Line weight and variation
3yr
Martijn Punt
One thing I struggle with and would like help with to improve is my line weight and variation.
I've heard various artist's mention the importance of varying line width in drawings, and I love seeing it in drawings of others.
However I don't know the "rules" of when to vary my line thickness especially in the outline. In a lot of my drawings I tend to outline too much (see the attached portrait of a guy for example) which tends to give it a stylized look.
The other drawing of a horse is from today where I try to vary the line thickness of the outline, but I'm mostly randomly varying the line thickness.
For the core-shadows I think I know how it works (sharp plain change= thinner core shadow, gradual plain change=thicker/softer core shadow).
Does anybody want to share their tips, or point me to a good resource on this? Thanks
First off I love these images. My father was a lifelong lover of horses and he made hundreds of paintings of them and this image reminds me a lot of his work. Second, I think the portrait already has a lot of line variation in it, and I think you are selling yourself short. I like the kind of work that has outlines emphasized, but that is just a personal preference. I know what you mean about lost lines though, I struggle with that myself and the only advice I can give is to think about where the light is coming from when you draw. That will tell which lines you can loose. Hope that helps.
Hi Ross! thanks a lot for the compliments. Horses are beautiful animals! My daughter is getting into horse riding and I tend to draw horses while she's riding. The reason I posted was because I felt I reached a plateau and I was over-relying on strong outlines as a stylistic thing without a proper understanding. The advice I got in this thread has been really good.
Hi Martin, your drawings are very good and the way you add line weight is working, even though it gives a more stylised look to the final product. As some other comments have already stated line weight is a matter of design, thus the whole concept is very personal and is going to make more and more sense through drawing and practicing.
That being said, there are some "ground rules" being analysed and demonstrated by Feng Zhu in the video below that may help you in your journey. The part that interests you is around the 32nd minute:
https://youtu.be/22XYoenU-0c
Thanks for the video link that's exactly the type of thing i was looking for. Much appreciated.
I think it's just an issue of design, which is notoriously difficult to teach. You can use lines like Stephen Silver, or like Alphonse Mucha, or like Beauguereau. Some artists will use dark lines on the shadow side, others will use it on the light side. Some will vary the thickness, others not. I don't think it's something you learn like perspective, but more like style. Which means go find artists that you love and study their work to see how they use line weight
yeah there probably are no strict rules, or at least rules can be broken if you know what you are doing, but in my case i probably didn't know what i was doing :) I'll try to study artists more closely or focus on aspects that i would like to understand. Thanks!
The drawings are very good anatomically and proportionally. I might add one more thing (I already see a couple of good advice comments) If you want to avoid the stylised look you shouldnt make the line the principal source of contrast. Yuo can still use the contour line but try to build the sharper contrasts in the mass shadows of the face for example. In the horse drawing I see the contour line being darker than the patches of shadow in the body and that flattens the drawing.
Thanks a lot! that makes sense, I will consider next time the balance between line weight "inside" the drawing vs the contours. Cheers!
Drawing is very much like speaking: pronounce each syllable with the same volume in the same rhythm, and the result is boring. There are many ways to do it correctly, there are no hard rules, just rules of thumb: use heavier lines for heavier forms, forms in the shadow, forms nearby, forms that are important, softer lines for softer forms. Look at the work of comic book artists who work in ink, and practice in ink, because it is a dead-honest medium for practicing line quality, where you cannot cheat.
Thanks for the advice, i love working in ink but definitely need to vary my lines more regardless of medium, like you said keep it interesting
Hey Martijn, your drawings are nice.
I wanted to explain the line weight thing to you, and I thought it would work better with an example. I hope you dont mind.
Line weights are another tool we can use to help give our drawings dimension and depth. Its not a very difficult concept, just try to thicken your lines on the underside and shadow side of a form, then thin the line and even break it up on the light side.
I hope this answers your question. Keep up the good work :)
Thanks! i love the example you put together, this is great. I will try to apply it in my next drawing
