What is this drawing style called?

January 20, 2020 7:23 AM

I'm interested in learning how to draw, specifically to sketch simple pictures and color them in. Like the sketch at the top of this article. If I'm looking for resources to practice/learn to draw like this, or a class to teach me this, what would I call this drawing style?
posted by arnicae to Media & Arts (11 answers total)

I would identify it as line and wash, but I'm no expert.
posted by aclevername at 7:34 AM on January 20, 2020

I'd call it a pen and ink wash drawing (or 'line and wash'). You'd begin with a light pencil sketch, then turn that into a detailed pen drawing (or, if you're confident, go straight for the pen). Then you'd add colour with a brush. This could be with watercolour paints, coloured inks, or watercolour pens or pencils. Most artists have a looser style than your example, and use the technique for quick sketches. In your example, the artist has been pretty precise in blocking out the colour right up to the lines.
posted by pipeski at 7:35 AM on January 20, 2020 [2 favorites]

It might also be called 'Ligne Claire', but that's probably more finished than a sketch.
posted by Capt. Renault at 7:45 AM on January 20, 2020 [1 favorite]

In comics parlance this would be the "clear line" typical of Franco-Belgian comics. I think that the closest match is the works of Jean Giraud/Moebius.
posted by sukeban at 7:48 AM on January 20, 2020

It makes me think of the work of British illustrator Edward Ardizzone.
posted by zadcat at 8:12 AM on January 20, 2020 [1 favorite]

I would call it line and wash; Joe Decie is a cartoonist who does great work in it.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 8:20 AM on January 20, 2020 [1 favorite]

Two artist who are very skilled at this style are Francisco de Goya and Rembrandt Van Rijn. They worked with ink and wash or etched plates for this style, and you can easily bring up examples to look at for reference. Goya's series would be called "Witchcraft" or "Disasters of War" they are gruesome records of the war during his lifetime. For Rembrandt, sketches or preparations for paintings. His drawings of his family, animals, and landscapes. Artists call these ink drawings and type of mark: hatch, line, and wash.
posted by effluvia at 8:23 AM on January 20, 2020

I was going to say it looks more like an engraving to me (etched plates). Those big white spaces are a clue.
posted by Miko at 8:28 AM on January 20, 2020

Here is a video of doing an ink and wash.
Your picture also made me think of gesture drawing, quick light sketches.
posted by SyraCarol at 6:12 PM on January 20, 2020 [1 favorite]

I don't think you need to seek out any particular style of instruction. You could take any life drawing class and repurpose whatever the elements of technique there are in this drawing that float your boat. That said, most of the life drawing classes I've attended over the last few years seem to have a lot of people from animation/comic backgrounds, so you'd be in sympathetic company.
posted by bonobothegreat at 7:04 PM on January 20, 2020 [1 favorite]

I am a pro artist and I would call this a pen and ink drawing plus some colors, possibly watercolor or some other wet media, possibly added digitally. The pen feels like a sepia fine-point felt-tip, there's a little too much variety in the line weight to be a technical pen, not enough to be a fountain pen.

The artist term for all the little lines is "hatching", if there were a couple of overlapping layers in different directions it would be "cross-hatching"

Nobody's really gonna teach you to do this specific style, go take some basic drawing lessons and play with inking over your pencil sketches with a few different pens. Also pick up some books on pen and ink techniques, all the ones I learnt from are long gone due to multiple moves and a hurricane so I can't give you any specific titles but here's a list of a few books that look good from a cursory skimming. Or just go to an art store if you have one nearby and see if they have any books on pen and ink that look good. Grab some pencils and a couple sketchbooks and a few different pens while you're there, there should be little pads of paper near most of the displays of pens to let you test them out.

The drawing at hand is deceptively simple, it looks to be meticulously drawn with a straightedge in several places - the flagpoles, the non-shading lines of the background elements. It's also got a strong B&W composition going on before the color goes on; the two terms artists like to use to discuss how to think about that are "chiaroscuro" and "spotting blacks" - they're not precisely the same thing but a lot of the core thought is the same.

Hopefully this gives you some places to start looking and thinking.
posted by egypturnash at 10:13 PM on January 21, 2020 [2 favorites]