Line Drawing Tutorial

Lately I’ve been hooked on making thumbprint guest “books”. I love the idea of a guest book that is not a book at all, but a work of art. I don’t know about you, but I’m one of those people who displays guest books for a year — maybe two — on the coffee table, and then it {lovingly} goes into storage. I prefer the idea of a framable piece of art that will be displayed for decades to come.

As I was creating my first thumbprint guest book {a tree}, I realized a line drawing tutorial might be helpful to some of you. It’s a wonderful, vintage-looking technique that can be used whether you are handy with a calligraphy pen or not.

Before I begin this tutorial, I’d like to talk a little bit about how I know how to use this technique and many other techniques that I write about. I absolutely love all the art that I get to create as a designer, but to be honest, I was very hesitant to try my luck in this industry. I always felt that I was at a disadvantage because I didn’t study art or graphic design in college {and instead opted to pursue an English degree}. Then one day I realized: I’ve actually had more formal training than a lot of people … it just wasn’t in college.

I went to a little {80-ish people per class} school in rural Kansas. Somehow, that tiny school had hit the jackpot with its art teacher, Mrs. Roberts. I had the good fortune to work with her starting around kindergarten or first grade. When I was a little girl, she was teaching me how to see things properly to render them onto 2D media. She’d set out a cylinder, a sphere, and a cone and guide me through drawing them in order to understand the relationship between shadows/contouring and shapes. As a teenager in high school, she exposed me to new techniques and materials like batik, clay, and stamp-carving. It is from her that I learned you should always paint glue on with a brush, and sprinkling watercolor pieces with salt results in an intriguing drying pattern. No matter what I created at what stage in my life, though, she always had a signature phrase: “Let’s look at it on the drawing board.”

{A school newspaper clipping from 2005}

“Let’s look at it on the drawing board” essentially meant placing your piece on an easel, taking a few steps back, and standing by Mrs. Roberts as she looked at the piece in silence. As you looked more and more at your artwork from a distance, you’d see things that were obviously wrong; and Mrs. Roberts didn’t consider the piece finished until the wrongs were righted. “Drawing board time” was an endless source of frustration for Mrs. Roberts’ art students, but once your artwork did pass the drawing board test, you were liberated to work on another project. I didn’t realize it then, but “drawing board time” became an integral part of me. Every time I create something, I always prop it up, take a few steps back, and evaluate it. The only difference is now that Mrs. Roberts is a three-hour drive away, it’s my internal voice that points out the flaws and figures out the fixes.

In short, I don’t have a college degree in how to do this “stuff” — but I essentially had an apprenticeship for twelve years, which I think counts for just as much, if not more. What that woman taught me has been indispensable, and I will be forever grateful for her tutelage, which I pass on to you a little bit more in each blog post. So — sit back, relax, and let’s make a line drawing!

First of all, for those of you who aren’t quite comfortable free-handing yet, I recommend the grid method, which you can read more about here. You’ll start by either drawing a grid on a printed out photo of your intended piece or by inputting one onto the piece using Photoshop {simply use the key command Option + ‘}. Here’s my photo with its grid:

And the grid that I created with faint pencil lines on my paper {I know you can barely see them!}:

You’ll want to use the grid to reference where your lines should appear. I always draw in pencil first, like this:

Once I am satisfied with the pencil outline, I use a dip pen and ink to go over my outline. The nib I use is extremely thin — it’s like drawing with a tiny needle. I utilize it in concert with India ink. However, if you’re not comfortable with a dip pen quite yet, you can most certainly make line drawings with regular pens.

The basic rule of line drawing is the closer the lines are together, the darker the area. So: a lot of lines concentrated in one area signifies a shadow. A medium amount of lines translate into midtones. Sparse lines denote light space.

Just keep referencing your image and adding shadows and midtones as you see them. Also remember to let your lines act as contouring agents. Essentially, try to see your subject as a series of shapes. Is the particular bit you are working on a sphere? A cone? A cylinder? My piece is a cylinder, so I let the lines on the sides of the jar showcase that cylindrical curve.

After I took the photo below, I called it a night.

This morning, I woke up and had my “let’s look at it on the drawing board” session. I decided it needed a little more work. I really liked the way the razor-thin lines helped the viewer to understand the contours of the jar, but I also wanted to emphasize the smooth, vertical aspect of the jar, so I added some vertical lines. Dually, I utilized a line drawing technique called “crosshatching”. This refers to applying vertical lines to horizontal lines or vice versa to make for darker shadows and/or clearer contouring.

At this point, my line drawing passed the “drawing board test”. I was very pleased with the way it showed up both close-up and at a distance. I scanned it into my computer {650 dpi}, and created my thumbprint guest book on 80 lb. card stock.

Sometimes it can be hard to explain exactly what I am doing and why I am doing it, but it is my hope that the photos help you through this line drawing tutorial. Line drawings have such a lovely, vintage effect and show up well both as web graphics and in print! Let me know if you have any questions about depicting subjects using line drawing, and I’ll help you out.

On that note, I need a little bit of help from you to get motivated to “tweet” more. I am an awful tweeter, but I am trying to change. As such, would you mind following me? I’m making the deal “tweeter” {get it? “sweeter”?} with a tote bag giveaway, which ends on March 15th. Follow me on Twitter {find me here} to enter the giveaway once; and tweet me a message with “#tpktote” for a double-entry.

{If you’re not a Tweeter, you can always find me on Facebook here.}

Thanks so much for reading!