Drawn to Life: 20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes Volume 1

90 Lazy Lines

While talking to Dan Jeup one day, he mentioned “Iazy lines.” He was referring to lines that didn’t describe anything like shape, texture, softness, or hardness. It’s like what you get when you trace something, an overall sameness of line. Granted, when you are using a mechanical pencil as we are on “Mermaid,” that in itself cuts down on possible variations of line. However, the problem of lazy lines goes deeper than just the surface patina, it has to do with the lack of basic drawing.

For instance, the same pencil makes a line for a bird’s beak as for its feathers. If the artist does not feel the difference and try to inject that feeling into the drawing, then both lines will look alike — these are lazy lines. And incidentally, ...