hello, dearest topsy! ❤ i know you're busy and flooded with asks so don't feel pressured to respond right away but as someone trying to get their art off the ground, do you have any tips about lighting and general composition? those are two areas that have always been tough for me to figure out and you're an absolute boss.
may your road lead you to warm sands, my friend! :)
HELLO! I'm SO SORRY it's taken me so long to get around to answering you!
Lighting and composition are honestly still two things I struggle with myself, or at least it FEELS like a struggle. One of the resources that helped me out with color theory and thinking about shadows/light/etc. was this book:
It has a REALLY interesting and helpful comprehensive breakdown of color theory, both the basics and a bit of advanced stuff, as well as plenty of examples of practical application.
Also, one thing that I find helpful is working from limited color palettes when painting. Usually I'll either pick and choose the colors that interest me to create a palette, or use the Procreate feature "Create Palette From Image" (which is awesome). Here's an example of what I mean:
As for composition.... man, idk what to tell you. I kind of just eyeball it and aim for balance. I used to have pretty bad compositions, and then they slowly got better. Very slowly. Taking inspiration from classical art, as well as modern illustrations, is also a good way to trick yourself into being better at coming up with compositions.
But if you want one of the more classic examples of types of composition, the "Letters/Symbols" trick can be really helpful if you're stuck:
(I wish I new the source of this image, but it's been passed around the internet so many times at this point that I just have no idea. So if you know what book this is from, sound off in the comment!)
I hope this helps, my friend!