Line - The most basic Element of Art that can be used to create most of the other elements. A moving dot. Can have diverse qualities such as weight, a change in value, thickness, and contrast. It can be smooth or bumpy, curved or straight, diagonal of horizontal.
"A drawing is simply a line going for a walk" - Paul Klee
Line - Drawn by hand in a sketchbook
Line - Digitally drawn in Illustrator
Line Page by Maggie Gundy
Line Page by Camilla Bartolone
After Line, continue with the next 6 sketchbook pages of the Elements of Art: Shape Color, Value, Form, Texture, and Space. Line - The most basic Element of Art that can be used to create most of the other elements. A moving dot. Can have diverse qualities such as a change in value, thickness, and smoothness or flow.
Shape - Two dimensional area surrounded by a line, can be; geometric, free-form, or organic.
Color - Hue is another word for color. Colors can be mixed with whites or blacks to produce various degrees of light values or shades.
Value - Lightness and darkness associated with shading. It is also called tone. Form - 3-Dimensinal includes Mass, Volume, Depth (Height, Length, Width)
Texture - describes the surface quality, or the way it feels or looks like it feels such as bumpy,
Space - An area, or the area an object takes up. Can be described as "Negative Space" or an empty area around an object, or "Positive Space", the object itself. Space can create create an illusion of depth or emptiness.
Gesture Drawing
Uses quick line work to depict movement. A gesture drawing is completed quickly – often in short timed durations, such as 20, 30, 60 or 90 seconds – using fast, expressive lines, often it depicts movement.
Continuous Line Drawing
A continuous line drawing is produced without ever lifting the drawing instrument from the page. It is made of one line. Often artworks made of wire are created using this technique.
Blind Contour A blind contour drawing contains lines that are drawn without ever looking at the piece of paper. This forces you to study a scene closely, observing every shape and edge with your eyes, as your hand mimics these on paper. The aim is not to produce a realistic artwork, but rather to strengthen the connection between eyes, hand and brain: a reminder that, when drawing, you must first learn to see.
Contour Drawing
A contour drawing shows the outlines, shapes and edges of a scene, but omits fine detail, surface texture, color and tone. (‘contour’ is French for ‘outline’)
Drawing "Igor Stravinsky" upsidedown. Did you know you can draw things upside down better than you can right side up! Cover up 90% of the upside down Igor and focus on the exact line placement. When done, uncover 10% more and finish that area. Continue until you are done copying the entire line drawing that Picasso created of Igor Stavinsky.
Cross Contour
A cross contour drawing contains parallel lines that run across the surface of an object (or radiate from a central point), such as those that appear on a topographical map or a digital wireframe.
Cross Contour Drawings
Draw the outside shape first...
Then draw connecting lies with curves and detailed lines or textures to make it appear 3-D.
'Presence' by Isabella Dennison Contour Drawing Scholastics Gold Key Award
Line Weight
Line weight describes both the change of thickness of a line and how bold it is which is dependent on value and contrast.
Below the student's digital drawing of a cat and its skull. The drawing changes the line weight to show thickness of the cat's skull and plays with both line types in the ears. The young artist also shows the use of contrast between the white lines, gray lines, and black values.
Student digital artwork: “Cat Skull” by Maddison Kolioupoulos An artwork from her "Best Senior Portfolio in Macomb County 2021"