You’re waiting for your friend on a crowded street because you’re going to get some tasty katsu curry at your favorite Japanese diner. You look up and way in the distance, you see your friend. You wave, she waves back, and you head off to a tasty lunch. How did you pick her out in such a big crowd? Your brain catalogs the overall shape and movement of your friends which helps you instantly pick your friends out of a crowd. We can use this principle when designing characters for animation, comics, and games.

Silhouettes When Our Bodies Finally Go

A strong silhouette instantly conveys the personality of your character. That first initial read can go a long way in establishing a relationship with your audience. You will be able to communicate aspects of your character without boring your audience with cumbersome exposition.

Enough talk! Let’s look at some silhouettes!

Our favorite Caped Crusader cuts one of the most recognizable silhouettes in comic book history. Your character doesn’t need fancy design elements to be instantly recognizable. Sometimes all you need is a horned cowl and a spiky cape.

Even without his claws out, this Canuck sports quite the recognizable hair do, bub.

Speaking of hair, this spinning Street Fighter’s hair buns and wrist spikes are enough to distinguish her from a plethora of spandex clad women warriors.

Sometimes you don’t even need fancy accessories. Sometimes all it takes is body language to distinguish a character like our friendly neighborhood wall crawler here.

Body Language

We’ve seen how readable silhouettes can instantly identify characters. But what can silhouettes tell us about those characters?

Weight on the back foot, hips cocked, arms folded, chin down? Oh, you’re in trouble now. Her body language conveys an attitude of incredulity.

His body language tells us he has something to hide. Crouching over distorts the recognizable shape of the silhouette making the character harder to recognize.

Everybody was kung-fu fighting! HA! His body language tells us his next attack. He can kick easily off his right leg which is his longest weapon and jab quickly with his right hand. But his left fist is cocked high, ready to punch. To do so, he’ll have to shift his weight forward.

The Shadow Knows

Along with gesture and line, silhouette is a basic concept that will help you build a stronger illustration foundation. Focusing on establishing strong, readable silhouettes for your characters will prevent you from loosing yourself in extraneous detailing. Sure, shiny buckles are pretty damn sweet. But they’re a bitch and half to draw over and over again and only serve to clutter up your design. Our most memorable characters have deceptively simple silhouettes that are instantly recognizable and have stood the test of time. Strive for readability and your characters will make lasting impressions on your audience