The oldest use being line contour drawings of animals in cave paintings dating over 20,000 years ago. However, throughout the history of artists, the use of line has been evolving in tandem with tonally rendered representation. If any line is granted it is used merely to plot and construct the design of the page, but even in this area, the blocking of shadow forms is preferred to line. The professor teaching the class indeed views line as a lesser technique compared to the rendering of tonal form. This school of thought, taken to its extreme, discourages any direct use of line. This focusing on light and shadow and representing forms which bend into the third dimension on the page is called chiaroscuro. The goal is to expand the artist’s understanding of perspective, three-dimensional forms and their interactions with light and shadow.
While it may develop strong hand-eye coordination (which is an important element to drawing) it limits the artist's ability to convey the world to mere contour.Ī good professor knows this and has the difficult job of taking a promising student and forcing them to evolve. This habit trains the mind to think and observe in flat, two dimensions. When in fact, your eye is being trained to transfer a flat image to a flat image.
By copying the shapes and tonal variations the artist is tricked into thinking they have an understanding of three-dimensional form. Alongside that, most developing artists copying other illustrations and photos. We notice the borders of an object and try to ‘outline’ it and then use lines for prominently overlapping forms. When we first learn to both observe and draw we typically begin with the line. This is designed to break a young artist’s tendency to draw two-dimensionally. What I have come to understand since then is that an art school worth its salt will first heavily focus on a classical chiaroscuro approach. Yet to further the art education I was asked to let them go. Lines in comics are an expressive cornerstone to the original art form. I grew up on comic books which held the beauty of line as a powerfully graphical tool. However, it left me in a state of confusion for a long while as well. As a result, I was forced to start thinking in three-dimensional forms. For a while I was devastated, however, It did help me break my addiction to my constant use of line. My entire artistic foundation was yanked out from under me. My hope was I would learn more about the mental process behind the techniques I had been studying.
I had previously only studied comics, an art form with highly stylized and skillfully applied lines. Instead, the instructor began a crushing critique that haunted me for the entire year. Scanning the wall, the professor finally approached my drawing and I awaited the adorning review. The professor most likely wanted to see where our coordination - and more importantly our artistic mental abilities - currently stood. The model struck a pose and my pencil began christening the fresh art pad with a wonderfully rendered line drawing of the figure before me.Īfter finishing our first long pose we were instructed to post our finished pieces upon the class wall for examination and critique. Strolling to class with my morning coffee I felt confident I was going to make an impression on my professor with drawing abilities. Sometime back in 2002, I woke up eager to attend my first academic life-drawing class. Some moments stick in your mind like spoiled taffy, bitter-sweet.
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