Contrasts In Composition

[@harrysanders818]

I love how you break all that vast and complex knowledge masterfully down into these short videos. Well thought out examples and aspects broken down to their essence. This channel is a gold mine.

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

Thanks Harry, glad you've been digging all the theory!

[@KeepCalmCapybara]

It is a very good way to teach something so complex

[@neonsounds7948]

Thank you, love all of your tutorials!!!!!!!!!!!

[@wafafathi20101]

such a detailed and informative video. thank you so much!

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

Thanks, glad you dug it!

[@nenad16x16]

Great summary of various visual contrasts, Neil! There's one thing that kept nagging me to write this comment. Most primers on design/composition, this one included, imply that areas of higher visual contrast should be used to fortify narrative focal points. However, I recently stumbled upon a very unassuming old video by watercolorist Stan Miller that introduced the principle of decoupling the two. He stated that part of the perception will be strongly drawn to important figurative/narrative elements regardless of their visual contrast (so called left brain perception), while the other part will be drawn to areas of pure abstract visual contrast no matter what their narrative content is (right brain perception). This in turns creates two separate pathways of interest, making for a stronger, more stimulating composition. Miller compared it to music vs. lyrics in a song. Discovering this principle had a similar a-ha effect on me as seeing your big-medium-small tutorial for the first time. I feel the principle is immensely important for good composition but it's not talked about at all. Could be right up your alley to tackle it in one of your future videos, if you find the thing interesting. Here's Millers video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iZPRfoauoMeanLM It's just a part of a series on watercolor basics. Quite curious how he chose to start the series with this seemingly advanced topic. In the second video he goes over a couple of classical painting examples, showing it in practice: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aXXZm5yeZ86We80

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

Thanks for the comment Whining Girl. The kind of contrast you're mentioning I've heard referred to as narrative contrast (I'll check out the video to see Stan's take on it). So if you want two different focal points in your image, that's certainly a good way to create 2 different pathways. For this video I focused on visual focal points, but I have another video I want to do at some point that's all about Focal Point tricks which will basically discuss what you mentioned, using stuff like a human, an animal or an interesting event to draw the eye. And then you could potentially place both the visual and narrative focal point at the same spot for extra umph, or split them up to create a more complex composition. Anyways, thanks for adding that extra information, the world of composition is deep :)

[@KeepCalmCapybara]

This imensively improved my comprehension of constrast in composition. I will even favorite this video, in case I forgot these teachings someday, but that is unlikely, since I will put it into practice right now (also, the examples are so simple that are almost impossible to forget, and that is an interesting thing). So, thank you very much!

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

Thanks M'aiq, glad you found it interesting and will explore incorporating it into your artwork!

[@aliounet7009]

Thanks! People sometimes underestimate the power of fundamentals. Great tutorials 🙂

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

Thanks Alioune! Fundamentals are so important, and so easy to forget (myself included) when you see the glitz of new software and tools. Glad you liked it!

[@mgalla2uic]

This was great, straightforward and well presented. Thank you!

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

Thanks MG, it's a very complex topic, so glad you felt my overview works

[@omidpeiro]

Thank you so much, this tutorial was great

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

No problem, glad you found it interesting!

[@Tobbsfoxy]

You deserve way more subs haha amazing work!

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

thanks, just adding one sub at a time :)

[@tutorials859]

I love it, thank you for sharing your knowledge.

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@adsfb5118]

Please Do more Like this.Thank You.

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

Glad you liked it. And I have a bunch of new tutorials coming over the next several weeks that focus on composition related stuff, so hopefully you'll like them too.

[@PieterHanja]

Thank you!!

[@jorgetisera22]

Nice and helpfull videos, thanks!

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

Thanks Jorge!

[@ty-dx5qr]

This is good summary video

[@ArquiKev]

Amazing!

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

Thanks ArquiKev!

[@BunnyLang]

Thank you.

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@seccovan]

Thank you

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

you're most welcome!

[@FishMan1nsk]

Oh man. My eyes. Could you not use pure black and white when you showing examples? Watching it is not very pleasant.

[@ArtOfSoulburn]

D'oh! Sorry about any damage I may have caused your eyes. But since its a lesson about contrast, reducing the contrast of the example images may have not been as effective at proving the points. Maybe I should have made the images smaller so they took up less of the screen.

[@KeepCalmCapybara]

Keep in mind that learning is not always pleasant. I personaly did not feel disconfortable while watching all those black n white. Guess my eyes are used to these kind of extreme contrasts.