Cropping and angles

I really want to do some composition studies with you! It’s one thing I think is really important and I really want to improve on. I feel like I “specialized” in character illustrations and scenery, though, I want to try out some action shots very soon!
I always had the problem that I just can’t decide where I want to put my focus on and instead, just draw everything.
I think I am working on this for like 6 month actively now. If it was up to me, I’d just draw full body with everything like outfit, face/expression, hands etc. visible.

But you can imagine that this would get boring pretty quickly.
This will be a bit of a lengthy post, just to show you exactly what I mean..

The first artwork that comes to mind is this one:

Why? Because I was so mad at Instagrams crop! If you don’t know, IG doesn’t allow (all) original formats, meaning that some things might get cut off. As you can see, I diliberatly put some more space above Toya’s head and there’s actually a light beam coming down. Not only because symbolism or anything like that, but because it further balances the image and keeps Toya's face in the middle.

Another thing that comes to mind is this:

It’s one of the more extreme angles that I do and one of the few top-down views. A lot of his head/hair is cropped and there’s a lot of free space next to him. The reason I wanted to do this in this image, is because I wanted to display an “outbreak”. What I mean by that is, that Dabi in this artwork clearly doesn’t look really human anymore, but rather a monster and it gets mentioned over and over again that his flames or hate simply can’t be contained. It’s actually the time, where he literally breaks free from the heros. So – I put him in a “small space” and squishing him to portrait this imprisonment, but give him also plenty of space to show that he “broke free”. That’s also the reason why I decided to do a top-down-view. The viewer looks down on him, like they’re in control or more powerful than him. The same image, but with a down-top view and some more space on top like I did in the next pictures, would give Dabi the upper hand and would just display a powerful and menacing being. Nothing changed in the image (granted there’s not really much going on) but the angle and cropping.

Speaking of down-top angle – I really like this view because it displays dominance and superiority.

These three images are rather basic and pretty similar, but notice how I almost always keep at least the entire hair on the picture. I think it extents the angle and is better to look at.

In contrast and actually supporting my arguments earlier – this one is totally cramped. I wanted to give it a very oppressing feeling, which I got by just cutting everything off – like “he is too big or too close to fit the entire picture” and a super extreme angle. You can’t see his face, which also plays into uncertain and uncomfortable feelings. If you look at this, and the other three mentioned before, they’re not too much different context wise – only cropping is different.

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Other than the feeling you want to give the viewer, you also have to decide what you want to show and focus on in the illustrations. A good example would be this:

If I had drawn them in a front shot, like in a cooking show or anything like that, you wouldn’t really see the cookies!

Same with this:

I really wanted to show off the environment and the Endeavor plushie, if I chose another angle, Toya would rather take the focus.

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And all this is actually why I love drawing concepts beforehand! They are a way to brainstorm and edit many different things without too much work or time.
You can switch things up with little effort and later decide what you like best and what concept you'd like to pour your heart and sweat into it!

I hope it was somewhat  easy to understand what I was trying to explain, but, as I said, it's something I try to actively improve. Maybe there was one or two things that stood out to you and made you reconsider your own work! I am happy to hear about it (: