Hello, my name is Paul Priestley. Welcome to art-tutorialsonline.com. Today's video is the
second in my series on drawing for beginners. Yes, today, we're going to be looking at line.
Sounds simple, doesn't it? Well, it is, but line can tell us lots of things about direction,
about volume, about shapes. Lots of things! Exciting, so come on, let's make a start.
Now, I'm going to draw a single line here with a 4B pencil. It means nothing,
it just looks like a line. But if I put two or three lines next to it, you can see it looks
like eyes and a nose and a mouth. It isn't, it's just lying. If I draw a circle around it,
it becomes a face, and we read it as a face. Now, look at these three vertical lines,
one horizontal, another horizontal. Line means nothing, but if I put a curve next to each one,
look, I've written the word face. We read lines. This is what's most important about drawing.
Now, we could do the same thing with any little sketch. We can read the lines. The
lines will tell us lots of things about the individual sketch. So, if you look at this,
it just looks like a flat shape. But if I start putting lines down the side, and I'm going to
put them very close together here and gradually get wider apart and press on slightly less, now,
have you noticed, it now makes this shape look curved. It looks like a cylinder, all because
we are reading the lines. The lines are telling us that it's a cylinder. Do you see how it works?
Now, the same thing can apply to other shapes too. For example, imagine I draw a circle here.
Not a very good circle, so we're just drawing it a little bit in there. You see, I'm not worrying
about rubbing it out. I'm going to draw a vertical line down the middle but look what I'm going to do
now. I'm drawing lots and lots of curves. They're gradually getting more and more curved but going
to that two points at the end of it, the original line. Now, can you see, this now looks like a ball
shape simply because I've joined curved lines on here. So, your brain is reading what is
effectively a flat object but now seeing it as a curve and seeing it as round as a ball shape
simply because of the lines that I've put in. You see how curved it looks? Now, we can add a little
shadow underneath by simply putting more lines in. You see how we can create a little shadow
underneath there, and if you want it to stand on something which gains in shadow, look how I draw
the lines. Have you noticed they all radiate out from the one point, and because of that,
it makes it look as though it's standing on top of a flat surface. Simple lines are really important.
Now, look at this. Imagine you are drawing a landscape, and we are going to draw some
hills. Now, look at the lines I'm going to draw here. The lines define the shape
of the hills. You see that hill now looks as though it's curving down. These lines here,
look at those lines. You see how it makes it look as though the landscape is now curved. Now,
if you were painting this, you would follow your brush strokes would follow the same line, and that
would help to make the whole thing look much more three-dimensional. Following the lines is really,
really important. See those lovely curves we're getting, so we can develop this further.
Imagine this. I'm going to draw this little shape here, and I'm going to shade it in,
but I'm not going to think too much about the line when I shade it in. This is what children
often do. They'll just scribble something in here. Look, you see I'm shading it in,
just putting lines in almost randomly, scribbling them in like. Now, when you look at that,
it is very difficult to make any sense of it at all. It doesn't look like anything.
But look what happens when I draw the lines in an organized fashion. These lines are all horizontal,
which tells us the surface is now flat. These lines are all drawn at an angle,
as you can see here, and it now looks as though we've got a flat road, possibly going between two
areas of land or it could be a river going through. Do you see the idea? You see the
difference when the lines are organized, we can read the shape much better. So, the angle of your
lines is really important to your drawing. You must get the angles of the line right.
Look at this final little example here. Similar sort of idea, but this time the
lines are going to be done differently. Look, single vertical line, but now all the lines are
going to radiate out from that single point, and this gives the effect of pointing your
eye into the distance. We're going down this road if that's what it is. You see,
we also want to emphasize the distance by doing this. I'm going to put vertical lines in, but
the vertical lines are going to get wider as they come towards you, which makes it look as though
the angles are receding into the distance. You see the idea? Look how that makes it look as are you
going into the distance, all done with lines. Lines are really important. So, no scribbling,
organize your lines. If you can organize your lines, your drawing will look wonderful. Good
luck with your work. Thank you for watching ourtutorsonline.com. I hope you've enjoyed
the video and learned something about the use of line. If you have, then maybe you could give the
video a like. If you really like the video, then perhaps you could tell your friends about it and
subscribe to my channel. That will be really much appreciated. Thank you very much for watching.