One of the exercises in my last high school art class was using ink, a brush, and some water to paint live figures.
What we did was have someone in the class pose and hold it for 5 minutes. Then we did it again, for 5 minutes. Then someone else posed and held it for 4 minutes. Someone new took another pose for 4 minutes. Then two people did 3 minutes, 2 minutes, 1 minute, and finally 30 seconds. (So each of the people posing also got the opportunity to experience the reduced time frame and we all got to practice.)
The really interesting thing is that you learned very quickly how to control your brush and the thickness/darkness of the line. As the time became shorter and shorter, you focused on the reduction of strokes. One of my pieces from that, now lost, was just 3 or 4 strokes, but did an excellent job of evoking a person taking a step (the 30 second pose chosen by the poser).
Just a thought for an exercise that might help you with achieving simplicity of line.
no subject
What we did was have someone in the class pose and hold it for 5 minutes. Then we did it again, for 5 minutes. Then someone else posed and held it for 4 minutes. Someone new took another pose for 4 minutes. Then two people did 3 minutes, 2 minutes, 1 minute, and finally 30 seconds. (So each of the people posing also got the opportunity to experience the reduced time frame and we all got to practice.)
The really interesting thing is that you learned very quickly how to control your brush and the thickness/darkness of the line. As the time became shorter and shorter, you focused on the reduction of strokes. One of my pieces from that, now lost, was just 3 or 4 strokes, but did an excellent job of evoking a person taking a step (the 30 second pose chosen by the poser).
Just a thought for an exercise that might help you with achieving simplicity of line.