The Dot and the Line

Some Lines_163, Nancy Charak, artist, graphite, prismacolor on sized masonite panel, 24"x30"

Almost all of my art production has drawing in it. I define drawing as making a mark with an instrument that is held directly in the hand that mars, scars, adds or subtracts from a substrate. I see the difference between painting and drawing as a simple one, painting is almost always completely additive. When an artist decides to change something, simple, simply paint over it. This sets up a continuum at one end of which is drawing. It is frequently about interaction with the substrate, as you can see in my drawing above, black sized masonite panel. At the other end of the continuum is the completely covered canvas. In the middle at various positions on the continuum are watercolor and pastel, given their reliance on the substrate and their tendency to get muddy when over applied.

Here's a classic, The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics.