Tag Archives: Continuous line drawing

One Line Drawing cover for Theatre Arts, October 1947, by Doug Anderson

The New Season on Broadway, a one line drawing cover for Theatre Arts magazine, October 1947, by Doug Anderson.

Here is a terrific example of one line drawing by Doug Anderson, on the cover of Theatre Arts magazine in October 1947, which he entitles “The New Season on Broadway”.

Doug illustrates six plays on Broadway and includes the title in each whilst connecting them all up with his one line. I know I go on about a Continuous Line Drawing starting and finishing at the same point and that it is only one line if it does not, but he starts under the last “e” in Theatre and ends on the left side towards the top, so he could easily have connected them up.

I like his use of small loops throughout, which helps the simplification of most male figures, the snake and the tramcar. Lady’s dresses have lines stroked back and forth and their hats and hair have more detailed wiggling. I love the progressive pattern of the window and heads in the tramcar.

Here are some detailed sections.

Street Car Named Desire, detail of The New Season on Broadway, cover for Theatre Arts, October 1947, by Doug Anderson. One Line Drawing.

High Button Shoes, detail of The New Season on Broadway cover for Theatre Arts, October 1947, by Doug Anderson. One Line Drawing.

Man and Superman, detail of The New Season on Broadway, cover for Theatre Arts, October 1947 by Doug Anderson. One Line Drawing.

Antony and Cleopatra, detail of The New Season on Broadway, cover for Theatre Arts, October 1947, by Doug Anderson. One Line Drawing.

How about the cat at the bottom !

Another difference compared to my approach to this style is that I usually think of the possibility of applying colours later. If you look at the lower foot of Antony, the outside space flows in through the foot which would confuse thoughts of colour. Similarly, the lady marked “Medea” to the left of Antony, has the outside flowing in through the bottom left of her dress.

It is interesting that this one line drawing dates from late 1947 and the pen and ink sketch that I have, in the style of Salvador Dali (covered in my post in August 2014), dates from 1948 when Dali was doing similar drawings. So here it is again, “Guitar Player on a Horse”.

Dali continuous line drawing in pen and ink, guitar player on horse, dated 1948.

Sod’s Law tempered by Nature in Action

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I have been improving the lawn. A bit of filling a deeper area with soil and re-seeding. It took a few weeks and the green grass had appeared and it looked good.

At this point, the roofer came to re-cover the top of the back bedroom bay window. We first asked a builder friend of ours to do the job last autumn and he said that his business partner was a roofer and he would do it. We had to get rid of the wasps first. Then there were delays due to the frost – the resin reacts badly to frost. We kept chasing and then a third person was now going to do the job. Finally I rang my friend, who was upset at his associates for letting us down. Later that day the third person rang and he would do the job in two days, and actually arrived (I found out later the gist of the conversation that had taken place, builder to builder ! ).

He brought two young blokes who actually did the job. They had not been up on the roof long when I noticed a white plastic lid spinning down from the roof. It landed slap bang in the middle of my newly seeded grass, which was about 10 yards from the house, inside downwards. I told the lads and one dashed down the ladder to grab the lid back, saying that “everything would be ok”. They completed the job and went.

Three days later we looked out of the bedroom window and saw a round white patch in the middle of the newly seeded area of lawn. The grass blades had all turned white.

White patch on newly seeded area of lawn, caused by resin from roof. Mick Burton photo.

We realised that although the resin may be vulnerable to frost it could be lethal to grass. At the time I was reading a book entitled “Sod’s Law”, sub-titled “Why life always lands butter side down”. I was also reading a book I had borrowed called “Time” by the nature and landscape sculptor Andy Goldsworthy. He sets up sculptures in natural surroundings and watches how they cope with the elements. In his early days it might be a “frost shadow” or a continuous line drawn with a stick on the beach. I wondered whether Sod’s Law or nature would win in the battle for my new grass.

“Sod’s Law” by Sam Leith, Atlantic Books.

Two days later, Joan called me to the window. Standing in the middle of the white patch on the lawn was our local blackbird. It had brought a piece of bread and had dropped it. He spent 10 minutes on the patch pecking away. Had the resin lured all sorts of bugs and worms to the surface? Could I class this as another of my Black and White creations?

Blackbird standing in white patch for 10 minutes, finding all sorts of treats. Mick Burton photo.

The blackbirds have been busy recently. They built a nest behind the small willow under the eves of the garage 10 feet from the kitchen window. We were looking forward to the view of the chicks, but next door’s cat kept sitting on the garage roof just above the nest. So they built another nest in the holly bush higher up the garden.

The blackbirds always provide much entertainment. Last year we saw one fill its mouth full of worms in the front garden.

Blackbird last summer with a mouth full of worms. Mick Burton photo.

Rhinoceros and Ostrich continuous line drawings

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Rhinoceros, continuous line drawing with colour sequence. Based on Mick Burton demonstration.

Rhinoceros, single continuous line drawing with colour sequence. Based on Mick Burton demonstration.

I did a demonstration and workshop at Horsforth Arts Society, in Leeds, in January 2015. It was a freezing evening and I parked outside in a narrow back street. This club is an end terrace house, extended into the next house I think, and they have sole use. No one had arrived, but I was encouraged by a notice in the window “Demonstration of Continuous Line Drawing by Mick Burton at 7.30pm”. Shirley, who arranged demonstrations, arrived but could not unlock the door. I managed to open it.

So we were in and I could cart all my kit and pictures up the stairs and decide on my set up. Joan came with me to help and the room soon filled up with friendly, expectant, members. Shirley had seen me demonstrate at another club and gave an encouraging introduction.

After showing several pictures of my animals, mentioning a bit about my past and going through the basics of how to do a continuous line animal, it was time to do my first drawing before the members had a go themselves.

Firstly I put my key marks on a sketched Rhinoceros, showed how to join up the marks in the main areas such as the head and legs and asked the members to start on their own subjects whilst I connected up more lines. I completed a rough and ready version of the Rhino, which a few weeks later I spruced up and added colours as above. It is in the Harrogate and Nidderdale Art Club spring exhibition this weekend.

The members of the club completed pictures of animals or people with lines, but with a great variety of styles. I did not insist on complete continuous lines, as the main idea was that their drawings could flow, and many good results emerged. Several coloured in their creations.

Whilst they continued with their pictures, or started new ones, in the second half I started an Ostrich. I did the head and neck and put some key marks elsewhere and invited members to come up and have a go at parts of the ostrich with my thick marker pen. Several did and we arrived at the result below. It has about three different lines going and a few dead ends. This is fine at an early stage of my continuous line drawings, before loose ends are then connected up and one continuous line arrived at along with modifications to pattern and smoothing.

Ostrich continuous line, demonstration drawing by Mick Burton, with the assistance of members of Horsforth Arts Society. January 2015.

Ostrich single continuous line drawing, demonstration by Mick Burton, with the assistance of members of Horsforth Arts Society. January 2015.

I thanked them for their help and in later weeks produced the picture “Ostrich Egg” below. It has two continuous lines, one of which is the coloured Egg.

Ostrich Egg, continuous lines. Based on Mick Burton demonstration.

Ostrich Egg, single continuous line drawing. Based on Mick Burton demonstration at Horsforth Arts Society.

A black pen version of the Ostrich is currently in the Association of Animal Artists annual exhibition.

I quite like including eggs in pictures. “Harriet’s Busy Day”, which now resides in Worcestershire, was a finalist in Britain’s Got Artists in July 2012.

Harriet's Busy day. Continuous line with colour sequence. Background based on eggs. Mick Burton, 2012.

Harriet’s Busy day. Single continuous line drawing with colour sequence. Background based on eggs. Mick Burton, continuous line artist 2012.

When I showed the Hen picture to my sister Wendy she said “Why have you stuck all those eggs to the ceiling”.

Alternate Overdraw Applied to Escher Islamic Mosaic Continuous Lines, STAGE 2.

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Escher painting 1922 of Islamic Mosaic tile at the Alhambra. WikiArt. Continuous line study by Mick Burton.

Before applying my Alternate Overdraw, which I use to allocate colours to Continuous Lines, I will give you my analysis of the colours in the original Mosaic and what I feel were the artist’s ideas behind the design.

Eric Broug states, in his YouTube demonstration “How Grids and Patterns Work Together” that this is a 16 point star surrounded by 8 point stars. Geometrically you can produce stars with many different numbers of points. Having done many planetary paintings myself, I feel that the original artist has realised that in this case we have a central Sun and 8 planets surrounding it which can represent our solar system (we can ignore Pluto as a planet as it only featured as such for a part of the last century). The colours the artist uses reflect many aspects of this planetary situation –

a. YELLOW is used as the colour for the flaming surfaces of the central Sun and the corner Suns. All other yellow areas have star like shapes and represent distant stars peppering the background.

b. PURPLE is used for the centres of the Suns and the 8 Planets. Purple is also used for the lines of areas along the sides, vertically and horizontally from the centres of the sides and diagonally (the lines of purple areas may simply be decorative).

c. BLACK is used for the “fan blade” shapes emanating from the Suns. In my planetary paintings I often use black for the background outside a drawing and for the gaps through the drawing . The artist here could be using the same idea, so that the blades are in fact deep space seen beyond the Suns.

d. GREEN is used to surround each Planet and I interpret this as representing life on each Planet, not just ours.

The process for completing an Alternate Overdraw is covered in my Post dated 10 September, 2014 (9/10/2014) entitled “Alternate Overdraw on Continuous Line Drawing”.

In the previous post, STAGE 1, I showed that there are two continuous lines in the Mosaic. I apply my Alternate Overdraw to produce a template for me to work with to allocate a colour sequence. I have to bear in mind that there are 2 Overdraw results and 1 colour sequence for a single continuous line and 4 Overdraw results and 2 colour sequences for two continuous lines.

My experience tells me that the Alternate Overdraw, which will produce a Template best representing this Planetary composition, will have –

a. An Overdraw for the Main continuous line commencing by overdrawing (in Red) a side of a fan blade of the central Sun, and

b. An Overdraw for the Minor continuous line commencing by overdrawing (in Blue) a side of a fan blade on a corner Sun.

Main continuous line, Alternate Overdraw, choice 1. Mick Burton, Escher Mosaic study.

Minor Continuous Line, Alternate Overdraw in Blue, Choice 1. Mick Burton Escher Mosaic study.

The aim of the Alternate Overdraw is to create channels within the design where two colours can be allocated alternately within each channel and that adjacent channels have different pairs of colours. An overall sequence of colours then follows across channel boundaries.

My experience told me, at this stage, that my colour sequence was likely to match the original Mosaic in and around the five Suns, but less so elsewhere.

I will show my attempts at allocating corresponding colours in the NEXT POST. I will also explain why I feel that the original artist may have used the Alternate Overdraw or an equivalent method.

Mick Burton Continuous Line Blog.

Continuous Line Drawings at “British Wildlife” Exhibition, Martin Mere.

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"Mouseman Mouse" based upon Robert Thompson carved mouse. Association of Animal Artists "British Wildlife" Exhibition, Martin Mere, February & March 2015. Mick Burton, Continuous Line Drawings.

“Mouseman Mouse” single continuous line drawing based upon Robert Thompson carved mouse. Association of Animal Artists
“British Wildlife” Exhibition, Martin Mere, February & March 2015. Mick Burton, Continuous Line Artist.

This is my second year taking part in the Association of Animal Artists exhibition at Martin Mere Wetlands Centre, Lancashire. “British Wildlife” runs until 29 March 2015. My chosen wildlife submissions are “Mouseman Mouse and “Gledhow Foxes Sunbathing”.

My grandad George Burton was born in Kilburn, North Yorkshire, and when I was young my Dad took me to the Church in Kilburn and pointed out the carved mice which appeared on the church furniture. They were carved by Robert Thompson, who was at school with Grandad, and his family still run the furniture business in Kilburn which is now world famous.

As time went on I found out so many things about Robert “Mouseman” Thompson and his mouse trademark. It seemed natural that I should do a mouse in my continuous line drawing style and colour sequence.

Robert “Mouseman” Thompson’s trademark carving on the Altar rail in Kilburn Parish Church, North Yorkshire. Picture by Dave Sumpner at English Wikipedia.

Dad told me that Grandad and Robert were drinking companions in the late 1890’s and he passed on some stories of those times.

A man went to the pub in Kilburn with his groceries every day before setting off home. He always went home over the “beck” footbridge, which had vertical rails with strappings through them. The man habitually stopped half way across, sat on the straps and lit his pipe. Grandad and others loosened the straps one day and the man later fell into the water. There was a lot of “fuss” about that.

Another regular at the pub always parked his horse and trap outside and, of course, regardless of how much he had had to drink the horse could find its way home. One night he came out of the pub and boarded the trap, not realising that the horse had been turned around between the shafts. He drove off backwards to crash into the church wall.

I attended a talk by one of the Thompson family over 40 years ago in Leeds Central Library and spoke to him later. He said that each wood carver had his own style of mouse. Old Robert’s mouse had become very simple, like a wedge of cheese, and they called it “grand prix” mouse.

"Gledhow Foxes Sunbathing". Association of Animal Artists "British Wildlife" exhibition, February & March 2015. Mick Burton, Continuous line drawing.

“Gledhow Foxes Sunbathing”. Association of Animal Artists “British Wildlife” exhibition, February & March 2015. Mick Burton, Single Continuous line drawing.

I saw a fox cub at the east end of Gledhow Valley Woods when walking the Airedales over 30 years ago. Since moving here foxes have regularly been in the garden in the day time. Last summer they took up sun bathing at the top of the lawn virtually every day for a period. This usually included a prolonged period of scratching.

When we were completing the patio, with the help of Helen, Janet and Richard, a fox came and sat at the top of the garden and watched. He had the demeanour of an “overseer” or a General overlooking a battle. On another day there were two of them sitting up there and they reminded me of the “King and Queen” sculpture by Henry Moore which I saw up on the hill at Yorkshire Sculpture Park in 1987.

Poster for Henry Moore exhibition at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, 1987.

Continuous line blog by Mick Burton.

Show me a real Green Cat.

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Cat who slept on a heap of old green paint. Daily Mail, December 5, 2014. Mick Burton, continuous line drawing.

I always thought that Green was a natural colour for a cat done with my continuous line drawing, but I never realised that one would appear. Here we are, in the Daily Mail report on a cat who is actually green and wandering around quite happily. It turns out that the cat slept in a garage on an abandoned heap of green paint.

My original Green Cat was created in 1969 as one of four animals sold to J Arthur Dixon Ltd., a greetings card company that was based on the Isle of Wight. They produced sets of Notelets with them on, sold in little cardboard boxes. Here are the four designs.

Green Cat, continuous line drawing and alternate shading, by Mick Burton. Notelet design for J Arthur Dixon Ltd, Isle of Wight, 1969.

Green Cat, single continuous line drawing and alternate shading, by Mick Burton. Notelet design for J Arthur Dixon Ltd, Isle of Wight, 1969.

Golden Horse, continuous line drawing and alternate shading, by Mick Burton. Notelet design for J Arthur Dixon Ltd, Isle of Wight, 1969.

Golden Horse, single continuous line drawing and alternate shading, by Mick Burton. Notelet design for J Arthur Dixon Ltd, Isle of Wight, 1969.

Blue Elephant, continuous line drawing and alternate shading, by Mick Burton. Notelet design for J Arthur Dixon Ltd, Isle of Wight, 1969.

Blue Elephant, single continuous line drawing and alternate shading, by Mick Burton. Notelet design for J Arthur Dixon Ltd, Isle of Wight, 1969.

Red Lion, continuous line drawing and alternate shading, by Mick Burton. Notelet design for J Arthur Dixon Ltd, Isle of Wight, 1969.

Red Lion, single continuous line drawing and alternate shading, by Mick Burton. Notelet design for J Arthur Dixon Ltd, Isle of Wight, 1969.

I continued the Green theme for a cat when I started producing my own greetings cards in 2013. This time I used colour sequence from yellow, through greens to blues.

The narrative on the card is about a cat that we had who used to get into all sorts of scrapes. His real name was Sandy and he looked a bit like the cat in the background in the Daily Mail photo above.</strong

Ragamuffin, green cat, continuous line drawing with colour sequence. Greetings Card (front) by Mick Burton.

Ragamuffin, green cat, single continuous line drawing with colour sequence. Greetings Card (front)
by Mick Burton.

Ragamuffin, continuous line drawing with alternate shading. Rear of Greeting Card by Mick Burton.

Ragamuffin, single continuous line drawing with alternate shading. Rear of Greeting Card by Mick Burton.

Identikit and Key Features for Continuous Line Drawing

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Identikit image of suspect for the murder of Elsie Batten, London, March 1961.

Edwin Bush, recognised and arrested as a result of the Identikit image for the murder of Elsie Batten.

I use Key Features as part of my Continuous Line Drawing of Animals and People. Faces have always been of interest to me and when young I loved to do caricatures of people. I was in the police for a time and of course identification in its many forms was also fascinating.
In 1960 I left Harrogate Secondary Technical School and became a Police Cadet with the West Riding Police at the Wakefield Headquarters. My first post was in the Prosecutions Department, opening the mail (which required signing the Official Secrets Act) and making the tea. One of the officers preparing cases for Quarter Sessions and the Assizes was Inspector George Oldfield, who nearly 20 years later was Assistant Chief Constable Crime and in charge of the Yorkshire Ripper investigation.
My next posting in early 1971 was in “Modus Operandi” the Criminal Records Office for the North of England. Each criminal’s record sheet had at least one photograph of him attached, and in one case there were eight or nine photos ranging from a man’s early teens up to his seventies. Of course he had changed vastly over this time, but I noticed that his ears were identical in all the photos.
One day there was a bit of commotion in the large office with detectives collected in a corner arguing and laughing. I went to see what it was all about and they were looking a two images of suspects for a robbery. They explained to me that the images were produced by selecting parts of a face printed on cellophane sheets and placing them on top of each other to build up a face based on witness descriptions. It was called an Identikit set and was new in this country after being started in the USA. There were accompanying descriptions of a large man and a small man. The joke was that it was Laurel and Hardy. It was not given much chance of being successful by some of the crowd. A detective walking past peeped at what we were looking at and said, “Oh, I know them, but I think they are in prison”. Everyone laughed. Five minutes later he returned and said that he had looked up the two records and they had come out of prison a week before. They were not out for long!
I then found out about a recent case of murder in London which had been solved by the use of the Identikit. It was following the murder of Elsie Batten, an antique shop owner in London in March 1961. The detective investigating had two witness descriptions and produced two images on his new Identikit set. A constable saw a man resembling one of the images and arrested him. It was Edwin Bush, who admitted to the murder. He was executed at Pentonville Prison in July 1961. The image and a photo of Bush are shown above.
A few months later I was working at Horsforth Police station, near Leeds, when a detective I had worked with in the Records Office came in and said that he was going round all the police stations handing out Identikit sets and explaining how they should be used. So I had a go and it was great fun. Then the Inspector came in and he chatted to the detective for 20 minutes and said that he was not convinced that the Identikit would be much good. I had been watching as the detective had surreptitiously created an image of the Inspector whilst they were talking, and it was spot on, to everyone’s amusement!

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Of course Identikit was not directly successful in all cases. In the late 1970’s The Yorkshire Ripper committed at least 13 murders and there were several Identikit images available to assist George Oldfield as he tried to solve them with his large team of officers. There were many complications and George was side tracked by the tape recordings from a man with a Geordie accent who said that he was the killer (most of my Geordie friends were interviewed). When Peter Sutcliffe was captured in Sheffield it was realised that several of the Identikit images were good likenesses to him.

Winding Number Theory and Continuous Line Drawing

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Whirlpool in Space, or Petrol Poluted Puddle. Spherical continuous line with repeat colour sequence with Rainbow colours. Mick Burton, Continuous Line, 1971.

Whirlpool in Space, or Petrol polluted Puddle. Spherical single continuous line drawing with repeat colour sequence with Rainbow colours. Mick Burton, Continuous Line, 1971.

This painting was one of two pictures hung at the Chelsea Painters Open Exhibition, held at the Chenil Galleries, Chelsea,1971. I walked along the Kings Road looking for the gallery (I had submitted through and agency) and it was great to see the Whirlpool first in a window by the entrance.

The design was triggered by a browse through mathematics books in the library and coming across Winding Number Theory. This used a continuous line and every time the line was drawn winding in a counter-clockwise direction a level was added and if you wound back in a clockwise direction a level was taken off.

So far, in my colour sequence numbering based upon Alternate Overdraw, I had not had a sequence of colours greater than about nine. If I used the Winding Number method and continued to wind around counter-clockwise many times I could have a long colour sequence. I went a bit mad with the Whirlpool, which was done on a spherical basis (allowing drawing out of one side of the paper and back in at the opposite side), and has a sequence of 20.

I did not simply go from light to dark over the whole 20 (the steps in shade between each colour would have been too small), but oscillated up and down with a smaller range of colours similar to a rainbow. I had seen the rainbow effect produced by sunlight on petrol spilt on a puddle.

Alternate overdraw with colour sequence numbers. Continuous Line, Mick Burton.

To illustrate the difference between my Alternate Overdraw and the Winding Number, I start with the Alternate Overdraw in Red on the left. As shown in earlier posts, each channel of areas between overdraws has two numbers alternately. You move naturally up to a higher channel or down to a lower channel, through the red line and continue the numbering.

As before, you start with “0” on the outside and 0 can also appear within the drawing.

When we come to Winding Number allocation, we can use the same basic drawing with little arrows showing the direction it has been drawn. It can be either direction of course, but I have chosen one which will match the result above.

Winding number allocation. Continuous Line, Mick Burton.

Starting at “0” for the outside, if we cross to another area through a counter-clockwise border for that area, it will be a level higher. If we cross through a clockwise line we reach a lower area.

Here the + areas are of course higher levels and the (-) areas are lower.

The numbering matches the Alternate Overdraw illustration above.

Now, just to show the initial thrust of the drawing for the Whirlpool, with many levels, the next illustration shows a line spiralling from the centre outwards and I have shown just 13 winds.

Part of initial Winding Number spiral for Whirlpool painting. Mick Burton, continuous line.

Part of initial Winding Number spiral for the Whirlpool in Space painting. Mick Burton, single continuous line drawing.

Then I have drawn a line from the centre of the spiral directly back to the bottom of the picture as the first phase of breaking up the spiral so that lots more areas start to appear. The next such phase is a meandering line near the top of the picture.

As I have said, this is a shorter version than the one usd for the main Whirlpool in Space picture above.

Next I have decided that the direction of the line will be counter-clockwise starting from the bottom of the spiral, so that the levels go up towards the centre. The numbers have then been added.

On the original painting, which is 24″ x 20″, I used alternate overdraw to allocate the colours. This was because I was used to using that method and I think it is better for an artist anyway. The Winding Number theory was simply the inspiration for producing a sequence of 20 or more.

Now, to go off at a tangent, I am interested in other artists in the family who keep coming to light. As part of my research into my mother’s family, the Mace’s from Bedale (from 1825) and much earlier from Cambridge, I have come across a book by Thomas Mace called “Musick’s Monument” published originally in 1676. It was published again about six years ago. Amongst his own illustrations within the book is this one of a spiral depicting his idea of God’s world.

“Mysterious Centre of All Mysterie…” in Musick’s Monument, by Thomas Mace, 1676. Continuous Line, Mick Burton.

Thomas was a famous composer of the 17th century, and craftsman who made lutes and viols, whose main job was a chorister at Trinity College, Cambridge.

To add to this “sort of” co-incidence, my Uncle Harry Mace from Bedale, North Yorkshire, was a joiner and builder. When he retired he started to make old style instruments, such as viols, and sold them to a music shop in Leeds. I am sure he did not know about Thomas of Cambridge.

Thomas was not too impressed with a relatively new instrument in his time, the violin.

Continuous line drawing at St Gemma’s Leeds Art Exhibition 2014

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St Gemma’s Leeds Art Exhibition. Mick Burton continuous line.

I have entered seven paintings in St Gemma’s Leeds Art Exhibition, which starts on Thursday 23 October 2014 at Leeds Grammar School. There are over 800 pictures for sale. I felt I had to put this in my continuous line blog.

I have entered in the previous 2 years since I started painting again and managed to sell work each time. Its well worth a visit. And its in aid of St Gemma’s Hospice.

Here are three of my paintings as a taster. All are in acrylic on canvas.

Usain Bolt continuous line drawing. Several colour sequences. 100 metre Olympic final at night. Mick Burton, 2013.

Usain Bolt single continuous line drawing. Several colour sequences. 100 metre Olympic final at night. Mick Burton, 2013.

I have been a big fan of Usain Bolt and wanted to use my style to try to capture the dynamic speed and flowing movement of this great athlete.

As the race took place under floodlights, I have used a shimmering effect against the dark background.

Skelldale is totally drawn with one continuous line and various colour sequences have been used. Mick Burton, 2013.

Skelldale is totally drawn with one continuous line and various colour sequences have been used. Mick Burton, single continuous line artist 2013.

I was brought up in Ripon, a North Yorkshire small market town. There are three rivers which virtually surround the place – the Laver, the Skell and the Ure in order of increasing size.

I lived near to the Skell, and we sometimes would walk along it upstream to Fountains Abbey. One of the local myths was that there was an ancient tunnel from Ripon Cathedral to Fountains Abbey and we would discuss where the route might be.

Red Kites at Harewood, continuous line and colour sequence. Mick Burton, 2013.

Red Kites at Harewood, single continuous line drawing and colour sequence. Mick Burton, 2013.

Yesterday, on the bus back from Harrogate to Leeds, we approached Harewood Bank and saw the herd of deer in the park and above there were six red kites circling. I have never seen that many at once.

Since they were re-introduced near Harewood they have spread many miles and sometimes float above our house in Gledhow Valley in Leeds.

I had to try to capture this amazing bird with my continuous line and colour sequence.

Continuous Line Drawing Alternate Overdraw embedded image.

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: Abstract before Alternate Overdraw embedded Dog appears. Mick Burton, Single Continuous Line Drawing.

Here is an abstract Continuous Line Drawing which conceals an image of a dog. Possibly you can see some clues as to where the outline of the dog is. The idea is to carry out an Alternate Overdraw along the line throughout the picture which will produce the image of the dog. Start the overdraw with the arc marked with chevrons.

After I developed Alternate Overdraw in 1970, which enabled me to allocate my colour sequence to continuous line drawings, other possibilities started to occur to me. The first was that you could hide an image of an animal within what looked like a totally abstract continuous line drawing.

See below how the dog finally appears. In fact it looks a bit like Ben, who we have been looking after this week.

Alternate Overdraw embedded dog appears. Mick Burton, Continuous Line Drawing.

Alternate Overdraw embedded dog appears. Mick Burton, Single Continuous Line Drawing.

The start of the process was to sketch a simple dog outline and then , knowing that the outline had to include many crossing lines, I broke the outline down into short lines or arcs which were at an angle to each other.

Next, I needed to run lines through the dog, from various directions, which used these arcs. For it to work, there had to be an odd number of arcs in each line which went across the dog, between each two outer arcs. This was so that, after completion, when you drew an alternate overdraw across the dog, both arcs on the outline were overdrawn. This would result in all the arcs around the outline being overdrawn, thus forming one loop of overdraw.

Within the body of the dog, several overdraw loops were also formed. Similarly in the background a number of overdrawn loops and inner loops resulted.

Of course, trial and error is involved in connecting up all the loose ends (of the lines running through the dog) to achieve a single continuous line through the whole drawing.

Finally, having completed a continuous line, I needed to check that there were no obvious sections which would indicate that an animal was in there.

I did one more embedded image in 1970 before moving on to other things. This time, instead of making the abstract continuous line from flowing curves with no straight lines, I decided to use mostly straight lines and right angles.

Abstract before Alternate Overdraw embedded steam engine appears. Mick Burton, Continuous Line Drawing.

Abstract before Alternate Overdraw embedded steam engine appears. Mick Burton, Single Continuous Line Drawing.

This time I was concealing a steam engine and the Alternate Overdraw result is shown below.

Alternate Overdraw embedded steam engine appears. Mick Burton, Continuous Line Drawing.

Alternate Overdraw embedded steam engine appears. Mick Burton, Single Continuous Line Drawing.

As always with my various styles, I wonder who else may be using them and whether they were in use long ago.

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