Composition! - How One Detail Can Change a Whole Picture - "Captain!" File and Video

Hey everyone,

Almost ten hours making this piece. Am I crazy? This is the kind of thing that screams yes to me. Let's dissect this piece into the essentials of the building process for you to know what to do when facing a similar challenge.

Concept

I found this dog reference and immediately thought it would be difficult but worth it. Difficult because of the number of characters and worth it because of the contrast between each dog. Although the overall gesture was the same in all of them, there were slight changes in each that could be useful. 

I pictured some kind of organized group based on the straight posture of each dog, so I did a quick research on military uniforms. Turns out there are a bunch of formal ones, but the uniform used for actual action was my favorite. I think the name is 'tactical uniform'.

Execution

While defining shapes with strokes, I thought this would be the first time in a while that I'd make characters standing with no action involved. Since the original picture had this gesture as well, perfectly describing the dogs' attitude, I couldn't help but think it was a good idea to keep it that way. However, while capturing the facial expression of the dog in the middle, I noticed a certain sadness defined by the direction of the eyebrows. Plus, I was listening to a sad song while drawing, and as a consequence, I ended up justifying the sad eye expression by positioning a body in the hands of the character in the middle. 

This is the power of the eyes; out of that small detail, the whole composition was reshaped. Suddenly, all of them were in a real action environment, like running out of a place, and the captain was absolutely off the grid. Who was this girl? His daughter? It doesn't matter; the story was there. This, in my opinion, is pretty much the soul of this piece and tells you a lot about what's achievable once there's a narrative around.

The process afterward is pretty straightforward, as you can see in the video. It consists of translating those shapes into expression and costume design, using the reference as a guide for values and colors. 

The treatment in terms of colors has been very interesting lately. I've paid attention to the tone of the shadow on the white body surfaces of the original references (blue/purple), and that's what I chose for my shadow tone to be. Also, for each character, I tend to add a light in "overlay" with a similar blue/purple tone. This is generally very desaturated but oriented towards one tone. Then, this uniformity is broken by a complementary color that's a bit more saturated. 

When I make adjustments, I blend these tones and make them more saturated by playing with the specific tone I want to highlight, and the colors of the whites, neutrals, and blacks in the selective color filter. Check the video to fully grasp this description. 

Also, in the file, you will have the chance to see how many layers were used to create this mood: cold but balanced.

Conclusion

The best thing I can take away from this complex composition is how the focal point, which is the facial expression of the character in the middle, brings context to the numerous situations happening simultaneously. In my opinion, this is a way to handle a composition with so many items. Treat a composition like a sequence of events in which you start with something small and manageable, like a look in the eyes, and then step by step, you start to justify that look.

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