Saturday, March 15, 2014

Stippling or Pointillism: That is the Question

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:

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.

"A Sunday Afternoon…" by Georges Seurat
Pointillism, on the other hand, uses dots of varying colors, to give the impression of a blended color. The best example is 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”….