I'm reading through a book on how to draw in a classic Japanese manga style. Specifically, the book is about the basics of デッサン
, "sketching".
They use the term アタリ
a lot. For example, this typical sentence:
アタリ線{せん}は残{のこ}っている。下描{したが}きのりんかく線{せん}がはっきりわかるように、アタリはごく薄{うす}い線{せん}で描{か}こう。
The context is that in the example drawing, they have more or less finished the drawing by having laid down the bolder lines that emphasize the final image, while leaving some of the sketchy lines underneath so one can see the original contours used to create it.
アタリ線{せん}
clearly refers to the "final" lines, so I guess that could work as a translation. But obviously "final" is far from a literal translation of アタリ
.
Looking up アタリ
specifically in katakana, I see that it is defined as "collision, overlapping". Overlapping makes sense, but it still feels off to use it directly. When one is drawing, one doesn't merely sketch and sketch until overlapping lines become the ones you keep (at least, that's not the default assumption. I guess some people might draw like that). Instead, one deliberately lays down the lines one intends to keep.
Translating アタリ線{せん}
as "overlapping lines" seems to convey too much serendipity.
"Bold" lines? "Clean" lines? "True" lines?
What would be the best translation for アタリ
in this context?
Bonus question: Does the katakana アタリ
come from 当{あ}たる
, 中{あた}る
, or maybe a different origin? I ask because I notice that when I look it up using katakana, I get different definitions than when I look it up using kanji.