Continuous Line Drawing

Continuous line drawing is a quick drawing exercise to build and strengthen hand-eye coordination. Its most famous exponent is artist Pablo Picasso – you could google his simple one-line drawings like ‘Le Moineau’ (The Sparrow, 1907). The premise for continuous line drawing is to make a drawing without taking your drawing tool off the paper until your drawing is complete. The other aim is to draw your subject from the moment you see it so there is no prolonged or premature observation of your subject before a prolonged period of looking at your paper. Your gaze should switch from subject to paper in quick succession, with your drawing tool tracing your subject with near-continuous movement. Each drawing using this technique should only take two to three minutes at most, and your subject should be a person, drawn either from life or from a photograph. Perhaps you could ask a friend to sit for you, or watch people from your window in the street outside, or draw people as you flick through a magazine, or as they appear on your TV screen.

Exercises of this sort are not unknown to me. I like to use them as warm-ups, or just as a way to practice my drawing hand. Usually, I go for digital materials because they don’t waste paper, but this time I used pencil and ink. Some of the drawings took longer than the brief required and others were shorter. The complexity of the subject matter would change the drawing time. The ink drawings were much more difficult to linger on than the pencil, simply because of the medium itself. The ink on the brush would dry out after a few minutes, and one cannot replenish it without taking the tip of the brush off the page. Pencil drawings do not have the same problem.

The side effect of using ink I did not expect was not being able to tell that the sketches are done continuously. There are line breaks in some places where the ink runs low on the brush and where the ink is thick, it is easy to double back on the line without it being visible, giving no impression that the drawings were done without lifiting the tip of the brush of the page.

The images are sourced from my “reference” Pinterest board.

I struggled a little with the proportions, but I think I did a good enough job for the most part. The lack of preparation is most visible in the drawing above. The features are too small for the head, so the facial expression is lost to the ridiculous proportion.

The struggle with limited ink is most visible in this drawing, I started out with the face exactly for this reason. By the time the brush reached the crown, I was working dry.

This is where ink really shines, I think. The dynamic strokes give the figure even more movement than before. Trying to accomplish detailed drawings in the style of the pencil ones just makes the images sort of stiff and neurotic-looking.

This is a drawing that really benefitted from the pencil as a medium. I could take my time with observing the outlines and the negative space without worrying about using dynamic strokes or the ink running out.

Some of the drawings may have benefitted from doing less rather than more. In this one, I think I could have stopped at drawing the right side of the face without completing the circle on the left side.

The options for this exercise will address the slowness of pace and the use of narrative through either gradual destruction over time of a drawing or painting, creating a photographic storyboard, or the development of a comic book narrative. This exercise aims to incorporate elements of time-based media and narrative into your work.

This option involves developing a simple narrative and then producing an illustrated storyboard in a comic book style.

The narrative could be anything, but remember the theme of the exercise is based on slowness and pace. Your comic strip could be based around an everyday occurrence such as a journey to the shops, or the stages of getting up in the morning and getting ready for the day, or it could be more dramatic and outlandish, but keep it simple so that you can concentrate on making the panels of your storyboard interesting. Aim to complete a three page narrative, with either 6 or 9 panels per page.

Now record and reflect on your results in your learning log: ● What did you find most challenging? ● Is establishing a particular pace something that you have experimented with before? ● Would you attempt this again and if so how would you change your approach?

Brainstorming

“Slow” is a fairly wide theme, so the first thing to be done is brainstorming and narrowing down some ideas. I used the knowledge from the previous assignment to create some mind maps. The only things I was sure about going in were: “slow” and “comic strip”. I threw around ideas and phrases containing “slow”, slow animals, and anything related.

Experimenting with showing pace was the most important part, so I had to find a subject that would fit the bill. How would one best show that something is slow visually? The thought that I kept returning to was showing the pace of the main character through its changing environment.

The panels could show how a character takes a very long time to make what one would assume is a short journey. This can be represented by showing the environment changing very drastically whilst the character inches across the landscape. Another idea was showing the slow disappearance of a giant, how it sits on the ground and gets slowly engulfed by the vegetation around it and people start building around it. Another idea was showing the life of a very old tree.

The main character design was also crucial. I liked the idea of taking a slow creature, like a snail or a sloth, and creating a character around it.

I eventually settled on the idea of a character moving slowly from point A to point B while we see an entire city growing and changing in the background. However, this was not quite enough for a three page comic. The process of the change would only take a single page, so I started asking some questions about the scenario. Who is this character? Where do they come from and where are they going? Why are they traveling? Are they delivering a package or a message? Why?

A small story came about: When the time for the seasons to change comes close, a messenger from the Winter or Summer Kingdoms is chosen to deliver a package. It’s summer, and the Queen chooses one of her citizens to deliver her flower to the Winter King. Unfortunately, she chooses a Snail, so the journey takes much longer than anticipated. As the Snail crosses the valley, a human village is built, then burns, and then is rebuilt first as a city, and then as a metropolis. The Snail finally arrives to the Winter Kingdom where the King receives the flower and turns it to ice, finally bringing about the change of the seasons.

After I had the story roughly outlined, I started experimenting with the paneling. The three-page, nine-panel limitation was both helpful and a little constricting. If I had not had it, the planning might have taken longer, but I would also have gone a different way about my layouts. The final result looks a little crowded to me, and my personal preference is for much more airy pages with fewer panels and less busyness in the panels themselves. First I was less precious with the panels by using materials which did not allow me to get bogged down in details, like the oil pastel from above and the freehand ink brushwork below.

Designs

The characters and environments could have been a project onto themselves, but as they were not the focus, they remain fairly simple. I moved to a digital medium because I find it easier to just duplicate aspects when designing characters sometimes.

Drawing

Since most of the action was planned, all that remained to be done was redrawing what I had already done, except with more details and better anatomy.

Panels

I stayed close to the maximum number of panels for each work since there was a lot to pack in. The first and last pages needed establishing shots and a conclusion shot, they needed panels showing the Kingdoms, the action of receiving and giving the package respectively, and the end page also needed to show the climax / the freezing of the flower. Page two was difficult because the passage of time was not always clearly legible. I did my best to show the character actually moving across the panel from shot to shot and the village looking notably grown, yet still the same location-wise.

Ink

The inking stage is for cleaning up the lines and clarifying the action. The middle panels saw the most difference, because I added a tree and a rock which do no move from panel to panel, though the tree does grow. I also added an establishing shot at the end rather than at the beginning because the pacing reads better that way. It leads us to the next page.

Color

I did try to keep colors minimal, but they ended up more involved and saturated than my original intention. I still like the result, because it helps make the story more readable. The gradient is suppose to show how the Snail travels from one Kingdom to another, from warm to cool.

Final

The final little comic isn’t too bad! I enjoyed making it. For my next one, I might try experimenting more with the style and with larger panels which occupy more of the page and allow for more breathing room. I found showing how time passes to be a difficult subject to tackle, and I think I let the story get away with me a little bit, but I still think it fulfills the brief well.

Large Scale Drawing

For this option you should produce at least one very large-scale drawing of a landscape, either real or imagined. This should be at least A0 (84 x 119cm) in size (and ideally larger) either by sourcing some very large sheets of paper, or a roll of paper, or by taping a number of sheets of paper together. You can choose to produce an observational drawing of a landscape or you can produce an imagined landscape using more abstract marks. You can use pencils, brushes and ink, or any mark-making implements using the medium of your choice.

Now record and reflect on your results in your learning log: ● What did you find most challenging? ● Is this an area of art practice that you have worked with before? ● Would you attempt this again and, if so, how would you change or develop your approach?

Idea Generation/Sketching

Because the project would be so large, the best option seemed to be to work in black and white with either pencils or ink. Landscapes are not something I gravitate towards so I tried to keep things simple at first. The inspiration pictures below show what I had in mind, but once I got started the look of the drawing did not really end up being very much like them.

The initial sketches were fairly standard and boring, until I remembered the landscapes of a particular artist I am fond of, Jakub Rozalski.

He is a Polish digital artist who combines Romantic-style landscape painting with fantastical elements. His work always gives me joy, especially when it depicts farmers and normal people rather than warriors and wizards (which he also paints a lot of).

My next sketches incorporated some fantastical ideas, though I did not try to draw machines or ships like Rozalski, rather I tried for more standard fantasy things like giants and lake fairies.

Ultimately, I decided on a subject when I went looking for reference among my photo library. A couple of years ago, I visited a peony reservation with a group of friends. It had been there for a hundred years, survived a world war and the communist dictatorship as well as several changes in management. The flowers are Steppe Peonies and have a small legend attached to them about a young prince who fell in love with the woodman’s daughter. Though he was not the only one. His brother was vying for her affections too, and one day he becomes overwhelmed with jealousy and drowns his brother in a lake. In her grief, the lady’s tears turn to blood and stain the flowers red forever.

I took some inspiration from the story, but was not overly concerned with staying true to it. I incorporated the mourning lady, the lake, and the flowers, but also added some giant characters in the background which do not necessarily come from the story. They were mostly a result of the Rozalski inspiration.

Testing Materials

The materials I chose were dependent on the paper I had available. The option I liked the best out of my options was a fairly thin wrapping paper with off-white coloring and a ribbed texture. Pencils, ink, pastels, and charcoal all looked nice, but I ended up sticking to charcoal pencils. I would have liked to paint with ink in order to cover the large surface with more ease, but did not like the way ink pooled when I used a little bit of water to dilute it. And the pastels would have helped cover the area quickly, but I thought they were a bit too messy for the idea I had sketched out before. Graphite pencils would have been a little too meticulous for such a large area and are too shiny for my tastes besides. It makes getting dark tones out of them difficult. So I ended up using charcoal pencils for the entire piece.

Cutting out strips of the wrapping paper for testing.

Drawing

I measured two meters of paper and pinned it down on the rug. I used boards underneath the paper when the surface of the rug was too soft to get sharp lines.

The first stage was perhaps the most difficult and stress-inducing. Working on such a large surface is very different from working at the table. I have had some experience with working on large surfaces, but no more than a meter in height and always on an easel. This was very different, because I most certainly could not see the whole piece by just stepping back and therefore could not fix composition errors easily. The size also made transferring my sketch more than a little challenging because when I sketch a new image, I tend to work all over the paper instead of starting in a corner and finishing at the other end of the page. Jumping around from element to element is very different when one has to literally jump to get to the other side of the paper.

Things got easier after I had the sketch worked out. After that it was mostly just working on it and occasionally pulling up a reference. I also had an excellent image of an artificial lake with a little island that was perfect for the concept I was going for. I think the building in the original photo is a hotel, but I changed it to something like a monetary or remote castle. I imagined that the lady chose to mourn there after the death of her lover.

Filling in the sketch.

After a certain point, I kept realizing that the drawing simply did not have enough contrast. I would feel alright about it, then wake up the next day an realize that it was woefully flat.

I also could not decide if I wanted the characters in the background to be mountains or clouds. Eventually, I settled on something a little more cloud-like because I felt like the drawing had enough mountains already and I liked the effect of the characters sort of fading in and out of the atmosphere.

The exercise was challenging, but I really enjoy the final result. Though I could have chosen to work on something a little simpler, I am glad I did not because it would not have been my own the way this more story-based, fantastical image is. It’s a landscape I enjoy looking at and the fact that I am not full sure what the story behind all the elements is only makes me enjoy it more. Who are the characters in the background? Why are they watching the lady? No idea, but I like thinking about it.

If I were to do this again, I think I would try using powdered charcoal to cover more surface area faster and I think I would try a more unique composition. Despite the fantasy elements, it kind of reminds me of a Bob Ross painting and that is not the effect I was going for.

This final exercise will involve the development of your own characters using small-scale objects and techniques. Your characters could be a group of people from a story, or your family, or a group of fictional characters of your own invention.

Photo Booth

Either visit a real-life photo booth (you can usually find these at post offices or railway stations), use a digital or smartphone app, or use the ‘Photo Booth’ application on your computer to create some passport-style photographs for some characters which you will develop. You could choose to use yourself as a subject to develop these characters, perhaps by making some props to build the look of your character like a false beard, some glasses, a wig or hat of some sort, etc. Or you could choose to make a character or series of characters from household bits and pieces. Think about how you can manipulate your character/s to express a range of emotions, can you capture them from a range of angles? As an extension of this exercise you could produce a mock-up passport for your characters.

This time, I spent a little less time mapping out ideas with words and more time looking through my library of images and determining what I could do with the resources/skills at hand. The goal was to work with the things already available in my own home and not purchase extra costumes or makeup or have to learn new skills to be able to create the characters, such as special effects makeup. Making a completely outlandish character might have been a fun project, but I have never been the type to participate in costume parties or conventions so I do not have the skills or tools for that. I kept the characters simple and within the limits of my closet and every day makeup bag.

The categories above are the ones I found most doable. I ended up with three characters: and older Victorian lady, a 1920’s inspired clown, and an alien character. For the lady, I used dark eyeshadow to emphasize the circles around my eyes, the hollows of my cheeks and where my natural wrinkles would fold, then I put up my hair and dressed in dark, high collared clothing. I also stuffed my sleeves with kitchen towels for a better silhouette and used my own glasses as a prop. For the clown, I used the 20’s actress look as a base (thin, arched eyebrows, bee sting lips, short hair) and drew some lines across the cheeks and highlighted the nose to mimic clown makeup. Since both of the other costumes would be fairly covered up, I opted for a off-the-shoulder shirt and added the typical clown big bow as a scarf rather than as a bowtie. For the alien, I tried to add extra sets of eyes on my cheekbones and temples along with some decorative designs on the forehead and dressed in shirtsleeves and waistcoat with a dark scarf as a tie. I thought the juxtaposition would be interesting, as if the alien is desperately trying to blend into the human world.

I took many photos for each character, making sure to use a range of expressions and to imbue them with a bit of personality. The Victorian lady is stern and baffled by her situation, the clown is both silly and sinister, and the alien is a little lost and confused.

Once I selected the best set of images, I made the above template in Photoshop. The squares are smart objects, so I only had to shrink and place the images without bothering with cropping. Each image did need to be adjusted for levels and many of them had to be touched up because I could not always avoid catching the shelf above me within the frame of the camera. All of the images have a noise filter as a finishing touch, to give them a more analogue film look.

The images are not exactly sequential, but I tried to make the progress from top to bottom natural, as if the photos were taken one after the other in a photo booth. This can best be seen in the alien photos: the eyes are closed, then I “wake up” and look around curiously at the camera and surroundings, then become abruptly uncomfortable both with the clothes and situation, eventually turning the ire towards the camera lens. The Victorian lady first tries to be formal, then starts judging her surroundings and decides she’d rather be away from the strange device. The clown has more fun with the situation and is actively treating it as a photoshoot, making silly facial expressions.

The Preening Habits of Clowns

My favorite set is the one with the clown, though I do like the alien images as a sequence. The lighting in the clown images looks the best, which might be why I prefer them. It had been very dark when I was taking those photos and I used an extra lamp as a secondary light source instead of natural light. The process of dressing up was fun, though I can’t say I like using myself as a subject even when in costume. It just isn’t my cup of tea. Experimenting with photography is always somewhat overwhelming for me because it’s just so complicated if one wants to do it right and I do not have that skillset at all. These images came out decently enough, even though I’m sure there are better ways to have made them.