AccessArt Glossary: Line
Artists use line in lots of different ways to take you on a journey around their artwork. Line can be used to define shape in artworks and express intention and mood. A line can be thick, thin, vertical, zigzag, straight, wobbly or curved and might give the illusion of form, feel ominous or playful, or it might lead you across the page.
Line is important across disciplines like drawing, painting, printmaking and textiles, and we can expand our understanding of line by experimenting with different materials and techniques.
Have fun exploring AccessArt resources focused around line.
Dip your toes into using line in drawing
Line in drawing can be varied by weight and drawing material. Experimenting with the way you hold your drawing tool can give you interesting results.
Build your understanding of how you can vary line using drawing materials.
Talking Points: exploring line weight
Session recording: exploring line weight
Session recording: finding marks made by artists
Dip your toes into using line in painting
Mark making tools, paint type and gesture work together to produce a variety of line.
Painters often use these three elements to communicate what they want the viewer to see and in what order.
Paint qualities such as opacity and texture will affect the intensity of line, and gestures such as big sweeping lines can imply freedom.
Build your understanding of how you can vary line in painting to take the viewer on a journey.
Talking Points: Brushwork of Van Gogh and Cezanne
Explore all AccessArt painting resources
Dip your toes into using line in printmaking
In printmaking there are several ways in which printmakers might experiment with line.
Printmakers may carve away at a surface using controlled movements with lino cutters or frenzied cross hatching with an etching needle. They might stick materials on a plate to create a collagraph print or gesturally wipe away at ink with rags to create monotypes.
Build your understanding of how to explore line in printmaking.
Printmaking by scarlett rebecca
Explore all AccessArt printmaking resources
Explore Artists
Explore the different ways artists use line.
Talking Points: tomoko Kawao
Talking Points: Shaheen Ahmed
Talking Points: christo and jeanne-claude
EXPLORE LINE THROUGH THE FOLLOWING RESOURCES
Explore these sample resources to help you explore line.
the anatomy of a pencil
experimental mark making tools
Finding Marks Through Drawings Made by Artists
DrawAble: exploring watercolour Pt 3
Drawable: Making Layered Portraits
Making Painted and Sewn landscapes
kitchen lithography
carbon paper printing
