Line art drawings are how I started my artistic journey. As a kid it’s all I drew, and then when I picked up art again as an adult, it was a safe place to begin. It was during the Zentangle craze so finding drawing tools were easy to come by and there were thousands of tutorials for line art doodles available online. I ended up creating fashion line art doodles that I shared on Pinterest and that’s how the editors at Walter Foster found me and asked me to be a part of their fashion tangling book.
Beginning with line art really is a good place to start!!
Line art is all about drawings done with fine lines that can vary in width and density. Doodle art is actually a really good way to practice your fine-liner skills. There are tons of examples on Pinterest, or you can pickup one of the wonderful books I was lucky to contribute too.
Suggested Line – Art Tools:
Micron pens are my favorite, but there are tons of pens available.
Pens:
- Micron
- Faber-Castell
- Arteza
- Staedtler
- Tombow
Paper:
Any paper will do, but I prefer either white printer paper or Bristol paper, but it will depend if I’m adding any wet medium to the illustration. If so, I like to use a mixed media paper or watercolor paper.
- Canson
- Strathmore
- Arteza
Tips for Line Art Drawing
- It’s not supposed to be perfect! The imperfections are what makes the drawing unique and special, so don’t worry if every line isn’t perfectly straight.
- Look for the shapes and begin there. When looking at an object try to see the big overall shapes that make up the object. When you see an object for its shapes it’s easier to draw that.
- Once you have the basic shapes down, you can add smaller textured lines (either hatch marks, dots, dashes or small, whispy lines). These will make those basic shapes take on dimension and form.
- Keep layering these marks until you have the desired look.
- Use zentangle/doodle marks to fill in the shapes as well.
- You can keep your line art drawings just black and white or you can color them in with colored pencils, crayons, pastels, or add watercolor paint.
Here’s a Reel I made for Instagram. Here I’m using Procreate, a digital drawing app, but the line art tips apply digitally as well as on paper.
Heidi Cogdill 