Artipathy discussion

I'm kinda jumping around here, but I was just listening to Chris Oatley's podcast on "The Skillful Huntsman" by Khang Le, Mike Yamada, Felix Yoon and I heard him talking about something that Gurney also brings up, which is the silhouette. I have done and taught plenty of exercises in right brain drawing and this is yet another way to access that part of your brain. Actually, it's covered in "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" by Betty Edwards but she doesn't make the link to the illustration field. Anyway, I'm going to think a lot about this now, what the figure is doing and how that would translate into an interesting silhouette. Apparently this is considered one of the keys to good illustration by those in the field and yet I never heard it spoken of in such a clear way till Gurney (and now Oatley) mentioned it. Such a great way to stay away from the details and figure out the big picture first!

Yes, those guys are good, and watching the silhouette is very common in video games and illustration, because you are always trying to make a strong impact. One of the major differences between this type of art and more classical art is impact. Most of the "huntsman" guys come from that school of movie type layout, where every image is meant to sell the movie to executives...and rightly so because you want your work to get an "awesome!" when you put it out there. Silhouette, and distinguishing it from the background is one of those needed steps to push the wow factor of the image....so you don't get that blending composition, you get a stark one. Often times they will set there subjects against large backdrops, with lots of scale, or very dramatic foreground darkness to background lightness(or the other way) with minimal detail in the background....anyways, it's a good way to go, but does tend to be more of a movie look.

That's really interesting to hear, Todd. I'm interested in the illustration vs. classical idea but I think it still has stuff to teach me. The whole silhouette thing reminds me of Notan. Have you heard of it? Here's a great book on it: Notan: The Dark-Light Principle of Design by Dorr Bothwell, Marlys Mayfield
I keep meaning to do the exercises in it but never get around to it. But the concept, of looking at composition from it's basic elements of light and dark really works and I think that is what is interesting about the silhouette idea. It's important to get the basic shapes in to understand how the composition is going to work. But it's true that classical painting isn't necessarily going for such a dynamic effect as games and illustration. There have been several classical artists who have used the concept of Notan, though I don't have them off the top of my head. Maybe Sargent, but don't quote me on that. Silhouette reminds me to look at the basic shapes first and not get involved in the details and that's why I like it. If you check out the Notan thing, let me know. I'd be interested to hear what you think of it. Hope your projects are going well!