The simplest definition of a line is the path left by a moving point. A point is a dot, a shape too tiny to divide into parts. Another way of describing a line is a series of points joined together in a row.
Regular lines are either straight or curved, and both can be arranged in a multitude of different ways. Straight lines extend lengthwise from one point to another. They can be made vertical, or horizontal, or diagonal. When bent at an angle they form angular lines which can be repeated to produce a zigzag pattern.
A curved line is one which runs from one point to another (or back to the same point of origin) not along a direct path but making one or more bends. Curved lines can produce circles, or can be spirals, undulating, or wavy.
Lines also exist in various relations to each other. Two straight may run parallel, while a horizontal straight line may be perpendicular (at right angles) to a vertical line. Both straight and curved lines also converge and intersect.
A line frequently describes an edge, usually the edge of a shape or surface. When a line forming an edge follows the contour of the shape, it is described as an outline.
To make a line, a pencil, pen, brush, or some other tool or instrument, is drawn across a surface. Line is employed primarily to indicate the edge or contour of a shape. Line also marks the junction between two shapes, between one thing and another thing. This in fact is one of the primary functions of line. Line is fundamental to drawing, which, according to early writers on art, came first, before painting.
When placed close together, lines can indicate surfaces. This is often the case in prints, such as woodcuts, engravings, and etchings.
Line can also “suggest” surface to the viewer.
Line functions in much the same way in painting. More often in painting, however, line serves to outline shape and separate areas of colour.
In many paintings it is apparent that the artist relied on line to define the elements in the picture. The impression, which is undoubtedly true in most cases, is that the artist first drew what he or she wanted to paint on the surface and then added colour.
Line can also define edges, trace outlines, describe features, and mark boundaries in sculpture and architecture. Lines can also be implied.
However, line is essentially a two-dimensional entity; in a three-dimensional context it necessarily acquires additional functions, such as defining volume.
SHAPE
We see the world first in terms of shapes. The edges or boundaries of shapes are usually defined by lines, but we notice the shape first.
Shapes are can geometric, such as squares, rectangles, triangles, circles, ovals, and other geometric shapes. Geometric shapes are frequently encountered in human-made objects, including art.
Humans can also make or create irregular organic or biomporphic shapes which are like the irregular, usually curving shapes found in organic matter in the natural world.
All living organisms, from plants to humans, have organic shapes, although they may exhibit a geometry in their structure. Some naturally occurring inanimate objects, such as various crystals and certain rocks, can be geometric in shape.
The term shape refers to a two-dimensional area that has identifiable boundaries. If the outline or boundary is altered the shape is changed. These boundaries may be formed by one continuous line or edge, forming a closed shape, or they may form an open shape where the outline is not continuous. The outline of a shape is also called its contour.
When a shape is three-dimensional, as in a piece of sculpture or architecture, it is properly termed a mass, a word which also implies weight and bulk and density. The mass of a solid object may be described also as volume. Objects with mass or volume occupy space.
The term volume can also be used to refer to space itself, the space between objects. And, to add a little more confusion to the terminology, shape, mass, and volume can also be referred to as form, a difficult word which can also refer to the way an image has been composed or put together, its style and the overall shape of the work of art (for example, a rectangular painting).
Three-dimensional shapes can also be irregular or regular in form. A mountain is irregular while the moon is spherical. When an artist draws the moon on a piece of paper, it may appear at first as a circle, a geometrical shape, but then, using shading to trick the eye, may attempt to make the moon appear as a three-dimensional sphere.
As we shall see, it has been the goal of many artists over the centuries to make a two-dimensional shape appear three-dimensional. At other times, however, and especially during the 20th century, a number of artists have deliberately ignored or denied the illusion of the third-dimension and have focused instead on producing flat two-dimensional shapes.
For artists working on a two-dimensional surface such as a canvas or a piece of paper, all shapes are essentially surfaces. Indeed, the shapes of surfaces, and the colours applied to them, are the chief preoccupations of the artist.
The visible world is comprised of surfaces, most of them are real and solid, such as the trunk of a tree, while other things, such as the blue sky, may seem like a surface. In a painting, the tree trunk and the blue sky are both painted surfaces. To a great extent, it is the conjuring up and the manipulation of these surfaces, both real and implied, that is the primary defining task of the artist.
Like a shape, a surface is bound by an outline and is recognized not by depth but in terms of length and breadth. A surface can be uniformly flat, forming a flat plane, like a table top, or it can be convex, having an outward spherical bulge, or concave, having an inward spherical bulge, like the outside surface and the inside surface of an eggshell. Surfaces may be a combination of two or three of these forms.
Three-dimensional objects may exhibit composite surfaces. For example, the top of the drum of a column is a flat plane, but it has a curved or convex surface when seen from the side.
In the real world, surfaces may appear to change (even when there is no real physical change) because of changes in position and lighting which effect how we view the shape, colour, and texture of a surface.
Three-dimensional objects can also be described in terms of shape and surface.
Like sculpture, buildings also have an overall external shape plus any number of other shapes that compose its details. Most architectural shapes are geometrical in form.
You can also go inside most buildings where the internal spaces form another composition of shapes. These interior shapes and volumes are determined by the walls, floor, ceilings and the arrangement of the internal openings.
Artificially constructed shapes may also be employed to enframe scenes or objects in the real world. This may be accidental or deliberate. A window, doorway, or gateway may “frame” the view beyond.
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