Line art

Example of line art (published in The Survey, October 1917–March 1918).

Line art or line drawing is any image that consists of distinct straight lines or curved lines placed against a background (usually plain). Two-dimensional or three-dimensional objects are often represented through shade (darkness) or hue (color). Line art can use lines of different colors, although line art is usually monochromatic.

Several techniques used in printmaking largely or entirely use lines, such as engraving, etching and woodcut, and drawings with pen or pencil may be made up of lines.

Techniques

Art Nouveau line art

Line art emphasizes form and drawings, of several (few) constant widths (as in technical illustrations), or of freely varying widths (as in brush work or engraving). Line art may tend towards realism (as in much of Gustave Doré's work), or it may be a caricature, cartoon, ideograph, or glyph.

Form

One of the most fundamental elements of art is the line. An important feature of a line is that it indicates the edge of a two-dimensional (flat) shape or a three-dimensional form. A shape can be indicated by means of an outline, and a three-dimensional form can be indicated by contour lines.

History

Before the development of photography and of halftones, line art was the standard format for illustrations to be used in print publications, using black ink on white paper. Using either stippling or hatching, shades of gray could also be simulated.

Image gallery

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  Stippling
• 
  Detail of hatching
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  Linlithgow Palace
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  Line art peacock
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  Detail of Melencolia I by Albrecht Dürer
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  Self-portrait by Rembrandt
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  Bank note detail

See also

Line art by Leonardo da Vinci

• Lineography
• Old master print
• Screentone
• Hatching
• Stippling
• Halftone
• Ben-Day dots

External links

Media related to Line art at Wikimedia Commons