1 WHAT’S THE STORY?

Whether it’s a professional brief or notes for a personal piece, my first step is to think about the story. Which elements are crucial to telling the story, which are secondary, and which add tertiary support? This is how you figure out the hierarchy of elements in your piece. Here, I wanted the confrontation between the warrior and the dragon to be paramount, but I needed the secondary elements such as the wrecked wooden platform to support the central narrative of the piece.