At its most basic, a line is simply the connection between two points in a page. However, lines can be incredibly complex, and understanding more about the complexity of lines and their use can benefit advanced artistic developments and open new avenues of expression.
Our first instinct is to think of lines as merely a boundary definition (colours go inside the lines, an outline forms an image, etc.). However, lines serve many more purposes to an artist than one would believe at first glance.
Below is the painting “Café Terrace at Night” by Vincent Van Gogh. A well-known painting, this work of art is a good place to jump into the fundamentals. We will be conducting what is called a “formal analysis” of this work over this series, which will be the basis for building our understanding of the fundamentals, as a formal analysis is just that: breaking down a work of art and analysing, as deeply as possible, each of the seven fundamentals within it.
Let us start by analysing the lines and investigating what they tell us about this work, and then think about lines themselves.
Van Gogh, Vincent. “Café Terrace at Night.” Wikimedia, May 29, 2026. Kröller-Müller Museum. Netherlands. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Van_Gogh_-_Terrace_of_a_Caf%C3%A9_at_Night_(Place_du_Forum)_1888.jpg.
We can start by thinking about what a line can be. There are straight lines, curved lines, squiggly lines, jagged, broken, thick, rigid, and many more. This matters because a line is what creates the flow of a painting, it guides your eye through it and informs you of the rhythm and the weight of the work.
Van Gogh’s lines are particularly thick, as he is working with a technique called impasto, where paint is applied on the canvas thickly and can be “carved out” by the brush. This thickness of the lines gives the painting its weight, grounding it and giving it texture.
The lines also lead your eyes to the center of the composition, where the main subject, the café-goers, are located. The straight vertical lines of the buildings guide your gaze towards the sky, and back down to the street when your eyes fall on the next vertical line, until they are interrupted by horizontal lines of the corbels on the café wall, or the edge of the sidewalk and the store in the middle ground. The convex lines of the cobblestones lead you inward and don’t allow you to rest on that section of the painting for long. The concave lines of the awning and the tree foliage, similarly, don’t allow your gaze to travel too far up the composition and rest on the sky. Their shape naturally leads you back down and you can’t help but follow.
In the background, notice how the illusion of windows is created with simple vertical lines in yellow, and how effectively they communicate the progression of the perspective. You can also notice the many small vertical lines in a lighter pigment applied throughout, giving the painting its texture and the impression of light shining on those surfaces. This technique, along with the outlining of many elements in a darker colour, is an iconic staple of Van Gogh’s oeuvre, and which is borrowed from Japanese woodblock printing (ukiyo-e). Van Gogh was a passionate appreciator of Japanese prints, and many of these iconic elements are a result of attempting to emulate the carving of the wood (a subtractive process) by using paint (an additive process).
These are some of the many things that the lines in this work tell us about it, the artist, the viewer, and art process. In art education, we always aim to teach students to use lines more effectively and consciously, thinking of them as not simply boundaries, but complex elements that help build a work.
When you look at this work by one of our students, what do you see?
Next week, we will delve into shapes and their function within the visual arts!
From you Artshine Program Coordinator,
Alice Barcelos, BFA, MA