ARTICLE-A-DAY Lines in the World of Art 6 Articles Check articles you have read: What Is a Line? 237 words Lines Follow Directions 245 words Shading with Lines 217 words Looking at Lines in an Architectural Drawing 237 words Lines in Kamisaka Sekka's Momoyogusa (Flowers of a Hundred Worlds) 227 words Lines in Albrecht Dürer's Drawing of a Large Horse 225 words Page 1 of 11 ReadWorks.org
What Is a Line? What Is a Line? Ojus Doshi You sit down at a table with a pencil in hand and a blank sheet of paper in front of you. What s the first thing you draw? You probably start out by drawing a line. A line is a way to connect one point to another point. There are many types of lines. Each kind helps artists and illustrators create art that communicates certain feelings. Straight lines travel directly from one point to the next in the quickest way possible, like the lowercase letter l. Straight lines communicate precision and directness. Curved lines bend as they go from one end to another. Think about the smooth curve of a circle. Curved lines may communicate gentleness or softness. Lines can be thick or thin or anywhere in between. You can draw a thick line by pressing harder on your pencil. Thick lines are heavy and definite. Thin lines, on the other hand, only need a small amount of pressure when you draw. Thin lines communicate lightness or quickness. Finally, lines can take the form of a zig-zag, creating a jagged edge. Think of a row of teeth from a shark or the letter Z. Zig-zag lines may communicate sharpness or roughness. The opposite of a zig-zag is a wavy line. Like the waves of the ocean, lines can gently go up and down. These Page 2 of 11
What Is a Line? lines can communicate that something is silly and fun. Page 3 of 11
Lines Follow Directions Lines Follow Directions Ojus Doshi There are many different kinds of lines in the world. Take a look around you. You may see straight lines, wavy lines, or curved lines. You may see thick lines or thin lines. You may also see lines going in different directions. The direction of a line depends on the starting point and ending point of the line. Let s look at three directions: horizontal, vertical, and diag onal. A horizontal line is a flat line. You can draw a horizontal line from right to left or left to right. For example, the top of the letter T is a horizontal line. If you need help remembering this, think about looking outside into the distance to where the sky seems to touch the ground. That is called the horizon line. The horizon line is a horizontal line! A vertical line is a line that goes up and down. You draw a vertical line from top to bottom or bottom to top. Trees are vertical. They usually grow from the ground towards the sky. A diagonal line is a slash. A diagonal line can go between the top right and bottom left. It can also go between the top left and bottom right. The crossing lines in the letter X are both diagonal lines. But keep in mind, the special thing about directions is that they depend on the viewer. A tree could look vertical while you are standing, but horizontal while you are laying down! Page 4 of 11
Shading with Lines Shading with Lines Ojus Doshi Objects in the world rarely appear to be just one shade. Because of the sun, or any source of light, different parts of an object may look darker or lighter. Have you ever seen a ball sitting in the sun? Usually the bottom areas are much darker than areas near the top. Or think about a tall building on a sunny day. One side may look brighter than the other side. That s because of the direction of the sunlight! When drawing, artists can use lines to show these different shades of light and shadow. They may draw several straight lines next to each other. The closer these lines are to each other, the darker they look as a group. The more spread out the lines are, the lighter they look as a group. One way to create shadow in a drawing is to use cross-hatching. To do this, an artist draws straight lines going in different directions on top of each other. For example, imagine that an artist wants to make an area of a drawing very dark. The artist could first fill in the area with many horizontal lines. Then the artist could fill the same area with many vertical lines. This area would appear darker than an area with only horizontal lines. Page 5 of 11
Looking at Lines in an Architectural Drawing Looking at Lines in an Architectural Drawing This old drawing is a plan for a building in France. Drawings used for the construction of buildings need to be precise and exact. That way, people who build it will not misunderstand the plan and make mistake s. Look at the lines in the drawing. Almost all of them are the same thickness. The artist probably made the lines the same thickness on purpose. This allows the viewer to understand the complete picture or outline, and to see all the details. A thicker line may draw attention to one part over another part. But for this building plan, the shapes made by the lines are the most important feature to show. Single lines should not stand out. What are the types of lines we see, and what are their directions? Most of the drawing uses straight lines. It uses both horizontal and vertical lines. The four columns contain many vertical lines. The stairs at the bottom are shown through long horizontal lines. And the edges of the Page 6 of 11
Looking at Lines in an Architectural Drawing stairs are shown through small vertical lines. We also see curved lines, which look like half of a circle. These lines can be seen in the archways and top dome of the building. Buildings need to be sturdy and strong so they do not fall down. Artists show this in drawings by using many horizontal and vertical lines. The lines they draw create blocks and precise shapes, and communicate stre ng th. Page 7 of 11
Lines in Kamisaka Sekka's Momoyogusa (Flowers of a Hundred Worlds) Lines in Kamisaka Sekka's Momoyogusa (Flowers of a Hundred Worlds) This is an illustration by a Japanese artist named Kamisaka Sekka from the early 1900s. It shows a man sweeping leaves. It was created using traditional woodblock printing. What do you notice about the lines in this illustration? There are very few straight lines. Most of the lines are curved. This creates the effect of a soft and gentle flow. Curved lines are useful for showing objects from the natural world, like animals, plants, and people. Very rarely do these types of objects have perfectly straight edges. Our clothes have wrinkles and folds, the shapes of our bodies curve, and plants bend in the wind. What about the thickness of the lines? In the lines of the clothes, the thickness changes from very thick to very thin. Changing the thickness of the lines is helps show how shapes like our clothes flow and bend. Compare this to the lines in the broom and broom handle. These are the Page 8 of 11
Lines in Kamisaka Sekka's Momoyogusa (Flowers of a Hundred Worlds) straightest lines in the drawing. The broom is a tool, and tools are built to be sturdy so that they are easy to use and last for a long time. You can try playing with thick and thin lines the next time you draw with a marker or pencil. Press harder to create thicker lines, and draw lightly when you want thin lines. What effects do these lines create? Page 9 of 11
Lines in Albrecht Durer's Drawing of a Large Horse Lines in Albrecht Durer's Drawing of a Large Horse This is a drawing of a horse from the artist Albrecht Dürer. Take a look at the lines in this drawing. The drawing uses many types of lines to create shade and texture. We see horizontal lines and curved lines, thick lines, and thin lines. Look at the belly of the horse. Do you see how the part of the belly is shaded, or dark? This shading is created by putting many diagonal lines on top of each other. This is also true for the buildings in the background. The artist shows them in a dark shadow. If you look very closely, you can see how many different directions of lines cross each other to create a dark appearance. This kind of shading is calle d cross-hatching. Lines can be used to show a darker area even if they all go the same way. The artist can do this by drawing the lines close together. For example, look at the column all the way on the left. The Page 10 of 11
Lines in Albrecht Durer's Drawing of a Large Horse artist shows that the right side of the column is darker than the left by making the horizontal lines closer to each other. This shading shows that the left side of the column is closer to light than the right. Think about other kinds of art you ve seen. Where else might you spot cross-hatching or shading? Page 11 of 11