Making Better Lines, Making Lines Better

7/27/2019 Making Better Lines, Making Lines Better

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Making .. Better,Making LinesLines-as outline, as hatching, laiddown boldly or applied delicatelyare the foundation of drawing. Butwhen allied with mass and tone,lines become even more expressive.by Dan GhenoLne has been around for a long time. Eversince the prehistoric era, when that firstartist picked up a lump of wood ash from aspent campfire and outlined a hand on the cavewall, lines have described forms of all types-human, animal, and landscape. On its own, lineis a very powerful force. A line can depict thesimple silhouette of a form as well as its morecomplicated interior dimensions. When used in a

hatching manner, it can even simulate value. Andwhen joined with softer, smudged tones knownas value masses, you have a combined unstoppable force-except, perhaps, by a good eraser.

Some artists will argue that you can mosteffectively render the human figure or abstractimagery with value-massing alone, that everything you can do with line, you can do with lightand dark tonalities. That is t r u ~ . Some of themost evocative drawings are indeed based onvalue alone. But at its core, all finely observedtonal shapes are bound by an implied "edge," orconceptual line, even if it exists only subconsciously in the viewer's mind. Personally, I'mexcited by the explicit combination of line andmass in my own work. As I will explain in thisarticle, why not use both? First I'll describe howto use line on its own. Later I'll show you how tomerge both into a dynamic partnership.

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Point and Line to PlaneLine first starts quietly on the page as a dot. Then, to loosely long, sweeping, lightly plied lines-an impossible task if Iborrow from the title ofWassily Kandinsky's book, Point and hold my pencil or chalk between my thumb and forefingerLine to Plane, this potent mark or point transforms into a as I would when writing a letter. (This hand position worksline and finally, in the hands of a trained artist, tums into a splendidly when sketching in the final details, especially ifvolumetric plane. By varying the thickness, darkness, and buttressed by a mahlstick or a small, separate clean piece oftexture of the line, you can simulate a movement in and out paper under your drawing hand.) Instead, when startingof human forms, especially if you let lines cross over one out, I turn the back of my hand to the paper (Fig.I), looselyanother, digging past the outside edges holding the pencil toward the end ofof the figure, into its interior peaks and the shaft and sandwiched between myvalleys. Depending upon your subject thumb, palm, and forefinger. I fre-or your aesthetic intent, you can use quently change my hand positionlines that are sharp like wire, lines that depending upon the in tended direc-are rough lil


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Depending upon how you apply your pencil to paper, lines can have an::;:.1 ohonal and psychological aspect, and they almost always display some sortof a visual, rhythmic property in the way they dance around he page.

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Pure LineYou can say a great deal even with a minimum oflines.When working from life, you can suggest a fully formedhuman figure with a Simple deadweight line just by care-fully observing and mapping the outer edges of the model(see sidebar on page 56). Look closely at your subject, asEgon Schiele does in Reclining Nude With Raised Torso,chalting the subtle variations of exterior shapes. Eachbump suggests some bone or muscle. You can certainlydistOli the proportions of the figure or exaggerate its per-spective !ilee Schiele does with his drawing of the womanlunging fOlward into the picture plane, but try to respondcandidly and directly to the outside shapes. Your viewerswill then sense the volumes within, based upon the expe-rience and instinctual knowledge of their own bodies.

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OPPOSITE PAGETwisted Torsoby Dan Gheno, 2006,pastel and sanguinecrayon, 9 x 12.Collection the artist.

BelOWReclining Nude WithRaised Torsoby Egan Schiele, 1918, blackcrayon, 1U x 18%.This drawing, so filled with life,was drawn by the prolific andyoung artist in the year of hispremature death.

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ClosureYou don't need to wrap your figures with a continuous,rigid, bold outline. You can create a more profoundsense of closure by marking the edges of the smallerhuman forms with intermittent lines, in the mannerCezanne and Degas sometimes did. Working this way,you can take a minimal approach: For example, you canmark off the root, the base, and the tip of the nose, andthe viewer will intu it the rest of the line. But if you'reinterested in simulating form, don't reduce the numberoflines too much. You should at least place a hint of aline at important high and low points along the perime-ter of an object and where one important subform cross-es another. The drawing will look incomplete or jarring-ly blank in places if you don't.Overlapping LinesAlthough the outside shape is important and, as Platoseems to suggest in his theory of Ideal Form, is essentialto the very identity and recognition of the object, weeventually need to travel inside the figure with our lines.It's difficult or impossible for the beginning artist to dothis when working from photos, but while working from

.life, you will see how forms continuously overlap oneanother, as when the neck slides over and above theshoulder, or the deltoid runs in front of the collar boneand wedges into the upper arm. In my drawing ArmSwinging Back, note how I varied the thickness and valueof the line to simulate the swelling of the underlyingforms, particularly in the legs. Also, observe how I'veportrayed the transit ion of the left calf into the upper leg,with the "overcutting" forms, as sculptors phrase it, rep-resented by overlapping lines. However, don't becomedogmatic. Notice how I use these techniques in a dis-criminating fashion. I emphasized the darlmess in theline along the near shoulder so that the more faintly ren-dered far shoulder could recede. Even though the near1elbow is closer to the viewer than the shoulder, I selec-tively chose to emphasize the overlapping, bony points ofthe elbow instead of the entire projecting shape of thearm to keep it from looking stiffly enclosed. I felt that thelines of the elbow were just dark and sharp enough to

OPPOSITE PAGE BELOWThe Artist's Mother Relaxing in an Arm SwingingArmchair Backby Oskar Kokoschka, ca. 1912, black chalk, IS" x II . by Dan Gheno, 2003,Collection Albertina Museum, Vienna, Austria. colored pencil, 24 x 18.Collection the artistThe artisfs expressive approach owed much to hisintellect, but was also dependent on his choice ofpaper and bold drawing material.

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bring it ahead of the receding hand.


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become a slave to fancy pyrotechnical linework. When working from life,1 at least as much time looking at the model as you do rendering the lines.

1504, penandCasa Buonarroti,Italy.yourself writing a groceryback of this drawing andfit it in your hip pocket?get away with

he did just that.c row it away as hen. A his other drawings.

OPPOSITE PAGEStudy for the Heller Altar:Head of an Apostleby Albrecht Durer, 1508, brushdrawing with white highlights on adark ground, 12* x 9. CollectionAlbertina Museum, Vienna, Austria.So many lines, and yet there is not asingle example of the dreaded "tictactoe" malady in the entire drawing!

HatchingMany artists like to take a topographical, hatchingapproach to their linework, such as in Albrecht Durer'sdrawings. You can learn a lot from looking at the work ofthis Northern Renaissance artist. In Head ofan Apostle,see how he weaves his line around the forms, usinglonger, gradually curving strokes on the softer, morerounded form of the overall head. Meanwhile, he usesshorter hatcmng strokes, alternating in direction, todescribe the smaller, more angular forms ofthe wrinldesand bony landmarks. Observe how he overlaps lines in agraduated manner in the detail; he never layers the hatching in a tic-tac-toe, right-angled way. Usually, one strokegradually leads into th e other, an d as in the highlight rendered in white lines, th e hatching can take on an almostspirallike appearance. In another example, notice how thedepth of Michelangelo's lines vary greatly and seem tobecome darker an d more intense where they coalescearound the accented bony and hard muscles points on thefigure in Study ofa Male Nude. When rendered with penand ink, his accents no t only seem to turn darker bu t alsoappear to have an almost polished, burnished look.

Try spending some time studying or copying oldengravings, as the students of the French Academy wererequired to do in the r8th and 19th centuries. It's alsohelpful to study comic-book artists such as Neal Adams orMort Drucker for their smoothly interlacing crosshatcillngmethods. This will attune your eye to the nuance oflinean d help you develop a subtlety and syntax for your hatching technique. But don't overdo it, and don't become aslave to fancy pyrotechnicallinework. When workingfrom life, spend at least as much time looking at themodel as you do rendering the lines. Otherwise, yourdrawing will look simplistic and stylized, wrapped up in aconvoluted mass of barbed wire or what an artist an dinfluential art-techniques writer of the 19th century,Jacques-Nicolas Paillot de Montabert, called "wretchedstudies" and "the somewhat absurd patience of those individuals who ... imitate exactly the engraving tool" insteadof nature. According to the art historian Albert Boime, theteachers of the French Academy frequently whined aboutthe tendency of their advanced students to draw in thismannered way, unaware that their early overemphasis onmindlessly copying engravings "fostered the cold and lifeless appearance which the Academy itself criticized."


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The Fusion of Line and MassFor a counterpoint to this hard-line approach, take along look at Charles Dana Gibson's drawings, renderedin softer, broader, and looser entwined strokes. Alongwith several artists and illustrators in this cross-centuryperiod, Gibson tried to emulate the flowing, painterlyeffect of value-massing with line alone. Although manyof his freely curving and parallel lines seem to follow thevolumes of his subjects, his goal seems less the tactilesensation of form that Durer pursued and more anattempt to show the optical effects of light on structure.Observe how Gibson evocatively creates shades of lightand dark by varying the closeness and number of hatching lines to indicate value change. He applies a delicateweave of subtle lines to the paper when he representsthe softer forms that appear to be gradually darker asthey turn away from the light source. He uses a greaterquantity of harsher lines when he indicates the harder

- - , forms that sharply corner away from the light and turndramatically into darker shadow masses.

It's not easy to draw in ink, but it is a great way toaccelerate the learning process. You can't make any mistakes with pen-and-ink so you quicldy learn to observeand choose your lines wisely. There are many tools tochoose for this torture; you should try all of them untilyou find the one that suits you. The Gibson generationused flexible dip pens and thin, pointed sable brushes tomaster their elegant thick and thin lines. Van Goghmade some of his own rudimentary yet effective pensout of common reeds and feathers. Today, we also have awide variety of fountain pens and even fountain brushesto take some of the torment out of the process. I used todraw with both in my early years, but now I find that aballpoint pen serves my purposes just as well. Somecontemporary brands of ballpoint pens are prone tofrustratingly splotchy accidents, but if you try enoughdifferent manufacturers, you will discover a few thatprovide a sensitive and dependable line. You will find aballpoint pen quite useful while on the move, when youwant a fluid, sketchy look, or when you want to indicate alarge value mass across the page with a cluster of rapidlyhatched lines .

.-" A First Nightby Charles Dana Gibson, ink.Gibson .was a popular illustrator at the turn of the 19th century. He isnotoriously responsible for the "Gibson Girl" image, but he also producedsome wonderful social commentary such as the images above. He was sosought after for his dynamically composed and energetically detailed visualcritiques that he worked for both Life and Collier's, competing magazines.48 DRAWING


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Although many of Gibson's freely curving and parallel lines seem to follow thevolumes of his sUbjects, his goal seems less the tactile sensation of form that Durerpursued and more an attempt to show the optical effects of light on structure.


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BELOW LEFT BELOW RIGHTSleeping Boy and Study for a Standing Gesture DrawingHead by Dan Gheno, 2005, oilbasedby Kiithe Kollwitz, 1903. sanguine pencil on paper, 18 x 11.Collection the artist.

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BELOW LEFT BELOW RIGHT BOTTOMThe Pachaby Jean-HonoreFragonard, brush and

The Holy Familyby Giambattista Tiepolo,ca. 1762, pen and

Woman Embracing a RecumbentOld Man, Study for The Father'sCurse: The Punished Son

brown wash. Collection brown wash over black by Jean-Baptiste Greuze, pen and brush withthe Louvre, Paris, chalk, 7 x 7'/,. brown ink, 4* x 7'j{6. Collection DutchFrance. Institute, Paris, France.

Wet MediaThe ink-and-wash method is another effective tool in ourquest to join line and mass, and because of its technical similarity to the watercolor medium, it even serves as a usefulbridge between the artificial categories of drawing and paint'ing. Observe how both Giambattista Tiepolo with The HolyFamily and Jean-Baptiste Greuze with Woman Embracing aRecumbent Old Man run loose value washes across their compositions, joining their figures into larger, painterly abstractedvalue masses. Notice, too, how the harder lines sometimesmelt into the wet wash, turning into softer, blended accents.Try this in your own work, using water-soluble ink. Often, youdon't even need to use an accompanying wash-you can usea brush loaded with water to drag some ink out of the lineand create an overlying value pattern.

Mass can sometimes so dominate an image that linemay seem a mere adjunct to its partner, serving to accentuate the deepest darks or the brightest lights, or merely containing the outside edges in places. Even when used sparingly, as I try to do in most of my drawings (see

in, but in places I added a few strokes to accentuate someof the sharp bony points and areas of deep relief whereaction hardens the muscles. I retreated from tonal massingat the extremities of the torso, counting on the remainingsolitary lines to ease the figure into the bare paper.The power ofline and mass doesn't end with the sculptural representat ion and the natural effects oflight on thehuman form. They can serve a design function as in theprevious example or, as in the Charles LeBrun drawing,where line and mass rhythmically fade in and out of theblank page. Value mass and line almost become one abstractunit in some of Isabel Bishop's ink-wash drawings. It's hardto tell where shape ends and calligraphy begins in her SodaFountain. She also used bold hybrid line and shape marks inmany of her paintings, sometimes overlapping them in adisembodied way that reinforces the essential flatness andformal potential of the canvas or paper. We shouldn't completely ignore the other conceptual assets of these contrasting

strokes, either. Notice how Fragonard exploitsTwisted Torso), line is still indispensable to both their emotive and expressive abilities inmy work. But remember that a little The Pacha. Known for his Rubenesqueline goes a long way. On this quick, use of color and animated brushwork,five-minute sketch, I confined he approached drawing with equalmost of my linework to the enthusiasm, here dragging a brushperipheral forms, overlapping speedily across his textural paperand varying their weight to rein in an impassioned, desperateforce the interior, interlocking script, and there fIlling the pageforms. I tried not to disturb the with an almost modem, repeatingflow of the value gradations with- pattern of rough marks.52 DRAWING


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BELOW ,Soda Fountam ...-..by Isabel Bishop, 6,1954, ink wash,


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Use lines when it serves your visual purposes, and use value masses when they areappropriate. Let someone else worry about the alleged aesthetic rules. Your job is to draw.

The Use of Line in PaintingThe use of line is not coOOned to the realm of paper anddrawing. Even many mass-centered artists use line to starttheir paintings. I frequently begin my canvases with avague charcoal sketch. Then I reconfirm and build uponmy initial charcoal lines with paint, usually a blue, or permanent alizarin crimson. I dilute the paint with a lot of solvent so that the color flows freely, like ink. Thanks to theheavy proportion of solvent, the painted lines dry quickly,usually within five to 20 minutes. This gives me a lot offreedom, allowing me to move into the painting processright away. If I think I've lost control of the drawing, I canscrape off some of the top layers to retrieve the originaldrawing below. But take care when you use this approach.Oil paint becomes transparent with time, and you mustavoid drawing with an extremely dark line, especially if youpaint in thin layers.

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I sometimes use lines to redraw a painting that's inprogress, changing to a new color each time I make a revision so that I can compare my changes against the previousincarnation. I sporadically do this in my drawn work, suchas Multicolored Figure, just for the fun of i t - I think it's alsoquite interesting to document the path of discovery, witheach decision or adjustment recorded by a different color.Even when I draw in my normal, monochromatic way, Inever erase my "mistakes" until I've scribbled in a possiblesolution. It's easier to make a revision in either medium\ when you can see where you've been. That way, you don't

..... make the same mistake twice (or three times).Quite a few painters use line extensively throughout----. their work. Van Gogh is probably the most obvious exam

ple. He used a highly calligraphic hatching stroke in manyof his paintings, while ironically, in many of his drawings,he frequently emulated the textural aspects of brushstrokes.Like many other painters, I often use lines as an expressiveoutlet or as a way to imply forms overlapping just as I do inTOP ABOVE OPPOSITE PAGE my drawings. Even a mass-oriented artist such as JohnReclining Nude Multicolored SharonFigure Singer Sargent resorted to a heavy use of outline in muchby William Coldstream, by Mary Beth McKenzie,1974-1976, oil, 40 x by Dan Gheno, 1996, oil, 19 x 15. Collection of his mural work. Many muralists of the time, including50. Collection Tate colored pencil, 18 x 24. Sharon van Ivan. Kenyon Cox and, more recently, Dean Cornwell, used lineGallery, London, Collection the artist.England. to make the imagery more recognizable from a distance,

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and along with Georges Rouault in his easel work. theyoften used distinct outlines in an avowed emulation of theleaden lines that support stained glass windows. In someways, you might even say these dark lines serve more acolor than a drawing end; they reinforce and enhance thehues within. Try to imagine the Hans Hoffmann self-portrait without the lines. It wouldn't work.An abstract artist like Hoffmann had no fear of lines ordrawing in general. Indeed, some of his teaching revolvedaround drawing from the model. Unfortunately, todaymany artists and critics decry the fusion of line and mass,and they vociferously argue against contaminating the purity of the painting impulse with drawing concerns. Thisreminds me of another unfortunate time in art history,when the Poussinistes, partisans of drawing and restraint,and the Rubenistes, soldiers of color and emotion, were ateach other's throats. Each was adamant in its view. In fact,a popular teacher and artist of the Neoclassical movement,Baron Antoine-Jean Gros, committed suicide because hewas unwilling to sacrifice his emotional Rubenist side tohonor his pah'on and artistic father, Jacques-Louis David, azealous Poussinist.

Today, most people can appreciate both of those campsand can see their eventual fusion in the traditional art ofthe late 19th and the 20 th centuries. Think of how muchpotential was lost by these art wars. Life is too short to bedeterred by another artist's dictums. Use lines when itserves your visual purposes, and use value masses whenthey are appropriate. Let someone else worry about thealleged aesthetic rules. Your job is to draw. If you stick to it,

LEFT OPPOSITE PAGEReaders in Silence Self-portr ait With Brushesby Dan Gheno, 2000, oil, 30 x 42 by Hans HoHmann, 1942, casein on(triptych). Collection New Britain panel. Courtesy Andre EmmerichMuseum of American Art, New Gallery, New York, New York.Britain, Connecticut. Try to imagine this Hans Hoffmannselfportrait without the lines. Itwouldn't work.

How to See the Outside ShapesYou can train your eye to map shapes more honestlyand exactingly with a number of undemanding exerciSes. First, try the Blind Contour exercise that artistinstructor Kimon Nicolaides likes so much: Stare at themodel and, without taking your eye .off the figure orlooking down at your paper, calmly draw the outsideedges of the figure. Your drawing will look like a umbled mess in the end. But as with the other exercises,in the process you will become aware of a lot morenuance along the edges of the figure than you previously imagined, and you will be much more alert to itthe next time you draw normally. Next, try a variationon the photo-trace exercise mentioned in one of myearlier articles (see Drawing, spring 2004): Draw a person in a photograph as dryly and frankly as you'recapable. Try not to distort it in any way. Then lay apiece of tracing paper over the photo, drawing clear,clean lines along the figure's silhouette, noticing whereyour original freehand drawing diverges from thephoto. This exercise will help you catch and correctcertain habits or predilections that keep you from truthfully observing the model. I'm not a great fan of usingphotographs when you have a chance to draw or paintfrom life, b\.lt they are a useful learning device in thiscase. Finally, turn to the upside-down exercise: Afterlaying in the overall figure, most of us normally drawthe smaller figure segments starting from above. Trygoing the other way in this exercise. For instance,when drawing the neck, begin at the collar bone andmove your line upward toward the chin. Or whensketching the nose, start at the bottom of the noseand draw up toward the top of the nose. More than anexercise, this technique helps me whenever I get intotrouble or lose my objectivity while drawing. I catch alot of my proportional mistakes this way.

you will be as unstoppable as the team of line and mass. .:.

Making Better Lines, Making Lines Better

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