“The most bland “expressionless” lines on earth can’t help but characterize their subject in some way.” Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics
When I was in my first design studio in college the professor had us fill pages with practice lines. At the time it seemed odd to be so focused on such a basic element, but as time has passed, I have come to appreciate the importance of lines. They are one of the foundation elements of visual communication and can convey so much in their execution. So this week I wanted to look at lines and consider how we can use them to convey information in a drawing.
Starting Line
Lines are one of the foundational elements of visual communication. They can be twisted, straightened, and pulled into shapes and solids that convey meaning to you and your audience. As a result, mastering lines is critical to sharing the essence of a place, thing, or person through a drawing. Lines are also critical for developing your own style, and learning new styles, since lines form the foundation for your own visual vernacular.
Over the last 10 years, I have developed a style based on thin, black, mono lines. This conveys a sense of consistency and order that works well for showing architecture while allowing for more organic shapes too. Yet this style can also seem static and ridged. So recently I have been playing with watercolor and fountain pens to provide a softer feel. These drawings still have line work, but it is softened by the fountain pen ink and watercolors blending.
Line Weight
One of the most important elements of lines is their thickness. The thicker a line is the more it tends to stand out on the page. It will also appear to have more heft. Thinner lines tend to feel lighter and seem farther away in a drawing. This is why people tend to talk about line thickness as the weight of a line and you can use this to achieve a variety of effects in your drawings.
Perhaps the most important use for line thickness is enhancing a sense of depth in a drawing. Foreground objects tend to be darker and heavier, which can be conveyed with a thicker line. Meanwhile objects in the distance usually appear light and indistinct, which you can portray with a thinner line. And of course the middle ground can use a midrange line thickness. This strategic use of line thickness can build on other perspectival effects like atmospheric perspective and linear perspective.
Another use for thick lines is to help highlight something in a drawing. The thicker line pops off the page bringing the object it surrounds to our attention. Recently, when drawing the research vessel on the Oregon Coast above, I used a thicker line for its prow to help it stand out. This conveys a sense of weight in the ship’s prowl and gives a better sense of the ship’s scale. In contrast, the handrails and coning tower have thinner lines, giving a sense that they are lighter.
Line Consistency
Another important element of a line is its regularity. A perfectly straight line is basically impossible without a ruler and even with a ruler you can still get bumps. Plus the human eye will tend to see a relatively straight line as actually straight, so a line does not actually need to be truly straight. Instead we can embrace the fact that there will be imperfections by introducing them ourselves and deciding how to make use of them. In this way we can produce a straight line for a practical effect or introduce a wide variation to the line to convey a range of effects.
One of my favorite uses for lines is drawing water. Water is rather difficult to draw since it is constantly moving and shifting, but with a fluid line you can begin to provide a sense of movement in the drawing. It requires a very irregular line though and an open spontaneity. Looking at the painting of the ship again, you can see how I used lines to introduce a sense of movement to the water. While the colors capture the general shifting tones of the water the lines help give a sense of movement to the drawing.
Besides movement irregular lines can also help to convey a sense of feeling to a drawing too. While re-reading Understand Comics, I was struck by a line McCloud had when talking about the comic strip Peanuts, “…then couldn’t these lines be said to portray calm, reason and introspection.” Like my own drawings, Peanuts relied on a monoline, which led me to think about how my drawings tend to come from a place of calm and introspection. Yet I see other urban sketchers who draw with wild abandon and capture scenes in a way that suggests liveliness and energy. We each have our own experience of the urban environment and that often comes through in our line work.
Inspiration for the Week
Recently, I was inspired to see Grassroot Books’ cross the finish line on opening their new location in my hometown of Corvallis, OR. The store had been in the process of opening a new space with more room and an updated interior. One morning at the start of March, I walked past their new space and was disappointed to see it still had plastic over its windows since they had been planning to open the space at the beginning of March. Then I walked by a couple of hours later and the plastic was down and their door open. It was very exciting to visit them on their first day in their new space and see an independent bookstore growing and changing instead of closing.
Drawing Events & Groups
Finding a person or group to draw with can really help grow your sketching and creative practice. I hold a drawing hour once a month if you want a regular time to draw and share your work in the group chat. Plus, there are plenty of great groups and events to support you in your sketching journey too.
April Drawing Office Hours, April 10, 8pm-9pm PST
Sketch Fest, Edmonds, Washington, July 19-21, 2024
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