56. Taking any dot and drawing it out in any direction, or in a series
or sequence of directions, it becomes a line. The line may be drawn in
any tone, in any value, color or color-intensity. In order that the
line may be seen, the tone of it must differ from the ground-tone upon
which it is drawn. The line being distinctly visible, the question of
tone need not be raised at this point of our discussion. We will study
the line, first, as a line, not as an effect of light.
The line may be drawn long or short, broad or narrow. As the line
increases in breadth, however, it becomes an area. We will disregard
for the present all consideration of width-measures in the line and
confine our attention to the possible changes of direction in it, and
to possible changes in its length.
We can draw the line in one direction from beginning to end, in which
case it will be straight. If, in drawing the line, we change its
direction, we can do this abruptly, in which case the line becomes
angular, or we can do it gradually, in which case it becomes curved.
Lines may be straight, angular, or curved. They may have two of these
characteristics or all three of them. The shapes of lines are of
infinite variety.