stipple

Stipple is a drawing and engraving technique that uses numerous small dots to create shading and texture. The density and arrangement of the dots determine the perceived value, with closely spaced dots yielding darker tones and more widely spaced dots producing lighter ones. Stippling can be done with traditional media such as pen and ink, brush, or scratchboard, and it is also widely used in digital illustration.

Historically, stipple engraving developed in Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries as a method to simulate tonal gradations in printmaking before more extensive use of line engraving and mezzotint. Artists varied dot size, spacing, and overlap to achieve subtle transitions, and stipple techniques influenced later approaches in painting and print production.

In practice, stippling is valued for controlled, methodical shading and texture. It is common in fine-art drawing and illustration, where the dot pattern can be precisely tuned to render form and surface. In contemporary contexts, stippling appears in tattooing as dotwork shading, where small dots build gradients in black ink. Digital stippling uses software brushes or algorithms to place dots, reproducing traditional stipple shading or simulating halftone textures.

The term stipple refers to the technique itself and to the resulting dotted surface texture. It is distinct from hatching, which uses lines to convey shade, and from solid fills. See also: pointillism, stipple engraving, halftone.