Better composition in concept art....

Many artists will tell you, and rightly so, that you should study and break down good paintings by artists you love, to understand the structure of their paintings, and give you a better insight for various solutions artists employ within their work. This is very useful in helping you gain a repertoire of solutions in your own vocabulary as an artist or student. I do it and find it very helpful. In addition to this method though I've found out that when I look at really good photography, I actually find it even more helpful. As concept artists we are largely focused on cinematic imagery anyway so studying how various photographs are composed is really to the point. The camera angle of the photgraph helps you visualize yours when starting an image and I believe thinking about the camera angle up front really gets you in the right mindset to start a strong image. I don't perceive paintings the same way that I do photographs, often times the painting can be a distraction in this fashion, sometimes simply because we marvel at how awesome the other artists'work may be, I personally marvel the technique and details in paintings I love, and that can be a big distraction when you are trying to decipher a good composition. Photographs are a bit more mechanical and somewhat more logical to me so I think I interpret them better 'structurally' I think that you should study both ans see what is more helpful to you. I know for a long time I really didn't get what I was looking for in paintings and had a hard time breaking them down, and that when I by chance tried it with photographs I learned then about image structure and then it was miraculously easy to see what I was looking for in paintings by artists I liked. I also primarily work in film resolution image formats. In the end I guess it's whatever works for you, but I've always found this helpful and wanted to share in case anyone's out there struggling with it. All the Best! IIId Just an example photo I like, easy to decipher composition and mood lighting