Straight Lines

• A lot of your pen and ink drawings will involve the accurate use of straight lines, or hatching. The closer you draw your lines, the darker that part of the picture will appear to be. The farther apart your lines are, the lighter that area will be. Horizontal lines of varying thicknesses demonstrate motion across the canvas, from side to side, like the motion in a reflection in water. Vertical lines create motion up and down the canvas, often depicting distance or atmospheric conditions, like heat rising. Diagonal lines depict rotation, particular roundness and general mass, like you might use if drawing a planet.
  
  

Cross-hatching

• Cross-hatching involves the original technique of hatching, drawing fine parallel lines to create texture and shade, and crossing these lines with perpendicular lines to create a mesh-like pattern. Adding layers of cross-hatching gives a picture tone and adds thicker substance to a line drawing, creating the general lightness or darkness of the whole picture. You can add diagonal lines in cross-hatching to further enhance the darkness of an area without simply coloring the whole canvas black.
  
  

Contour Line Drawing

• Contour line drawing is the drawing of outlines that follow the curvature of the object or subject. Cross-contour line drawing is the crossing of these lines; for example, if you drew a sphere and wanted to give the impression that it was spinning, sweeping cross-contour lines within the sphere would achieve this. Of course, you can employ contour lines in cross-hatching as well to create texture and tone with an accurate degree of shape and motion.
  
  

Pointillism, Dots and Stippling

• These are names given to drawing techniques that are largely the same. By taking the pen and repeatedly marking the canvas with dots of varying size, texture, tone, and overlap, it is possible to create pictures like those drawn with lines. The effect is markedly different, though. Artists often use it for softer and more subtle details and finer demonstrations of shape, like the drawing of eyes.