Composition tips appreciated

[eternalcod]

Im working on this Frank Herberts Dune related piece and could use help with the composition.

My idea was to go for the "quiet resignation when you see a cat tipping a priceless vase" feel, just on sandworm scale.

I feel its a bit lacking on the atmosphere i was looking for. Im wondering if this kind of composition would actually work for it, or if a piece focused on facial expression would work better.

Here's an earlier attempt. But it feels more like two dudes watching a show.

Thank you for all the tips you can give, they are appreciated.

[lord-milo]

I'm not a professional but i'll try to help.
The first image looks way more dyanmic than your first attempt. It really looks like they sit there and enjoy watching this worm eating the vehicle.
I would recommend you to take a look at the rule of thirds. Are your focal points at the right place ?

Antoher thing you could use is to guide the viewers eye between the focal points with hard edges and guidlines. And then pay attention to the values.
I would recommend you to take a look at some videos on youtube (Cubebrush,Another Video about the topic) about composition or read a book about it. I think "Framed Ink" is a good book on this subject.
Another help is the Lession from Draw A Box.

Hope this helps a little.

[eternalcod]

lord_milo, those tutorials were really helpful, especially the Draw A Box one.
So i made some changes and now i feel like it's going somewhere.

And plan for what im going for.

[hermidraws]

Usually the recommended technique is "rule of thirds" , however there are recent ideas that I have discovered that might peek your interest for further exploration :

Arthur Wesley Dow Book about Composition (And ideas for practicing art)
https://archive.org/details/compositionserie00dowauoft

And recent video from Amit Dutta

[eternalcod]

Thank you for the material.

What i got from the video is basically, create a strong clear silhouette for your images and it might work, which makes a lot of sense. Exercise shown seems fun, i gotta try it.

[zantiquex]

This gave me some Information I didn't have before. Thanks!!