Monday, May 5, 2014

Art Philosophy - The Power of Black and White Shapes


Shape is one of the basic Elements of Art. Line is little more than an elongated shape. It's amazing how one can place a few shapes together and create a powerful and emotionally stirring image, especially when one is limited to only two colors -- black and white.

The illustration above is from an upcoming page in the ongoing Wandering Koala eSerial. When I finished drawing this with a Japanese brush pen and a Sharpie marker, I was amazed at how well the emotion was conveyed without color. Color is a very powerful element and by far the most effective to convey emotion. I wasn't sure the black & white shapes would be sufficient, but they were. The zoomed in composition helped to turn the hair and facial features into shapes so the design dominated which also helped greatly.

What do you think?

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