Stippling? What’s that? Isn’t that pointillism? How do you
even pronounce it? These are the most common questions I come across when asked
about my drawings. Here are some answers:
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| Audrey Hepburn Stippling by Joanna Albright 2013 |
Stipple \ˈsti-pəl\ rhymes
with cripple. Stippling is the technique of drawing or painting small dots in
varying densities, to create the impression of shading. In a stippling, the
dots are all the same color (usually black). The closer the dots are to each
other, the darker the shade. Old book illustrations used stippling to create an
image using just black ink.
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| "A Sunday Afternoon…" by Georges Seurat |
Some people use a combination of stippling, cross hatching
and solid color for their drawings. My stippled drawings consist of only dots;
even the black parts. Why you ask? I like the challenge. I have always loved
repetitive tasks that most people would consider tedious. For me, it is
therapeutic.
Even though there is a clear distinction between the two
techniques, I will continue to tag my drawings as both stippling and
pointillism. Most people would never Google “stippling”, but they would search
for “pointillism”….
