Line Quality questions

[Shehaub]

Here are a couple sketch pages I did today from life. I do not seem to be doing so well with my line quality. I tried to do a little better on the second one than the first. All C&C are welcome, however I am especially interested in any guidance on how to make better marks while doing sketches like this.

[jetpack42]

the way to really learn line quality is to do copied drawings of the masters or artists who handle it really well. Comic books are a good source to learn that from as well too. If you copy the drawings and pay attention to what the artist did, you'll pick up some clues as to where to do it in your own work as well

Some general suggestions...

Use thicker lines where you want to:
add weight
add shadow
make the part closer

[SirRon]

Most of your lines do seem to have the same thickness.

In addition to what jetpack said where you want thicker lines are places that overlap or can have an object behind them. Kinda hard to explain so I'll show you.



Pardon the crude example but that's basically it. I learned this from my perspective class. Of course it gets complex when you really apply it to perspective, anatomy, especially clothing.

Anyone is welcome to add on to this or correct me. I'm not a pro but I'm just passing on what I know.... hey, that rhymes

[emily g]

Here's some ways to use thick and thin lines. These are all different approaches and may or may not mix well together:
-Use lines thickness to show light and dark. Make lines on the shadow side of the object thicker and lines on the light side of the object thinner. For example, in your first pic you would make the bottom lines of the arms thicker than the top lines.
-Use line thickness to show weight. Use a thicker line on the bottom of a heavy object to show its weight. Use thinner lines underneath lighter objects.
-Use line thickness to show volume. Use a thick line when something bends inwards and a thin line when something swells outwards. For example, in your drawing of the girl at the computer you would use thicker lines in the area where her neck joins to her torso, but you would use thin lines where the shoulders swell out.
-Use line thickness to show focus. Use thick lines on the area you want the eye to focus on. Draw thinner lines everywhere else.

hope this gives you some ideas,
emily

[liam.c]

as a genral rule .. the closer it is the heaver the line weight
the under side of any form has a heaver line weight <simple way of expressing light from above,like a drop shadow> or you can pick the side that would be farthest from the light or obsucred from the light <and most simply expressed the out line is thickest , see this most prominantly in more deformed toons >
now thease are not hard fast rules but genral rules for comic book type things
and lastly i wish i could type and i wish i used a spell checker

[Shehaub]

Thank you for all the tips. I am going to play around with line weights using these ideas. I plan to rejoin the Middle Class and will work on some of the assignments there. Practice practice practice!