23. 23
Pablo Picasso
HORIZONTAL line in an artwork may
Contribute a sense of restfulness, stability, stillness.
Particular directional lines tend to evoke
different energies or moods:
Karen Kunc
30. 30
3 types of LINES IN ART…
• DESCRIPTIVE LINES are lines that help us
understand what we are seeing.
– Outlines – Contour Lines – Single Lines – Hatching
• IMPLIED LINES are lines that suggest an edge
rather than clearly defining one.
– Implied Lines occur where textures, colors, and values
change at edges of shapes in artwork.
• EXPRESSIVE LINES are lines that send us
messages about what the artist wants his or her
work to make us feel.
31. 31
DESCRIPTIVE LINES
• OUTLINE -
– An outline is a line
that surrounds a
shape.
– The lines of an
outline are usually
the same thickness
throughout.
– Also, only the outer
edges of the shapes
are defined.
32. 32
DESCRIPTIVE LINES
• CONTOUR LINES-
– Also define the outer
edges of shapes.
– Unlike outlines,
however, contour lines
vary in thickness and
darkness.
– They also define the
edges of shapes within
a form.
– They give a greater
sense of depth to the
object.
33. 33
DESCRIPTIVE LINES
• Hatching / Cross-
Hatching
– Artists use many thin,
closely spaced, parallel
lines called hatching.
– Hatching lines that are
crossed, which make a
more solid shadow, are
called cross-hatching.
34. 34
IMPLIED LINES
• Are lines that are not seen, at least in the usual
way. They are indicated indirectly.
• An actual line does not have to be present in
order for a line to be suggested, or implied.
• Lines can be implied by:
– Edges
– Closure
– Lines of sight
36. 36
IMPLIED LINES
• LINES OF SIGHT
– Are implied lines
that are suggested
by the direction in
which the figures
in a picture are
looking, or from
the observer’s eye
to the object being
looked at.
37. 37
IMPLIED LINES
• CLOSURE –
– Our tendency to “see” complete figures where
lines are left open is called closure.
– Example would be a dotted line, we always finish
it to make it a solid line.
43. 43
A drawing might be characterized by lines that are
curvilinear or angular, continuous or interrupted…
Brice Marden
Oskar
Kokoshka
Lebbeus
Woods
(or broad or delicate,
rough or precise…)
Editor's Notes
We have seen the many thought processes artists consider to create an image (technical skill, choice of style, choice of imagery to convey a theme and its purpose, compositional choices). Now we will see more choices artists face in chapters 6-13: Media choice and the technical aspects of each media explored.
Remind students that bold terms are important. Art appreciation students tend to lose interest if the terms and definitions in this chapter are overwhelming. The types of media are delineated to show the variety of choices and styles. A contour drawing activity is on the last page, but you may prefer combining Chapters 6 & 7, as they are both brief.
We have all responded to the natural impulse to draw. Children learn to draw long before they write. Drawings are frequently used by artists for private note-taking. Most drawings are relatively small and executed quickly, as artists do hundreds of drawings for every finished work. Other drawings are large and executed with painstaking attention to detail. Here we see the adjustments Degas has made in this intimate study. We see the adjustments he made in the position of the arm, leg, and foot. These sketches provide an inventory from which larger compositions could be constructed. This drawing is drawn on a grid to make the transfer easier.
Picasso’s commission for the World’s Fair was completed days beforehand, to preserve an element of surprise. His compositional and detail sketches took months of preparation. We will study this painting in more detail later.
This artist often drew for no other reason than to understand the world around him. Leonardo had the curiosity and powers of observation of a natural scientist. Some of his studies did find their way into larger compositions, but notebook after notebook is filled with investigative drawings for their own sake. This drawing explored the parallels between the behavior of currents of water and the motions of waving grasses.
Our earliest knowledge of man is often through his art. The urge to draw has existed as long as humans. Early man used clay, burned wood, and berries, which he would blow through a tube or devise stick brushes and his fingers to draw with. Some categorize these as paintings, but the linear quality is more accurately categorized as drawing.
Graphite pencils gave the artist an opportunity to vary lines, use modeling, and be spontaneous, as work could be erased.
Ofili used a soft pencil for the portrait, and a harder pencil for the pale but still precise flowers in the background. From a standard viewing distance, the lines that define the figure seem to be made of dots, but as viewers draw closer, the dots become tiny heads with afro hairstyles. A British artist of African ancestry, he often uses imagery associated with black identity that emerged during the 60s and 70s, treating it with a mixture of irony and respect.
Metalpoint uses thin wire to produce very thin, uniform lines which depend on hatching and cross-hatching to produce tones. The media was difficult and unforgiving, and few artists use it now. The wire, often of pure silver, tarnishes quickly. The gray tonalities of tarnish are actually desirable, as they are a signature of this media. These models were probably Lippi workshop apprentices. The figure on the left may have been a study for Saint Sebastian, typically depicted with his arms bound, wearing only a loin cloth.
Charcoal (burned wood) allows bold, spontaneous lines as it is a very soft medium. The best quality charcoal is vine wood heated in a kiln. Charcoal lines can be thick, faint, or dark. Jacquette’s drawing illustrates well the tonal range of charcoal, deepening from sketchy pale gray to thick, velvety black. Her landscapes are depicted as seen from an airplane.
All drawing media are based on pigment, the powdered color material. The difference between chalk and crayon, or oil and chalk pastels, is the binder, the substance that holds the pigment together. One is greasy and adheres more easily, making blending more difficult.
Pastels, using a nonfat binder, are considered borderline between painting and drawing, as they blend easily. Crayon usually refers to conté crayon. Degas blended the tones in the face and upper torso. In the dress and the background, however, we see a roughly applied approach. The individual strokes create a sense of texture.
Ink allows for no mistakes, but does allow for variation in the thickness and thinness of lines, which depends on the size of the pen point used. A line that tapers from thick to thin is referred to as calligraphic or gestural, as is demonstrated in both of these images. We see the “handwriting” of Rembrandt, a rapid, sketchy style that is as lively as this windy day. A wash of diluted ink applied with a brush gives solidity to the cottage.
The brush has long been the favorite drawing tool of Asian artists. Remember the Japanese hanging scroll with the priest’s gaze carrying us into the expanse of negative space. Here we can compare traditional Eastern and Western styles of ink using brush and pen.
The difference between drawing and painting is not always clear. Artists also choose to combine media. Mixed media has become an increasingly popular choice, because of the versatility. Drawings have traditionally been small and intimate, but now wall-sized papers are available.
Pettibon’s drawings are drawn in normal scale, but become part of larger installations, often pinned to the wall with additional text and images drawn directly on the wall itself. The effect is of walking into a picture book whose pages have scattered themselves around a room. He compares these to videos, for the groupings often imply a beginning, and some kind of story, and perhaps a future.
Not only have the boundaries between drawing and painting blurred, so has the concept of art as a finished product. LeWitt creates the instructions for making the wall drawings and entrusts their execution to others. The subject of the drawing is the instructions and LeWitt insists that they be displayed nearby. The instructions could produce a vast number of drawings that would look quite different, each springing from the same concept. In Conceptual Art, the idea is more important than the physical form that it manifests.
This chapter ends with a bang, or at least a drawing of one. In gallery and museum settings, Simmons often coats walls with slate paint to create blackboard-like mural surfaces. Our immediate association might be that of a student’s or professor’s brain that could not hold one more piece of information. In contrast, the image also looks like a blossom, making it a symbol of life and beauty. If we recall Bernini’s Baroque art (figures 17.1, 17.2), we could envision “boom” as a stylized cloud with beams of light streaming behind it, signifying the radiant glory of heaven. Or, could it be the Big Bang theory of the beginning of the universe?
These wall paintings bring us back full circle to the early drawings in caves. In bypassing conventional paper, these artists show us that drawing need accept no limits.