Cross-hatching is a drawing and printmaking technique for representing tone, shadow and volume using two or more overlapping sets of parallel lines drawn at different angles, most commonly crossing at roughly right angles; the closer together and more numerous the crossing lines, the darker the resulting area appears to the eye, while sparse or single-direction hatching produces lighter tone. Long used in pen and ink drawing, the technique became especially important in reproductive printmaking, including engraving and etching, where a printmaker had no ability to blend tone the way a painter could and instead had to build every value from a controlled pattern of incised lines, refined to a high degree of precision by printmakers including Albrecht Durer and Rembrandt van Rijn. Cross-hatching remains a standard technique taught in figure drawing and illustration for its ability to describe both the direction of a surface and its degree of shadow using line alone.
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Associated With
Albrecht Durer, Artists Durer used dense cross-hatching to model form and tone in his engravings and woodcuts.
Drawing, Art Forms cross hatching is a technique of the drawing art form.
Cross-hatching is a core mark-making method within the engraving process.
M. C. Escher, Artists M. C. Escher used cross-hatching extensively to render tonal gradation in his prints.
Melencolia I, Works Melencolia I uses dense engraved cross-hatching to build its tonal range.
Sources
Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationCross-Hatching, Wikipedia summary leadQuote, Cross-Hatching, Wikipedia summary lead
Hatching is an artistic technique used to create tonal or shading effects by drawing, painting, or scribing closely spaced parallel lines. When lines are placed at an angle to one another, it is called cross-hatching. Hatching is also sometimes used to encode colours in monochromatic representations of colour images, particularly in heraldry.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does cross-hatching create the illusion of shadow?
Overlapping sets of parallel lines drawn at different angles; the closer together and more numerous the crossing lines, the darker the area reads.
Cross-hatching represents tone, shadow and volume with two or more overlapping sets of parallel lines drawn at different angles, most commonly crossing at roughly right angles. The closer together and more numerous the crossing lines, the darker the resulting area appears to the eye, while sparse or single-direction hatching produces lighter tone. The technique became especially important in reproductive printmaking, including engraving and etching, where a printmaker had no ability to blend tone the way a painter could and instead had to build every value from a controlled pattern of incised lines, refined to a high degree of precision by printmakers including Albrecht Durer and Rembrandt van Rijn.
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