There can't be an upbeat without a downbeat, and a roller coaster ride can't have thrilling highs if it doesn't take you low. It's the same with any good story; action has so much more power if it follows a very passive, quiet moment. In this lesson we learn how to visually design a story to do exactly that, to take the audience on a visual roller coaster ride and thrill them in a way that they just can't experience without you, the artist at the helm.

People care most about art and entertainment when it elicits powerful emotions, the moment you can get your audience to feel the desired emotion through visual design, you are officially an artist! During this lesson we specifically study the core idea of unity with contrast, and how to use it to elicit the desired emotion from our audience.

At the core of visual design is the design of contrast. Our very sight exists because one thing contrasts from another, and that's the product of light interacting with the surface of objects, plus any atmosphere that may be present. These three elements, light, local color, and atmosphere can be endlessly manipulated to create powerful and emotional visual design. That will be our focus for this lesson.

The design of shape and line is something that's not taught enough and is not well enough understood by many art students, and this lesson is our opportunity to fix that! Conforming the elements in our pictures to simple shape and line relationships can make them emotionally potent. For example, a horizontal design can feel passive and relaxed, and a diagonal design can feel full of action, and we can do so much more with shape and line design.

A thunderstorm is such an emotionally powerful thing that ancient peoples honestly believed that titanic gods above were smashing the earth with their anger. We can use the design of weather and atmosphere in the same way, we can heighten our environments and story moments by design of the weather!

A good story is filled with surprises, but it's also grounded with consistency, and one moment needs to transition smoothly into the next. For lesson 6 we will learn how to do exactly that through visual design.

In every picture we design, our audience may be looking upward with awe, or they may be looking downward with omniscience, and everywhere in between. To do this the point of view and the perspective must be carefully designed, and lighting must be designed to accentuate the story moments as well.

The design of space and movement can be profoundly emotional for visual storytelling, and a close-up that takes us right up to the eyes of a main character can have an intensity like nothing else. Lesson 8 explores how to bring these ideas into your color script.

The final lesson! This week we continue our demonstration of how to paint and complete a presentational color script and take advantage of each and every principle presented in this course. I’ll show you how to group together your finished images into a portfolio ready color script/emotional beat board.