Composition and Visual Storytelling

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(Any participant in any of my workshops is welcome to attend the free open studio/drop in session every Wednesday, 5:30-6:30 p.m. Pacific, most weeks of the year.)

 

There are lots of different reasons to make art. Even if you are making art just to please yourself, it's important to spend some time thinking about what you want to illustrate, and how you want to approach your portrayal of that subject matter. Honestly, this is usually the most difficult part of creating an illustration! And it's the most important. All the technical skills in the world will not overcome an awkward composition!

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The central question is how to engage the viewer, even if it's just you. Issues around composition, including location of important and less important elements, light and shadow, foreground/background, etc. deserve forethought.

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As a science illustrator, my job is often to provide a visual story that answers a question, like "what does that bird eat?" or "where does this mammal live?" We were taught in science illustration school that all illustrations should tell some kind of story, and I always think of what that story might be, even if I'm just illustrating one plant that's going to be all by itself in the middle of an illustration.

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When the concept starts to come together, it's often helpful to create thumbnails of different possible compositions. It's nice to rule out compositions that don't feel right at this stage before you invest a lot of time.

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Another tool I've used as an intermediate step is the graphite study. Great masters often do many "studies" before tackling the final artwork. Each time you engage in portraying your subject matter, you learn more about important characteristics and find challenges that'll need thinking through.

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This workshop will address: 

 

• Selecting subject matter

• Thinking about the size / orientation of the final piece

• Compositional elements (location of focal points, negative space, balance)

• Foreground / background 

• Movement

• Iterating on informal thumbnails

• The value of studies

 

This class will mostly consist of lecture and brief exercises, and meets only once. Sessions will be recorded so you can catch up on any you  miss.

 

Materials list:

• Pencils: For this workshop, one pencil is plenty. I do a surprising amount of my composition "thinking" with just a store-bought mechanical pencil. 

• Erasers: One decent eraser will be handy as there's a lot of erasing inherent in thinking through ideas.

• Tracing paper is great for iterating, and for transferring your final idea to the paper where you'll actually create the artwork.

• Paper: Just a sketch pad will do.

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