Silhouettes and Tangents

These two articles talk about a couple of important things to remember when you are designing characters or setting up enviroments and scenes.

Silhouettes:
'The reason silhouette value is important is because it's a great aid to "foolproofing" the clarity in your drawings - it helps make sure that everyone can tell exactly what your character is doing at all times.' This article is from a series titled ' a Kick in the head' on Mark Kennedy's wonderful blog Temple of the seven Golden Camels which is about drawing, storyboarding and animation.

Tangents:
'If silhouette is desirable, tangents are not. Tangents occur when lines or shapes begin to collide hap-hazardly, usually right on the contours they are describing.' Will Finn is a colleague of Mark's and writes about tangents and why to avoid them in this article on the Small Room. This is something most pro artists do instinctively but sometimes it gets overlooked.