Line and Form.

Every drawing begins with a line, and every design resolves into form. This handbook takes those two elemental ideas and builds from them a considered account of how visual art achieves its effects.

What it's about

This is a practical treatise on the principles of drawing and design, examining the roles that line and form play in creating pattern, structure and beauty. Books of this kind, written by working artists for students and craftsmen, move through the fundamentals of composition, the expressive power of the line, the organisation of shape and space, and the way ornament and design draw on natural forms. The aim is to train the eye and hand alike, teaching not just techniques but the reasoning behind them.

Themes

The relationship between nature and design, the discipline of composition, and the conviction that good art rests on sound principles run through the book. It treats drawing as a language with its own grammar, one that can be learned and understood.

Why it still matters

The fundamentals of line, form and composition do not go out of date, and a clear-eyed guide to them remains genuinely useful. For students of art and design, and for anyone who wants to understand how images are constructed, a handbook from a master craftsman offers lessons that still hold.

Who it's for

Art students and practising artists, designers and illustrators, and anyone curious about the principles beneath drawing and design.