Notes from Portrait and Environment Demo

Hi guys,
Here are a few pointers I wrote down from last night's demo on environment design or composition:

• The first decision to make when starting your piece is where to place the horizon line
• Also, establish a perspective grid that you keep on a separate layer set to low opacity
• It's a good approach to work your way from the back to the front (e.g. starting with the sky and working your way through the middle ground environment to the foreground figures)
• You can build up your scene by working in silhouettes at first and then adding detail on top through clipping masks (as with the approach for character design)
• Always go loose at first and add detail later
• Make sure to establish a sense of depth by breaking up the space
• Hint at perspective through lines in painting here and there (e.g. put horizontal lines/elements close to horizon line)
• Perspective can be used as part of the construction lines in the composition
• Work in layers for easy adjustment of elements
• The more in-frame a character is, the more prominent he seems
• In a representational illustration, exaggerate the drama/atmosphere to create more interest even if it's not entirely true to the story

And here are my notes from the portrait demo last week:

• It's a good idea to start from a grey bg since pure white/black is distracting
• Take bits and pieces from different references and compose together in a new combination. Decide ahead which you're gonna use
• Start very loose and energetic. Hint at general/generic anatomical proportions without getting into detail
• Build a silhouette at low opacity (use standard brush with shape dynamics)
• Go with a softer brush with a little texture and start detailing a little bit. Sill building up slowly and consistently across the whole form
• Start thinking about light. Eye sockets, nose, mouth, forehead, temples, cheekbones, neck
• Build in more detail. Possibly use clipping masks
• Work everything together. Build up simultaneously across entire form
• Last step: Final detailing. Finishing touches

• Keep good organised reference
• Start loose and build up slowly and consistently
• Don't erase in the early stages
• Pay attention to thickness of eye lids through light and cast shadow on eye ball
• Don't put too much detail/attention on ears
• Rim light helps round the surface

Jim, I guess you can just edit this post if I got something wrong or if my notes don't make sense to anyone but me. :)