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Pompeii: AD 79, in the shadow of the volcano Vesuvius.
In this third image in my Nothing is Real but the Girl series, model and singer Lisbeth Boada Phelps poses on a set designed to evoke the Lares Shrine at the House of the Vettii in Pompeii -- the same Lares Shrine mentioned in the Siouxie and the Banshees song, Cities in Dust.
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It's not very painterly to put black holding lines around objects. That device comes more from the world of illustration and comic books.
There is nothing wrong with illustrations and comic books, though, so in the right settings, black holding lines are very cool. (and yes, I was a Patrick Nagel fan)
I think an improvement on black lines can be dark lines of the same hue as the color they are surrounding. That can be a nice look.
I was struck recently by a twist on the theme I hadn't noticed before: a hybrid between holding lines in some areas and none in others. I think this illustration (above) is pretty effective in conveying depthby using dark holding lines only around selected foreground elements, and pushing the background into the atmosphere by color choice, and by not trying to outline the background objects.
