Cross Hatching

Cross Hatching is when "one set of hatches (parallel lines) are crossed at an angle by a second, and sometimes third, set of hatches." The closer that the hatches are together, the darker the area in the drawing appears.

The image here is "A Sibyl" by Michelangelo Buonarroti and it is a pen and ink on paper drawing from around 1520. This is a great example of cross hatching because, as a viewer, you can see that there are several instances throughout the work where hatches meet each other at an angle in order to create a sense of depth. In the mid-section of the subject, you can see that it is very dark. This is where multiple hatches are drawn very close together. In areas where it is not as dark, the hatches are further apart. The key difference between cross hatching and hatching is the fact that, as is the case here, there are multiple sets of hatches that cross each other.