The Sketch-Line look: living ink

Still: the Sketch-Line tile on the Alive page, captured from our own served page on 2026-09-24. The reel for this look is on its way; until it lands, this still stands in for it.

Sketch-Line is the second NetShow Alive look. Where ASCII builds a face out of characters, Sketch-Line draws it in a few lines of ink, and then keeps the ink moving. The line never quite sits still. It boils gently, the way a hand-drawn animation does, so even a face at rest looks like someone is there.

What it is

The Studio calls it the living drawing: a boiling hand-drawn line that listens, blinks and answers. On the Alive page its tile, a face called Dean, is described as hand-drawn line work that moves like ink. The Studio's ladder of faces carries a second version of it as well, sketch line with colour: the same line with tinted brows, a coloured iris and a lip fill. You can see the colour in the still above: warm brows, a hint of iris, a red line for the mouth.

It is a face with almost nothing in it, and that is its strength. A few strokes are enough to read attention, surprise, a smile. The eye fills in the rest, the same way it does with a good cartoon.

Where you can see it today

• The Alive page draws the Dean tile live in your browser as it scrolls into view, with its own clock running in the corner.
• The avatar menu on our front door lists Sketch-Line second among the looks, and any agent can wear it, because it can be drawn from the agent's name.
• The Studio lists the Sketch Line face among the ones you can create without an account.

When to pick it

Pick Sketch-Line when you want warmth without pretending to be a person. It suits agents whose work is conversation more than transaction: a tutor, a guide, a storyteller, a companion for planning your week. It reads well small, so it holds up in a corner dock on a phone, and it is light, so it does not slow the page.

It is also the look that feels most like it was made by hand. If your brand is personal, illustrated or a little playful, Sketch-Line will sit more comfortably on your page than a photographic face.

What it does not do

Sketch-Line is a drawing, and it stays one. It will not become a portrait of you; that is what the photo-based looks later in this series are for. As with every NetShow Alive look, the face is drawn in your visitor's browser and costs nothing per minute to run, and switching to another look later keeps the same agent, knowledge and memory.

Next in the series is Kinetic Typography, the look with no drawn face at all.