Silhouette Studies.

Over the summer I came across a blog while researching silhouettes and basic character design theory. 

"Academy of Art's": "Character and Creature Design Notes".

This blog is a great resource for character designers. They don't post too often anymore; But they make up for it by having one of the most awesome archives.

I'm a massive fan of silhouettes. I love being able to get down the idea for a character, (or any design for that matter), and then having all your options on the table to choose from. Readability is such a key factor in design, that it almost seems silly to me NOT to harness the usefulness of the silhouette. If you have a strong silhouette then you have an advantage of an interesting design from the word GO.

Because of the tremendous fundamental benefits which silhouettes can lend a design, improving my illustration through the use of silhouettes will be a major part of my personal development.

If i can make my first step (silhouette) in the process as great as possible then it serves to make sure the journey itself goes in the best direction.

Seriously though, it's often thought that with a thumbnail or silhouette, the key thing is that it must be done as fast as possible. But that has very little to do with it. It's the readability of the design which is key (Jason Chan 2009). So ultimately, I want the foundations of this design project to be as strong and interesting as possible, so that in the end they best represent the story.