On a Tangent

How spatial ambiguity and compositional tension undermine your illustrations.

Tangents have felled many an illustration.

No, I’m not talking about the result of dividing the sine of an angle by the cosine—and that’s just about all I remember from high school trigonometry.

In visual art, tangents disrupt compositions, distract viewers, and flatten any depth an artist tries to achieve through their lines, shapes, value (light and dark), and even color. In other words, a tangent is to your illustration what a strand of hair is to your Le Canard à la Presse.

Let’s talk about avoiding—and using—tangents…