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How do straight angular lines affect the mood of a drawing?

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Watercolor painting by Berthe Morisot showing Edma seated on a sofa in a floral dress with her young daughter Jeanne beside her, both facing slightly right. — Drawing *The Artist's Sister, Edma, with Her Daughter, Jeanne*, watercolor over graphite on paper by Berthe Morisot, 1872; in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

In the context of drawing, the use of straight angular lines significantly influences the mood and character of a work. An arrangement of forceful, predominantly straight strokes organized into sharp, accentuated angles lends a drawing an austere quality, which serves to emphasize dramatic and expressive traits.1

This approach is often utilized by artists and within stylistic movements that prioritize these intense, sober, or powerful qualities. For example, this method is characteristic of German Expressionism, where such lines are specifically employed to convey mood, as well as in the works of artists like Rembrandt and Vincent van Gogh.1

In contrast, soft, smoothly rounded lines are typically associated with elegant, lyric, or courtly expressions, demonstrating how the geometry of a line acts as a fundamental tool for an artist's subjective expression.1