Line

Line is one of the most common and simple elements in art. It is also an element with a rich range of possibilities for artists, allowing things like rhythm, tactile information, and emotional/expressive content. Below are examples of line playing a variety of roles in powerful works of art.  

David Hockney: CONTOUR LINE as a sensitive recorder of form and surface as it moves through space. 

Juan Gris: Very effective use of LINE VARIATION. A contour line, as seen here, can help provide information about the substance and 3-dimensionality of a form. That's why it's different from a simple outline.

Jackson Pollock: Expressive line. Rhythmic line. The viewer has a sense of the speed at which the image was made.

Dwight Mackintosh: EXPRESSIVE, OBSESSIVE line. The viewer has a sense of the speed at which the image was made, and the state of mind of the artist at the time of drawing.

IMPLIED LINE: invisible paths leading from, for example, the gaze of the madonna (the large adult figure) to the Christ child.  

Though it has few actual lines, this image could be described as LINEAR. That is because the edges of forms are very clear, and we follow those edges as we would follow a line (such as the edges of the hair, the drapery, and the form of Venus, the figure in the center).