The Restated Line

I pulled this hand sketch out of my usual weekly batch because it prompted an interesting discussion on Facebook about restated lines. As you have probably noticed from all my Bic ballpoint drawings, I make initial lines lightly, but I leave them all visible. I never erase, even when I use graphite (except to put in highlights).

For this sketch, I used a Uni Pin brush pen, which has a wide range of line variation. Even with its finest tip, however, the line is still fairly bold, so my initial exploratory lines and marks do not fade in the distance; they are as black and assertive as my final lines. This may seem unfortunate in the finished drawing, and, indeed, the restated lines aren’t pretty, but I enjoy seeing them in my own and other people’s work. Restated lines are the evidence of the visual thinking and process behind the drawing.

An artist I have long admired is master draftsman Don Colley. His medium of choice is Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens, which are waterproof markers that make a solid, indelible, potentially harsh mark. Once dry on the page, those marks cannot be changed. At first glance, his sketches look polished and finished, but if you study them a while, you’ll see the lines he initially made to search for the forms. He sometimes restates those lines, making small corrections, but of course, the permanent lines he made initially cannot be erased, so they are all there, too. 

With a lifetime of drawing experience, Don’s skill and confidence are apparent in every mark he makes. And yet he, too, leaves behind the evidence of his initial thinking. I delight in being able to see this evidence.