Composition for Noobs | Beginner Guide

Learn the basics of composition so you can take your photos, artwork, video and digital art to the next level!

Julian Ball / Flow Graphics

[haxjason]

I've learned more in less than 20 minutes than an entire school year of art.

[allanvargastomas]

story: getting out of my house once quarantine is finished

[reybalderstone]

I learn more from you than my art class art school! They just give us paint and tell us to make stuff, and we don’t actually learn about any of this stuff.

[AlcheonArt]

1. Looks like a complementary color group
2. Storywise: makes me think of a guy leaving his apartment preparing to venture out into the sea
3. Rule: Fibonacci spiral

[avstube]

Damn, the part about flow feels like black magic.
I just... Look at the small drawing in a natural way, and then you perfectly described how I looked at it...
I just went 'what'

[dreamsprayanimation]

the simple stick drawings he creates at 7:28 look extremely good and pleasing to the eye even tho they are just doodles. Really shows the power of composition and color theory.

[MrScreamingSilence]

Color group: looks like two complementaries to me. Yellow and purple and blue and orange. Maybe there's a specific name for that, like quadruple color scheme?
Story: guy watches a dusk or dawn from the roof of an old house that is on top of a hill, overlooking the city. Since there are ships, maybe he wants to be a sailor, or is a sailor and has to leave soon? Maybe he awaits someone or something.
Rule: first impression was Fibonacci spiral, because of the curved beach, the tree branches continuing the line to the man on the roof, but looking at it again there also seem to be "action" lines or rather leading lines that lead to the upper left corner of the picture. The roof and left edge of the picture come from the foreground and lead to the reflected sunlight which again leads to the sun off-screen

[sky_maggot]

I like how he adds a challenge at the end of the video - it really makes you think and insures that you know what was going on in the video. in summary: this video really helps a lot 😂

[xamboyo]

"i'm really bad at drawing cars... so be nice!" *turns out to be a very car-looking car*
meanwhile my cars looks like the sausage i ate for lunch

[duuplo]

Really good video, you actually covered a lot of stuff and explained it visually very well!

[Jay_Hendrix]

Dude I subconsciously followed the rule of thirds in photography without even knowing about it 0_0

[firstnamelastname]

me: i can draw okay...
also me: watches a video titled "composition for noobs" for 18 minutes straight
(the video was helpful tho so its okay lmao)

[mxlkiiway]

This feels like I’m attending art school on YouTube for free! Thank you :)

[pennybob]

Rule of thirds, negative space, complementary colors (blue & orange). Story: A young boy or man, looks out to sea wondering about his destiny or desire for adventure!

[irondeficiency]

thanks for this vid, it really helped! my take on the picture at 17:32 is:

- color/colour group: mostly warm colors (oranges, yellows, warm greens) contradicting the cool colors (purplish stuff, blue)
- story (my fave part :) :this scene is the beginning of an adventure where the main character (human) is running away from home to follow his dreams of being a ship captain/sailor. his parents never approved, but this one day he got super fed up and ran away. he dreams of sailing all seven seas one day like his great uncle, Mr. Sailor-Dude, who all of his relatives despised (sailing was frowned apon in their heritage). i guess it's kinda a mash of coco and moana lol
- rule/lines: i first looked at the dude, then the tree, which is curved towards the ocean which i then look at, and then the lines of the ocean go back to the character.

hope you like my interpretation :)

[MLeoM]

He was born an artist AND an excellent explainer. He's so efficient with it.

[kambedaisuke]

color group: the whole background is in cool colours and the part you wanted to emphasize is done in warm colours .it makes a contrast between the them.
story: a guy enjoying sunset view on the top of his house on roof (or he depressed and is trying to suicide)
rule: golden spiral

[nox]

When in a conversation people call me NOOB ----> :(
When I find a video for NOOBS ----> :)

[KuyaB]

This was really cool. I've known about most of the things you talked about for many years now, but to see the side by side comparisons of the same image is eye opening. It really shows how important it is to take the rules of composition seriously. Thanks for this video!

[seune.o]

You explained this so well. I never really understood how composition worked before but this was really cool and helpful