A few posts back, I mentioned the Visual Elements of art. These are what make up a work of art – they’re essentials and they’re also fun to play with in creative exercises. Today we’ll look at Line, which is a continuous path from one point to another.
The first artist that comes to mind when I think of line is Cy Twombly. His paintings of scribbles resemble something you might find on an elementary school’s blackboard or illegible notes & plans in a ledger. He made huge looping marks on oversized canvases that pull you in with their energy.
Let’s play with Line.
Remember the sketchbook I suggested that you get? In your sketchbook or on any piece of paper, following the photo below, make your own lines that express these line variations: straight, wavy, thick & thin, dotted, looping, zig-zag, light & dark, and dashed.
Lines can instantly express emotion. With the speed and pressure with which we move the pencil, we can portray so many emotions such as lethargy, anger, excitement, anxiety, peacefulness, etc. How are you feeling today? On a separate page, fill up the space with whatever line or mark that feels natural to you at this moment. I’ll come along with you.
The next step is to consider the quality of your line. My lines are swirly and the line itself is pretty even throughout. Yours might have more variety such as hard & light or thick & thin. If you want to do a second version where you consciously change the quality of your line by varying your speed and pressure, go for it. (Remember, the sketchbook is meant to be used!) You can also emphasize the varying qualities by going over your lines with your pencil or even erasing them. I’m going to exaggerate the thickness of my lines.
Now I’ll darken some lines with a 2B pencil; I was using an HB before.
It’s starting to pop from the page and, really, it’s nothing like Twombly’s work – how about yours? As an exercise in line quality, it was fun – I hope you enjoyed it, too. If you feel inspired, keep working on yours or do a bunch of them. I could keep going with this one by erasing parts, adding some lines that represented a different energy (like hunger… it’s about lunchtime), or even adding color. But color is a visual element that we will explore at a later date, so stay tuned.
I loved the drawing you did and to me, it said ´Here is a lovely young woman getting ready for her day`. Very nice.
I love this, sometimes I forget it's this easy. Thank you