4. Tapered Lines, Searching Lines & Loose Sketching
TAPERED LINES A line tapers when it gets thinner, softer, and lighter at the end. Both ends of this line are tapered: Tapered lines are great for loose sketching, where you don't worry about perfectly connecting every line. Loose sketches with tapered lines can look quite beautiful, without any level of finish. The loose, tapering lines are full of momentum and energy, in every media: Ariel sketch by Glen Keane Two Mesquite Trees, by Charles Hawthorne, watercolor, 1928 Windswept Girl , by Akseli Gallen-Kallela, oil, 1893 Why does this matter? Tapering a line allows you to stop and pause while you draw, to observe, and to continue drawing that line, without making it scratchy . Let's say you want to draw something complicated, like a robot. There's no way you can draw the whole thing in one perfect line, and there's no way to get all the contour lines right, if that's all you focus on. No one draws like this: To some of you, this drawing might look good? Let's ...
