Talking about comics one day, I remarked to John McCrea “I love your use of silhouette”. John, a comics-professional’s comics-professional said “Oh yeah, I try and do one every page. It’s a real time saver”
This, for me, is up there Kirby’s famous “Every time I rub something out it costs me money”.
As practical advice it’s golden. Yes, a silhouette saves time, but, equally, and I may be wrong I think it can be striking.
I’ve sort of gotten out of the way of trying to do a silhouette every page (I mean, I’m pretty sure John meant it in the same way Kirby meant his advice – something that feels true more than is true) but I really need to get back in to it.
There’s certainly a thing in the back of your head saying “This is cheating” but, all comics drawing is cheating. I don’t draw what people look like, I don’t draw how guns actually fire, I don’t draw what a speeding vehicle would look like. It’s cheating all the way down.
I found the above two panel sequence while searching for something else, and it lept out at me – the stark shadow following the brightly coloured panel was an intense example of contrast (even if it does look like a tilted version of the Candle Stick/Face optical illusion).
Artwork on that is by Me, with story/dialogue by Michael Carroll.