Megasketch Monday -- Silhouette Power

Pentel Pocket Brush Pen with Platinum Carbon Black ink

If you open up the Roger Tory Peterson Field Guide to the Birds, the first thing you see is a two page spread of bird silhouettes. What always surprises me is that each bird is so identifiable from its silhouette alone. Their poses are also perfectly in character, sitting on wires, standing on a fence post, walking along the ground, or looking up and chirping. Silhouettes seem simple, yet they can tell a
complex story with strong shapes.

Pitt Brush Pens

In light of the power that silhouettes can project with movement and variation, it's surprising that so often we see birds in flight indicated as little V-shapes in the sky. (Yeah, I've done it too!) Those silhouette shapes can convey much more of a story if we want them to. It just takes practice, so I spent a chunk of Project Megasketch time working on silhouettes.

Watercolor

Many artists (especially watercolor painters) are extremely skilled at dropping convincing figure silhouettes into their paintings in the distance, adding activity and human interest to their stories. I'd like to improve on my ability to do that convincingly.

Since I've got two adult children who are rock climbers, I wanted to work on some climbing figures too. What is your own special interest that you'd like to be able to portray in your paintings? Make it your focus.

If you get tired of doing black on white silhouettes, use a color, or try iridescent on black for some sparkly, fun experiments.

Golden Iridescent Acrylics, black gesso ground

I've also been amazed by the way silhouettes can accurately describe specific dog breeds and movement. I explored a lot of different animals and their silhouettes  -- even giraffes and elephants!

Iridescent gouache, black gesso ground

Once you get the overall shape and movement, you can put on clothing or add other features to bring them more to life, and drop in some shadows to ground the images.

Watercolor

Many artists have become very skilled with quick bicycle figures and motorcycles for their city scenes, boats in the distance for seascapes and marinas, or cows to put into the fields of pastoral landscapes. Silhouette practice improves our visual library, storytelling ability, creativity, and artistic skill.

For an overview of Project Megasketch and what it entails, see this post.
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I try to post Project Megasketch installments on Mondays, under the subject heading "Megasketch Monday", but I reserve the right to be late from time to time! ;)
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