Lines Have Emotions!

Have you ever wished there was an easy tool you would use to understand the world of art and painting? If you have, try this: look for the lines that organize the paintingLines give important clues about the emotion the painter is trying to convey.

The language of lines is easy to understand; we use the language every day - whether we realize it or not - to analyze the world around us. An example is the horizontal line:

 

When, in ordinary life, do you see this line? Here are a few examples to get you started:

  • People make the line when they are asleep. 
  • A log makes the line when it is lying on the ground. 
  • The horizon makes the line. 

It’s such a quiet line that few paintings use it: the line just doesn’t add much excitement to a picture! Winslow Homer uses the line in his painting, Moonlight, 1874, to create a quiet beach scene.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winslow_Homer#/media/File:Winslow_Homer_-_Moonlight.jpg

 

The beach, the line in the water, and the distant horizon all use the horizontal line.

But notice that Homer can’t resist adding another line, a diagonal line, to liven up the picture. Notice how the clouds are all at a diagonal. And both people are leaning, if ever so slightly. Something is going to happen between the people sitting on the quiet beach!

 

We associate diagonal lines with action for good reason. Try standing like the diagonal line and see how long you stay upright!

  • If a tree is standing at a diagonal, it might be ready to fall. 
  • When we run, we lean in the direction we are going. 
  • If a building is standing like this line, would you stand next to the side toward which it is leaning?

Look at what the diagonal line does to another painting by Homer, The Fog Warning.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winslow_Homer#/media/File:Winslow_Homer_-_The_Fog_Warning_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

Notice how much more action is in this painting because the boat is set at a diagonal. The clouds are also at a strong diagonal - these are clouds that are on the move! How many other diagonals can you find in the picture?

 

Let’s take a look at another line, the vertical line.

 

Look around you to find examples of this line. Stand like this line. Does the line suggest movement or stillness? Vertical lines don’t seem to move, do they?

 

https://www.wikiart.org/en/edward-hopper/house-by-the-railroad

 

Edward Hopper’s House by the Railroad uses both of the quiet lines: the horizontal and the vertical. Do you notice how quiet the house feels?

You’ll find another line repeated on the picture, the roman arch. How many times can you find the line used in the house?

 

 

Have you seen the roman arch before? What associations do you make with the line? What feeling does it convey? Where have you discovered the line? Here are some places you may find it:

  • Tombstones
  • The shoulders of heavy persons
  • The arches of ancient Roman buildings like the Colosseum 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colosseum

 

Tombstones use this line for good reason.  The lines suggests weight, dignity, and stolidity. It’s not a lighthearted line; instead, it has gravity and feels sober.

In the Hopper painting, it adds even more weight and seriousness to the already-stable structure. Add these lines to the gloomy colors, and it’s no wonder the house doesn’t look like a joyful home!

Van Gogh’s peasants are often drawn with this line. Look, for instance at the The Fisherman (Facing Right), and notice how solid the man seems to be.

 

 

An interesting thing happens if we draw only part of this line:

Try standing like this line. How do we feel when our bodies form this line? Van Gogh used the line for his drawing, Worn Out.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_van_Gogh#/media/File:Vincent_van_Gogh_-_Worn_Out_(F997).jpg

 

Do you notice how sad the picture seems? No wonder the line that forms the person’s back is called a Grief line.

Notice the interesting story that Normal Rockwell tells in Breaking Home Ties, when he contrasts the line dominating the boy with the line dominating the father. Look at what a difference there is in the moods of the two lines!

 

https://www.wikiart.org/en/norman-rockwell/breaking-home-ties-1954

 

 

Get started drawing your own expressive lines with these free art lessons for kids!

 

In case you are getting the idea that all curved lines suggest sadness, we should look at one more line, a line made of concentric half-circles.

The upper hemisphere line.

We commonly see this line in places like this:

  • a rainbow
  • a bubble floating on the water
  • a sunrise

This is a line that lifts us up, a buoyant line that seems to swell with life. In Far Angelico’s painting, Entombment, the figures to either side of Christ are slumped in grief lines, but dominating the picture is concentric arcs of the upper hemisphere line.

 

https://www.wikiart.org/en/fra-angelico/entombment-1440

 

What is Angelico telling us by this line? This is a burial, but the story doesn’t end with the death of Christ. The concentric curve that dominates the picture suggests a resurrection, not a death!

The opposite thing happens happens when a picture uses an upside down hemisphere. Notice the emotional effect when the line is inverted and the curve droops downward.

 

Look at Antoine Watteau's painting, Giles, below. Giles, the clown, is standing perfectly still in the middle of the picture. He makes a vertical line (by now you recognize the stillness of the vertical line), but the picture conveys more than the stillness of the vertical line. Something about the picture feels sad.

 

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Antoine_Watteau#/media/File:WatteauPierrot.jpg

 

What gives the picture its sad quality? Giles doesn't frown. He’s not crying. While it’s true that he stands alone and could therefore be lonely, that likely is not the reason the picture conveys a melancholic feeling.

Look at the line formed by the group behind him. Do you see the inverted hemisphereIt pulls us downward, and creates the sadness of the picture. The line is repeated in Giles' collar.

Can you find TWO inverted hemisphere lines in Rogier van der Weyden’s The Descent from the Cross?

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Descent_from_the_Cross_(van_der_Weyden)

 

Get started drawing your own expressive lines with these free art lessons for kids!

Let’s switch over to another curving line to see what feeling it creates. Earlier, we looked at the weightiness suggested by the roman arch.

The tall, pointed, gothic arch that replaced this in architecture during the renaissance, creates the opposite feeling.

 

Where do we see a gothic arch in ordinary life?

  • Walk in a forest of tall trees, and you’ll find it.
  • Of course, gothic cathedrals also use the line.

 

cathedral https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiens_Cathedral

 

In architecture, the gothic arch is used to

  • lift our gaze
  • make us look heavenward, and
  • create a mood of contemplation

No wonder a walk in the woods can be so uplifting! We are constantly being encouraged to look UP! Cezanne’s Tree Lined Lane at Chantilly uses the line.

 

http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_252229/Paul-Cezanne/Tree-Lined-Lane-at-Chantilly

 

Last of all, let’s look at one last curve, the S-curve. We associate the line with many familiar things:

  • the curve of soft fabrics
  • the feminine form
  • the violin
  • Queen Anne style furniture, such as the piece shown here:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Anne_style_furniture

 

The line gives a feeling of gracefulness. Look what how graceful this Chinese statue and this Chinese vase become because of the repetition of s-curves.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_ceramics

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_ceramics

 

We think of swans as being graceful birds. It may be because they glide along so smoothly in water, but look at the line of their neck. That’s probably the real reason!

 

 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mute_swan_Vrhnika.jpg

 

You’ll remember the diagonal line, and the movement it gives to a picture. If we have diagonal lines crisscrossing in different directions, the picture becomes even more energetic. But what happens if we lean the tips of two diagonals against each other? This is what we get: the pyramid line

 

 

You have undoubtedly seen this line before:

  • Mountains, and
  • The pyramids of ancient Egypt use the line.

What feelings do these lines give? Do you notice what’s happened to the energy and motion of the diagonal line? It’s gone! In fact, if you want to give a portrait the feeling that the person is

  • imposing
  • unmovable,
  • rugged and tough,

the pyramid is a good choice. Goya’s painting, Repentant St. Peter, is a good example.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phillips_Collection

 

Think about the contradictory statements the painter is making about the Biblical event he describes. St. Peter has just denied knowing Jesus, and now he is seeking forgiveness. You might expect the painter to use a grief line, or a roman arch to compose the picture, but instead he uses a pyramid - one of the strongest lines he might use!

What was Goya thinking?!! Might he be suggesting that in repenting from his sin, Peter becomes strong? It seems so.

 

Get started drawing your own expressive lines with these free art lessons for kids!

 

Van Gogh used the line when he painted L'Arlésienne: Madame Ginoux With Books. Again, the line makes the figure seem strong. Madame Giroux and her husband owned the cafe that Van Gogh often visited. Judging from the picture, what kind of business person might she have been?

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Arl%C3%A9sienne_(painting)

 

One last line that is interesting to study for its emotional effect is: the circle

 

 

It’s very telling that at Thanksgiving time in the United States, we use a cornucopia as a common decoration. Why use a cornucopia to symbolize a bountiful harvest? The answer is probably to be found in the fact that we use a series of circles to draw a cornucopia (the word comes from the Latin words cornu copiae - horn of plenty):

 

 

And what do we have spilling out of the cornucopia? Lots of round fruits and vegetables: More circles! The circle suggests

  • plenty
  • fullness, and
  • luxury,

so the cornucopia is a perfect representation of a bountiful harvest.

Renoir seems to use circles quite often, and they make his pictures feel comfortable, and his figures full-bodied. Here is his Landscape with Trees. All the shapes are soft, but notice how rounded everything is.

 

https://www.wikiart.org/en/pierre-auguste-renoir/landscape-with-trees

 

Can you find the circles in his painting, The Artist’s Family?

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Auguste_Renoir#/media/File:Pierre_Auguste_Renoir_La_famille_d_artiste.jpg

 

There are many more lines we could look at, and if you're interested, a great resource is Law Watkin's book written for the Phillips Collection: The Language of Design.

Now that you've learned about lines and what they can communicate,

why not get some free ArtAchieve art lessons and make some lines of your own!

 

Have you ever wished there was an easy tool you would use to understand the world of art and painting? If you have, try this: look for the lines that organize the paintingLines give important clues about the emotion the painter is trying to convey.

The language of lines is easy to understand; we use the language every day - whether we realize it or not - to analyze the world around us. An example is the horizontal line:

 

When, in ordinary life, do you see this line? Here are a few examples to get you started:

  • People make the line when they are asleep. 
  • A log makes the line when it is lying on the ground. 
  • The horizon makes the line. 

It’s such a quiet line that few paintings use it: the line just doesn’t add much excitement to a picture! Winslow Homer uses the line in his painting, Moonlight, 1874, to create a quiet beach scene.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winslow_Homer#/media/File:Winslow_Homer_-_Moonlight.jpg

 

The beach, the line in the water, and the distant horizon all use the horizontal line.

But notice that Homer can’t resist adding another line, a diagonal line, to liven up the picture. Notice how the clouds are all at a diagonal. And both people are leaning, if ever so slightly. Something is going to happen between the people sitting on the quiet beach!

 

We associate diagonal lines with action for good reason. Try standing like the diagonal line and see how long you stay upright!

  • If a tree is standing at a diagonal, it might be ready to fall. 
  • When we run, we lean in the direction we are going. 
  • If a building is standing like this line, would you stand next to the side toward which it is leaning?

Look at what the diagonal line does to another painting by Homer, The Fog Warning.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winslow_Homer#/media/File:Winslow_Homer_-_The_Fog_Warning_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

Notice how much more action is in this painting because the boat is set at a diagonal. The clouds are also at a strong diagonal - these are clouds that are on the move! How many other diagonals can you find in the picture?

 

Let’s take a look at another line, the vertical line.

 

Look around you to find examples of this line. Stand like this line. Does the line suggest movement or stillness? Vertical lines don’t seem to move, do they?

 

https://www.wikiart.org/en/edward-hopper/house-by-the-railroad

 

Edward Hopper’s House by the Railroad uses both of the quiet lines: the horizontal and the vertical. Do you notice how quiet the house feels?

You’ll find another line repeated on the picture, the roman arch. How many times can you find the line used in the house?

 

 

Have you seen the roman arch before? What associations do you make with the line? What feeling does it convey? Where have you discovered the line? Here are some places you may find it:

  • Tombstones
  • The shoulders of heavy persons
  • The arches of ancient Roman buildings like the Colosseum 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colosseum

 

Tombstones use this line for good reason.  The lines suggests weight, dignity, and stolidity. It’s not a lighthearted line; instead, it has gravity and feels sober.

In the Hopper painting, it adds even more weight and seriousness to the already-stable structure. Add these lines to the gloomy colors, and it’s no wonder the house doesn’t look like a joyful home!

Van Gogh’s peasants are often drawn with this line. Look, for instance at the The Fisherman (Facing Right), and notice how solid the man seems to be.

 

 

An interesting thing happens if we draw only part of this line:

Try standing like this line. How do we feel when our bodies form this line? Van Gogh used the line for his drawing, Worn Out.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_van_Gogh#/media/File:Vincent_van_Gogh_-_Worn_Out_(F997).jpg

 

Do you notice how sad the picture seems? No wonder the line that forms the person’s back is called a Grief line.

Notice the interesting story that Normal Rockwell tells in Breaking Home Ties, when he contrasts the line dominating the boy with the line dominating the father. Look at what a difference there is in the moods of the two lines!

 

https://www.wikiart.org/en/norman-rockwell/breaking-home-ties-1954

 

 

Get started drawing your own expressive lines with these free art lessons for kids!

 

In case you are getting the idea that all curved lines suggest sadness, we should look at one more line, a line made of concentric half-circles.

The upper hemisphere line.

We commonly see this line in places like this:

  • a rainbow
  • a bubble floating on the water
  • a sunrise

This is a line that lifts us up, a buoyant line that seems to swell with life. In Far Angelico’s painting, Entombment, the figures to either side of Christ are slumped in grief lines, but dominating the picture is concentric arcs of the upper hemisphere line.

 

https://www.wikiart.org/en/fra-angelico/entombment-1440

 

What is Angelico telling us by this line? This is a burial, but the story doesn’t end with the death of Christ. The concentric curve that dominates the picture suggests a resurrection, not a death!

The opposite thing happens happens when a picture uses an upside down hemisphere. Notice the emotional effect when the line is inverted and the curve droops downward.

 

Look at Antoine Watteau's painting, Giles, below. Giles, the clown, is standing perfectly still in the middle of the picture. He makes a vertical line (by now you recognize the stillness of the vertical line), but the picture conveys more than the stillness of the vertical line. Something about the picture feels sad.

 

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Antoine_Watteau#/media/File:WatteauPierrot.jpg

 

What gives the picture its sad quality? Giles doesn't frown. He’s not crying. While it’s true that he stands alone and could therefore be lonely, that likely is not the reason the picture conveys a melancholic feeling.

Look at the line formed by the group behind him. Do you see the inverted hemisphereIt pulls us downward, and creates the sadness of the picture. The line is repeated in Giles' collar.

Can you find TWO inverted hemisphere lines in Rogier van der Weyden’s The Descent from the Cross?

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Descent_from_the_Cross_(van_der_Weyden)

 

Get started drawing your own expressive lines with these free art lessons for kids!

Let’s switch over to another curving line to see what feeling it creates. Earlier, we looked at the weightiness suggested by the roman arch.

The tall, pointed, gothic arch that replaced this in architecture during the renaissance, creates the opposite feeling.

 

Where do we see a gothic arch in ordinary life?

  • Walk in a forest of tall trees, and you’ll find it.
  • Of course, gothic cathedrals also use the line.

 

cathedral https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiens_Cathedral

 

In architecture, the gothic arch is used to

  • lift our gaze
  • make us look heavenward, and
  • create a mood of contemplation

No wonder a walk in the woods can be so uplifting! We are constantly being encouraged to look UP! Cezanne’s Tree Lined Lane at Chantilly uses the line.

 

http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_252229/Paul-Cezanne/Tree-Lined-Lane-at-Chantilly

 

Last of all, let’s look at one last curve, the S-curve. We associate the line with many familiar things:

  • the curve of soft fabrics
  • the feminine form
  • the violin
  • Queen Anne style furniture, such as the piece shown here:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Anne_style_furniture

 

The line gives a feeling of gracefulness. Look what how graceful this Chinese statue and this Chinese vase become because of the repetition of s-curves.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_ceramics

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_ceramics

 

We think of swans as being graceful birds. It may be because they glide along so smoothly in water, but look at the line of their neck. That’s probably the real reason!

 

 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mute_swan_Vrhnika.jpg

 

You’ll remember the diagonal line, and the movement it gives to a picture. If we have diagonal lines crisscrossing in different directions, the picture becomes even more energetic. But what happens if we lean the tips of two diagonals against each other? This is what we get: the pyramid line

 

 

You have undoubtedly seen this line before:

  • Mountains, and
  • The pyramids of ancient Egypt use the line.

What feelings do these lines give? Do you notice what’s happened to the energy and motion of the diagonal line? It’s gone! In fact, if you want to give a portrait the feeling that the person is

  • imposing
  • unmovable,
  • rugged and tough,

the pyramid is a good choice. Goya’s painting, Repentant St. Peter, is a good example.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phillips_Collection

 

Think about the contradictory statements the painter is making about the Biblical event he describes. St. Peter has just denied knowing Jesus, and now he is seeking forgiveness. You might expect the painter to use a grief line, or a roman arch to compose the picture, but instead he uses a pyramid - one of the strongest lines he might use!

What was Goya thinking?!! Might he be suggesting that in repenting from his sin, Peter becomes strong? It seems so.

 

Get started drawing your own expressive lines with these free art lessons for kids!

 

Van Gogh used the line when he painted L'Arlésienne: Madame Ginoux With Books. Again, the line makes the figure seem strong. Madame Giroux and her husband owned the cafe that Van Gogh often visited. Judging from the picture, what kind of business person might she have been?

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Arl%C3%A9sienne_(painting)

 

One last line that is interesting to study for its emotional effect is: the circle

 

 

It’s very telling that at Thanksgiving time in the United States, we use a cornucopia as a common decoration. Why use a cornucopia to symbolize a bountiful harvest? The answer is probably to be found in the fact that we use a series of circles to draw a cornucopia (the word comes from the Latin words cornu copiae - horn of plenty):

 

 

And what do we have spilling out of the cornucopia? Lots of round fruits and vegetables: More circles! The circle suggests

  • plenty
  • fullness, and
  • luxury,

so the cornucopia is a perfect representation of a bountiful harvest.

Renoir seems to use circles quite often, and they make his pictures feel comfortable, and his figures full-bodied. Here is his Landscape with Trees. All the shapes are soft, but notice how rounded everything is.

 

https://www.wikiart.org/en/pierre-auguste-renoir/landscape-with-trees

 

Can you find the circles in his painting, The Artist’s Family?

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Auguste_Renoir#/media/File:Pierre_Auguste_Renoir_La_famille_d_artiste.jpg

 

There are many more lines we could look at, and if you're interested, a great resource is Law Watkin's book written for the Phillips Collection: The Language of Design.

Now that you've learned about lines and what they can communicate,

why not get some free ArtAchieve art lessons and make some lines of your own!

 

Have you ever wished there was an easy tool you would use to understand the world of art and painting? If you have, try this: look for the lines that organize the paintingLines give important clues about the emotion the painter is trying to convey.

The language of lines is easy to understand; we use the language every day - whether we realize it or not - to analyze the world around us. An example is the horizontal line:

 

When, in ordinary life, do you see this line? Here are a few examples to get you started:

  • People make the line when they are asleep. 
  • A log makes the line when it is lying on the ground. 
  • The horizon makes the line. 

It’s such a quiet line that few paintings use it: the line just doesn’t add much excitement to a picture! Winslow Homer uses the line in his painting, Moonlight, 1874, to create a quiet beach scene.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winslow_Homer#/media/File:Winslow_Homer_-_Moonlight.jpg

 

The beach, the line in the water, and the distant horizon all use the horizontal line.

But notice that Homer can’t resist adding another line, a diagonal line, to liven up the picture. Notice how the clouds are all at a diagonal. And both people are leaning, if ever so slightly. Something is going to happen between the people sitting on the quiet beach!

 

We associate diagonal lines with action for good reason. Try standing like the diagonal line and see how long you stay upright!

  • If a tree is standing at a diagonal, it might be ready to fall. 
  • When we run, we lean in the direction we are going. 
  • If a building is standing like this line, would you stand next to the side toward which it is leaning?

Look at what the diagonal line does to another painting by Homer, The Fog Warning.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winslow_Homer#/media/File:Winslow_Homer_-_The_Fog_Warning_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

Notice how much more action is in this painting because the boat is set at a diagonal. The clouds are also at a strong diagonal - these are clouds that are on the move! How many other diagonals can you find in the picture?

 

Let’s take a look at another line, the vertical line.

 

Look around you to find examples of this line. Stand like this line. Does the line suggest movement or stillness? Vertical lines don’t seem to move, do they?

 

https://www.wikiart.org/en/edward-hopper/house-by-the-railroad

 

Edward Hopper’s House by the Railroad uses both of the quiet lines: the horizontal and the vertical. Do you notice how quiet the house feels?

You’ll find another line repeated on the picture, the roman arch. How many times can you find the line used in the house?

 

 

Have you seen the roman arch before? What associations do you make with the line? What feeling does it convey? Where have you discovered the line? Here are some places you may find it:

  • Tombstones
  • The shoulders of heavy persons
  • The arches of ancient Roman buildings like the Colosseum 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colosseum

 

Tombstones use this line for good reason.  The lines suggests weight, dignity, and stolidity. It’s not a lighthearted line; instead, it has gravity and feels sober.

In the Hopper painting, it adds even more weight and seriousness to the already-stable structure. Add these lines to the gloomy colors, and it’s no wonder the house doesn’t look like a joyful home!

Van Gogh’s peasants are often drawn with this line. Look, for instance at the The Fisherman (Facing Right), and notice how solid the man seems to be.

 

 

An interesting thing happens if we draw only part of this line:

Try standing like this line. How do we feel when our bodies form this line? Van Gogh used the line for his drawing, Worn Out.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_van_Gogh#/media/File:Vincent_van_Gogh_-_Worn_Out_(F997).jpg

 

Do you notice how sad the picture seems? No wonder the line that forms the person’s back is called a Grief line.

Notice the interesting story that Normal Rockwell tells in Breaking Home Ties, when he contrasts the line dominating the boy with the line dominating the father. Look at what a difference there is in the moods of the two lines!

 

https://www.wikiart.org/en/norman-rockwell/breaking-home-ties-1954

 

 

Get started drawing your own expressive lines with these free art lessons for kids!

 

In case you are getting the idea that all curved lines suggest sadness, we should look at one more line, a line made of concentric half-circles.

The upper hemisphere line.

We commonly see this line in places like this:

  • a rainbow
  • a bubble floating on the water
  • a sunrise

This is a line that lifts us up, a buoyant line that seems to swell with life. In Far Angelico’s painting, Entombment, the figures to either side of Christ are slumped in grief lines, but dominating the picture is concentric arcs of the upper hemisphere line.

 

https://www.wikiart.org/en/fra-angelico/entombment-1440

 

What is Angelico telling us by this line? This is a burial, but the story doesn’t end with the death of Christ. The concentric curve that dominates the picture suggests a resurrection, not a death!

The opposite thing happens happens when a picture uses an upside down hemisphere. Notice the emotional effect when the line is inverted and the curve droops downward.

 

Look at Antoine Watteau's painting, Giles, below. Giles, the clown, is standing perfectly still in the middle of the picture. He makes a vertical line (by now you recognize the stillness of the vertical line), but the picture conveys more than the stillness of the vertical line. Something about the picture feels sad.

 

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Antoine_Watteau#/media/File:WatteauPierrot.jpg

 

What gives the picture its sad quality? Giles doesn't frown. He’s not crying. While it’s true that he stands alone and could therefore be lonely, that likely is not the reason the picture conveys a melancholic feeling.

Look at the line formed by the group behind him. Do you see the inverted hemisphereIt pulls us downward, and creates the sadness of the picture. The line is repeated in Giles' collar.

Can you find TWO inverted hemisphere lines in Rogier van der Weyden’s The Descent from the Cross?

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Descent_from_the_Cross_(van_der_Weyden)

 

Get started drawing your own expressive lines with these free art lessons for kids!

Let’s switch over to another curving line to see what feeling it creates. Earlier, we looked at the weightiness suggested by the roman arch.

The tall, pointed, gothic arch that replaced this in architecture during the renaissance, creates the opposite feeling.

 

Where do we see a gothic arch in ordinary life?

  • Walk in a forest of tall trees, and you’ll find it.
  • Of course, gothic cathedrals also use the line.

 

cathedral https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiens_Cathedral

 

In architecture, the gothic arch is used to

  • lift our gaze
  • make us look heavenward, and
  • create a mood of contemplation

No wonder a walk in the woods can be so uplifting! We are constantly being encouraged to look UP! Cezanne’s Tree Lined Lane at Chantilly uses the line.

 

http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_252229/Paul-Cezanne/Tree-Lined-Lane-at-Chantilly

 

Last of all, let’s look at one last curve, the S-curve. We associate the line with many familiar things:

  • the curve of soft fabrics
  • the feminine form
  • the violin
  • Queen Anne style furniture, such as the piece shown here:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Anne_style_furniture

 

The line gives a feeling of gracefulness. Look what how graceful this Chinese statue and this Chinese vase become because of the repetition of s-curves.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_ceramics

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_ceramics

 

We think of swans as being graceful birds. It may be because they glide along so smoothly in water, but look at the line of their neck. That’s probably the real reason!

 

 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mute_swan_Vrhnika.jpg

 

You’ll remember the diagonal line, and the movement it gives to a picture. If we have diagonal lines crisscrossing in different directions, the picture becomes even more energetic. But what happens if we lean the tips of two diagonals against each other? This is what we get: the pyramid line

 

 

You have undoubtedly seen this line before:

  • Mountains, and
  • The pyramids of ancient Egypt use the line.

What feelings do these lines give? Do you notice what’s happened to the energy and motion of the diagonal line? It’s gone! In fact, if you want to give a portrait the feeling that the person is

  • imposing
  • unmovable,
  • rugged and tough,

the pyramid is a good choice. Goya’s painting, Repentant St. Peter, is a good example.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phillips_Collection

 

Think about the contradictory statements the painter is making about the Biblical event he describes. St. Peter has just denied knowing Jesus, and now he is seeking forgiveness. You might expect the painter to use a grief line, or a roman arch to compose the picture, but instead he uses a pyramid - one of the strongest lines he might use!

What was Goya thinking?!! Might he be suggesting that in repenting from his sin, Peter becomes strong? It seems so.

 

Get started drawing your own expressive lines with these free art lessons for kids!

 

Van Gogh used the line when he painted L'Arlésienne: Madame Ginoux With Books. Again, the line makes the figure seem strong. Madame Giroux and her husband owned the cafe that Van Gogh often visited. Judging from the picture, what kind of business person might she have been?

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Arl%C3%A9sienne_(painting)

 

One last line that is interesting to study for its emotional effect is: the circle

 

 

It’s very telling that at Thanksgiving time in the United States, we use a cornucopia as a common decoration. Why use a cornucopia to symbolize a bountiful harvest? The answer is probably to be found in the fact that we use a series of circles to draw a cornucopia (the word comes from the Latin words cornu copiae - horn of plenty):

 

 

And what do we have spilling out of the cornucopia? Lots of round fruits and vegetables: More circles! The circle suggests

  • plenty
  • fullness, and
  • luxury,

so the cornucopia is a perfect representation of a bountiful harvest.

Renoir seems to use circles quite often, and they make his pictures feel comfortable, and his figures full-bodied. Here is his Landscape with Trees. All the shapes are soft, but notice how rounded everything is.

 

https://www.wikiart.org/en/pierre-auguste-renoir/landscape-with-trees

 

Can you find the circles in his painting, The Artist’s Family?

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Auguste_Renoir#/media/File:Pierre_Auguste_Renoir_La_famille_d_artiste.jpg

 

There are many more lines we could look at, and if you're interested, a great resource is Law Watkin's book written for the Phillips Collection: The Language of Design.

Now that you've learned about lines and what they can communicate,

why not get some free ArtAchieve art lessons and make some lines of your own!