Framing Your Subject
Added 2025-04-24 19:25:22 +0000 UTCThe way you frame your subject is both the simplest and most significant creative decision you can make. It’s also one of the very first choices in any work of art, so it seems like a fitting place to begin.
It helps to start with this question:
What do you want the focus of your composition to be?
If you want to emphasize the whole subject, then include it fully within your frame. If, on the other hand, you'd rather highlight a specific aspect or detail, it may be best to crop out anything that distracts from that focus.
The more elements you include in a composition, the less visual weight or significance each one tends to carry. So be mindful not to dilute the impact of your subject by allowing too many things to compete for attention.
In this video, I show a fun way to explore a variety of framing options using your reference photo.
You can also do this traditionally, simply by covering portions of your reference image with sheets of paper to test different crops.
If you're working from a live model, you might create a frame with your hands or use a cardboard cutout. Or, if you're short on time, you might just use your imagination to project a frame onto your subject.
Framing also helps us to better focus on the big positive and negative shapes which make up an image. I'll be delving much deeper into that topic in the future!
Comments
Hey Andy, I think I would have to see your work to give specific (and useful) advice. It really depends on the goal of your drawing, but in general accurate proportions and anatomy are not super critical. Drawings can have great expression and impact while being a bit loose in those areas. So don't let yourself feel constrained or frozen by the need for accuracy to the subject. It's much more important to be precise in your intent; consistent and deliberate with your choices. The choices you make, and the consistent "errors" are what will make up your unique style.
Lane.Draws
2025-05-03 17:31:41 +0000 UTCHi Lane, first of all, thank you for starting this project. I was wondering, when I face a reference at my level I am able to see shapes and 2D patterns but I am not able to inject what I want to express or what I want to edit or enhance because I am more worried about proportion, anatomy, etc. Do you have any recommendations (or practises) to improve this composition tool while I also worry about proportion and anatomy (being aware)? Thank you !!
Andy p.
2025-05-03 08:32:49 +0000 UTC
