How Continuous Line Art Can Improve Your Mental Health
Get the outline; the details usually fall in place.
I am not an artist by any means but I doodle-a lot. I am a writer, my favourite form of expression is through poetry. Last year, I found myself completely unmotivated and in a cycle that drained my creative juices. I picked up a pen, and instead of words, I doodled. It kept me occupied but mindlessly so. It is in this place I discovered continuous line drawing or contour drawing. There are many names for this kind of art, where you complete a piece of drawing from start to finish with a single unbroken line; the trick is not lifting the pen from the page. Continuous line art in its most basic form is a drawing exercise that helps:
- increase hand-eye coordination
- simplify the complex world and
- improve an artist’s observation skills
Michelle Gemmeke explores different contemporary continuous line artists, their styles and motivations here. A worthy mention is a continuous line drawing of Picasso’s dachshund. It was said that Picasso dabbled a lot in this sort of art. Here is a picture of Picasso’s dachshund, which has been replicated many times over the years.
