Build upon the basic elements that people already taught you. Almost everything can be understood as a combination of elements.
林 – two trees = forest
森 – forest with another tree on top blocking the sunlight = forest, gloomy
休 – person leaning against a tree = to rest
仔 – person and child = to nurture
众 – three persons = crowd
什 – person and ten = what? (imagine: what the heck are they doing over there??)
大 – person with arms outstretched = big (like a child indicating how big)
天 – extra layer on top of big = sky
晶 – like three suns = brilliant
唱 – mouth making it appear that there are two suns = to sing
明 – sun and moon are both = bright
安 – woman under roof = peace
好 – woman and child = good
家 – pig under roof = family
I highly recommend one of the books “Learning Chinese Characters” or “Reading and Writing Chinese” or “Cracking the Chinese Puzzles”; they will teach you Chinese characters in a good order from simple to complex and they will help you remember why characters consist of the parts they do.
You can make elaborate stories to help you remember:
偷 – a person 亻 on an Asian-style roof 𠆢 in the moonlight 月 holding a knife 刂looking to break into the house = thief