Basic Training: Image Tutorials and Drawing Help

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Offline Quickman

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on: May 05, 2009, 09:33:34 AM
Yep, I'm bringing this topic back.  And I'm kicking it off with the start of a much-requested tutorial! 

It's not the most detailed of tutorials (I have a bigger one planned), but it should help.  For the tutorial, I decided to colour one of Borock's images.  Here it is so far with the skintones coloured.



How did I get to that point, you ask?  I'll tell you how!  Well, I'll at least give you a general idea how as it would be too tedious to go through each and every brush stroke, and a good bit of it was done by futzing around until it looked right.  Futzing is something that can't be taught.  Anywho...



I opened up the image, cleaned the linework a bit, and then made the background into a layer by Right-clicking on it in the Layers pallet and selecting "Layer From Background."  Then, I changed the Blending Modes (indicated in the image) to Multiply.  After that, I made another layer and put it below my linework layer.

That layer became my shading layer.  I decided on a lightsource and shaded it in grey.  I changed the Blending Mode of that layer to Multiply.  Then I made another layer for the colours.



Hide the shading layer.  Then put your base colour on your colour layer.  Labeling your layers may help you keep track of 'em when they get numerous.  I usually don't label mine as I just keep track of what's on what layer by hiding and unhiding it and seeing what colours disappear.

Once you got your base skin colour in, make a new layer.  This will be the first level of your skintones.



Put each shade on its own layer.  If you are unfamiliar with facial shading, references may help.  I usually have at least one or two references up just to make sure I'm getting the shadows right.  Usually two-tone anime and cartoon shading will not require this level of facial shading.  It's more of a personal preference, so shade however your style dictates.



Once you're done with the facial shading, unhide your cast shadow layer.  It will prolly end up being too dark for your liking.  There are several ways to fix this.  You can either go through the blending modes to see which one works best or adjust the opacity.  For this one, I just adjusted the opacity down to around 40%.

Now onto the arms...



For the skintones on the arms, put each shade on its own (or corresponding, as I did) layer.  If you are unfamiliar with anatomy, dig out some references to help you.



This is another personal preference, but I felt that my skintones were too harsh, so I used the Soften Brush set at 30 % and blended the layers.  Then I unhid the cast shadow layer and saved my progress as I was starting to get tired and didn't wanna end up rushing the colouring.  After unhiding the cast shadow layer, I felt that it looked a bit flat, so tomorrow I plan to add to that layer after I colour in the shirt, hair, paddle and such.

But there you go, a basic jist on colouring skintones.  I'm still perfecting my technique, so this definetly will not be a tutorial to end all tutorials.


Offline borockman

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Reply #1 on: May 05, 2009, 10:46:25 AM
Oh, I learn a lot from this! the multiply thingie especially.   XD

And seeing my lineart colored like that. I'm touhed and impressed!  8)


Proud member of Indigo tribe!



Offline Sniper X

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Reply #2 on: May 05, 2009, 05:20:52 PM
So that's how you coloured it? Interesting.

I just use the pen and the magic wand tool because I have no tablet. I'm practicing on cell shading style.



Offline Jericho

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Reply #3 on: May 05, 2009, 05:26:27 PM
This topic could not have come back at a better time imo. Thank you for starting it Quickie! 8)



Offline Quickman

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Reply #4 on: May 06, 2009, 06:13:43 AM
Part Two of the tutorial coming right up!



Here I opened up another reference mainly for a colour pallet.  I made a new layer for the shirt's base colour and added it in.



Just as I did with the skintones, I added highlights and shadow.  Each shade is on its own layer.



Then, I added the base colours to the decal on a new layer.



Again as I did with the shirt, I added the corresponding highlights and shadows, each shade on its own layer.



Next up... the paddle.  Again, new layer for base colour.



The paddle didn't require as many highlights and shadows as the shirt and skintones did, but I added 'em anyway.



Onto the hair.  Most anime and cartoon hair will not require as much detailed shading, but nevertheless, here is how I colour and shade hair.

I start with a new layer for my midtones and draw in the hair.



On another layer, I start adding some brown midtones.



Same with on another layer.  Those two layers are below my first hair layer.



On a layer above my first hair layer, I add in the shadow to give the hair a bit more depth.



I do the same with the highlights, on a layer above the shadow layer.

Now to fix that flat cast shadow...



On their own layers above my cast shadow layer, I add in two darker shades of grey.  I don't adjust the Blending Modes until last.



After that, I change the Blending Modes for those layers to Multiply.  I readjust the opacity for the first layer back to 100 %.  Then, I select all the shading layers and merge 'em.



Change the Blending Modes back to Multiply.  Drop the opacity down to about 40 %.  Save and viola!



And that's how I got to this point.


Offline borockman

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Reply #5 on: May 06, 2009, 06:29:59 AM
Oh man, seeing your tutorial makes me realize, I used a very few layers for my drawing.


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Offline Sub Tank

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Reply #6 on: May 06, 2009, 06:30:39 AM
26 layers



Offline Sky Child

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Reply #7 on: May 06, 2009, 06:50:48 AM
I brought this topic back like 20 years ago but took it down because no one wanted it.



Offline Acid

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Reply #8 on: May 06, 2009, 11:40:30 PM
Our minds weren't ready then. You pioneered too early.



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Reply #9 on: May 07, 2009, 04:30:27 PM
Err, quick question, can this apply for CS2 users? I have Photoshp CS2 and all..

Workshop/DA/YT/Photobucket なにかんがえてるの!?
So its about ass now huh? EVEN THE ASS HAS 'EXCEEDED'!

One mention of LEGENDS and everyone goes batshit.  :\

Yep, every time when someone mentions that game people get energized for an apparent reason whatsoever. It's like this everywhere else, trust me.

It got really messy to find my sprite and comic topic, so it's in my sig.


Offline Shiki Tohno

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Reply #10 on: May 07, 2009, 05:28:15 PM
Yeah, it applies the same.



Offline Quickman

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Reply #11 on: May 19, 2009, 08:17:19 AM
Alrighty, I started on a shading tutorial.  For a more detailed tutorial, I suggest picking up Drawing Crime Noir for Comics & Graphic Novels by Christopher Hart.  Since the crime noir style focuses on heavy shadows for mood, then it's a good reference.

Anywho, to start with, I just did some simple facial shading on Vixy. 



The first image has no shading and Vixy seems rather blah.  The second image I put the light source in the above-right corner.  The shadows fall just under her brows, right (her right, your left) cheekbone, nose, lips, and chin.

The third image I adjusted the light source so that it was further to the right.  This made the shading more pronounced, putting most of the right (her right, your left) side of her face in shadow.

Fourth image has the light source directly above her.  Shadows fall beneath the brows, her nose, in the corners of her mouth, and under her chin.

Fifth image has two light sources, one on either side.  This reduces the intensity of the shadows and puts them in in the middle of her face. 

The sixth image has the light source on the lower left.  When lit from below, it alters the mood of the image.  Shadows are above her cheeks, bridge of her nose, and the top of her head.  This angle is usually reserved for illustrating villains, mad scientists, and other baddies.  Works for conveying mood when drawing frightened or psychotic people, too.


Offline Sniper X

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Reply #12 on: May 19, 2009, 04:55:19 PM
Alrighty, I started on a shading tutorial.  For a more detailed tutorial, I suggest picking up Drawing Crime Noir for Comics & Graphic Novels by Christopher Hart.  Since the crime noir style focuses on heavy shadows for mood, then it's a good reference.

Anywho, to start with, I just did some simple facial shading on Vixy. 



The first image has no shading and Vixy seems rather blah.  The second image I put the light source in the above-right corner.  The shadows fall just under her brows, right (her right, your left) cheekbone, nose, lips, and chin.

The third image I adjusted the light source so that it was further to the right.  This made the shading more pronounced, putting most of the right (her right, your left) side of her face in shadow.

Fourth image has the light source directly above her.  Shadows fall beneath the brows, her nose, in the corners of her mouth, and under her chin.

Fifth image has two light sources, one on either side.  This reduces the intensity of the shadows and puts them in in the middle of her face. 

The sixth image has the light source on the lower left.  When lit from below, it alters the mood of the image.  Shadows are above her cheeks, bridge of her nose, and the top of her head.  This angle is usually reserved for illustrating villains, mad scientists, and other baddies.  Works for conveying mood when drawing frightened or psychotic people, too.
Wow! This is what I really need! Shadows! Thanks Quickie! 8) :cookie:



Offline Sky

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Reply #13 on: January 01, 2010, 05:08:50 AM
hi, i need help with something and i dont know where else to ask about it.

i started freelining an image of this character

this is as far as i got before getting stuck (gave him a goofy goatee and face scales, need to add his gills still)



i have no idea how to expand on this, could someone redline a few body pose ideas?

you only really have to worry about the upper body, honestly.

thanks if you try


squemp


Offline The Great Gonzo

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Reply #14 on: January 01, 2010, 05:13:45 AM
@sky: Will the attachment help?



Offline Sky

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Reply #15 on: January 01, 2010, 05:15:17 AM
@sky: Will the attachment help?
maybe. this pose would be a little awkward with the direction his head is facing, but i might be able to make it work...

squemp


Offline Emiri Landeel

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Reply #16 on: January 01, 2010, 05:21:23 AM
How about this?




Offline Sky

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Reply #17 on: January 01, 2010, 06:18:21 AM
i love this

Posted on: January 01, 2010, 05:22:53
suggestions for changes? don't take the tentacles seriously, they aren't really lined in yet

i have to figure out how to pull extra limbs out from where his shoulder blades are. crabcrabcrab crabby arms

squemp


Offline Sniper X

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Reply #18 on: January 01, 2010, 10:39:00 AM
Someone needs to make a 'How to Draw Bodies & Poses' tutorial someday. I still got problems with it...



Offline Emiri Landeel

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Reply #19 on: January 02, 2010, 06:16:22 AM
I don't have one right now. But I think this might be useful too.

How to draw an anime female breast.

[spoiler][/spoiler]



Offline Sky

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Reply #20 on: January 04, 2010, 11:45:01 PM
how do i draw jackie chan?


edit: this is how you draw jackie chan

and this is how you draw bruce lee

squemp


Offline Hiryu

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Reply #21 on: January 05, 2010, 05:10:03 AM
*Favorites this topic*

Also, Lolz at Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee drawings.



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Offline Jericho

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Reply #23 on: March 29, 2010, 11:54:15 PM
Just sharing some helpful resources I've been using to practice on my free time:

Rad How To Blog - Run by a Dreamworks animator, this blog page gives very simple to understand instructions and visual aids for those who want to try learning to draw or want to pick up something different for their own process.

The Complete Glenn Vilppu Video Drawing Series (15GB Torrent! Not for those with a full or small hard drive.) - It's just as it says, a series of video classes with a good teacher. He pretty much covers all of the things regarding the human form and drawing it.

For photoshoppers:
Free textures
Free photoshop textures, brushes, patterns etc.
Other brushes



I'm totally going to abuse these when I get my hands on CS5. 8)



Offline Krystal

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Reply #24 on: May 09, 2011, 06:55:19 PM
Yo! I'm here to bring to you an art tutorial I don't see around on the internets much...and by much I mean at all. I don't even feel like I've mastered enough of the concept in order to teach others, but I actually think about it...which is more than what a lot of other people do :D

And since you're dying to know what it is, I'll tell you: Composition and workflow.

Step 1! What is 'Composition'?

To us anime artists, (and some of us a bit beyond that, but let's admit it, most of us are no Vermeers or Monets and the rest haven't heard of them) composition isn't something we usually care about, since our most famous pictures are headshots, or waist-up if you're lucky. Backgrounds are a sacrilege, and thinking before drawing is unheard of.
And so is reading. So if you're bored already you might want to drop out, since I'm going to be talking a lot.

Anyway, a composition is basically how you form a picture.

An artist is usually given a kinda rectangular canvas thing, and they're expected to fill it with something awesome. Sure, drawing a cute girl in the middle of it might be considered 'awesome' to some, but it's also very, very boring.
Here is where composition comes in. Can you make a picture that sucks the viewer in, takes them on a journey through the picture, and give them things to stare at and think about for a long time afterwards? Yes! With a good composition you can do exactly that!

A photographer can probably tell you a lot more about composition, after all, their job is to take reality, and shove it in a rectangle. They spend all of their art thinking about how to 'compose' a picture to tell a story, since they don't have must control over the other things in a photo. (Unless it's a studio shot, but you still need a good composition anyway)

Step 2! How do I 'Composition'?

Good question! I'm glad you asked. Wait, I asked it myself? Either way, it's a good question!
In 'art', formally (and by formally, I mean whatever crap I learnt at art school) at least, there are a number of elements. These are:

  • Line
  • Shape
  • Colour
  • Texture
  • Form
  • Value
  • Space

Also known as: Confusing. Since we're not art students, let's ignore that list, and focus on the important things in composition - Line, Shape, Colour.

Line: I think we all know what this means, but in art...it's pretty much the exact same thing. But in more formal art, it's usually a lot less about lineart, and more about the outline of a shape.
Still, to me, lineart is also important. Smooth flowy lines give a much more different impression than jagged hard lines. Which one would you use to draw/line water? Lines are also super useful for pointing to things, we'll cover this later.

Shape: What it sounds like. Geometrical shapes are peaceful, irregular shapes are interesting. Smooth shapes feel calm, pointy shapes are creepy. Big shapes look important, small shapes don't. That wasn't hard, was it?

Colour: There is an area of art called 'colour theory'. This is where they spend forever trying to decipher why colour is so important and why it looks so awesome. I am not here to teach you colour theory. What I will tell you though, is that, after your composition is all said and done, the way you use colour can dramatically change it from it's black and white form despite you paying so much attention to the lines and shapes originally.
You can turn a good composition bad, or a bad composition good, with correct use of colours. I'll show you later.

Also if you actually went and researched on the other terms, or already knew them, and would like to point out how I'm overstepping here, then screw you, I don't care.

Anyway, now that you know what a composition is composed of, how do you compose a composition with these composable composites? (...compounds? Either way.)
Let us look at the cool things in a composition.

Rule of thirds:

Aka 'The composition rule everyone else knows'.
Take a picture. Divide it into a rubix cube. See the crosses where the lines overlap? These are your composition sweet spots. For some reason, humans take notice a lot quicker when something important is in one of these areas, so if you want something to be the focus of a picture, stick it there. Shove the rest of the important stuffs on the lines.

Round things:

Aka 'From now on, things will not have a proper name'.
The circle is something we see in nature a lot, hence we like them. I don't know where that assertion came from. Either way, circles are very nice, and they feel very happy and complete. A circle composition will likely keep the viewers eyes inside the circle, and the things in the middle of circles will likely get noticed.

Triangle things:

Have you ever seen a pyramid? Don't they look strong and majestic? I bet if you pushed them really hard they wouldn't fall over, because you know, pyramids are B/A.
If you're still not convinced, try the 'make a bridge with straws' experiment, and just try to get a structure that's steadier than a triangle. Protip: You can't.
What I'm trying to say is that triangles are very strong and may also possibly house 3000 year old B/A dead pharoahs who are good at card games.

Right angles:

Aka 'Rectangles'. Or squares. Or corners. Basically the shape with 1 more corner than a triangle.
These things are very peaceful and approachable, but most importantly, they make very good frames. Things inside that right angle will be easily noticed. If you put in all four sides of the rectangle into the picture though, you're just making another 'canvas', which makes it not really a part of the composition. So yes, just one right angle makes the composition.

Zoom lines:

Have you ever drawn that basic perspective picture where you're taking a road to the horizon? This is it.
Basically, if you draw a lot of lines pointing to a part of the picture, people will look at it. That's simple enough, right?

Conflicting lines:
When two lines overlap at a right-angle or something similar, we have the beginnings of a fight. Men 'cross swords', not 'hold swords parallel to each other'. So now you know, if you want a fight, have men cross swords! ...or something like that.

Okay, so now you know what to make with your colours, lines, and shapes, but does this magically make you able to compose a good image?
I don't think so, so let's get started on a less than quality walkthrough that will hopefully get your brain thinking: Composition.

Step 4! Wait, where is step 3?

Now, if you're done wondering where Step 3 went, let's get started on my personal quest for 't3h epickz composition'.

Firstly, I needed an idea. My idea was this:
Zero has to go against some giant-ass Omega. He's probably gonna get his ass whooped.

Now that I know what I'm doing, it's time to experiment! I take out my Photoshop, make tiny tiny canvases the same ratio as the canvas size I want (US letter paper size), and start scribbling out some 'composition ideas'.

They turn out like this:


Hmm well the first one is awkward as hell, the second one is a good fight, but vanilla as hell, and the third one...hm, who else thinks it's' a bit too rounded to be taken seriously?
Despite all that, I thought the third picture had a lot of potential. I mean, we're all used to running to to the baddie from the left and whacking him to death, so having him on the left gives a nice shock to the system. I also apparently forgot which arm Omega used his buster with. I'm about to fix that.


Omega Smash!

At this stage, I began colouring.

If anyone is curious as to how a failed colour scheme looks like, check this out:


Since I didn't have any control over the actual colours that Omega and zero are, I tried to change the colour of the background to give focus to the front of the image. It didn't work.
As you all can see, I ended up with the last colour scheme, since it's the most interesting. I figured that since this is Mega Man, and the robot is freakin' Red and Blue, I might as well exaggerate this fact and go overboard with the bright happiness. It worked.

At this moment in time, I was beginning to realise that the sword position was a major weakpoint in the composition. So was Omega's attitude, he's giving off a 'hello little man, can I show you my sword?' kind of feel. We do not want Omega to be giving off that feel. So, let us revise.

Hm, like this perhaps? No no, he's asking for a fist bump. Ugh!

-fustration timeskip-


It ain't perfect, but it's what I ended up with.

Note the giant fat pyramid shaped thing about to smash into the little man. Oh ho ho ho ho, eat that, Zero! Pulled off correctly, the sword's perspective should act like zoom lines that bring us into the picture. Spoiler: I didn't pull it off.
Also note how Omega is hunched over, as to prevent the top right corner from being framed. We don't like that corner, so we don't want to frame it.
If anyone is curious, the main focal point of this image is the shiny thing that's going to smash into our little man.

Anyway, I am now happy with my composition, and so I'm going to colour it for the last time!



Tada! Pretty cool, if I might say so myself. Now if you've paused for a moment and actually took the time to take in the image, you'll notice that Zero is posed like a ballerina.
I didn't really care about him at this point, since he didn't mean too much to the overall image, as he was just a little man. But the bright green of his sword sure is distracting huh?

Ignoring Zero, let us get to the fun part of the image: sketching!

-much later-



As you can see, I changed Zero's pose so that his sword crosses with Omega's. That's a conflict going on right there, yup! In case anyone wants to know, I sketched directly on top of the thumbnail, but I made some small changes along the way for correctness sake.
Anyone with an eye for art will notice that it ain't all that correct, but it's getting there.

After touching up the things I hated, and redrawing Zero so his pose was even less wimpy, I zoomed up right close and drew the rest of the image in fine lines. Yes, I drew, I didn't 'lineart' the image. I hate doing 'lineart', it stifles my creativity.
It ended up like this:



Very smooth and neat. It feels empty though, without the swords. Not to mention the arm is starting to blend into the picture. But I wasn't' worried, I still had to colour it.
I'd like to take some time out here to point out how Omega's right arm and shoulder have much thicker lines than his left. This is how you can create 'perspective' with line texture.
Same with the rocks.

Anyway, slap on the base colours by eyedropper picking from the original thumbnail:


Looks bloody brilliant. Too bad I didn't realise it also looked flatter than a pancake.

Slap on some cell shading on a multiply layer until it looks all 3D and right, don't forget to follow the light source:


I question my concept of looking good. The lighting here was definitely destined for failure, somehow I didn't realise this.

Now go back to the base colours and tidy them up:


Notice how every colour is found everywhere, this is a good way to tie a picture together. Unfortunately, I was doing it wrong. Also notice how the image feels like it has depth, the 'blend what you see' technique has this as a side effect. It's useful.

Slap the shading back on, tidy that up too.


It looks exactly like the image 2 paragraphs up, just neater! And this, my kids, is why you need to have a good shading layer.

Add shinies:



Compared to the last image, this one does a lot more 'pop'. What I did here was add detail, increased contrast on metal, smoothed out shading, add 'reflections' (which I didn't do properly) and glow, and generally tried to make the picture awesome.
I honestly should've done a lot more at this stage, but I was running out of time, and I had also screwed up the initial cell shading. I mean, for one thing, it's cell shading.
Once again, Krystal teaches kids to be good and remember deadlines.

Now, add SFX and finish up:


Yay! Done! And you barely made the deadline. Too bad you didn't get in. Maybe next time!

Here I allowed myself liberal amounts of lava, rock, smoke, and glowing sword aftertrail. Omega's eyes and shoulderlights got a glowy layer and now they're all glowy and cool. This turned his face into the first thing we see in the image. From there, we follow the curve of his body down to his hand, which is holding a motion blurred translucent canon, and from there we look to the tiny thing the giant thing is trying to hit: Zero.
The staring point is little man verses giant green blob. It works pretty well, if I might say so myself.
But what doesn't work? Let me go over the picture.

Green sword vs green sword:
It's way overbalanced towards Omega's giant green thing. Although green stands out very well on red, and is perfect for a conflict in lava, the counter-acting element of Zero's sword is too light to make that cross impact I was looking for

Zoom lines:
Somewhere along the plains of motion blur, I forgot what shape Omega's sword was meant to be like, and it doesn't seem to draw in the audience as much as it should have.

Broken Black line:
Zoom out. See how the side of Omega's body makes a thick black line that goes down to his sword? If that continued under his sword, it would've made the 'slicing' motion of the sword a lot more obvious and scary. Instead, it ends early, and the bottom left corner of the picture is isolated. Bad Krystal, bad!

Giant Black hand:
See Omega's hand in its huge black glove? It stands out way too much and looks way too close for comfort. The fact that it's so dark takes away a lot of attention from the sword and Zero, which is what we want to be looking at. The fact that it's so close to the rule of thirds doesn't help it either.

And there you have it, a comprehensive composition tutorial complete with a walkthrough on how to make your own composition.
As you can see, I didn't start off drawing a 3 by 3 grid and planning the picture from the rules up. Composition is something you develop a feel for, and you get better at it as you go along.
Definitely always make thumbnails. Play around with line and space, you can even make compositions you don't plan to ever use! See how much emotion you can convey with the image elements along. No character emotions. You'd be surprised!

Hopefully you learned something from this that you may take into consideration later in your artistic life.
If not, I hope you at least had fun reading about my compositional struggles.

Krystal out o/