I am worried about my art. Learning to Art - Critique Please

akino

Hello, everyone.
This is a picture of my own painting.
I am worried about composition
the present status of No.4
Please give me advice as to what I should do from now on.

audi100

hey i think the overall compositions are not bad but here are some pointers.
Character is point of interest so try to give him a nice readable silhouete
Use lines to focus viewers attention as shown in 2 and 4
Iif your character is looking down on something good thing to have horizon lower than his eye level, canyon in
1. is kind of leading into nothingness, maybe add point of interest there.
4. have more space for spaceship on the left to kind of point out direction it will travel too.

akino

Thank you for your helpful and useful messages. I'm surprised when I received your messages and I was so excited.

You helped me with art a lot^^ You pointed out many things I never could noticed by myself.

I'll rewrite this art with your indicated matter. It will take a lot to me, but I'm glad if you have a look to my improving art work.

audi100

Sure glad i could help out a bit, also nice for me to think about this stuff a bit, tend to forget how important basics are.
Also realized my reply was kind of rushed and bullet point style.
If you want to learn more about composition a good method is trying to analyze paintings and drawings/photographs. if you get some kind of emotions out of it try to describe that emotion and understand how the image was built up to convey that.

A great way to get into composition we had at school was to create plenty small compositions out of 30 or so contradictive adjectives (dynamic-static, silent-loud, big-small, angry-relaxed......)  in a quadratic format. Only using lines and spheres, black and white. Then there was a lecture where good and bad examples of those compositions of students where shown. It was explained what made the "good" examples stand out often backed up by examples of paintings etc.
What was nice to see is that there is an underlying structure of shapes and forms that we all seem to understand in a similar fashion. But there is a huge range of variations possible to depict the same adjective, if you like one or the other variation better is than often a matter of personal/cultural background and taste (subjective).

Quick Example for an analyzing of images with spaceships.



The poster on the left for me its rather calm but also gives a mysterious unnerving vibe.
what makes it calm composition wise?
The shape is resting pretty much in the middle of the image. There is not much contrast colorwise. No diagonal lines and unnatural shapes. It rests on the beach almost gently touching it. Sense of stability/balance.

what makes it mysterious unnerving?
Well actualle the fact that there seems to be a giant skipping stone floating in the air and the stormy sky. The actual composition of shapes is not really unnerving.

the movie poster on the right. gives a oppresing menacing vibe.
what makes it oppresing and menacing composition wise?

Basically the contrast in size and positioning of elements. A giant sphere that takes a good portion of the upper half the image, and a much smaller one in the lower third.
Also the spikey not clearly depictaple shapes look aggresive and unnatural.
Color contrast seperating the shapes. Earth almost looks like its burning

akino

I'm trying draw my art hard with your instruction. 

After I received your advice, I redrawed that points which you point out.

I'm really impressed the composition which you gave myself.

I believe my art work is getting better with it.

However, even now, I feel my art work is shortage.

I don't know how Light falls on an object well.

The concept of the drawing is a flying star ship on a vast valley.

The feeking I want to express is magnificent.
If you give me some advices that how I can improve my drawing, I really happy with that.

audi100

hello akino,

that is some nice progress, definetely feels more dynamic and the colors sell a nice atmospheric perspective.
I made a quick overpaint, how i would tackle a more vast grand landscape.
but i wont show =P

I think you learn more if you try to paint over your works yourself if you have the feeling that it is not what you intended. Just scale it small and don't be afraid to destroy it by overpainting it. Don't get lost in details focus on the big shapes

Try to picture what vast, grand, magnificient looks like in your mind than have a look at yor painting.


Right now its pretty enclosed by those larger rocks, making it look cramped. The spaceship is quite large, maybe the landscape would feel more grand if it was smaller? how about the perspective if you had a higher vantage point you would see more of the vastness of the valley, maybe even as far as a curved horizon.
Maybe try to have some elements that lead you into the valley, for example the canyon could not just run from left to right but into the scene.

you can even play around with the format of the image more wide feels more vast in my oppinion

akino

I'm really sorry. I'm not sure your intention unfortunately because my English is limited. I only understand that the star ship is too big.

If I could see your overpaint picture, I could do checking answers..

or could you write separate/brief sentences? I don't mind it's ballet point style because I have difficulty reading long English sentences.

audi100

I see, than it probably makes more sense to show explanations with images.
Maybe i misunderstood you, and what i said is not what you wanted with the composition.

Try to learn what a vast and magnificient landscape looks like.
Study pictures where you get that feeling. How are they built up
How are shapes related to another. (Contrast)
Don't just copy try to do your own after you studied.

akino

I was redrawed.:)
Thank you very much for giving me many advice.！

akino

I feel like something is lacking in that.
If you give me some advices that how I can improve my drawing, I really happy with that.