Shape and silhouette design analysis

Composition

This is a composition that relies on the dynamic pose she is in as the main and only focal point in the image. We see a streak of green lightning (not outlined in ink like the rest of her by the way) that jumps across the page moving from behind her to off the page to the right. We can also notice that there is a swoop of white in the background that follows the general direction of the gesture.

Again like in other pieces I have studied we see that the foot and hand come towards us and are cropped off the page slightly to give depth. Notice also that the cord that swirls around our focal point of the face.

Shape design

If I take the whole image and do a silhouette tracing of it we can begin to see a rhythm of shapes and lines begin to emerge. For example I really dig the way we get the nice strong gesture of her leg that is punctuated with evenly spaced square like shapes that come out at the thigh and bottom part of the leg. It makes the legs feel like they are apart of the more mechanical design of the upper body and they effectively communicate this in the silhouette. Otherwise it may look out of place. 

There is contrast in this design as well as we see the organic shapes of her but contrast to the straight edges of her suit. 

Form 

I also decided to take the main mechanical forms in the suit and do a quick trace over to get an idea of how the forms change in space. I thought it was interesting that the artist here used shapes within shapes to show depth such as the helmet. These negative space like shapes  are something I never really considered for a mechanical design and it will be something I incorporate into my designs going forward. 

I also wanted to take the time to revisit the piece I did as an analysis the other day to take a look at how the artist used line work to show the changing form as well as the shape design of the pants in particular. What I notice here is that the  triangle is a constant shape throughout the design. There is actually some contrast and rhythm between a big triangle shape to a straight to a small triangle to a curve, then we get another bigger triangle before going into a curve of the butt on the left leg. These smaller triangle shapes are balanced and contrasted on the other leg by the large triangle shape and the straight it is connected to on the inside of the leg. Here we get a clearer idea of how the negative space itself is designed in this boxy like form. 

On the other leg we get a similar contrast going on here when we see the inner leg now has more triangular shapes and changes of direction going on versus the outer leg that really only shows the clothes falling on the knee and we get a couple of small triangle folds at the top of the leg. The rest of the silhouette is a mix of straights and triangle like shapes, even for the hair and the handle of the sword. Notice again there is a rhythm found here, for example the hair, to suggest its organic form has a straight side and a curved side to its shape. Its also erratic and swaying in one direction. Notice all the shapes move with the gesture which feels like it is going up and to the left.