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Chapter 5 |
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Reading: Read the section Outline and Contour Line, and Implied Line.
Premise: This project challenges you to define shapes using hatched (parallel) lines and implied lines. You can do this project on paper with pen and ink using the materials and process described below, or on your computer using a draw or paint program. We'll show you examples of both.
Parallel lines when drawn closely together, begin to act as a "fill" or hatched area. An example of this can be readily found on the computer you're gazing at—chances are, that somewhere on the screen a series of parallel lines are being used as a graphic. On Mac programs, the menu bar is an example, and almost all draw and paint programs allow you to fill or shade an object with hatched lines.
We think of drawn lines as actual, or explicit lines. Implied lines, those which are not visible but are suggested, are more prominent and important than we might realize. When an actual line ends, our eye naturally wants to continue it, and when a group of parallel lines end, the alignment of those ends implies another line. In the example below, we've "drawn" a circle without actually drawing a circle.
Time required to do this project: Allow four hours.
*Materials: T-Square; triangle; drawing paper; 4-H (hard lead) pencil; eraser; masking tape; compass (optional); and pen.
How to start: A drafting table or drawing board is helpful for this exercise. Tape the paper down to the surface, and draw an 8" square (an image frame) using the 4-H pencil, the T-Square and the triangle.
Now, with your ruler, make a set of light marks (hash marks) on the left vertical line of the image frame at 1/8" intervals. These will be your guides for drawing the horizontal lines that create your composition.
Inside the frame, lightly draw a cube (like the one on the left, but leave out the numbers!) large enough so that you have about an inch of space all the way around. The first thing you'll notice is that by drawing a shape on the paper, you also create space around it. Plan to have the space around the shape be occupied with evenly spaced lines.
Begin by hatching the background, and the two sides of the cube. To do this, start at the top of the image frame and, using the hash marks, draw horizontal lines 1/2 apart all the way down except for the area inside space #1. Leave this diamond shape, the top of your cube...completely blank. However, let the first set of lines fill areas #2 and #3.
Now define areas #2 and #3 so they stand out from the background. Following the hash marks on the left side of the image frame, draw lines half way between the first set of lines inside areas #2 and #3.
Now you are ready to make area #3 the darkest. Draw the final horizontal lines evenly spaced between the sets of lines in area #3. (These will be 1/8" apart). You've done it!
To complete the work, ink over all the horizontal lines. Once they've dried, erase all the vertical and diagonal lines. What you should have left is an image of a cube, defined only by horizontal line segments.
The sphere If you haven't done a lot of drawing, probably the most difficult part of this assignment will be describing the key (or shading) of an object. The cube is the simplest form to shade, the sphere is more difficult. Look at the image on the left, and notice how the cube becomes three-dimensional by adding parallel lines to indicate shading. This is hatching, which defines both key (areas of shadow) and shape.
Begin with a new drawing paper and set it up the same way as you did for the cube. Draw a circle in the middle of the 8" square, and make the 1/8" hashmarks again on the left vertical line of the image frame.
Refer to the image on the right. After we made the outline of the circle, we drew in the shapes that defined the areas of highlight and shadow core with faint outlines. Note that it's very simple—highlight, shadow, and shadow core, the same basic areas as in the cube. Mark off the areas of key, and use horizontal line hatching as in the cube, starting at the top. All curvilinear lines will be indicated by the ends of the horizontal lines.
Below are two examples of this project by students from Oregon State University. The work by Kristen Hychka was drawn in the method described above, then scanned so it could appear on this webpage. The example by Shaun Rance, was done electronically on his computer and converted directly to a gif file. (To see the works in their larger formats, click the thumbnail images.)
*About materials: Most, if not all, of these materials are available at craft stores, college bookstores, and quite often discount department stores. I suggest trying Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target, Ben Franklin, etc. You can also order materials through
Dick Blick, Inc.
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