As an artist, drawing does NOT come easily to me. In my blog, I will try to understand the very basics of drawing. I will analyze the emotions and feelings that can stem from a single line or shape, and use them to better connect the artist to the goal of their piece of art.
In Elaine Clayton's book, "Making Marks", Elaine has an insightful, although outlandish approach to drawing. She calls her drawings, Intuitive Stream Drawings. These "in the moment drawings" supposedly are insights into our thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Although I don't completely agree with Elaine that stream drawings can interpret our subconscious mind, she is a talented artist with thoughtful techniques. In her book, she states, "Shapes evoke emotion and trigger associations out of the unconscious and into our decision making process, the same way lines can" (Elaine 38). This shows the impact a line can make on a piece of work.
An example of how we can see emotions in lines is in these two:
Artist use these lines in their artwork whether you realize it or not. Look at these two pictures.
Do you still see the same angry and relaxed lines?
If you look at the sun and moon in reality, the shapes and lines are very much the same, yet they are easily distinguished in a drawing because of how people generally draw them. The sun is bold and bright, it is intrusive, and our eyes are often drawn to it in a picture and in life. The moon on the other hand is inconspicuous, small, enigmatic, and dark. People are not generally drawn to it. The lines used help to highlight these associations.
I think that it is important to be conscious of how artwork affects the audience, and that with the right lines, we can be thoughtful in our drawing.
Thank you for reading! I hope you learned something new! Let me know in the comments what you thought of these techniques and how they affect the effect of the picture.
Clayton, Elaine. Making Marks: Discover the Art of Intuitive Drawing. Atria Paperback, 2014.
Your first image appears to have been deleted or not working, but I think this is a very interesting concept. I really think that art is meant to evoke emotion in people, so it would make sense to know the impact of line types on viewers.
ReplyDeletehey Mrs. Robison! Sorry about the first picture, it seems we have some technical difficulties! I think that it is important to know the impact of lines too! Thanks for commenting, that was an interesting insight!
DeleteI think the concept of how lines portray emotions is very interesting, but do you think that this concept is applicable to all types of forms of art?
ReplyDeleteHey Jasleen! I think that this can be used in every art form, because they are integral to lines in general, not a general technique you can use.
DeleteI do think art can portray emotions as well as evoke emotions from other. It can make you feel a certain way and influence you as well. I think lines can do the same thing since lines are also a big part of art.
ReplyDeleteHey Milan! I agree with you totally! I too think that lines influence emotions. Thank you for sharing your insights, I will check out your posts as well.
DeleteI like the concept about our emotions being portrayed in drawings and art. It makes me think about the science behind the idea you can release stress while your drawing when your angry or upset. Also I wonder if this works with coloring.
ReplyDeleteHey Rodas! I think coloring can be a great stress reliever, many people are coloring just to pass time, or even to meditate. I think that an important part of drawing is the emotion, therefore I think that drawing can also help to relieve emotions. This was a truly interesting insight, thank you so much for commenting!
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