Why The Beautiful Line?

A site dedicated to the art of drawing and painting, The Beautiful Line is an open forum for the sharing of information and inspiration about the drawing and rendering process in digital and traditional media.

This blog is created for all those who share a love of drawing and are enticed by the potential of a blank piece of paper, canvas, or board to create a unique work of art. This space is dedicated to the open sharing of information and experiences concerning drawing. Included here are tutorials on drawing and rendering a variety of subjects in easily accessible media.

Why the Beautiful Line? As a long time professional illustrator, artist, and instructor, I still believe that the most powerful tool for image making is the simple pencil, pen, or brush. In an era of fantastic advances in digital arts with the power to create new worlds of amazing realism, the pencil drawing remains an exquisitely elegant tool for expressing thoughts and ideas. With this in mind, I view it as a personal mission as an instructor to encourage students to draw their ideas first, before developing concepts within a software program.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Finding Abstract Shapes: 1956 Buick 88


"1956 Buick 88", 8x7 inches, Black Prismacolor pencil on Strathmore Bristol Vellum paper, 2007



"1956 Buick 88", detail


I try to find interesting shapes in every subject. The chrome on this 1956 Buick was hard to resist. Drawing the constantly changing forms in the chrome was fun and allowed me to be more interpretive with my drawing. I picked up on this idea by treating the figures and trees in the background as abstract shapes.

Its all about finding the points of interest and interpreting these elements as aspects of an abstract composition. Contrasts between areas of intense detail are balanced against broad open spaces. The subject is merely a vehicle (I know this is a very bad pun) for creating an interesting image.

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