Line-art styles

Three ways to draw the same photograph

Line art is not one thing. The same photo can come back as a few confident outlines with room to colour, or as every strand of fur in its right place. These are the three we have built, drawn from the same photograph by the same model, so the difference is the instructions and nothing else.

The same dog, three times

One photograph, three sets of instructions

One staffordshire bull terrier on a living room carpet, drawn three ways. Bold and gentle simplify hard enough that the room goes with the detail. Faithful keeps the lot.

A staffordshire bull terrier drawn in the bold style: heavy, even outlines, a plain white background with the room removed, and large empty areas across the body with no fur texture at all.

BoldThe easiest to colour

Big shapes with very little inside them. The room behind the dog is gone, the coat is left open, and what remains is a handful of confident lines a small hand can stay inside.

Line weight: Heavy and even
Background: Dropped, plain white behind the subject
Detail: Large open areas, fur only hinted at the edges
Suits: Younger children, thick pencils and felt tips

The same dog drawn in the gentle style: medium-weight outlines with light, sparse fur strokes across the chest, muzzle and brow, still on a plain white background with the room removed.

GentleThe middle ground

The same simplification, then a little of the coat put back. Enough marks to read as fur and to keep the face familiar, with the white space left largely intact.

Line weight: Medium outlines, fine interior marks
Background: Dropped, plain white behind the subject
Detail: Simplified, with some coat texture kept
Suits: Older children and anyone who wants room to work

The same dog drawn in the faithful style: fine pen lines covering the whole coat in dense fur texture, with the carpet pile, skirting board and sofa of the room all drawn in behind him.

FaithfulThe closest to the photograph

Nothing is thrown away. The carpet keeps its pile, the sofa and the skirting board stay where they were, and the coat is drawn strand by strand. Lovely as a drawing on its own, and by some distance the hardest to colour in.

Line weight: Fine pen lines throughout
Background: Kept, carpet and furniture included
Detail: Everything, down to individual strands of fur
Suits: Adults, fine liners, or framing it uncoloured

Look closer

The same patch of coat, enlarged

A detail from the same part of each drawing, magnified. This is where the three separate: not the outline, but how much ink lands inside it.

BoldOne confident contour, and white
GentleLight strokes suggesting the coat
FaithfulFur drawn strand by strand

Same region, same magnification, straight from the files above. Nothing has been redrawn for this page.

A second photograph

It behaves the same way on a different photo

Two puppies on a wooden floor. Bold keeps the chew toy they were playing with and loses the rest of the room. Faithful keeps the floorboards, the rug, the sofa and the cable trailing behind them.

Two puppies drawn in the bold style: clean heavy outlines, plain white behind them, smooth open coats, and only the chew toy kept from the room they were sitting in. — **Bold**Two shapes to colour, and space to do it in

The same two puppies drawn in the faithful style: dense fur texture across both coats and both ears, with the sofa, rug, wooden floorboards, toys and trailing cable of the room all drawn in behind them. — **Faithful**The whole room, coat and all

Only two of the three were drawn from this photograph.

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