Drawing a blank

November 26, 2018 7:38 PM

An art professor I had in college taught from the most amazing, out-of-print book on how to draw, though it could have been on how to paint. I remember random details about it. Can you help me find it again?

The book had a three-noun title—"Blah, Blah, Blah" or "Blah, Blah, & Blah"—in a thin, black, sans-serif font. One of the words might have been "Form," and one of them might have been "Line," but I don't remember for certain. The title page had an explosion of straight lines all coming out from a central place on the page. I couldn't tell you what color those lines were, because as of 2006, the book was no longer being published and my prof taught from photocopies. Do you know what book this is?

posted by naturalnumbers to Media & Arts (10 answers total)

Was it "Line Color Form"?
posted by Rufous-headed Towhee heehee at 8:07 PM on November 26, 2018

That was apparently published in 2013, nevermind. How do you know the book is still out of print?
posted by Rufous-headed Towhee heehee at 8:10 PM on November 26, 2018

Was it teaching perspective? As in teaching you how to draw technically, say if you wanted to draw a camera or a rubics cube (as opposed to landscapes or life drawing). If so, I'm pretty sure my technical drawing 101 professor used the same book back in 1993. I don't know that I was ever told the name of it though.
posted by Jubey at 9:49 PM on November 26, 2018

Walter Crane's Line & Form, first published in 1900? Many covers over the years, often as "Line and Form."
posted by Iris Gambol at 9:54 PM on November 26, 2018 [3 favorites]

There's also "Form, Space, and Order" by Frank Ching, but that's more focussed on architecture, although the sketches in it are really good. It's gone through a few format and lettering changes over the years, so my version from the early 90s looks nothing like the current edition.
posted by LionIndex at 4:57 AM on November 27, 2018

Kandinsky's Point and Line to Plane?
posted by scruss at 5:29 AM on November 27, 2018

Which college? Do you remember the professor's name or the name of the course? These details may jog someone else's memory of the text used.
posted by freya_lamb at 5:47 AM on November 27, 2018

Do you remember any specific exercises from the book? It may help us narrow it down.
posted by DSime at 9:22 AM on November 27, 2018

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards? Still in print, tho.
posted by Enid Lareg at 8:35 AM on November 29, 2018

This does not exactly seem like a book on how to draw, but any chance it was Point and Line to Plane by Wassily Kandinsky?
posted by kristi at 2:08 PM on November 30, 2018