Line and Space

When I teach art I always want to start with line, but very quickly we can move into one of the other elements of art. It is always a challenge for me to decide what to teach second. It shows the immediate complexity of art and that the elements of art are not art. Rather they are a representation of what is going on when we create art work. We identify these elements of art so we can break it down and simplify it in order to explain and teach it.

So today I will write about space. As an art element space is emptiness. It might be referred to as white space, distance, depth, negative space, etc. It is the part of the art work things are not. This may sound funny to some, but the artist is as conscious of space as they are of the places where things are.

To save ourselves from falling too far down the rabbit hole, for now we will think of space as three dimensional or depth. In 2-D art this is largely an illusion, and it is super fun.

Here is depth in three lines. Draw one line horizontal then draw a second line from the bottom of your page until it connects to the horizontal line. Now draw a third line from a different point on the bottom of the page until it connect to the first two lines. You have made what looks like a road going off into the distance. That point where all the lines connect is called the vanishing point. Try out variations of this making your lines crooked or squiggly to give the impression of mountains or a winding path. Try doing up to a dozen different version. Is there one you like the most?