Content

6 Emotions

Understand Line: Rhythm

Understand Line: Shape

Techniques

Conclusion

In this page, I will introduce the 6 emotions and find out what are the ways to “put them in line”.

 

6 Emotions

“Hey there~” Love gave a seductive wink “am I attractive?”

“Love stop it! Beii will notice us” Fear whispered.

“It is alright~ Beii can bring us back to Sadness” Joy said with a big smile.

“GREAT, then we will trap in that stupid line.” Anger said sarcastically.

“Beii is here! Beii is here! Run!” Surprise shouted and surprised the four emotions.

 

 

Strange, I thought I heard something. *Scratch head

Let me introduce the main 6 emotions. I have summarised the following definition of each emotion based on dictionary.com,  google images, online research and personal experience.

Love – It is a warm feeling. A passionate affection for someone. A sexual desire. [1]  Express through eyes; the window of soul… hard to define the common behavior for love. Some people avoid eyes contact because of shyness and some people shows care and concern to show how much he love the person. [a]

Joy – It is a elated feeling. Great happiness caused by something extremely positive. A state of happiness. [2] Jump! Big smile with head pointed to the sky, most of us can easily associate these expression with joy. [b]

Surprise – It is a feeling caused by unexpected event. [3] Mouth opened, eyes widened and maybe jumped a little that expressed surprise. [b]

Anger – It is a strong feeling of displeasure. [4] Glaring, gritted teeth, eyebrows creased and clenched fist are expression of anger. [b]

Sadness – It is a unhappy feeling that could cause sorrow. [5] Lip corners pulled down, eyes watery and slouching could expressed sadness. [b]

Fear – It is a distressing emotion that caused by insecurity and uncertainty. [6] Eyes widened, body shaking, body curled into a ball and hands covering face could indicate fear. [b]

By using some techniques and knowledge, we can use line to express/relates the emotions mentioned above.

 

Understand Line

Rhythm

What can shows us our heart beats when nervous, excited, calm or lifeless?
You are………right if your answer is ICU monitor! But you are half right, it is the line rhythm from ICU monitor shows our heart beats.

 

It is interesting that just a line, it can determine our emotions by heart rhythm. Different heart’s line rhythm hints different emotions. According to HeartMath Institute , emotional stress or negative emotions such as anger and anxiety would give a irregular and erratic heart’s line rhythm. Vice versa, emotional relaxation or positive emotions such as joy and appreciation would give a regular and smooth heart’s line rhythm. Figure 1 below shows the different heart’s line rhythm between frustration and appreciation. Meanwhile in figure 2 shows heart’s line rhythm on other emotion state.

Figure 1: Heart’s line rhythm of frustration and appreciation

 

Figure 2: Heart’s line rhythm of excited, relaxed, drowsy, asleep and deep sleep

 

Therefore, rhythm of line is quiet important to tell our emotion state.

 

Understand Line

Shape

Beside rhythm, we can use direction and shape of line to express our feeling. The following figures are example of line drawn in different direction and shape.

Figure 3: Mood Lines

 

Figure 4: Mark making ideas

 

Based on figure 3, positive feeling the line would go upward while negative feeling the line would go downward. A straight line can means passive, calm, mundane and satisfied. A curvy line can means feminine and pleasant. Line drawn in different ways can mean different meaning. Similarly, I found a pdf document from University of Houston and at in a portion discussed about psychological effects of line and had summarised in one table. Figure 5 and figure 6 is the table.

Figure 5: Psychological effects of line

 

Figure 6: Psychological effects of line

 

Now! I am giving this picture, can you guess what are the emotions expressed in those graph? Eliminate the colour, direction, rhythm and area but focus on the shape of line only.

 

 

The answer can be found here .

 

Techniques

 

I have found several techniques for mark making from Student Art Guide :

1. Paint dripping
2. Draw using own made instrument
3. Flick paint covered string
4. Using drawing machine
5. Sprinkle watercolour with alcohol or salt
6. Use unconventional mediums
7. Frottage
8. Direct print from original object
9. Spray paint

The above list are the techniques I find interesting. My favourite is “Using drawing machine”. This method is using concept of mechanical application to create complex drawing such as kinetic drawing and bilateral drawing. For instance, figure 7.

 

Figure 7: Joseph Griffith’s drawing machine

 

Human can be drawing machine too. Artist Tony Orrico is an example of using his whole body to create bilateral drawing.

 

Take a look at the videos!

 

 

 

 

“Phss… phss…” A hiss sound from somewhere.

I turned and saw a paper, “Oh, thank you…”

I took it. Wait a second. I turned and shouted “Hey!”

It was gone. It shaped like heart but it was not translucent. Did I found it?

The paper listed a few artist and I researched them.

 

 

 

So, I have researched a few artist, they are:

1. Cy Twombly (Mark-making artist)
   My favourite piece from him is the white line scribble around on the black background. It reminds me of a child having good day in school.
   

   https://i.pinimg.com/736x/c3/b9/40/c3b9403fa6dce94e087813e4ec849a2e–cy-twombly-modern-art.jpg

    

2. Mark Bradford (Mixed media artist)
   His art style are generally collage and décollage. My favourite is “Potable water”, even there are many images used and I can see roughness but I can still see it shows water.
   

   https://allblkeverything.wordpress.com/2011/07/28/understanding-the-layers-the-mark-bradford-project/#jp-carousel-606

    

3. Jihyun Park (Paper burn artist)
   He used burning incense stick to create a art piece. It is interesting.
   

   http://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/pointillism-incense-stick-burn-rice-paper-jihyun-park-1__880.jpg

    

4. Kate MccGwire (Sculpture artist)
   She is sculpture artist and most of her works are using feathers. I find her artwork fascinating as feathers are light but when she stick them altogether, they are one heavy curved tail. She also drew a few pieces of mark making and my favourite is this.
   

   http://katemccgwire.com/drawings

 

Conclusion

From my research, I have learnt about rhythm and shape of line can express different emotion. In subtle, I also realised that line is somehow relate to our body language. I did not mention this part in my research because it is just based on my opinion.

This is example for my opinion: A person who is sad, his body language will slouch or shoulder is dropping and head is looking down walking slowly. Hence, if I draw a line represent sadness, I would choose a curve shape because of his body language and rhythm is erratic because negative feeling makes him cannot focus when he is walking.

Last but not least, beside pen, pencil or inking, there are several methods to create mark making.

Hope you have learnt something from my research !