Drawing with lines is nothing new; artists have been doing it in various forms for many years. I began my own project at university that focused solely on drawing lines vertically. It was an interesting experiment to see how you could create features, tone, and depth with only straight lines and a fine liner.
student work
During my placement year, I was introduced to an artist named Josh Bryan, who works in a similar style to mine, but instead of vertical lines, he only uses triangles. Students studied this artist's approach to portraiture and recreated their own works in a similar style. The classic graphite and trace-a-photo method was a quick way to get an outline, which I think is fine when working in this style because the critical aspect of working in this way is using lines and shapes to create form, not the observational drawing element. Here's an example from a year 10 class to which I taught this.
Students were then challenged to incorporate colour into their drawings to take it a step further.
LINKS - CONNECTIONS - SOW -
LINKS - CONNECTIONS - SOW -
Drawing geometric forms like triangles is an excellent way to get students thinking about shape and form before tackling a cubism-related project. On the left is a contemporary artist named Nathaniel Mary Quinn, whose works explore similar concepts. Many students struggle to get started on their own compositions. Tasks like this are great for loosening students up and giving them the courage to try new directions with their artwork.