Taking a line for a walk

Paul Klee, a famous Swiss artist described a line as "a dot that went for a walk,” and drawing as "simply a line going for a walk". Single line drawings or designs consist of one continuous line without any stops or breaks.

You will need:

Paper
Pens, pencils or crayons

Method

Taking a line for a walk drawings

Overlapping lines

1. Starting on the corner of a piece of paper, draw a continuous wiggly line that loops around the page and intersects other lines. Try to keep going and not stop drawing, until you have created a series of interesting shapes across the whole page.

2. Use pastels, pens or pencils to colour each individual small shape in a different colour. Make sure that any adjacent shapes are not the same colour. Alternatively, try blending colours to create separate rainbow coloured sections.

Non Overlapping lines

1. Starting in the corner of a piece of paper, draw a wiggly line, this time taking care not to loop or cross over any other lines. This is much more challenging than it sounds, I had several attempts before I managed to cover the whole page without any overlapping lines!

2. Starting from the corner of the design, colour the first section in different colours following the wiggly shape as it makes its way across the page. When you get to a dead end, go back to the beginning and continue round. You should notice that there's a plain white gap between each coloured shape.

Try again using a different style of different wiggly lines, creating new shapes and using different colour combinations,

Method

Single Line Drawings

1. Decide whether to draw a series of patterns, a face, or a combination of small images such as leaves, flowers and insects (see pictures opposite).

2. Start in one corner of the page and start drawing, taking care not to stop or take the pen off the page. Keep the lines fluid and wiggly for the best effects.