On a bulbous linear illustration

A bulbous linear illustration by John LeMasney via lemasney.com

I am fascinated by serial linear illustrations that reveal form simply by altering the sequence of lines. It’s not a new idea, visually speaking, but one that I’ve seen executed beautifully many times and have tried to emulate several times. I once had an introductory graphic design class that challenged my feelings about whether I was capable of doing design because the assignments were often about how steady you could hold a pen, and I’ve never had an especially steady hand. One assignment in particular was an introduction to serial line as illustration in which we were to examine using repeated lines in order to show emotions. It was a glorified lesson in Gestalt principles, but Gestalt was never mentioned. At any rate, my solutions to the problem were hard to see because my work was marred by sloppy penwork, uneven lines, and a very specific expected aesthetic. I think that’s one of the reasons I adored the move to digital design. No longer did the steadiness of my hand or the cleanliness of my penwork get in the way of someone seeing what was in my head. I would have gladly presented the image above as an answer to the emotion of joyous, and likely would have been deemed successful.