Direct the Viewer with Faces and Eyes

Today we will talk about using faces and eyes in our pictures, or how to....

Thanks, Mr. Announcer guy!

Before I get into this, let's remember a couple basic composition principles:

Basic Composition Principles

We use some objects that act like targets.  They attract the eyes of the viewer.

We use other objects that act like arrows.  They point to something (often a target object).

A good composition should act like this: the arrow object points our eyes to the target and we viewers find our attention riveted on whatever that target is.  The goal is to develop a good "balance" in the picture.  We put the target in a nice spot for our eyes to rest within the picture.  We place arrows so that they point into the picture and not out of it, toward the target and not away from it.  

Principles Applied to Faces and Eyes

Faces are great example of target objects.  Artists and photographers like to use faces to attract attention.  We viewers usually don't mind, being partial to our likeness.  In fact, even if the artist does not intend for us to look at a face, the viewer will look at it involuntarily.  Faces innately attract our attention.

And yet, while faces always attract, sometimes they also double as arrow objects!  A turned head can turn our heads and point us in a direction.  

Perhaps its the nose that does the pointing....

The trick with faces is to "balance" the targetness and arrowness within the picture.  If a face is pointing in one direction, make sure it has space there to make up for the strong directional prompt.  If it is too close to the edge of the picture, it will point our eyes out and away!

The eye is a perfect example of a target object.  That dark center with the rings around it...  It can powerfully attract our attention.

And yet....

It too can powerfully direct our attention!  The eyes act as arrow objects most often in pictures, pointing at the object of interest.

Combining Face and Eye Directions

When heads and eyes direct the viewer's attention in a picture, they often act in unison.

With both pointing in the same direction, the artist does not have to worry about where the viewer will look.

However, sometimes the face and eyes act independently.

If you ignore the eyes here, the head is pointing down and to the left (his right).

However, his eyes point down and to the right.  (His left.)

A good rule of thumb is to let the eye direction overrule the head direction.  While we are interested in a person, we are more interested in what a person is thinking about.  When we see someone suddenly look in a direction, we sometimes catch ourselves involuntarily looking to see what caught their attention.

Again, this pose could confuse the artist.  Where is a good place to put this head in the picture?

The head is pointing down and right in the picture, almost away from us...

...but the eyes are pointing toward us and to the left.

Remember: eyes overrule faces.  Just wanted to make sure that you got that.

Practical Problem: Something's Stirring Out There

This picture has major problems.  It almost looks like random sketches—like the people are not really interacting.

The only reason that it somehow works is that the directional gaze of the two characters on the left is counteracted by the stirring woman's gaze.  Other than her self-consumed part of the picture, the two men on the left gaze strongly out of the picture.

A better picture might look like this.

By using the young man as the center of interest, and having both characters looking at him, the composition get better instantly.  All of a sudden the characters are interacting meaningfully within the picture.

If we turned the man's head a little, it helps even more...

Practical Problem: It's Alive!

Other than having a creepy mad scientist (or whatever he is), this picture also has compositional issues.  While both of the men are looking at the object of interest, that object is too far over in the picture.

The test tube that the assistant is holding acts as the target.  (It doesn't look like one... but don't think about that, right now.)  Unfortunately for this picture, the test tube is too close to the left edge.  With the strong directional gaze from both of the characters, the effect is very powerful.  The test tube is not a strong enough target, and the strength of their look carries the compositional force out of the picture.

If we merely flip our lab assistant around, the composition instantly gets much better.

The test tube is in a much better spot, compositionally.  Both gazes now intersect on it, creating a much better picture.

Also note: if we change the assistant's gaze just a little bit, the composition changes.  The assistant becomes the center of interest, and the picture now becomes a story not of a laboratory surprise but of the character differences between the mad scientist and his assistant!  Always look for ways for the people to interact in your compositions.

Practical Problem: Off Center

Ok, one last compositional problem.

This one is interesting because each of the faces acts as targets.  

However, the eyelines create problems, leading eventually out of the picture to the left.

If we move a couple of the eyes, we can make a different dynamic in this picture.  Almost a circular pattern... around and around...

By doing this, the little guy who is trying to play basketball becomes the compositional center, creating a fun dynamic of personalities.

Addendum

Of course, the artist can break the rules.  You just can't find an inscribed stone proclaiming, "Thou shalt balance the eye and face directional forces within your picture's composition."  

Especially in sequential art (comics or animation), movement over time allows artists to experiment with misdirection and other compositional tricks.

However, break the rules at your own peril.   Your picture may suffer the consequences....

Beware.... beware!

Early Fog Imaginair

I'm in Illinois visiting my grandparents and helping out a little on the Sample family farm.  But on my way to the airport on Tuesday, my dad and I drove through some beautiful fog.  I couldn't feeling awed at the beauty and painted this during a layover in Atlanta.  Dawn is one of the best times to observe and remember, just because of all the interesting lighting effects that happen.  Here's a dark one.  :)

Imaginair: Sunrise Over a Florida Bridge

As I was driving from my grandparents condo in Orange Beach to the Blue Angels' practice session at the Pensacola Naval Air Museum on base, I saw this lovely sunrise behind an interesting bridge.  I couldn't paint it, because I was behind the wheel at the time.  So I memorized the colors, the lighting, the general composition, and as many of the details as I could, and painted it later.

I enjoy painting many of my artworks.  This one stands out above many of them as being even more enjoyable than normal.

Eating Dirt

Here's a little sketch with a bit of Sample family lore behind it.  A true story from when my brother and sister were a bit smaller.  Great example of my sister being helpful, feeding my very young brother dirt.  My mom thought it was cute, and made sure it didn't happen any more!

Challenge from an Artist to Christian Filmmakers, part 3

Challenge 3: Leave the story behind.

We in the film industry can find ourselves increasingly drawn into the world of the imagination.  As exciting as creating imaginary world's can seem, it's best to regularly leave the excitement behind in favor for the real world.

We strengthen our stories by living in the real world.  Have you ever watched a movie or read a book only to encounter plot points which seemed unauthentic?  We all do it.  We get blinded by the story we are making and tell handicapped stories.  However, some people keep a good grasp on reality, and their stories carry the added weight of experience.  

We strengthen our families by living in the real world.  The elements of strong families have not changed with this influx of media.  Wise Christian families only consume a little media, opting to spend their family bonding time in work, service, worship, reading aloud, or pleasant conversation.  To consume media, even Christian media, may be a shared experience, but it does not naturally lead to a healthy family culture.  Someday we may find our children leaving us for a modern pied piper, having grown up listening to his song during our watch.  Our families are healthiest when we leave the contrived world behind and embrace the real world.

We understand God better through His real creation than through our own.  The mad man does not have a problem with his imagination; he has a problem with his perception of reality.  In similar ways, we can believe lies about God, lies backed by some powerful mental imagery.  However, the created world offers a check on those ideas, and in that check we can recognize the evidence of a God of order, meaning, and power.  The wise will also delve into the truth contained in His scripture to understand God more specifically.

Sometimes inventing worlds in our heads allows us a limited amount of insight into this real world.  G. K. Chesterton once wrote, "All my mental doors open outwards into a world that I have not made."  While we live in a made world, every time that we imagine something we testify that we could not make a world this complex, both stable and surprising.  Thankfully, as interesting as our shallow imaginations are, we cannot stay there.  Such a life is unsustainable.  The real world will eventually break in, rudely awakening us from our dreams.

And when it does, may we recognize the glory around us and leave our imaginations for the greater role we play in the real story of life.

Digging deeper: Colossians 2:8, II Corinthians 10:5, I Thessalonians 4:11

Challenge from an Artist to Christian Filmmakers, part 2

Challenge 2: Tell a good story.

What story are we serving?  Is the story worth our service?

It's easy when the adrenaline courses through our veins to pursue whatever story comes into our lives.  However, these stories take a while to tell, and involve a lot of energy.  It's not a bad idea to ask whether or not this story is worth all that effort.

Telling a good story means that it is well told.  Does it open in an engaging way?  Does the story lead us into a believable world with meaningful characters?  Does it follow correct plot structure for movies?  Does it move us by the emotion bottled up inside?  If it does, it's probably well told.  I had the wonderful privilege of working with John Moore on a remake of an earlier film.  He created Heartstrings, which was fairly popular, but he knew that he could tell it better.  And so he's created Ace Wonder: Message from a Dead Man as a total retake on the concept.  It carries its message with power and eloquence.

Telling a good story also means that we remember where reality is.  Stories aren't real, but they remind us of what is real.  Even the most bizarre story, if it is a good one, it reminds us of something that is not bizarre.  Men from mars are still men, deep down inside.  They are generally intelligent beings who live by some universal moral code.  The stories we tell are not reality, but deep down inside, do they reflect reality?  

Telling a good story lastly means that we tell God's story.  We humans often act completely oblivious to the good work that God is doing in this world.  Do the stories we tell reflect God's work, or are they, too, oblivious?  The fool says in his heart there is no God.  A foolish Christian lives like it.  And foolish Christian filmmakers do not acknowledge God or His work in their stories.  As Michael Dornbirer once encouraged me, "Write something that'll turn your audiences' eyes heavenward!!"  The market is already filled with films which do not acknowledge God.  By discussing the ignored spiritual reality, we tell a worthwhile story.

And if we tell our stories well, our audience may be the better for the listening.

Digging deeper: James 3:2, Romans 14:19, I Corinthians 10:31

Challenge from an Artist to Christian Filmmakers, part 1

I am somehow involved in the Christian film industry, though not a filmmaker.  I'm excited about this industry, have been blessed to work on some great films, but I'm learning some in the process.  I hope that you will find them as helpful as I have found them in my own life.

Challenge 1: Serve the story.

The burgeoning Christian film industry is very exciting.  So exciting that we can forget about the most important aspect of the industry: telling stories.  

I've felt the rush.  I've seen it in other's eyes.  The lust for something that movies give us.  It's just really exciting to be a part of that.  In the excitement we must remember that we are merely there to serve the story.  

Serving the story means that we do not seek personal fame and fortune.  The industry revolves around the fulfillment of desire and selfish ambition, but God calls those "earthly, natural, demonic."  Instead God calls us to the gentleness of wisdom.  What is appropriate for this situation?  Do I need to take center stage, or does the story require me to recede into the background?  Others will seek the spotlight to their detriment and to the detriment of the story.  We must, in contrast, seek what's best for the story that we are telling.

Serving the story also means that we work hard to support the story.  In the excitement we can get a little tipsy with the thrill, but the story is not served when we skip over basic tasks like script-writing, storyboarding, and other menial disciplines.  These quieter, less glorious tasks make or break the story.  I've seen many filmmakers dabble at the craft without any real progress.  On the other hand, one of the most principled filmmaking families is working on their first full length feature, Remember.  It promises to deliver the limited budget and major elbow grease that they've poured into it.  Sometimes serving the story requires discipline.

Serving the story also means that we don't rush through the process.  Time is money and money is time, so therefore we need to take the time to get it right the first time.  Because it takes even longer to go back to try it again.  It's been great to work on some films where they did great planning, humbly working hard at the filmmaking job, but I've seen other filmmakers out there flounder.  One filmmaker learned his lesson the hard way and spent 4 years filming a movie that could have been filmed in less than a month.  (His next film will be awesome, though—much more planned out.)  Measure twice, cut once.

So instead of spending our time and money serving our own desires, let's find good stories to tell and serve those stories well.

Digging deeper: Romans 15:1-3, James 3:13-18