LINES AND MOVEMENT IN ART

Varying the lines you use, creates a more interesting drawing. 

 By Rachel Wintemberg

This drawing uses straight lines, curved lines, thick lines, thin lines, hatching, cross-hatching, spirals, scribbles and zig-zags.

You can understand in the same picture with the numbers of different type of lines

Artists use line to express volume

Using the worksheet below, try adding different types of lines to transform flat shapes into three-dimensional forms

 Carl Krull, 

an artist who uses line to express volume:

Artists use line to express movement.

Some examples of illustrations that use lines to express movement 

by

Arthur Rackham

This illustration depicts a windy day. 

How do we know it is windy? 

Who Has Seen the Wind?

Who has seen the wind?

Neither I nor you.

But when the leaves hang trembling,

The wind is passing through.

Who has seen the wind?

Neither you nor I.

But when the trees bow down their heads,

The wind is passing by.

Christina Georgina Rossetti

If wind is invisible, as the poem says, how can we draw it?

Can you use your knowledge of different types of lines to create a picture that shows a windy day?

Here are some  photographs I found on the Internet of windswept trees to get you started.

Try to create movement in a big poster all together

How did Vincent Van Gogh depict movement in his famous painting, Starry Night? 

What type of lines did he use?

Let's have a look to this video

How did Katsushika Hokusai use line to express movement?

http://www.katsushikahokusai.org/

Practice using line to show movement by looking at this waterfall in slow motion: 

How would you draw the lines that show the falling water?

What sort of lines would you draw to show the water splashing up?

How many different types of lines do you see?

How can repeating a line many times in a rhythmic pattern increase the feeling of movement in a picture?

 How can varying the thickness of a line and the distance between rhythmic lines help to express movement? 

Waterfall In Slow Motion from Rachel Wintemberg on Vimeo.

Artists use line to create rhythmic designs and patterns.

This is particularly useful for designing fabrics or wallpaper. 

If you repeat a line, or create a repeating pattern using a series of lines, your artwork will have a sense of rhythmic movement.

 

Crazy Hair Day from Rachel Wintemberg on Vimeo.

These are some examples for you to have a look and work.
Varying the line width and adding shadows will make your picture more interesting to look at.

THANKS to The Helpful Art Teacher, an interdisciplinary website linking visual arts to math, social studies, science and language arts.