GJ Book Club, Chapter 11: Variety of Line

On the GJ Book Club, we're looking at Chapter 11: "Rhythm, Variety of Line" Harold Speed's 1917 classic The Practice and Science of Drawing. The following numbered paragraphs cite key points in boldface, followed by a brief remark of my own. If you would like to respond to a specific point, please precede your comment by the corresponding number.

1. Line Rhythm depends on the shape of your lines, their relation to each other and their relation to the boundaries of your panel.

He continues that circles and straight lines can be dull because of their lack of variety and that they're seldom used except to enhance the variety of other lines.

Naturally, I thought of Alphonse Mucha, one of the great pictorial designers, who uses the circle and the straight line as 2D design elements. But he varies the edges of those geometric lines and interrupts them with overlapping forms so that it's not too mechanical.

In his essay on design, Mucha makes a strong case for the necessity of book or magazine cover illustrations to reinforce the shape of the page or cover.

Like Rockwell, J. C. Leyendecker used the standard circle device of the Saturday Evening Post magazine. He also used horizontal or vertical lines inside the picture that were parallel to the edges of the magazine itself. 

Speed then goes on to discuss ellipses and egg shapes, which have more variety, since their curvatures are constantly changing. That made me think of the evolution of character design at the Disney studios, which started out as a lot of circle shapes early on, and over time the characters kept getting the redesign treatment.

2. Speed's "Variety in Symmetry" diagrams  

One of the most valuable takeaways from this chapter are the two diagrams showing how convex roundness (B) on one side of an arm or leg is often opposed by hollows (A) on the other side.

Here's the idea played out on the whole figure. Hollows (A) vs. Convexities (B). 

It's helpful to look across the form to compare the kinds of lines and to allow them to answer each other.

Walt Stanchfield, from Drawn to Life 

Other drawing teachers suggest contrasting straights against curves across the form. Animation teacher Walt Stanchfield, in his book Drawn to Life, talks about comparing straights and curves across the form as an expression of how the form is bending.

3. Greeks did away with the indentation above the nose.

I've always wondered about this, because it is such a consistent feature of Greek art and Victorian art. I haven't met too many people who really look like this. Speed says the Greeks chose to sculpt the ideal face that way to create more unity of line, extending the line of the forehead down along the nose without breaking it with an angle or an indentation. 

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Drawn to Life: 20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes: Volume 2: The Walt Stanchfield Lectures

By saying "shape of your lines" he's reminding us that lines can function in two ways: the edges of shapes and standalone lines.

Harold Speed (Dover ed.)

The Practice and Science of Drawing is available in various formats:

1. Inexpensive softcover edition from Dover, (by far the majority of you are reading it in this format)

2. Fully illustrated and formatted for Kindle.

3. Free online Archive.org edition.

4. Project Gutenberg version

Articles on Harold Speed in the Studio Magazine The Studio, Volume 15, "The Work of Harold Speed" by A. L. Baldry. (XV. No. 69. — December, 1898.) page 151.

and The Windsor Magazine, Volume 25, "The Art of Mr. Harold Speed" by Austin Chester, page 335. (thanks, अर्जुन)

GJ Book Club on Pinterest (Thanks, Carolyn Kasper)

New GJ Facebook page, credit Jenna Berry

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Overview of the blog series
Announcing the GJ Book Club
Chapter 1: Preface and Introduction
Chapter 2: Drawing
Chapter 3: Vision
Chapter 4: Line Drawing
Chapter 5: Mass Drawing
Chapter 6: Academic and Conventional
Chapter 7: The Study of Drawing
Chapter 8: Line Drawing, Practical
Chapter 9: Mass Drawing
Chapter 10: Rhythm
Chapter 11: Variety of Lines
Chapter 12: Curved Lines
Chapter 13: Variety of Mass
Chapter 14: Unity of Mass
Chapter 15: Balance
Chapter 16: Proportion
Chapter 17: Portrait Drawing
Chapter 18: Visual Memory
Chapter 19: Procedure
Chapter 20: Materials