Artistic Devices

Here's an observational sketch of an old guy reading with a magnifying glass.
I used a fat black marker and a skinny pen on smooth paper.
 
The idea, of course, was to group all the darks into a single shape and contrast that with the light line work. I did this sketch about 30 years ago when I was just out of art school.

If I were to do the same drawing again today, I'd probably use a water brush and a fountain pen, and I probably wouldn't have made the artistic device so obvious. 

Although it's a fun idea to contrast a big shape with line, the way I feel now is that if any abstract device gets in the way of seeing the character, it weakens the drawing. This is an aesthetic judgment, and we all differ on such things, but my feeling now is that artistic devices should be concealed and should be a conduit to more universal human values.