Line
DEFINITION
A mark made by an instrument as it is drawn across a surface.<br><br>A mark with length and direction(-s). An element of art which refers to the continuous mark made on some surface by a moving point. Types of line include: vertical, horizontal, diagonal, straight or ruled, curved, bent, angular, thin, thick or wide, interrupted (dotted, dashed, broken, etc.), blurred or fuzzy, controlled, freehand, parallel, hatching, meandering, and spiraling. Often it defines a space, and may create an outline or contour, define a silhouette; create patterns, or movement, and the illusion of mass or volume. It may be two-dimensional (as with pencil on paper) three-dimensional (as with wire) or implied (the edge of a shape or form).Examples: Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (Dutch, 1606-1669), Two Studies of a Bird of Paradise, pen and sepia ink and wash, white highlights, 0.181 x 0.155 m, Louvre. See nature.James Thurber (American, 1894-1961), All Right, Have It Your Way ? You Heard a Seal Bark, c. 1937, pen and ink on paper. See contour line drawing.Quotes: "It is to be observed that straight lines vary only in length, and therefore are least ornamental. That curv'd lines as they can be varied in their degrees of curvature as well as in their length, begin on that account to be ornamental. That straight and curv'd lines joined, being a compound line, vary more than curves alone, and so become somewhat more ornamental. That the waving line, or line of beauty, varying still more, being composed of two curves contrasted, becomes still more ornamental and pleasing . . . and that the serpentine line, or line of grace, by its waving and winding at the same time different ways, leads the eye in a pleasing manner along the continuity of its variety." William Hogarth (1697-1764), English painter. The Analysis of Beauty. "Art, like morality, consists in drawing a line somewhere." G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936), English author. "As in the fourteen lines of a sonnet, a few strokes of the pencil can hold immensity." Dame Laura Knight (1877-1970), English. The Magic of a Line. Also see align and alignment, angle, fold, linear, linear perspective, rectilineal, rectilinear, and tangent.