THERE ARE SEVEN PRIMARY FUNCTIONS OF LINE
- To convey its own intrinsic beauty.
- To divide or limit an area or space.
- To delineate a thought or symbol.
- To define form by edge or contour.
- To catch and direct the eye over a given course.
- To produce a grey or tonal gradation.
- To create design or arrangement.
Even if it may seem a bit obvious, let us start the book with the very beginning of artistic expression, that of line. There is truly much more to line in the mind of the artist than in that of the layman. To the latter, line is but a mark of a pencil or a mere scratch of a pen. To the true artist, line can reach great heights, require exhaustive skill, and convey unlimited beauty. Line in its various- functions has contributed as much to human progress as fire or steam. All line should have function and purpose. I want you to think of it in that light. Everything from this day forward that you do artistically will bear a relationship to line, either good or bad. You can either make line an asset to your work, or you can let its importance slide by you. But if you choose to ignore the functions of line, your work will make a bad statement of your ability. Line is bound to enter your work for better or worse. You cannot escape it.
Let us see what can be done about it.
Line is more than merely "outline"!
Creative, art begins with creative line. creative line can only be the line as you see it and prefer to draw it. Projecting literal contours by ant artificial means can only result in stifling your most valuable asset individuality. Draw from copy as you would from life. Have always the courage to "draw it yourself"
LINE IS PROPORTION WITH IMAGINATION
Can you construct a head in any pose? A plan of head construction has been set forth in "fun with apencil".
"Visual survev plan "as set forth in "figure drawing forall it's worth."
This show how to get the proportions of any pose.
LINE PRODUCES FORMAL DESIGN
A. Dotted lines show basic divisions
B. This is the key to formal subdivision
C. Diagonals may direct any rectangles
subdivision by diagonals, verticals and horizontals produces unlimited design. try it.
choose any points, being careful to repeat the diagonal between all similar points
if a drawing is bajed upon underlying unear dej'lcn.it will partake of its unity".
This page is to impress upon you the basic relationship of line to design. dividing space equally produces “formal” design.
Therefore "informal” design is by unequal division. Composition is one or the other.
LINE PRODUCES INFORMAL DESIGN
arcs interlaced
combining horizontals and perpendiculars with curves.
Oblique lines interlaced.
overlapping ovals overlapping circles overlapping squares overlapping triangles
overlapping rad i i overlapping wavy parallels overlapping angles
overlapping spirals overlapping rectangles horizontals and perpendiculars
OVERLAPPING LINE AND AREAS THE FIRST PRINCIPLE OF COMPOSITION
The principle of overlapping areas, forms, and contours is the basis of all pictorial creation. Since line is our first means of depinlng these,then linear arrangement becomes our first consideration .There are many ways to go about it so let us start
Nature is one vast panorama of contours and spaces. Everything is form, set into space. If we were to cut a rectangular opening in a piece of cardboard and look through it, nature would present us with a picture. Within the four limits of the opening, the space would become divided by spaces and contours. To that spacing and arrangement of contours we will give everlasting attention, for it is the basis of all pictorial approach. The novice snaps his camera carelessly at nature. The artist seeks to arrange it. From the artist’s approach, almost anything is picture material, since it is design and arrangement that makes pictures, regardless of subject. Cut a cardboard so as to make a “picture finder." An opening of three by four inches is large enough. Look through it. Jot down, in miniature compositions, the linear arrangements you find. Your sense of arrangement is the first real indication of your creativeness. Walk about the house or grounds with a small sketch pad. Don't go any farther until you have done a dozen or two small roughs.
USING THE FIRST FUNCTION OF “LINE FOR ITSELF” FOR COMPOSITION
COMPOSITION MAY BE BASED ON LETTERS AND SYMBOLS
COMPOSITON MAY BE BASED ON GEOMETRIC FORMS
THE "FULCRUM-LEVER” PRINCIPLE APPLIED TO COMPOSITION
- Rule the heavier the mass or weight, the nearer it should be placed to the middle line of your picture
- The heavy weight can be nearest
- or the small one nearest
- Place each weight so that it "appears to be in balance"
- Equal weights should "appear to be equal"
- but the balancing objects need not be similar
To he pleasing, the material within a picture needs balance, or should seem to be pleasantly reposing within the picture limits. Balance is obviously "off” when we feel that the limits would seem better if moved over, or more space added or cut away. This is the best guide we have, for there are no infallible rules of composition. About the only rule is that we give the greatest variety of spaces possible, no two duplicating one another in size or shape (except in strictly formal arrangements, where all things are balanced equally on each side). If two forms are equal, let one overlap the other so as to change the contour. Variety is the spice of composition. We make a small weight balance a heavier one by placing it farther away from the middle of the subject, or the fulcrum, which is the middle point of balance. Balance in composition is a sense of equilibrium between the masses of light and dark, or of the area and bulk of one thing balancing another. The heavier the mass, the nearer the middle—the smaller the mass, the nearer the edge—is a good axiom.
USE FORMAL SUBDIVISION FOR SYMMETRICAL COMPOSITION
FORMAL DIVISION APPLIES BEST TO SUBjECTS OF A DIGNlFIED OR RELIGIOUS NATURE.
There are times when we wish to achieve great dignity of arrangement. Since the Creator’s basic design for animate form is the duplication of one side by the other, such as the two sides of the human body, arrangement based on the same plan takes on the same sort of dignity. It docs not mean that each side must duplicate exactly, but there should be a feeling of complete equalization of the units or masses, the line and spaces, of one side with the other. Church murals invariably follow this plan. It may be used to great advantage in symbolical subjects, appeals for charity, heroic subjects, or to suggest peace and serenity. Formal balance was almost the only approach in earlier times, and great compositions have been built with it. It is largely the formality of design which lends such magnificence to the work of Michelangelo, Rubens, and Raphael.
Formal subdivision may also be used informally if one is adept enough. I have introduced on the next page another method, quite apart from either formal division of space or dynamic symmetry. I have never found either as satisfactory as this new approach, and I hope it will prove of great benefit to others.
INTRODUCING INFORMAL SUBDIVISION
Add more new diagonals or perpendiculars as new spaces are created. By this kind of division no two spaces are duplicates. Remember not to divide any space like this.
This is a plan of subdivision of my own. It offers greater freedom to the artist. Study it. It will help you to divide space unequally and interestingly. Start by dividing the whole space unequally with a single (optional) line. Tt is best to avoid placing die line at a point which would be one-half, one- third, or one-fourth of the whole space. Then draw one diagonal of the whole space from diagonally opposite corners. At the intersection of the diagonal and your first line, draw a horizontal line across the space. Now draw diagonals in any of die resulting rectangles, but only one to a space. Two diagonals crossing like an X would divide the rectangle equally, which we do not want. Now you may draw horizontals or perpendiculars at any intersection, thus making more rectangles to divide by diagonals again. In this manner you will never break up the same shape twice in the same way. It offers a great deal of suggestion for the placement of figures, spacing, and contours, with no two spaces being exactly equal or duplicated, except the two halves on each side of the single diagonal. If you have a subject in mind you will begin to see it develop.
A DEMONSTRATION OF INFORMAL SUBDIVISION
I had only an idea in mind of showing a lot of little anomes playing with a pen. So far I had no idea of how I would arrange them. I divided my space as shown. The abstract shapes thus suggested the composition. From the figures "rougned" into the sketch, I developed them further.
From this preliminary work, the finished frontispiece to part one was created.
FIGURE COMPOSITIONS BASED ON INFORMAL SUBDIVISION
INFORMAL SUBDIVISION IS PURELY CREATIVE, NOT MECHANICAL
Make thumbnails. The divisions here suggested the subjects and arrangements
Since, when a space is divided in tlie manner shown in these pages, selection plays a great part, and invention the rest, it cannot avoid being creative. That is its strongest recommendation, in comparison with forms of subdivision that start you out with a "set” or formal arrangement to begin with. You start inventing with your first line when you use informal subdivision. It helps to get you over the emptiness of blank paper before you, without an idea in your head. That, I assure you, is the feeling most of us experience, and you probably already know what I mean. If you have a subject in mind, it will develop with one or two tries. If you have no subject in mind, pretty soon the lines will start suggesting something, as these did in the little drawings above. In starting out I had no intimation of what the subjects would be. This method is invaluable in working up ideas, layouts, small compositions. As the ideas develop they can be carried out with models, clippings, and so forth. When the original subdividing lines are erased, it is amazing how well the composition balances or “hangs together.” 1 urge you not to pass this up without a tryout. It has often saved the day for me, and 1 admit that even in my own work I am often so “stymied” for a good arrangement that I turn to it in great relief. While all of the compositions of the book arc not so based, many of them arc, and in my estimation the better ones. Any one of the arrangements on this or the preceding pages would be intriguing to do as a painting, and I only wish I had the space. Most artists develop an eye for composition eventually, but this device will get you well on the way. Draw the dividing lines lightly so they can be easily erased.
PERSPECTIVE GUIDE LINES HELP YOU TO COMPOSITION
Two vanishing points perspective
one vanishing point perspective
A fast way to composition. Make off even spaces down each side. Run lines out to vanishing points. thru picture you can now use yuor eyes, filling space as desired.
Take a point on the horizon, draw radiating lines in all directions from it. You can now build on those lines by choice of course you need to know persprctive to do it.
the same applies to interiors
also one point for interiors
The perspective lines are merely guide lines to help the eye
Plan your picture in miniature this way, you can later square it off for enlargement. I use this plan a lot to get right in to a given subject. This is a most practical procedure. Now if you do not understand perspective, you'd better study it. You cannot get anywhere without it.
EVERYTHING YOU DRAW IS RELATED TO AN EYE LEVEL
It is impossible to draw correctly and intelligently without the consideration of a viewpoint and an eye level. The viewpoint is what is known as the station point in perspective. However, that is really the spot on the ground plane where you are standing. Artistically, the viewpoint is the center of the field of vision and is not to be confused with the vanishing points. If we look straight out at eye level, the viewpoint will be exactly opposite a point located in the middle of the horizon. The horizon is the eye level. Think of a great fan-shaped sheet of glass starting at a point just back of our two eyes and spreading out at our eye level and reaching as far as we could see. This entire sheet of glass would be the picture horizon. No picture can have more than one horizon. It follows that all receding lines parallel to the ground plane that recede from points above the horizon must slant downward pictorially and end in the horizon. Then all lines below the horizon, also parallel to the ground plane, must slant upward to the horizon. Our viewpoint, then, determines the horizon.
Since a picture may not, and seldom does, represent the whole field of vision, the horizon may cross die picture plane, or be alcove the picture or below it. Suppose you have a large photo of a group of buildings. Without changing the horizon or perspective lines, you might crop out any small section of the photo for your picture. But no matter what part you take,, the relationship to the original eye level (or viewpoint of the camera) is apparent. You or the camera look down on everything below die picture horizon or up at anything above it. All things will show only their top surface when below the eye level or picture horizon. We can look into things only when the eye is above them. Round lines like a belt around a waistline must curve up when below the horizon, and down when above. But how many times we see this truth disregarded! How often do we see necks, shoulders, paying no attention to an eye level, roofs slanting down or up when the reverse should be the case! It must be stated here that too large a percentage of artists go into the field of illustration and commercial art woefully lacking in a knowledge of simple perspective. It becomes apparent when the artist has obviously worked from two clippings or photos, each having a different eye level. You may be certain two clips will seldom be in agreement with each other in this respect.
Perspective must be understood by the artist. It applies to every bit of copy he uses. He can start with one thing, for instance a photo of a piano. That will establish the horizon of his picture. Then everything else, including figures, must be drawn to the same eye level. lie must redraw the perspective so that the vanishing points will fall in the same horizon set by the piano. Or, selecting a figure, he may adjust the perspective of the piano to fit the figure. The best way to do this is to make small sketches so that wide vanishing points may be used. Use a large tissue pad. Then square off the small sketch and enlarge to the size you want.
To learn perspective means only a small investment at the bookstore, and only a few evenings set aside to learn it once and for all. Why an artist will jeopardize his whole output and a lifetime of effort by a lack of such knowledge is beyond me. For some reason, the man who does not know perspective imagines it is much more difficult than it really is. It is just one of those things, like the study of anatomy, which an artist may keep putting off eternally and suffer for lack of, every day. Perspective is a part of every form under every condition and cannot be avoided. It affects your very next job and every one thereafter. If you are working from a single photo the camera may do it for you. But if you change or add one single unit to your photographic copy, you will not be able to do it correctly unless you understand this principle of eye level and viewpoint. If you do not understand perspective, by all means drop everything else and get it at once. You will never draw until you do. (There are so many good texts on perspective that it would be superfluous to give further space to it here. Your bookstore can help you.)
EYE LEVEL, CAMERA LEVEL, AND HORIZON MEAN THE SAME
Perspective is the first and foremost means of depicting space on a flat picture plane and the natural or normal aspect of things. If modern art chooses to ignore it, modern art chooses to suffer the negative response thereby evoked. But in illustration we cannot ignore it and make our work appeal with any conviction of reality.
You can easily check any copy to find the horizon. Simply carry any receding straight lines back until they meet in a point. These lines, of course, should be parallel to the ground plane, like two floor boards, two ceiling lines, two parallel sides of a table, or the top and bottom lines of a door or windows. The point at which such lines meet will fall in the horizon. Draw a horizontal line straight across through such a point and that is it. When you have your horizon, note where it cuts across the figure. Then it must so cut across all other figures, at the waist, breast, head, or wherever it comes. All added units must have their vanishing points in the same horizon. Suppose you have a clipping of an interior. By finding the horizon you can estimate the height of the camera. By adjusting the figure you may wish to draw within that same interior with this camera level, you can make the figure seem to fit in perspective. Cameras arc usually at breast level, so see that the horizon cuts through the figures properly. This is about the only way there is to insert figures properly, so that they will all seem to be standing on the same floor.
Another advantage: if you know beforehand about how high the horizon appears above the floor in the intended copy, you can then adjust your camera to that height when taking pictures of the models whom you intend to use in the picture. You cannot shoot at just any level and make it fit your copy.
When redrawing copy to fit a new eye level, first find something of known measurement in the copy. For instance, a chair seat is about eighteen inches off the floor. Draw a perpendicular at the corner of the chair and measure it off in feet. Then you can take any point in the ground plane. The
FIND EYE LEVEL OF COPY AND MAKE FIGURES COINCIDE
perpendicular acts as a measuring line for uprights. Draw a line from the bottom of the measuring line, through the chosen point on the ground plane to the horizon. Then carry the line back to the measuring line at whatever height desired. Erect a perpendicular at the chosen point, and the similar height is now carried back to the place you want it. This is exactly the same principle as placing figures on the same ground plane.
The accompanying sketches will serve to illustrate the various placements of the eye level or horizon {which is the same thing) and the relationship of one unit to another. To make it a little clearer I have drawn the artist outside his picture, representing you and your view point. I have then squared off the picture material. These will show why the horizon may be at any height in a picture, and also that it is determined by the height and point from which viewed.
I have taken a piano and some figures showing bow they must be related. I have also tried to demonstrate the variety of effect to be got out of any subject by using different eye levels. This opens up a world of opportunity for creativeness. A subject rather ordinary at ordinary eye level may become quite startling when viewed from above or from down low'. ... A high eye level is good when you want to break down into text space. A ground-level viewpoint is good when you want a horizontal base line.
Understanding perspective in the figure, you can transpose figure copy to various eye levels, thus permitting you to use copy which you otherwise could not. So long as you have drawn your figure differently and in your own way, no one can object. This is not always easy. It is really better to pay a model, pose her as you wish, and work the thing out on your own, if you can afford it. Money spent on models is the best investment you could make as a creative artist. Your picture then is indisputably your own.
