March 31, 2025 - Unlike a painter, I work primarily in Line to separate shapes, as opposed to value. Unfortunately, lines don’t appear in the natural world that we see, but are an invention used to describe the separation of shapes, values, or produce tones. They must be constructed. Almost akin to the written word, they codify visual information into the symbolic. Also, like the written word, skill and individuality can provide a bit of flair, embellishment, spartan minimalism, supreme lushness, or outright chaos in their execution. To be comprehensive in a commentary on them would be to number the grains of sand on the shore, so here I will only write about some of approaches to linework that I enjoy from a very narrow slice of modern illustration, namely comics, specifically lines made in ink. One mustn’t sermon…