Composition-A-Day sketchbook

[meat]

I'm trying to base sketches on the 12 composition armatures described in the first book on composition. Also am trying to read a bit form the composition book/tutorial video/writings first, and then sketch something that seem to make use of what I just learned.

I would suggest pushing the sketches beyond just lines and shapes, and include shading (light) and even color (http://orig07.deviantart.net/2d00/f/2015...8vgyln.jpg), as well as master studies.

That said, I'm really strained for time here, and often could even get past the first 1 or 2 immediate to-do list items to get this done daily T_T

[Lyraina]

Zearthus, as I said - just do what you feel will make you get the most out of the exercise. Everyone learn different and has a different focus, so there will never be one rule set that’s perfect for everyone.

As for your question: I’ve always been doing composition studies on and off, mostly copying and analyzing art I like and reading up on it. Though for this sketchbook I am trying to not analyze as much but do my own compositions - either by framing/cropping part of existing landscape, or by arranging objects myself (which I think was the author’s original intent), because these are things I’ve not done as often so far. I feel like I’ve got a certain feeling for compositions using a viewfinder because I’m taking photographs since decades (or so :P), but so far that doesn’t really carry over into drawing from observation, because you can’t just hit the release, but more things like lineweight, simplification, limitations through technique (i.e. pen+marker) come into play. Of course I also try to put the theoretical knowledge I’ve read up on over the last years to use while doing that. If I feel like I’m getting stuck, or running short on time, I do master copies but for me, I don’t want this to be the main point of the exercise (since I’m doing that anyway at other times). Does that answer your question?

meat, agree on using shapes and light/darks, as it's a very important composition tool (maybe even THE most important tool). still need to find a new grey marker T_T

[Lyraina]

[Lyraina]

...back to the basics?