Blondheim Art Original Paintings

Palms at Sand Lake
8x10 inches
oil on panel


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Painters Tip


Thinking About Lines


Lines have a lot to do with our art.I was thinking about linear qualities in our drawings and paintings this morning.

We can combine calligraphy and representational characteristics of line in the same image. Lines vary according to their physical properties. Different line types can produce different expressive effects. Straight lines give the effect of rigidity. Diagonal lines produce energy and are dynamic. Vertical lines are dignified and produce the feeling of stability and horizontal lines are quite and restful. Lines describe the contours of object shapes. Textures are invented with lines.

Lines can be decorative or spatial in character. When line are the same thickness and don't cross they tend to be more decorative and surface oriented without depth. If lines vary in thickness, cross each other and are in different colors, a plastic or voluminous quality occurs, making the surface look more dimensional than flat.

Line creates representation on both realistic and abstract levels. It defines the limits of a subject's shape and inner dimension.

I use lines to create my cartoons and they have the surface decorative quality that my paintings don't have. I do use this linear method with paintings as well, but the paintings rely more on lost line and color variations butted up to each other; replacing the actual lines, rather than visible lines as separations of objects. The lines are still there, just not as obvious as a pencil or pen line would be.

In fact, I often use cartoon drawings to do my initial ideas for paintings, blocking in flat decorative style shapes and colors and then repeating this in the block in stage of my paintings. See example of the block in below.



Initial composition






Initial block in of the painting.