Drawing and form

Member lesson

Line quality and mark making

Lesson 12 of 14 in Drawing and form.

6 Habits for Good Line Quality · Proko
Lesson

A line en.wikipedia.org carries far more information than its path. Its thickness, where it swells and where it thins, whether it was drawn fast or slowly, whether it overshoots the corner or stops short: all of that is legible to a viewer who has never thought about drawing, and it is what separates a drawing that feels alive from one that feels traced.

A leafy twig drawn twice, above in a stiff even line beside a stylus, below in a line that swells and tapers beside a hand holding a brush pen.
The same leafy twig drawn with an even line and with a line that swells and thins. Pressure from the hand is what makes a drawn line feel alive.
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  1. Question 1, locked

    What makes a drawn line read as fast?

    • Tapering, and fewer changes of direction
    • Pressing harder throughout
    • Drawing it darker
  2. Question 2, locked

    Which of these words means this? “How thick the line is. Varying it within one drawing is most of what reads as skill.”

    • Memory and invention
    • Sight-size
    • Weight
    • Line weight
  3. Question 3, locked

    Which of these words means this? “A line that starts thin, swells and thins again, because a hand pressed harder in the middle of the stroke.”

    • Still life
    • Quantity before quality
    • Pressure taper
    • Vanishing point

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