Line

Pastel Workshop will be posting some basic art elements for the benefit of workshop and art students. Today, we look at the basic line. 

Fluid Corner, Pastel, Casey Klahn.  

The line in art directs your attention and expresses movement, perspective and compositional elements.  Along with the point, or dot, it is a basic component in art.

"A line is a dot that went for a walk."  

Paul Klee.

The line in art is a construct of the basic thing:  the point or the dot.  Lines do not occur in nature, we are told, yet artists still make much of them.  Is this an abstract thought?  Yes, I think so.


We use lines to suggest and stand in for other things, and we use them to be expressive.  Other dynamics in art that fall from the line are gesture and linear perspective.


Lines restrict and bind.  Just ask Johnny Cash.










Further reading: 

Stephen Farthing R.A on John Ruskin and the line.

Diane Mize -http://visualcomposing.blogspot.com/2011/11/power-of-direction.html