Line and mark-making
Art & Design · Key Stage 2 · The School
One pencil, many marks
A single pencil makes far more than one kind of line. Change the pressure, the speed, the angle you hold it, and whether you use the point or the side. Hatching is parallel lines; cross-hatching layers them; stippling is dots; scribbling can be controlled. Filling a page with as many different marks as you can invent is a real exercise, not a warm-up.
Marks that describe a surface
Choose the mark to suit the thing. Short broken marks read as fur; long smooth ones as polished metal; tight little circles as rough stone; dots as sand. Drawing everything with the same even outline is the commonest reason a drawing looks like a diagram rather than an object. Look at the surface first, then pick the mark.
Weight and distance
A heavier, darker line comes forward; a lighter, thinner one recedes. Using a strong line on the near edge of an object and a faint one on the far edge suggests depth without any shading at all. Architects and illustrators use this constantly. It costs nothing and it is the fastest way to make a flat drawing sit in space.
Draw the same jug four times, each with one mark type. Long smooth lines: it looks like glazed ceramic. Short broken hatching: it looks like rough stone. Tight cross-hatching: it looks like dark metal. Soft smudged side-of-pencil: it looks like cloth. The shape never changed. The MARK described the material, which is what mark-making is for.