Line art or line drawing is any image that consists of distinct straight or curved lines placed against a (usually plain) background, without gradations in shade (darkness) or hue (color) to represent two-dimensional or three-dimensional objects. Line art can use lines of different colors, although line art is usually monochromatic. Line art emphasizes form and outline, over color, shading, and texture. However, areas of solid pigment and dots can also be used in addition to lines. The lines in a piece of line art may be all of a constant width (as in some pencil drawings), of several (few) constant widths (as in technical illustrations), or of freely varying widths (as in brush work or engraving).

One of the most fundamental elements of art is the line. An important feature of a line is that it indicates the edge of a two-dimensional (flat) shape or a three-dimensional form. A shape can be indicated by means of an outline and a three-dimensional form can be indicated by contour lines.

Drawing is a relatively common drawing technique. For drawing with this technique, the most appropriate and most commonly used dimensioning or other marking pen is used. With dense lines and gradual line reinforcement, and vice versa, it is possible to achieve the gentle transitions needed to draw, for example, rotating bodies or bodies standing on the edge between light and shadow.

Line art may tend towards realism (as in much of Gustave Doré’s work), or it may be a caricature, cartoon, ideograph, or glyph.

Before the development of photography and of halftones, line art was the standard format for illustrations to be used in print publications, using black ink on white paper. Using either stippling or hatching, shades of gray could also be simulated.

Previously, a reed pen, pointed bird feathers or focused wood sticks were used, later ink pens with a steel tip and a brush. To paint the surface, ink or ink is used. Before using the photo, pen drawing was the main way to capture an image. Today it is used only as art technology. Recently, thanks to electronization, tablet drawing is also being developed, with the digital adjustable shape of the pen tip, and the drawing pen responds to pressure by varying the thickness of the drawn line (or by changing the color, shape, dot layout, etc.) which opens up new possibilities in this artistic direction . Once, drawing was regarded as a compulsory education of a person who was taught in schools (today’s art education remains). Portraits have been drawn, thanks to which the cities and buildings have been captured in the past. Later, the drawing replaced the photographs, and the drawing began to be considered something extraordinary to have talent.