Filed under: Visual Art
MYP Unit question: How can we communicate visually? Significant concept: Line can be used to convey shape, texture and tone.
Line Drawing techniques-
In this art unit of Make your Mark, we have been learning about line drawing and line drawing techniques. We worked on how to stipple, scumble, hatch and cross-hatch and how they can be used in certain areas in the drawings to make it look more realistic. Also how to make it fit better to look good. In the beginning of the year everyone drew a line drawing based on a photo. I drew a line drawing of mount Fuji, and I only used a few line techniques, but I made sure that I did not make the same mistake on my final drawing.
First Drawing:
I think that in this unit I have improved on how I use my line drawing techniques. In my first line drawing, I simple drew direct lines without making much effect of hatching, cross hatching, or even scumbling. I think that my final drawing was a lot more balanced and I took more advantage of the line techniques that I could use to make the drawing more realistic. Also in my first drawing, I would just go with the drawing and how it looked, rather than thinking about what techniques made the drawing look best or made it look as if everything fit together better from afar.
My weakness during the course of this unit has always been how I use my line techniques in area that are easy to make a mistake on. I found it difficult to decide which line technique is best to use in certain areas. 
Sometimes I had to use multiple line drawing techniques to make the certain part of the image fit with the rest of the drawing. For example when I drew the tree on the left side, I wanted to make sure that the tree itself did not catch too much attention. If I used the scumble technique, I thought that the tree would be a lot darker than other parts. I also thought that if I used stippling, the texture would be too faint and it would be difficult to make out what the actual thing was. So in the end I decided to use hatching because that would be balanced and also it would fit with the type of line techniques thatI used around the tree:
To improve how I draw, I think that practice would be an essential thing to do. I was not familiar with this type of way to draw before this project, which made me totally unaware of the large varieties of things that I could use line techniques for. By practicing and drawing more using line techniques, I can experiment and develop new skills to make more of a line drawing that I do. Time is also very important in my opinion. As many people tell me nothing is ever at it’s best when it is rushed. When doing this project I had to try something out, start over, try something out, start over over and over again which gave me an opportunity to try out all of the line techniques that were available to me.
Overall I found it difficult yet very much worth my time to learn and experience using many line techniques in my line drawing project. If I were to do this again, I would make sure that I would use a little bit more line techniques, choose an image that is easier to draw and also make sure that every single little bit of detail is added to the drawing.
This was a drawing by Van Gogh that helped show me what kind of things that I could do with hatching and cross hatching:
Extra links:
http://curkovicartunits.pbworks.com/w/page/11306896/%22Make%20You%20Mark%22%20-%20Line%20Drawings
