy to fall into compositional ruts (which I am also guilty of) because a lot of art gets by with mediocre, though serviceable, compositions. If you can generally understand what’s happening in an image then it’s generally fine. However, it’s the truly great compositions, where everything in the whole image has been considered and ‘clicks’ together, that bump up an illustration to a visual slam dunk. NC Wyeth is one of my favorite artists for this reason: his compositions are rock solid, varied based on the image’s intent, and always enhance the mood or action he is depicting.

For extra reading, some online compositional resources that I’ve found helpful or interesting include:
Creative Illustration by Andrew Loomis (download it for FREE. Such a great book all-around.)
Gurney Journey (check out the “Composition” tag, but really everything he posts is great)
The Schweitzer guide to spotting tangents
Cinemosaic (a blog by Lou Romano with some truly WONDERFUL compositions captured from various films)
Where to Put the Cow by Anita Griffin

Happy composition-ing!

bonkalore:

circuit5389:

muirin007:

alvadee:

Bernie Wrightson

Illustrations of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein”

I felt so terribly in love with this illustrations, they render the novel beautifully. When I’m grown up I want to be as good as him. :)

I’ve never heard of him before, but oh, my goodness, he is now one of my new favorites. Wow.

I don’t remember him not having a nose in the book :O he’s more like buff Erik! but man alive I love these illustrations! they are beautiful!

This guy’s art is just literally breath-taking. I remember seeing some of these in my Illustration class and was blown away. Even ended up drawing that face in the second illustration for an assignment. I respect the linework and amount of detail in these so much. I can’t even with these.

(via kakimari)

animationtidbits:

Compositional Framing Elements