January 6, 2013
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Charcoal & Children
Lesson 12: Hard Lines; “The Bridge”
Attempting to go back to posting these on Sundays. Bear with me, I’m all at odds with myself and the blog and pretty much everything in between. It might take a bit yet before I gain back any semblance of organization!This week in art we talked about hard lines and soft lines. We learned that some people like edges, points, corners, and straight, ‘hard’ lines. Brian, Lydia, and Isaac are like this. ((So is Aaron, but that’s mostly because he’s five.)) Other people are less defined, like curves and flowing strokes, are ‘softer’… have some wispies to their art. That’d be me and Ethan. But we learned that everyone can learn BOTH kinds of strokes, if they really focus on what they’re doing. And this week we focused on hard lines. Here are a few examples I found on-line:
Hard Lines are often bold (although they don’t have to be), are stark, and tend to show a blunter view of things. And that’s good – some things are just… well, hard. Rock. Steel. Timber. They’re just hard, y’know? So we did the exercises in the book, and then I picked a poem that had something hard in it – a bridge!
On the BridgeKate Greenaway, 1846-1901
If I could see
a little fish
That is what
I just now wish!
I want to see
his great round eyes
always open
in surprise.
I wish a water-rat
would glide
slowly to
the other side;
Or a dancing
spider sit
on the yellow
flags a bit.
I think I’ll get
some stones to throw,
and watch the pretty
circles show.
Or shall we sail
a flower boat,
and watch it slowly,
slowly float?That’s nice –
because you never know
how far away
it means to go;
and when tomorrow comes,
you see,
it may be in
the great, wide sea.
You can see what I mean. Some of us are better at ‘hard lines’ than others. I was pretty irritated with my picture this time – my person is WAY too big for my bridge. But everyone else really liked it, because there were so many options… pebble rings, floating flowers, a spider, a water-rat. As long as they like it, I can deal with an out-of-proportion girl!
