About Just One Line Art

A continuous line drawing is made without lifting the pen. No shading, no fill, no second chances at a corner. What survives is the shape of the thing and nothing else.

We started with cities. The line finds the towers, the bridges and the spires that make a place recognizable, and leaves out everything that does not. A skyline becomes a horizon you can still name from across a room.

Most of them are American, with Paris and Rome for the trips people take from here, and each one is drawn rather than traced from a photograph. That is why the list grows slowly. If the drawing you want is missing, write and tell us, because that is how we decide what to draw next.

The same line now draws people: couples holding hands, parents with their children, and the rings and hands of a wedding. Two figures made from one stroke stay joined all the way through, which is the point of drawing them this way.

Animals came next: birds, horses, pets, sea life and wildlife, each one a single subject in a single stroke.

The skylines and the animals go on ceramic mugs, in white, black or one of eight accent colors and two sizes. Every drawing goes on matte canvas stretched over an inch-and-a-quarter frame, in four sizes up to 36 inches on the long side.