Learn to Draw > Creating textures with lines The serious student
will progress most rapidly if in his practice he pursues both
these extremes of vision to the utmost. He will then achieve
confidence and certainty in seeing and reproducing and find most
quickly his own personal means of expression. It is always wrong
for a beginner to start with a one-sided program, with a
preconceived notion of how to see and how to reproduce. It is
equally wrong for the teacher to force his own individuality
onto his students. We have shown how in first attempting to make
the ambiguous outline into an unambiguous representation, it is
often the tone value that gives a thing substance. Tone value
can also indicate the kind of material the subject is made of.
The beholder always likes to know if he is looking at stone,
wood, or cloth, whether the material is rough or smooth, soft or
hard, dense or loosely assembled, etc. Lines, or strokes, can
indicate material. Although it is not always ideal, the
relatively stubborn "stroke"