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We talk about line having character and different qualities of line, and sort of the two, the
basic division is really between diagrammatic line, and calligraphic or gestural line. And
diagrammatic line is line used to create a configuration, it's the kind of line you use
to make a blueprint, it's an informative, an informational line. But you can see here
that M.C. Escher used it, this whole drawing is created with line. He uses the line, he
uses the straight edge pretty much, to create these lines. The whole drawing is created
with these lines, and he's managed to give a feeling because he's using all these very
straight lines with rulers, he's giving you the sense of a universe that is very controlled
and very predictable, at the same time that he's challenging you by making these people
go in, staircases that are going down into nowhere and up into nowhere and the whole
space is basically undogmatic. The other thing that diagrammatic lines can do is they can
create different shadows. And you can see here he created a dark versus a light and
that has to do with how close the lines are together and how thick they are. He uses very
thin lines where it's very light, he uses very thick lines where it's dark. That's compared
to, this would be using a calligraphic or gestural line, and you can see, it's much
more free-flowing. You can get this with a brush or a pencil, you can get this with any
medium. But this is the character, and it's a much freer, more expressive kind of a line.