Composition question

AbbeyK

Hello all! Happy Monday
I just finished taking the original Creative Composition class (minus the critiques, I’ll watch those this week) and I had a question as I’m working on thumbnails for a project. When Will talks about adding value to your thumbnails is he talking about local tone or also adding a sense of lighting? I get that it’s basic value and not fully rendering in black and white, but am stuck on fully understanding which value to use. My art background is in realism and portraits so i relied heavily on what I saw, but now I’m having to design things. I love it but it’s also a challenge lol
Thanks!

braden H

@AbbeyK If it's a thumbnail then the less value the better (at least with my thumbnails). Are your thumbnails honest to goodness thumbnails (postage stamp sized) or comp-sized (index card/post card)?

My thumbnails have 3 values. Light, medium and dark. Either it's a lighter object on a darker background or a darker object on a lighter background. Real values get sorted out later on

AbbeyK

@Braden-Hallett my thumbnails are about 1inch x 1.5 inc. The three values makes sense, thanks! Maybe I’m just over thinking it all lol Thumbnails are sort of new to me so it’s a little daunting, not sure why ‍️

APHOTICMOTH

There is more than one way to do thumbnails.

Here is a great video by mtg ad Cynthia Sheppard redoing an old piece of hers. Might inspire you https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfS5sAeL-cM Her thumbnails are on the large side. She also talks about her thought process, creating a story narrative, etc. It really is a great video.

She also talks about different types of thumbnailing.

I cannot do tiny thumbnails, everyone is different.

braden H

@AbbeyK said in Composition question:

@Braden-Hallett my thumbnails are about 1inch x 1.5 inc. The three values makes sense, thanks! Maybe I’m just over thinking it all lol Thumbnails are sort of new to me so it’s a little daunting, not sure why ‍️

I'd keep it super simple then. 3 values is probably a good habit for composition. "This dark shape is the forest, this lighter shape is little red riding hood, this dark triangle is the roof of gramma's cabin and this super light square is a window with light streaming from it." That kind of stuff.

Then you can look at the elements and run through your compositional checklist. Is anything dead centre? Am I using the rule of thirds? Are there lines leading to the focal point, yadyadyada.

My thumbnails are more to show placement of elements and very basic silhouette rather than the actual values.

I have a really tough time sitting down to do thumbnails. I always wanna make them more complicated than they should be

AbbeyK

@CLCanadyArts Oh thank you! I'll check that out! Yes, I honestly prefer mapping out ideas with words and then just drawing some what small but not fully thumbnail. This is my first book project that I'm working on so I wanted to try true thumbnails to get the over all idea for the book layout.

AbbeyK

@Braden-Hallett Same. Especially after watching Jake Parker make thumbnails... his look like tiny but perfect book pages lol

NessIllustration

@AbbeyK I think they mean just enough to understand see how the tones in the image will work. If you have regular soft lighting it's probably not necessary to include it in your thumbnail. But if you have lighting that plays an important role (spotlight, dramatic lighting, etc) and it changes everything about the tones of your image, then it's necessary to test it out at this stage.