What is a line?
As the contour drawings use line alone to create the image it is worth stopping to consider what a line is. Is the old saying that there is 'no such thing as a line in nature ' true? Have you ever seen one in a photograph?
The hexagon becomes a cube when we place three interior lines
These lines are 'contours ' but they also represent the edges where one side of the cube meets another side – in drawing language the line represents a ‘change of plane’.
A line can show where
- a plane meets a plane
- tone meets tone
- suggest depth and light and shade by its density
- trace a path across a surface ( as in the contour drawings)
- trace a movement (e.g. Picasso drawing with light)
It might help to think of a line as the ‘ symbol of an edge ‘.
It can also reveal a form by continually moving over its surface (as in the contour drawings )
As the contour drawings use line alone to create the image it is worth stopping to consider what a line is. Is the old saying that there is 'no such thing as a line in nature ' true? Have you ever seen one in a photograph?
The hexagon becomes a cube when we place three interior lines
These lines are 'contours ' but they also represent the edges where one side of the cube meets another side – in drawing language the line represents a ‘change of plane’.
A line can show where
- a plane meets a plane
- tone meets tone
- suggest depth and light and shade by its density
- trace a path across a surface ( as in the contour drawings)
- trace a movement (e.g. Picasso drawing with light)
It might help to think of a line as the ‘ symbol of an edge ‘.
It can also reveal a form by continually moving over its surface (as in the contour drawings )