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Dynamic Composition
By  Miguel Krippahl
Fantasy art is, by definition, a rich field for exploring dynamic situations.
Basically, you have two kinds of drawing themes:
a) Portraits
b) Action scenes (mostly belic ones)
PORTRAITS
Portraits are not what they used to be.
Tradition tells you that a portrait has to be a kind of passport photograph, where someone gets his/her best clothes on, goes to the hairdresser, has a shave, and then poses with his/her eyes focused 3 miles away, with what he/she hopes to be a little charming smile.
Nowadays, in the age of video games, comic books and movie posters, a portrait usually depicts the portraitee in a dynamic pose, trying - with arguable success most of the times, I admit - to convey his/her mood and state of mind with the whole body... This must be what is referred to as body language...
Anyway, fantasy settings, with the usual assortment of swords, axes, bows, wings, horses, magic staffs, crystal balls and other miscellaneous mystical props lends to the portrait business the ideal ground to diverge from the "Mona Lisa" school.
ACTION SCENES
Most of us associate fantasy (Marion Z.B. notwithstanding) with action scenes.
Dragons, Wizards, Trolls, Warriors, Orcs, Demons, Rust Monsters and Incubus seldom if ever get together for a nice cup of tea.
Role Play in fantasy settings (in all settings, as a matter of fact) is more about smashing skulls and less about crunching cookies.
A saga that is worth its 1000+ pages in paper should include at least a major war campaign, two or tree assorted minor wars, half a dozen melees, swords, arrows, fireballs in very large quantities, and, well, "ketchup" enough to provide the whole McDonalds industry for at least 3 years.
So, if you want to depict a scene, you have to remember that Barbarian Warriors swing swords, Magicians hurl thunderbolts, Witches hunch over crystal balls (there is a lot of potential movement and dynamic stress in a good hunch), Dragons swoop, Armies charge and Trolls, provided its nigh time, move -albeit slowly- towards whatever they consider to be their primary objective...mostly situations involving a lot of skull smashing.
After you learn the basic proportions of human beings - arms longer than legs only work for a certain kind of apes - you have to grasp the concept of how all the various bits and pieces normally interact.
For those of you who are a little short on he imagination department,
I have great news: The body you all have is, with one or two
unmentionable exceptions, roughly humanoid.
So all you need is a mirror, a broom, and good blinds on the window (otherwise you might get into trouble with the neighbourhood).
Another valuable source is books.
But careful now. I don't mean the "How to..." kind of books, where you
learn the Latin names for all those little bones you didn't even know
existed, much less they where legal to carry around. I'm talking about
good old Comic books. Well, admittedly most Superheroes are a bit
more disjointed than mere mortals, and tend to be caught in poses that
would make a professional contortionist blush.
Nevertheless, those examples are pretty useful for the aspiring
artist, because they show you what happen in extremis to knees ,
elbows, shoulders (never underestimate shoulder movement), tendons,
muscles and the relative positions of all the extremities of the human
body trying to somersault backwards while shooting spider web
straight up.
Even if they are not 100% anatomically correct, they are probably more fun to watch than a realistic drawing of the bones and muscles of a hip after carefully removing all skin, or most certainly less embarrassing than my image reflected on a mirror swinging a two handed broom.
One last tip: Clothes enhance movement in a scene.
A swirling cape is a great prop to enhance the rotation of a second level Magician as he tries to fireball a Silverdragon into oblivion.
Images of swirling robes, windblown capes, even strained chainmail female underwear are not easy to conjure out of nothing.
Put a bedsheet around your neck while swinging that broom in you
bedroom (just, please, don't forget to lower the window blinds), or
take a peek at the antics of the greatest cape crusader, Batman.
Some professional artists avoid these kind of effects (Boris, Bell,
et all), either because they like the human body so much they prefer
to depict it au naturel (barring 3 square inches of chainmail
strategically placed), or they just cant cope with all that fold,
swirl and frill business.
Whatever you choose, just remember you can't take a decent swing of a
two handed 5 foot bastard sword without spreading your feet, you can't
run from a Dragon without bending you knees, you can't hurl a
effective thunderbolt without billowing you cape and hair behind you,
and you certainly can't hunch convincingly without, well, without
years and years of practice.
If you have any comments, questions or additions, please e-mail me. I´m at gallery 40.
FARP Article Guestbook
| Date | Name | Comment | | | 5 Dec 2003 |  Liisa Elts | I like the example pictures here! Really good ones XD | |
| 26 Jul 2004 | Topaz Waters <etvermette@hot...com> | Ha! Very amusing, thank you. Short, to the point and informative and yet thoroughly enjoyable to read. And awesome example pics too, I love the warrior dude with the flower vase behind him... | |
| 7 Jan 2005 | Anatol Rudolph | Funny to read and very helpful! Great tutorial. | |
| 12 Apr 2005 | Randi L. Racey | *cough* For some reason, I can't provide a signed review, so I'll have to do this anon.  Very witty! I was hoping to see a bit more reference photos, but you've got a good point-- if you've got a mirror, you don't need pics (sisters work well too ^_^) | |
| 3 Dec 2005 | Antinous | Great article. It's so easy to make a dull and static portrait. It takes discipline to figure out how to add dynamism. One of the things that helps me is to remember to have some of the action, or even the subject, moving out of the frame. It leaves you wondering what's going on in the parts of the scene that you can't see. | |
| 11 Dec 2005 |  Emma C. Fox | This was not only informative, but a charming read as well. Excellent humor; really helps the reading along.
^_^ | |
| 23 Jan 2007 | Codi Lyn | Great tutorial! That's def. one of the most helpful I've read in a long time and I love the way you described it all. Kinda like I would talk.  Thanks so much! ~ Codi Lyn ~ | |
| 31 Jan 2007 | Eggs>? | wow , this is the only FARP i actually read you're good at writing and art. thanx
eggs.? | |
| 25 Aug 2007 | Anonymous | good article. BTW hey it's you who did the FARP logo!? | |
| 4 Oct 2007 | Jerry | Sorry, i dont agree with you, drawings first have to be correct and composition second | |
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 The collection of art and writing tutorials in the Elfwood Fantasy Art Resource (F.A.R.P.) is a part of Elfwood.
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