An artist’s style is made up of his vocabulary of forms and the characteristic way in which he brings them together. The actual manner in which these forms are noted down is of little importance. For example the artist may use thick lines or thin lines, or use criss-cross lines to indicate dark areas, or scribbles, or neat shading. Different instruments, such as charcoal or pen and ink, might lead the artist into developing the forms which are most appropriate to the instrument, for example charcoal may lend itself more readily to showing large masses of dark, whereas pen and ink may be better suited to showing delicate nuances of outline.
Darks can be shown by any means available, smudged charcoal, hatching pen and ink, stumped graphite, or even washes of watercolour. All this variety in rendering is of comparatively small importance when set against the artist’s choice of which forms to indicate, and how much emphasis to give them. If the means of rendering attracts the viewer’s eye more than substance of the drawing – the shapes themselves – the drawing is weakened. It is said to be ‘mannered’.
Next – Future possibilities