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How to describe this style of pencil art?

Arts & Crafts Asked by Jack Twilley on November 22, 2021

There is a style of art that I have seen occasionally on wine bottles, but I do not know how to describe it. Here is an example:

Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi Merlot label
source

I would like the name of the style because I would like to commission some pieces in this style, but I just don’t yet have the words to describe it.

2 Answers

Neither 'landscape illustration' nor 'pen-and-ink illustration', as mentioned in the accepted answer, are styles: one is the genre, the second the medium.

Having found a high-resolution version of the original picture in your question, it's more obvious the label shows the typical line-and-dot style of etchings or similar engravings:

detail of bottle label showing distinct lines

Hence, technically, it's a landscape in the technical style of an etching, and artistically it's a realistic line-drawing or line art.
Vague as that might seem, there is very little else to go on here (is it trying to evoke 18th, 19th, or even early 20th century landscape etchings?), as the picture is very demure, lacking any artistic expression, and there is no lighting to speak of. The lines are not rendered to emphasize form, but to imitate a specific technique.
Moreover, the composition is a little weird, mostly because the wooden bridge - the name of the wine is 'Woodbridge' - seems to have been forced into the drawing in an unconvincing way.

I doubt that this was originally an engraving at all: apart from the lack of character just mentioned, there is no gradation in value, and not a single mistake (the lines are completely evenly distributed).
More evidently, having the bridge, the tree trunks, and other demarcations drawn in continuous lines is remarkable. This could have been done to emphasize the silhouettes of the different objects in the landscape, but that would be strange, since it is unlikely - despite the lack of a light source and shadows - that this illustration was intended as an accurate rendering of the features of a specific landscape (why then would a wooden bridge be so prominently featured?).

It wouldn't surprise me if this image was created by compositing photographs of objects into a photo of a landscape and adding a line-and-dot filter (like those seen in Photoshop) to all elements.

Answered by Joachim on November 22, 2021

That is a Landscape Illustration, member of the Illustration family in Arts. You can get more information on the related wiki page, although not all members are listed there (it's a big family):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illustration

If you're looking for an "art style" wording, to describe it for example on a resume or on a commission service offer, I would say "Pen-and-Ink Illustration for Advertising" for example. Can you say with pencil? Sure. But Pen-and-ink is the better term for resumes ("he who draws with ink, will draw with pencil").

Here is a great link for you to dive in, good luck mate!

https://graphicmama.com/blog/types-of-illustration/

Answered by Marco Antonio on November 22, 2021

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