Dynamic Mark Making / Drawing with Expression & Creativity
Brent Eviston · Master Artist & Instructor
Learn how line quality alone can make a drawing feel alive and expressive
What you will learn
- Using the overhand and tripod pencil grips to shift between soft, hazy marks and hard, precise lines
- Translating an emotion into an abstract line through pressure, speed, size and edge quality
- Drawing objects so their lines suggest tactile qualities like softness, hardness or weight
- Building a light foundation of basic shapes before layering expressive, dynamic mark making over it
- Reading how vertical, horizontal and oblique lines carry different psychological associations for viewers
Standout ideas
- The 'ever-changing line' exercise, drawing one continuous line that shifts character every few inches to build a personal vocabulary of marks
- Asking a fixed set of questions (body sensation, tone of voice, size, edge, weight) before drawing to translate a feeling into an abstract line
- Using line direction itself, such as ascending versus descending strokes, to imply forces like gravity or weightlessness rather than relying on shading
Best for: Beginner-to-intermediate drawers who already understand basic shape construction and want to move past stiff, uniform linework toward expressive, emotionally engaging mark making.
This is a focused, well-structured lesson on a genuinely underserved topic in beginner drawing instruction: how the physical quality of a line communicates emotion and sensation independent of subject accuracy. Eviston's teaching is concrete and exercise-driven rather than abstract theorizing, with clear daily projects that build a real practice habit. Its main limitation is scope: at 90 minutes and positioned as day two of a seven-part series, it assumes basic shape-construction skills from the prior course and leaves rendering, shading and proportion untouched.