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DRAWING FOR BEGINNERS

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DRAWING

FOR BEGINNERS

DOROTHY FURNISS

PUBLISHED BY
BRIDGMAN PUBLISHERS
BY SPECIAL
ARRANGEMENT
WITH GEORGE G.
HARRAP & CO. LTD.
LONDON

BRIDGMAN PUBLISHERS
PELHAM NEW YORK

c 'h'So

\ (^

Printed in Great Britain
by Turnbull 6^ Spears, Edinburgh

MY FATHER
HARRY FURNISS

And all ike breeze of Fancy blows.
And every dew-drop paints a bow.
The wizard lightnings deeply glow.

And every thought breaks out a rose.

Tennyson

FOREWORD

HAVE you heard the reply given by a small boy to a
query, " How do you draw ? "
" I think," he said, " and then I draw round my
think."

It is an excellent answer to a very difficult question.

Many an artist could not give as lucid a reply. As far as
I can judge, and I have been peculiarly fortunate in meeting
many artists, the great artist would probably say :

" How do I draw ? Here — give me a paint-brush " — and
if he were inclined to be brutally frank — " don't ask me fool
questions ; watch — this is how it is done." And he would
proceed with a few swift strokes to paint something, at
which you would gasp and feel no wiser than before. It
would look perfect. It would be perfect. But how was it
done ? He thought, and then drew round his thought. The
great artist speaks with his tools ; more often than not he is
a man of few words.

We are told that when a Japanese artist wishes to paint
a flower he watches its growth from bud to blossom and
then to seed. After a little time has elapsed he takes up his
brush and paints his remembrance of the flower. Whether
he could describe the manner in which he intends to paint
that flower is doubtful.

We must think with the brush and the pencil ; we must
think first and then draw round our ' think.'

I hope that this book may help you to arrange your
thoughts.

It is but a helping hand on the broad highway that leads
to the great world of art.

D. F.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

Introduction : A Few Technical Hints 13

I. How TO Begin. Simple Subjects for

Drawing and Painting 20

II. Drawing our Toys 28

III. Drawing Ourselves and Others 36

IV. Drawing Hands 44
V. Drawing Feet 52

VI. Drawing Head, Face, Features, and Hair 60

VII. Drawing People in Right Proportions 79

VIII. Drawing Inanimate Things 83

IX. Drawing our Pets and other Animals 88

X. Colour, and how to Find it 106

XI. Measuring and Perspective 114

XII. Sketching Out of Doors 141

XIII. How to Catch a Likeness 160

XIV. Action and Composition 171
XV. Light and Shade 182

XVI. Correcting our Drawings 198

XVII. Materials 199

Index 205

ILLUSTRATIONS IN HALF-TONE
AND COLOUR

PAGK

A Page from a Sketch-book

Frontisp

dece

Ivy Leaf and Feather

Models illustrating Varied Shapes and

Textures

Various Toys

Toy Horse and Doll

Kathleen
Jack

38
40

Left Hand Pointing

Left Hand in Various Positions

44 <v
46 v/'

Hand Gloved and Ungloved

48 ^"

Hands and Wrists

50 y '

Jack's Foot

Margery's Foot

Back and Side View of Feet

Eyes

64 /•

Noses

68 i/

Mouths

72 v/'

Ears

Hair

76 \/'

Baby's Head

Mufti the Cat and Robin the Puma

90
11

Drawing for Beginners

PAGE

Birds at Rest and in Flight 92

Squirrel and Horses 100

Dogs 102

(a) An Artificial Silk Poppy : how it should and
HOW it should not be painted, [h) Two Colour

Schemes and First Impressions of both 110

The New Wing of the Tate Gallery 136

Sketching Plants. Thumbnail Landscape Sketches 148

Fence overhanging a Rock 150

Tree growing out of a Rock ' 150

A Silhouette of Trees. Sketches of Ruins 154

A Simple Landscape 156

On the Beach 158

Expression in Portraits 164

Action and Rhythm in Composition 172

The Madonna della Sedia 180

Simple Objects in Artificial Light 184

Simple Objects in Daylight 184

Light and Shade on Coloured Objects 186

Stump-drawing of Old Man's Head 190

DRAWING FOR BEGINNERS

INTRODUCTION

A Few Technical Hints

Drawing with the Lead Pencil

A PENCIL has many excellent qualities. It is a clean
tool and easy to handle. It can be carried in the
pocket and pressed into service whenever required.
Beyond sharpening, it requires no attention.

To sharpen a pencil you should pare the wood in small
shavings with a sharp knife. When a small portion of the
lead is exposed place the lead on a piece of paper and whittle
down to a firm and not very thin point. A very sharp point
is a mistake. With such a point we are inclined to dig into
the paper, and thus to add to our difficulties when erasing.
A thin point, moreover, snaps easily, needs constant sharpen-
ing, and therefore leads to much wasting of valuable lead.

A word or two about the position of the pencil when
drawing.

We hold it, of course, as we do the pen, between the thumb
and the first two fingers, and half-way up the shaft.

There is a modern fashion of holding the pen between the
second and third fingers, and whatever may be said for this
position in writing nothing could be advanced in its favour
for drawing.

An overwhelming argument for holding the pencil between
the thumb and the first two fingers is this : the hand never
tires.

I have never heard an artist complain of a tired hand,
though his work extended from early morning till late at
night ; the reason lies in the perfect balance of the tool in
his hand.

Take the pencil between the first finger and the thumb

Drawing for Beginners

and hold it lightly. Is it not perfectly balanced ? Does
not the point respond to the slightest motion of the two
fingers ? Raise the thumb. If you are holding the pencil
correctly, it remains resting against the two fingers and the
root of the first finger. The little finger is the pivot of the
hand. The hand sweeps round in curves from the tip of the
finger with perfect freedom.

Practise various touches with your pencil. For light,
feathery, gossamer lines hold the pencil lightly and half-way
up the shaft ; for rich firm effects hold the pencil firmly and
lower on the shaft, rubbing the lead to and fro without
removing the point from the paper ; for minute or detailed
drawing it will probably be desirable to hold the pencil
lower still.

A medium HB pencil is generally useful. B or BB for
textures, rough-coated animals, etc.

A firm-surfaced paper such as cartridge is useful both for
pencil and water-colour. A polished card is not advisable,
neither is a paper with a rough ' toothed ' surface ; the latter
is apt to lend a tricky effect which is alluring, but dangerous.
It is wiser to employ straightforward methods. Then you
know exactly the various stages of your progress.

Do not use patent pencils with metal holders or decorated
tops. The ordinary plain wooden pencil is the best tool.

Drawing with Black Chalk

Black chalk, in the shape of a pencil, is a pleasant medium,
but it has one disadvantage, it is very difficult to erase.
Therefore the use of chalk necessitates a certain amount of
confidence and experience. In other words, do not begin
your studies with chalk in preference to lead, but reserve it
for your later work.

Chalk gives a rich velvety tone and never a greasy shine,
the drawback of blacklead. It is delightful for quick sketches,
for materials of a coarse or rough texture, for the sketching
of animals, buildings, trees, and landscapes.

Chalk crumbles and breaks more easily than lead, and it
14

Introduction

white chalk gives the highest Hghts, and the paper itself
forms the middle tone.

I know of nothing more interesting than sketching animals,
dogs, rabbits, and goats with these three mediums.

White chalk needs very little pointing. It crumbles and
breaks with the slightest encouragement, and the small pieces
are often useful for sharpening up the edges, or touching in
the brightest light.

Drawing with Coloured Chalks

Coloured chalks are very simple mediums. Often the baby
begins with a box of coloured chalks as a step toward the
colour-box.

Chalk does not trickle about the paper like water-colour,
and is, moreover, a very direct medium.

A red berry demands red chalk ; a blue bead demands
blue chalk ; a skein of mixed silk or wool of blue, green, and
yellow demands blue, green, or yellow chalk.

By placing yellow against blue, or blue against green, or
red against brown, we obtain a degree of shading, a mixing
of tints, which teaches us to blend our colours. Chalks
should not be applied to the paper too heavily, but laid on
with a ligV^: touch. There is no need to point the chalks.
By rolling the chalk in the fingers we can usually find a sharp
little edge. Rub the chalk on a piece of waste paper, and on
one side only ; that will give a flattened side for sharp and
decided drawing.

Drawing with the Brush

Drawing with the brush is more difficult than with the
pencil, but you should accustom yourself to the use of both.

It is far better to paint a picture from the very beginning
with a brush. Drawing first with a pencil and then with
a brush necessitates changing one's tool, and readjusting
one's mind. We look at a model, pencil in hand, very
differently from the way we regard the same object when
holding a brush.

B 17

Drawing for Beginners

If you accustom yourself to the use of the brush you will
soon find it an adaptable tool.

The artist holds the brush in the same way as he holds the
pen or the pencil, and he shifts the position according to the
demands of the subject.

For instance, if we are applying a broad wash of colour we
should hold the brush with freedom, and fairly high on the
shaft. One with a fair point, full and firm, will be necessary
for drawing. A long hairy point will give a feeble line, and
one too short and blunt no line at all.

A brush that is at its thickest the size of an ordinary
lead pencil is a useful tool. A very small brush will prove
inefficient, for in drawing with a brush a fairly bold drawing is
aimed at.

If you have made a mistake cleanse the brush with fresh
water, and while it is still full of this pass it over the
mistake. Then complete the erasure by rubbing. Do not
rub too hard or the surface of the paper will be destroyed
and refuse to take colour other than a misty blur or
blot.

Clean blotting-paper applied to a mistake — first lightly
brushed with water — will sometimes erase it.

Sketch in light tints, not dark.

In order to get a fine point, fill your brush with colour,
wipe it on a cloth, or roll the tip round on a piece of blotting-
paper.

To run a good deal of colour on your paper, charge your
brush with paint and put it on with rapid touches.

For the darkest shadows, wait till your paper is drying
and use the water sparingly.

Drawing with Charcoal

Charcoal is by far the most fascinating, as it is the most
difficult medium, therefore it will be wise to keep this for
our most advanced studies.

But we must bear in mind that no medium takes the place
of charcoal. If we shirk its use and adhere obstinately to the
18

Introduction

pencil we shall lose the freedom that is essential for the
development of our art.

You will require a small box of Vine charcoal and Michelet
paper ; if you intend to use sheets of paper instead of sketch-
books— and this I strongly advise — you must have also a
drawing-board on which to pin the paper, and an easel. (Only
by standing do we get perfect freedom for the handling of
our large drawings.)

Charcoal has several irritating qualities. It snaps easily
and crumbles, and it rubs away despite spraying with fixa-
tive. Nevertheless there is no medium more fascinating and
more satisfying. It is equally useful for delicate effects and
for those of a bold and vigorous character.

Charcoal can be used at arm's length ; it is usually held —
for quick sketching of big subjects — at the end and not at
the middle of the shaft like the chalk or lead pencil.

It requires very little sharpening and never a point. A
flattened side answers the purpose.

Rub the stick on sanded paper or shave with a knife,
shaving not toward the tip and bearing away, but holding
the charcoal in the left hand and along the first finger. Pare
the charcoal inwardly with the grain of the wood, for, as you
probably know, charcoal is burnt wood.

The pith of bread (worked into small pellets) makes a better
eraser for charcoal than rubber, though putty rubber is often
used.

When fixing a charcoal study stand not too near the easel,
but a pace or two away, so that the spray falls in a light, even
shower over your drawing. When standing too near the
liquid falls in blobs and blots the drawing.

CHAPTER I

How to Begin. Simple Subjects for
Drawing and Painting

Do you like painting ? Does drawing interest you ?
Have you a pencil, a box of chalks, or a paint-box ?
Because, if you have even one of these things, you
can open the door to such jolly times.

Do you remember Alice finding in Wonderland the little
closed door, and how she longed to open the door and walk
into the charming garden ? Well, there's a garden just as
fascinating as the one seen by Alice, and the keys to it are
your pencil and brush.

This garden, like Alice's, is full of wonderful surprises.
You never know w^hat is lying in wait, what quaint, curious,
and beautiful things are to be found. Would you like to go
into it ? Then come with me. You have the keys in your
hands.

But first I will ask you a question. Have you ever heard
of the story of the shepherd-boy of Vespignano ?

Once upon a time there lived in Italy a little shepherd-boy
who was so passionately fond of drawing that he would pick
up a stick and draw with it on the dusty roads and sandy
rocks.

You might ask why he used such rough tools ; it was all
the material he could call his own. Paper and parchment
were far beyond the reach of shepherd-boys. But Giotto,
for that was his name, drew quite happily with his pointed
stick upon the ground, and he had all the hillside from which
to choose his subjects. He drew the flowers, the grass, and
the pine-trees. Best of all, he liked to draw his sheep, and
20

How to Begin

these he drew with loving care. A great artist called
Cimabue happened to pass one day when Giotto was absorbed
in his drawing. His curiosity was awakened, and dismount-
ing from his horse he drew near. To his unbounded surprise
he saw, traced on the ground, a number of beautiful little
sketches.

He began to talk with Giotto, and soon discovered that
the boy's whole soul was in his simple art. And, being a
wise and very generous man, he determined to do all that lay
in his power to educate Giotto as an artist. In a very Uttle
time the shepherd-boy left Vespignano for Florence, where
he entered the great man's studio. Being extraordinarily
gifted and more than usually industrious, he made rapid
progress in his art. He soon outstripped his master, and in
course of time was acclaimed the foremost artist of his day.

And that is the story of Giotto, who died ten years after
Edward III came to the English throne.

Young people (and sometimes old people are not much
wiser) are fond of excusing their laziness by saying, " I can't
draw this — or I can't draw that. I haven't got the materials,
or the pencil won't work." Which last excuse is about as
reasonable as mounting a push-bicycle and expecting it to
carry you up a hill without your moving your legs.

The shepherd-boy taught himself by drawing with a pointed
stick on a smooth piece of ground. So lack of materials is no
excuse for lack of effort.

One of my young readers may cry, " Draw ! Draw ! /
draw ? Why, I cannot draw a straight line." As a matter
of fact, a perfectly straight line is one of the most difficult
things to draw. There are many artists who cannot easily
draw a straight line. If you study Nature — and she is our
safest guide — you will never see an absolutely straight line.
If you do see one, you may be sure that the hand of man has
helped to make it.

A very general excuse is that which pleads the impossi-
bility of drawing two sides of an object alike. Have you
ever seen two ' sides ' alike in Nature — a tree, a flower, or even

Drawing for Beginners

a single blade of grass, inch by inch and tint by tint, the
same ? Look round and judge for yourself.

Only man makes things mathematically exact. He is
forced to balance one side with the other side. The cup, the
vase, the house, will not stand and support itself. Nature is
bound by no such rules, and Nature is always an artist.

Would you like to know the most difficult thing of all to
draw ? Without question, a perfect circle.

Strangely enough there was one artist whose fortune was
made through the drawing of a circle. It was Giotto, the
shepherd-lad whose story we have just been discussing.
When his name was beginning to be known the Pope sent to
learn more about him. He wished to employ the cleverest
artist to be found in all Italy to paint pictures on the walls of
the great church of St Peter at Rome.

And how do you think Giotto convinced the envoys of his
fitness for the work ? He took a large sheet of paper, and,
dipping his brush into red paint, he drew a circle with one
sweep of his arm, perfect and exact.

" Take that to the Pope," he said.

And the Pope admitted that of all the paintings submitted
by the artists not one equalled the perfection of Giotto's O ;
whence we have the proverb, " As round as Giotto's O,"
signifying perfection.

We are not, unfortunately, all Giottos. Straight lines,
symmetrical sides, perfect circles — perhaps when we are older
we shall be able to attack these problems without flinching,
but now, away with them and away with all excuses — let us
begin.

Take a sheet of paper, or open your sketch-book ; pick up
a pencil. Now what shall we draw ?

Some children bubble with odd fancies ; men, horses,
fairies, dogs come tripping to their minds ; but you and I
are not so sure. We will choose something simple, something
interesting.

What of a leaf, an ivy leaf ?— for that we can easily find
whether we live in city or country.
22

How to Begin

It is a quaint shape when we come to observe it closely.
Would you call it a long, square, or round shape ? I should
say that it resembled a heart.

Then we will draw a heart-shape. Next we see a large vein
running through the centre of the heart. It extends from the
very tip of the leaf to the stout little stalk which eventually
fastens itself on to the main branch.

Now we had better mark the chief points of our leaf, which
are three in number. And also there are two or three a trifle
smaller. These we also draw. And we note that the large
central vein is met by two smaller veins, and that these,
with two more, radiate from the stalk.

Turn the leaf and look at its back and see how wonderfully
these veins converge to the stalk.

Put in some of the veins lightly and carefully, choosing
the biggest and the most important.

Next we should note that the light comes from one side,
and the side farthest from the light is in shadow. We might
shade the edges of the leaf with our pencil and sharpen and
shade the strongly curved stalk, and any other part that
needs to be strengthened.

You may say that you live where there are no ivy leaves.
Then take a maple leaf, a sycamore, or a chestnut ; any leaf
at hand. I am not laying down any hard-and-fast rules,
but merely trying to help you with something that you want
to do.

If you prefer it, draw a shell or a feather. I suggest these
particular things because they are simple and easy to draw,
and within the reach of most people.

A feather can be studied on the same lines as a leaf, presum-
ing that it is a well-formed wing or tail feather — a not-too-
fluffy affair. First observe its general shape. Elongated —
oblong, is it not ? Then draw in an oblong shape. Next
notice that it is broad at the bottom end, and that it inclines
to a rounded point. We will shape off the side tips.

Next we trace the main stalk or stem from which the plume
spreads. Observe the separating of the plume on one side,

Drawing for Beginners

the crisp firmness of the narrower vein, the fluffiness at the
back of the thick stem, and the solid firmness of the stem
itself.

We can work this with a pencil and trace the beautiful
marking on the feather, or we can produce our paint-box
and try to colour our drawing. It is an excellent plan to
hide the model from sight, and see how much, or how little,
has penetrated our brain.

Afterward try drawing some simple flowers : a snowdrop
in a small vase ; a crocus — bulb, stem, and flower ; a daffodil
with a few broad spear-like leaves.

And if we find it difficult to interpret shapes with our pencil,
and our brain tires, and our fingers get weary, choose some
very different and ' opposite ' shapes.

The mere task of choosing requires a little stimulating
reflection.

For instance, contrast a flat, squat-shaped, circular inkpot
with a small, narrow upright tumbler ; a big spoon w\th a
broad-handled knife. Compare a lemon with a tangerine ;
an egg with an apple ; a reel of cotton with a tube of
water-colour paint ; a matchbox with an ash-tray ; a tall
slender vase and a dumpy bowl ; a large breakfast-cup and
a small cocoa-tin ; a flat, thin book and a sphere-shaped
paper-weight.

Put some of these objects on a table, at a little distance from
your desk, and sketch them two by two, and side by side.

You could draw some with your pencil, and some with your
brush.

The lemon and the tangerine are excellent subjects for this
test, because you have contrast of both shape and colour.

If you sketch them first with your brush, choose a tint of
which they are both composed — say, a very pale yellow.

Draw first the lemon, the large, elongated, egg-shaped
variety. Notice the characteristic knob, like a nose, at one
end, and compare this with the round tangerine and its
somewhat flattened top. You will find a further interest in
comparing colours. How rich is the orange tinge beside the
24.

Fig. 3. Ivy Leaf and Feather

How to Begin

paler yellow ! How deep the shadows of the tangerine
appear when compared with those of the lighter-hued lemon !
For the lemon we must seek out our cool blues and pale
golds ; for the tangerine, warm crimson, and even touches
of bronze and brown.

If we wish to handle our pencils intelligently (to get from
our pencil many varied touches), we should draw objects which
are variously composed. In other words, made of more than
one material. And here again we must don our thinking-cap.

We need not go very far. A few homely domestic articles
would furnish us with some useful models.

Take a feather brush — that is, a brush composed of feathers,
leather, and smooth polished wood ; hang this up at a level
with your eye, feathers downward, and sketch it with your
pencil.

Draw a long line to represent the handle, and indicate the
rough fan-shape of the lower part. If the handle is grooved
and turned, do not worry because you cannot get both
sides exactly alike. First sketch the largest shapes and re-
member to keep the stick slender ; next the three-cornered
piece of leather which neatly hides and binds the ends of the
feathers together ; lastly, the feathers themselves, spreading
out in a loose, plumy fan.

Having sketched these shapes, darken the handle, which
is polished and black. Leave the white paper to show through
to provide the lights. Try to represent the polish of the
surface by drawing with firm sharp touches.

The leather, being of a more pliable material and of a duller
surface, needs a lighter treatment. If it has a dull tint,
give it a shaded tone ; if it has folds, draw these folds in
shadow.

Next the feathers.

A feather is one of the lightest of all substances. We say
" light as a feather " when we wish to suggest something of
the airiest description.

But although it is so unsubstantial, it is not feeble. It
has a definite shape.

Drawing for Beginners

Each feather has a spine from which it spreads in a definite
shape. Soft, yes, and dehcate, but with a curved spine and
a broad tip. Look at those nearest to you . . . and draw
their shapes dehcately. Hold your pencil lightly, give a
gentle, feathery touch, and, as the feathers are bunched
together, and some will be in shadow, put in the shadows
lightly, but sharply. Then pause and look at your drawing.

Have you ' handled ' the drawing of the wood and the
feathers differently ? Does the leather look more substantial
than the feathers ?

The work is not easy, but practice will soon give a surer
touch. You are playing a scale with your pencil as one plays
a scale on a piano. Deep bass notes, then the middle strong
notes, and lastly the soft delicate treble. We must try to
make our pencil speak with a varied tongue.

Drawing different textures might include a kettle and a
kettle-holder (shiny metal — rough cloth or velvet) ; a small
piece of fur coiled near, or over, a hard cricket-ball ; a cake
of soap and a loofah. A woman's hat with a soft wide brim
(not the pudding basin variety, which is most difficult for
unpractised fingers), trimmed with a cluster of berries, or a
twisted bow of ribbon, gives us several different textures.

We must hold the pencil delicately, loosely, and half-way
up the shaft if we wish to convey the delicacy of fur and
fine hairs. If we would show the richness of velvet, we must
use our pencil with determination and shift our fingers for
a shorter and firmer grip.

All this will come with practice. There is no need to worry
yourself with harassing doubts. Do your best ; no one can
do more.

When we work alone, we are very apt to get weary and
depressed with our difficulties.

We sit before our little models and look so often that we
see less and less, instead of more and more.

It is very wise occasionally to cover up your model, or, at
any rate, to turn your back upon it for a while.

This will often appear to increase your difficulties, but
26

Fig. 4r. Models illustrating Varied Shapes and Textures

How to Begin

it will tend to quicken your observation, and this is worth
any extra trouble or discouragement that may be entailed.
There is a temptation to look continually at our models, and
in consequence we look at them more often than is necessary.
If, after looking at the model, we hide it from sight and
then proceed with our drawing, obviously we must work from
memory. The habit of working without models is soon
developed, and it adds enormously to our powers of ' taking
notice.'

CHAPTER II

Drawing our Toys

WHEN we are very small nothing seems too difficult
for our pencil. If we wish to draw a tree, a horse,
or an engine, we make no bones about the matter,
we draw it. Possibly the drawings may look rather quaint
in the eyes of other people, but they satisfy ourselves.

And behind these quaint early drawings lies, more often
than not, a sound and practical line of reasoning.

You know, for instance, how fond is Baby John of drawing
an engine in full steam.

" My fain," he will say, proudly pointing to a piece of
paper covered with whirligigs of pencil.

He's right enough, I dare say. Did he not begin by draw-
ing a queer bit of shed, some odd-looking wheels, and perhaps
even a coconut thing with a few straight lines meant for the
engine-driver's features ? And always he drew the shape of
a funnel. And then . . . his fancy ran riot ! Out of the
funnel came smoke ! Lots and lots of smoke ! Wasn't the
train the puff-puff of his infancy ? Pujf-piijf-'pujf came the
smoke. It was glorious drawing ! Everything was covered
in smoke.

He showed you his train, and, in all probability, you
laughed, as I might have done in your place.

And yet he was doing what is a very difficult thing to do,
he was drawing * out of his imagination,' or, as some people
say, ' drawing out of his head.'

Once, and not a very long time ago, I was sitting alone and
drawing in haste, when old Gary entered, curious and inquir-
ing. She looked round the empty room, she looked at me,
and she looked at my paper, on which several scenes were
28

Drawing our Toys

shaping, and then she said : " Ah ! I see you draw out of
your fancy ! "

I loved Gary's expression " out of your fancy." Don't
you think it far more expressive than ' drawing out of one's
head ' or ' drawing from one's imagination ' ?

Few of us who are fond of drawing can resist, when we
are young, drawing ' out of our fancy.'

Little girls fly to the enchanted regions of Fairy- and Flower-
land, as surely as little boys turn to scenes of breathless and
stirring adventure, ships at sea and ships in the air, soldiers.
Red Indians, camp-fires, hunting, shooting, and games of
thrilling interest.

Little girls push wide the enchanted gates of Fairyland.
Flowers emitting tiny elves, gnomes dancing with toadstools
held aloft, gorgeous ladies on prancing steeds or in flower-
bedizened motor-cars, castle gates opening to the blast of a
horn blown by a handsome prince.

And as we grow older we cease to draw our magical dreams
— more's the pity 1 for there will be nothing as delightful in
all the sparkling realms of art.

When we become more ' practical,' we get more matter-
of-fact, and we lose, unfortunately, our early confidence.

Sometimes, see-sawing between the things of ' our fancy '
and the things that are simple facts, we get disheartened.

We are tempted then to throw away our pencils and paint-
boxes in disgust, to be discouraged by a smile, to be utterly
disheartened by a laugh. And yet between the beautiful
Land of Fancy and the strange approaching Land of Fact
lies a simple bridge with a very familiar aspect, no more
nor less than the companion of our babyhood — the toy-
cupboard.

The nursery is full of inviting little models, models that
we have handled for years and that are as patient as ever.
Here I will let you into a secret. It is comparatively easy
to draw the things with which we are familiar. The boy who
has made a footstool will probably draw it far better than the
boy who has never driven a nail. And it is an excellent

Drawing for Beginners

thing, when we draw an object, to take it up and examine it,
whether it be leaf, feather, footstool, chair, or toys.

If we draw our toys now, toy girl, toy horse, toy tree, later we
shall be able to draw real girl, real horse, and real tree ; con-
fident because we have a little knowledge to help us on our way.

The toy tree is stiff and still, but has the look of a tree ;
Mr Noah is straight and long, but Mr Noah is a man and he
has sheep, cows, pigs, and birds ; though made of wood, these
have a queer resemblance to their originals.

For a beginning let us take these little creatures and place
them in procession along the table, the ark in front, and
then, with our sketch-books on our knees (some stiff bit of
board beneath it if it be a limp-covered book), sit on a low
seat at the extreme right-hand side of our models, and with
our eyes on a level with the table.

As in the preceding chapter we experimented with the
different shapes of our models, so we will begin by noting
that these little ark creatures vary in shape.

Having drawn them with pencil, we could then take up
our paint-brush and paint them in gay colours, making a
long narrow-shaped picture, a kind of frieze, or border.

What could be easier to draw than Mr Noah himself ?
He is just a straight angular shape in several sections.
The first and top section makes a queer little hat. The
second — an oval shape — a face. The third section slopes
outward from his wooden neck to provide his body and then,
slightly indenting at the waist, continues in a straight robe to
his feet, where we have the fourth section — wider than the
others — the stand upon which he is balanced.

After we have finished with Mr Noah we might proceed to
draw the animals. A sheep has a long-shaped body perched
upon four straight little legs, a thick tail, and possibly two
erectly pricked ears. The pig has a more drooping head, a
thicker neck, shorter legs.

But I need not discuss the details of each one. The fore-
going suggestions will enable you to apply the same principles
to all.
30

Drawing our Toys

A toy tree might well bring up the rear of our procession.
And a toy tree is a very simple affair, a thimble-shape on the
end of a stick, very like a large T with elongated lines drooping
on either side.

Looking at the tree as a whole mass we see that the
branches extend more than half-way down the stem. Lightly
we sketch the line of these branches. Then we look at the
trunk of the tree. It is thick and solid for its height. Then
thick and solid we will draw it. Next we come to its little
green stand, like a sUce of the one which supports Mr Noah,
and this stand is smaller than the circumference of the tree
at the widest part.

Baby Tom's unbreakable Bunny is surely the simplest of
all shapes — a flat base from which rises a rounded hill,
steeper on one side than on the other. The steeper, more
massive end corresponds with the crouching hind-legs (which
we know to be the largest part of the rabbit and which help
him to run so fleetly across the warren).

From the top of the head the ears lie flat along the body.
Then we mark the small eye, the rounded soft nose, and the
tiny forepaws. We look for folds of leg, paw, and ear, and
we shade these with a light but firm touch. Bunny Rabbit is
white and therefore must not be shaded too strongly. And
if you wish to insist on his white coat, look for shadows cast
by his rounded body on the ground or background.

The fish of painted celluloid is interesting and by no means
difficult to draw, although at first glance we may be slightly
puzzled where and how to begin.

A fish is long — one almost might term it domino-shape.
Begin, then, as always, by sketching out this general
shape.

This done, we trace from the wider and larger end of the
fish the long sloping line to the branching tail. The forepart
slopes steeply down from the ' shoulders ' and finishes with a
rounded blunt nose. Next we notice that our fish — unlike a
real fish — has a flattened underside upon which he rests on
flat surfaces — and this we draw.

Drawing for Beginners

After this we proceed to sketch the gills, the curious
breathing-apparatus of the fish, placed on either side of his
head and behind his cheek.

Then we note the eye — circular in shape (not oblong like a
human eye) — and the queer scoop of a mouth with the lower
jaw jutting forward. We then sketch the tail, which is
forked.

If we feel so disposed we can sketch a few of the fish's
scales ; they overlap, beginning at the head and diminishing
in size with the diminishing size of the tail-end of the body*

We may also build up a picture with a group of several
fishes drawn from the single model.

Turn the fish round, so that the head comes nearest. This
will not be so easy to draw, because here we are confronted
with something that is not on a flat plane. But do not let
this worry you. When we are sketching something ' coming
toward us ' we draw first the part that is nearest, then the
parts behind.

If you draw two or three or even four fishes you might add
a swirl of water, and some reeds. Then you will have com-
pleted a little picture.

Observe real ponds and reeds at your next opportunity,
and if a fish darts before your eyes you will see that his fins
and tail agitate the water.

By observing and remembering — we cannot always have
a pencil in our hand — we build up pictures in our minds.

Teddy Bear might next pose as a model.

He has a rounded head and a pointed snout. These we
sketch very roughly — something like the shape of a pear.

He has a round, fat, pillow-shaped body, to which are
attached his fat little thighs, the backward-sloping hind-legs,
and his small but solid feet thrust sturdily forward. To the top
of his head we must add his large, soft, round ears. The front
part of his forehead curves in a decided kink, and his queer
little snout soars upward. His nose is black and shiny, and
the noses of bears are three-corner shape, wide at the top, curl-
ing round the nostrils and narrowing to the upper lip. The
32

Fig. 5. Various Toys

Drawing our Toys

lower jaw of Teddy Bear is small and retreating, and his mouth
curves upward in a pleased little smile.

His upper arms are very thick, and they scoop downward
and outward and end in rounded paws. Teddy Bear might
carry our study further. In all probability he will wear a
coat or tunic. Then draw the little garment carefully. Draw
the folds under the arms, and the belt round the waist, and the
pattern about the edge of it.

Teddy Bear is different from the wooden creatures of the
ark or the velveteen of Bunny Rabbit. He has a furry coat.

Try to indicate with several strokes of the pencil the furry
shadows in his ears, behind his ears, in the bend of his arms
and legs, and the shaggy little fringe of his paws and hind-legs.

Draw the furry lines lightly. His coat is of a soft substance.
Draw some of the thick curls with their queer little twists,
and the shadows on the curve of the ragged edges.

His eye is dark and bright. It has a shiny light, being of
a shiny substance. Draw the dark shadow of the little eye
with strong, dark touches, leaving the light untouched.

There, you see, we have the fur of the coat, the velvet of
the dress, and the button of an eye. Three different sub-
stances requiring different handling of the pencil.

Dobbin, who has carried us so many miles round the
nursery-floor that all his tail and most of his mane has
sprinkled the highway of our fancy, Dobbin, after all is said
and done, is a horse. He has four legs, a stout body, an
arched neck, and a spirited eye and nostril.

See how smooth and round is his body, and how firmly
the four legs are fastened to the corners, and how squarely
the neck is placed ! His hoofs are stoutly fixed on the ground,
the left fore-leg and the right hind-leg stepping forward.

First note the barrel shape of his body and draw that
firmly, placing the legs at each corner and simply marking
the angle from the top of the leg to the hoof. Then place the
curved neck on the square shoulders and trace the long face.
(The ' horse-faced individual,' a rude nickname we some-
times hear, suggests a man or woman with a very long face.)
c 83

Drawing for Beginners

You may now place the saddle on Dobbin's back, because (we
are now looking for more details) the triangular shape of the
saddle throws a shadow and marks the curve of his flank.

Compare the various thicknesses of Dobbin's fore-legs.
The width of the upper part, the firm square swelling of the
knees, the narrowing of the fetlock, the curve and forward
thrust of the fetlock, and neat little black hoofs. The hind-
legs have a very decided and firm sweep backward.

The bridle is useful. The cheek-strap marks the thickest
part of the horse's head, the frontal strap gives the width of
the forehead, the long straight side-strap throws a shadow
under the funny little painted eye and down the cheek.

It now only remains to draw his long thin face, and his
rounded nostril, and his mouth open to receive the bit which
has long since disappeared, and his two ears pricked intelli-
gently forward. He has all the ' points ' of a good horse, has
Dobbin !

And surely among all our scalped darlings there will be one
fair lady to sit for her portrait. Primrose, who never closes
her blue orbs, though she is rocked until her small mistress's
arms ache with fatigue, and Dahlia, proud, snub-nosed, and
long-bodied. Primrose has a real dolly face, rosy cheeks,
big round staring eyes, arched eyebrows, and pouting lips.
We might do worse than study Primrose. Her eyes are
glassy and stuck in oblong sockets ; beyond that they have
no more than a general resemblance to human eyes. But
Primrose has not such an ill-proportioned body as some of
her little doll-sisters, though her legs are stiff, and her arms are
absurdly small.

Sketch first her large head, then her long body, the angles
of her plump legs, and her tiny arms. Roughly mark the
position of nose and eyes, the shape of the bobbed locks cut
squarely across the brow and at the level of the ear. Look
at the length of the tunic, the skirt, and the socks, the edge
of the sleeve folds under the arm. The feet being slightly
upturned expose the tiniest slip of the sole of the shoes.

When you have the head on paper, then you can mark
84

Fig. 6. Toy Horse and Doll

Drawing our Toys

the features ; arched eyebrows, tiny nose, dimpled chin, and
absurdly fat apple-dumpling cheeks.

Observe the large sockets of the staring eyes, the tiny pink
lips.

Shade in the soft hair, and note that it clings to the shape
of the head, and the ends are fluffy.

The velvet tunic sticks out at the hips, and the fur edging
on the skirt just covers the knees.

Mark that the upper edge of the sock follows the curve of
the fat legs, and notice also the curious dimpled fingers that
seem proper to the little girl doll.

Don't trouble too much about detail. Draw the chief
things and let the others slide. And having proceeded step
by step from wooden toy to waxen doll, we might next con-
sider certain little people of more importance — ourselves.

CHAPTER III

Drawing Ourselves and Others

WHEN we first try to draw each other it is best
to choose fairly easy positions. Put your small
brother into an exaggerated attitude — for example,
rushing toward you with arms outspread, his chin in the air.
You will very soon get tired "and discouraged ; worse still, so
will he, and the probabilities are that his first posing will be
his last.

So choose an easy position. Firstly for his sake, secondly
for yours. It does not pay to be too selfish about these things,
and posing, after all is said and done, is very monotonous
work. Queer aches and pains develop in hands, knees, and
feet. Extended arms holding banners or grasping trusty
swords are apt to get heavy as lead. So I offer it to you as
an invaluable principle, consider the feelings of your model.

By ' an easy pose ' one that represents a simple position is
meant. If we begin by trying to draw some one with body
huddled together, legs crossed, neck twisted, and eyes gazing
into ours, we shall soon be very confused.

Stand your brother upright, with his arms to his side ; or
put your sister on a chair with her hands in her lap and her
eyes looking before her ; or plump the baby down on a cushion
on the floor and draw him sideways (he won't stay there, but
that is a detail). Choose, in a word, easy positions.

It is a very encouraging reflection that all people who
aspire to become artists are more or less in the same boat.
We land on the same rocks, reefs, and shore, we battle with
the same currents, tides, and storms. We should, therefore,
be ready with a helping hand whenever it is required by
others.
36

Drawing Ourselves and Others

" I will sit to you if you will sit to me," my brothers would
say. As there were two brothers and one sister, all fond of
drawing, we formed a Triple Alliance, and posed to each other
in turn.

So we will begin with simple poses.

A hint here as to the size of our sketches may not come
amiss. Do not draw on too small a scale. A sketch of a
figure the height of your thumb will not teach you very much.
Moreover, one is too apt to adopt a niggling, worried style of
drawing. Take a good-sized sheet of paper and try to make
your sketch as large as the length of your hand.

Shall we assume that Kathleen has kindly agreed to sit to
us for fifteen minutes ? Let us place her on a stool on which
she can sit upright and in a steady suffused light — not too
near the window, the fire, the electric, gas, or lamp light, all
of which tend to throw confusing lights and shadows. Then
we give Kathleen a searching look — not too long — and we
ask ourselves what shape does Kathleen, roughly speaking,
present ? She forms a triangular shape. Yes. See the line
of the back, the line of the upper leg, the line of the leg from
the knee to the foot, and the upright supports of the stool.

Having seen, we record our impressions — lightly — for after
all they are but first impressions, and we don't want to make
harsh lines that can be erased only by much rubbing and
spoiling of paper.

Next we consider the angles we have made and compare
with Kathleen. We see that the angles are softened into
curves, the forward thrust of the neck, the curve of the spine
and upper part of the leg. We might note the position of the
hands on the lap (they are not on the extreme edge of the
knee), and we could look again at the head and indicate
the roundness of the upper side, the comparatively flat oval
of the face, and the hood-like shape of Kathleen's short mane.

Now we are searching for more detail. I know you are
dying to give her a nose, eye, and mouth. Well, trace these
details lightly and do not labour the eyelashes — we have
something more important in hand.

Drawing for Beginners

Next we might note the arm. Turn up the sleeve if the
elbow is hidden. Hinges or joints are very important, and
the more we see of them the better we shall understand the
working of the human frame. Kathleen has a thin but
shapely little arm, the upper surface of which is gently
rounded and the lower straighter and firmer because of the
bones beneath. The thumb rises to a point, and the fingers
fall outward more or less in the shape of a fan. The position
of this hand is very simple. But ten to one, if the pose has
been left to Kathleen's choice, she has clasped her fingers
tightly together, for that is a very natural thing to do with
an unoccupied pair of hands. And clasped hands are very
difficult to draw. One invariably makes them far too large.
It is not easy to fit four fingers and a thumb on that small
thing called a palm until we have gained experience.

Having arrived at the arms and hands we continue with
the lower limbs, tucking in the skirt (folds can be very mis-
leading) to show the upper part of the thigh. The square
angle resting upon the seat of the stool is sharply defined.
The knee is more or less hidden, but ask Kathleen to touch
the knees where they bend, or hold the skirt tightly across
the knees, and mark it well in your mind, or on your paper,
because from there we trace the lower part of the leg.

Now we follow the curve of the leg, noticing the flat surface
of the front part compared with the calf. Your Kathleen
may not have as much calf as my Kathleen. Girls have very
often the thinnest of arms and legs, and it is a common mistake
to give too much flesh. Next we draw the feet. The boat-
shape of the foot seen in profile (or sideways) is broken up
with the strap, which marks also the thickest part of the foot,
the instep. From that curve it descends steeply to the root
of the toes or the curve of the shoe proper. Stout, sensible
shoes has Kathleen, and the sole and heel are easily traced,
marked as they are with the shadows of the leather.

Lastly, note the most important shadows and folds ; also
the hair, neckband, cuffs, or doubled-back sleeves — just so
far as your interest carries you, but no further.
88

Drawing Ourselves and Others

And so we have Kathleen down on paper. She deserves
our thanks, and if she laughs, as she probably will, and
exclaims, " Oh, how queer I look in your drawing ! " you can
tell her that if she will only sit to us fairly often, we will

Fig. 8. The Balancinq of Moving Figurks

improve and hope some day to make her as nice-looking as
she would wish.

Now what about Jack — do you think he would care to sit
for his picture ?

Jack being a gentleman full of frolic will probably like
to pose in more or less spirited action. Why not ? If he
wishes to peer aft across the good kitchen chair with his back
toward us, we shall probably find it is no more difficult to
draw him thus than from a side view. His energy may be
a spur to ours.

Drawing for Beginners

There is one fact about standing figures that you must
always bear in mind. They must balance.

You will probably say with a smile you are quite certain
of that without any reminder. But I am inclined to think
that young artists are very unobservant, or else uncommonly
careless, so often do we note a lack of balance in their pictures.

And you can see for yourself, artist or no artist, that if
you throw yourself into an attitude, and lose your balance,
you will come with a crash to the ground.

Your heel, or toe, or whatever happens to be your support,
must come under the centre of your spinal column.

In Fig. 8 are shown a couple of silhouettes of figures in action
to emphasize this principle. Suppose you were hopping on one
leg, or dancing on your toe, or standing upright with your
arms above your head, and Michael or Peter gave you a
push, as brothers sometimes do, you would at once lose your
balance — and the figure in your drawing will overbalance if
you do not rightly plant him upon whatever is to support
him.

Therefore, as soon as we have sketched in the angles of
Jack draw a faint line down the centre from the back or half-
centre of the neck, and this should reach the ball of the right
foot. (Jack is depending on the chair with his left leg, and
he could therefore lean backward or forward without losing
his balance.)

First we glean a general idea of the big angles of the body,
and the broad, sweeping line of the spine, the bending thigh
and leg, and the standing leg and foot (in my sketch drawn
on a smaller scale). Then we follow the angles, and find they
break into large simple curves. We trace the great curve of
the body, its backward thrust, the width of shoulders, and
the comparatively narrow width across the hips, the thick
curve of the thigh and its narrowing line to where the knee
bends on the chair, the curve of the calf, and the flatter line
of the knee to the foot where it bends downward in a great
spoon-shaped curve. The right leg has far more delicate
curves. The calf and upper thigh are drawn taut with the
40

FijT. 9. Jack

Drawing Ourselves and Others

very upright position. (If you stand in this position you can
feel the strain of the sinews at the back of the knee and the
ankle.) The ankle tapers and the toe of the foot is turned
outward, and thus we see both the back of the heel and the
broad toe turned away in shape something like the bow of a
boat.

Having noted the main forms and their relation to each
other, we can next devote ourselves to detail. The line of
the hair follows the upper part of the round bullet-shaped
head. The ear is valuable, coming as it does at the meeting
of the jaw and skull, and we note the tiny niche where the
neck rises above the collar.

Now we can mark down the big shadows — under the loose
sleeve of the shirt, at the waistbelt, between the legs and the
folds at the back of the knickerbockers, at the knee, and
beneath the heels. We follow the grip of the hand on the
chair, remembering that something solid and big flattens and
pushes out the palm. The uplifted right arm is turned from
us. We can see — and it is all that we can see — the small
apex of the bending arm, the round edge of the elbow as it
bends upward and outward, the folds on the inner part of
the sleeve, and the tips of the fingers resting on the brow.
After which you can carry on with anything that holds your
interest. But keep your sketch a sketch. Do not worry after
details. You will learn more at this stage from making
sketches of quick poses and getting a knowledge of general
proportions than by delving after detail.

Also you could reverse the positions of Kathleen and Jack.
Kathleen might stand in the same pose as Jack, and Jack
might sit on the stool.

And it is very amusing to dress brother and sister in their
elders' clothes.

Give Kathleen a shawl and a handkerchief folded three-
corner-wise and tied under her chin, put a basket at her
feet, a closed umbrella in her hands, and we have an old
market woman. Only remember that we bend with age,
our head droops, our arms sag forward, and our toes very

Drawing for Beginners

probably would turn in a little after long years of weary
plodding.

It is amusing to play with one's fancy, to bring out our
colour-box and make a fresh drawing, tinting clothes, hair,
and face.

Put the ' old lady ' against a plain background, a wall, for
instance, and begin by sketching the whole figure (as we
sketched Kathleen as herself). That is, the simple angles,
the big curves, then the smaller shapes
of head, face, arms, hands, shawl, apron,
feet ; lastly, the details of hair, folds,
features, fingers.

If you decide to colour your picture of
the market woman, choose pleasing colours,
/ Kt^ Ny""^ tints that will blend pleasantly.
//In rV"^ ^^ *^^^ French peasant woman would

wJl # y^Ts. i^g dressed probably in greys and blues,
whereas a gipsy woman would have a
highly coloured handkerchief and shawl.
Jack might dress up as a shepherd
The mISet' Woman (^^^h a long cloak or plaid across his
shoulder, and a staff in his hand, and
his knee on a rock) scanning the rough pasture ground for
sheep that have strayed.

But beware ! — draperies, cloaks, and plaids are very mis-
leading.

We are inclined to ' lose ' the drawing of a leg, arm, or
figure when we are trying to sketch draperies. The folds
deceive the eye. The fall of a cloak may hide the position
of a foot or an arm. If such is the case, then remove the
drapery, make a note of the particular object about which
you have doubts, and replace.

Should you prefer to leave the folds untouched because
they are happily arranged, take a walk round your model
and look at the hidden object from the opposite side. Never
hesitate to survey the thing that you are drawing from a
different angle. It is a common fault to worry over a detail,
42

Drawing Ourselves and Others

to labour a difficult problem, when a glance in another posi-
tion would make everything perfectly plain.

To return to the shepherd.

The colouring of the old shepherd's clothes should be more
or less decided by his surroundings. One would not for choice
give him a scarlet plaid and a Prussian blue kilt. These
colours would soon fly in the mists of early dawn, the long
days of rain and storm. A shepherd's clothes would prob-
ably share the tints of the hills and of the heather — mauve,
green, brown, and fawn.

CHAPTER IV

Drawing Hands

HANDS are excellent things on which to practise draw-
ing. Firstly, because they are difficult ; secondly,
because having two we can always spare one and
draw that. And we can draw hands early and late. We
shall never draw hands too often nor study them too much.
It is often said that we can judge an artist's work by the
drawing of the hands. If the hands are good the rest of the
work is good, and if bad, then so is the rest.

It is not wise to make hard-and-fast rules ; still, there is
a good deal of truth in the saying, as we shall very soon
discover.

When first drawing hands we must apply the same broad
rules — of simplicity. We must choose simple positions.

For instance, that hand with finger pointing, with which
we are so painfully famihar; that ugly, ill-drawn hand —
" This way to the Menagerie," " This way to the Performing
Bears," " This way to the Cricket Pavilion," " This way to
the best Teashop in the Town." " This way," we might add,
" to our first drawing of a Hand."

Having the offer of our left hand, we can begin without
delay. Let us sit squarely at a table, resting our left elbow
on a book and pointing the index finger straight in front
of us.

Observe the whole shape carefully ; block in the strong
square angles and proceed from the beginning of the wrist
to the upper knuckle — then along the forefinger to the more
or less square block of the inner finger, and on to the sweeping
curve of the thumb.

Now open your hand, spreading out your fingers. As you
44

Drawing Hands

move each finger up the knuckles loosen and dimple the
skin ; as you clench them once more together the knuckles
curve into clean sharp forms. Each finger is based in a
good strong knuckle, remember that. Young artists are too
fond of crowding knuckles together, and if hands grew as
their drawings indicate they would have a poor chance of
gripping an oar, a handle-bar, or even the useful knife and
fork.

Having noted that the biggest mass is composed of the
doubled fist, and that the angles of thumb and forefinger
bear away from each other, we see that the line of the wrist
forms yet another angle.

Of course it is quite probable that your hand may not
resemble mine, but the general principles hold good. My
thumb is large, my fingers are long ; yours probably will be
shorter and the thumb more slender.

Look at the sweeping line as it proceeds from the back of
the wrist to the knuckles, and notice the swelling curve of
the thumb beneath and the manner in which it bends back.
We will now give our attention to the forefinger. How
straight and determined it is, pointing and almost speaking
its command, how thick it is at the root, and how it tapers
to the tip !

We now begin to search for more details. We draw the
finger more carefully, marking the wrinkles on the upper
part, and the corresponding curves on the lower ; then we
notice the way in which the loose flesh folds in springy curves,
joining thumb to forefinger in a useful hinge.

We mark the clean sweep of the thumb and the wrinkles
on the back-curving knuckle, also the shape of the nail, a
square-cut, important-looking nail, curving on the outer edge
and following the curve of the thumb-tip. Then back we
trace the thumb and note the wrinkles on the largest swell-
ing curve ; back to the wrist we go until we meet its firm
tendons.

From thence we might jump to the knuckles once more,
noting the deeply cleft wrinkles in the bend. We should

Drawing for Beginners

then be ready to draw in the dark shadow of the doubled
fingers, the upper nail (like a portion of a tiny pink shell),
and the square shadowing of the thumbnail.

Before we leave the drawings of our own left hand there
are other poses to consider.

For instance, your own left hand holding a small object
such as a coin, a flower-stem, or a reel of cotton. The latter,
being a light object, you would hold lightly between your
first fmger and your thumb, supported by the second and
third fingers.

Sketch first the upright shape of the hand and wrist, then
the first finger and the knuckle from which it springs, the
upright thumb, and the angle of the reel of cotton.

Here, by the by, let me say once more that you need not
feel bound to pose your left hand in exactly this position.
If you should prefer another pose, with the palm more I
exposed (or less), by all means adopt yours in preference 1
to mine. These hints may then be used as a general ."
guide. My positions are chosen because they present simple
problems.

And now let us return to the hand with the reel of cotton.

Having roughly sketched the forefinger, the thumb, and
the general proportions of the wrist and hand, we should
then pay a little more attention to the hand itself, the
back of which lies like a flat upright line breaking into
small indications of the second or third knuckle. The first
knuckle is slightly indented, and the root of the first finger
descends in a firm swelling curve to the folded muscle of
the thumb.

The thumb presses inward against the reel, and, marking
the angle of its nail, we sketch the firm long line of the knuckle
down the swelling curve to the root of the thumb, behind
which we have the lower swelling curve of the palm.

The first finger and the shape of it must be carefully noted.
My fingers, though long, are plump, and yours may present
sharp . bone and knuckle. I trust that they may, for bony
substances are easier to draw. Their shape is clean and
46

Drawing Hands

definite, their angles more acute and therefore more quickly
noted.

We note here the tip of this first finger and the apex coming
at the front of the nail. Next we draw the folds of each
finger-joint.

From the second knuckle we can trace the second finger,
hidden behind the first finger, but seen in a tiny space
between the reel and first finger, and the tip of it obtrudes
on the far side of the reel.

The third finger rises from the third knuckle, and is seen
in the space between the first finger and thumb, and again
beyond the thumb, behind which we know it supports the
reel.

The little finger merely waves a graceful tip, like the clown
in the circus, doing nothing in particular. This hand, though
simple, can be carried to almost any length of study. Note
the shadows of the thumb, the shadows of the knuckles, of the
first finger-tip, and those cast by the reel. The reel itself,
being of black silky thread, is (in my study) the darkest tone
of all.

The left hand holding a fan suggests another variation —
this time with the palm broadside on, and the finger-tips
coming forward.

First note the pear shape of the pointed fingers, bent
fingers, and flattened palm, meeting at a slender wrist.

Observe the angle of the object that is held correctly,
because from that position the fingers curl.

The fan is a fairly stout object composed of thin slats folded
together, and so nicely adjusted that the touch of the tip of
a finger displaces them.

The thumb holds and supports the fan in a firm upright
position. The thumb rises from a long swelling base, flatly
on one side — despite the faint indication of the bones — and
in two long swelling curves on the others, meeting in a firmly
rounded tip.

Beyond, and curled round the fan, we have the first fi].;;er ;
then the second, third, and fourth fingers tightly grasping the

Drawing for Beginners

end of the fan. These we block in as one mass, marking the
angles of the outer joints, the inner joints, and the finger-tips ;
the palm flattens and bulges to the wrist.

Then we again revert to the thumb and the finer details,
the pointed finger and the shadows, the first, second, third,
and little finger (we have ^.Iready sketched this in mass and
therefore shall have no great difficulty with details), the
knuckles bending inward, and the tips of the fingers closely
holding the fan. Mark all the darkest shadows. Under the

Fig. 13. Thumbs Upright and Foreshortened

first finger is the curve of the thumb, and under the fan (the
lower part of the palm indented by the ring of the fan) the
sharp firm shadows between the fingers.

More poses for the left hand might include :

Left hand beckoning, or palm extended and back pre-
sented ; hand clenched ; hand lying flat on the table palm
downward, or palm uppermost. Both are rather difficult
studies.

Rest your elbow on the table, clench your fingers, and
extend your thumb. Draw only the thumb.

Turn your hand toward yourself with the palm uncovered
and draw your thumb — bent.

You should become well acquainted with all your various
fingers by drawing each one separately — and many times.

Suzanne Lenglen, the great tennis-player, said that it took
her six months to learn a certain stroke. It will take us
48

Drawing Hands

certainly longer to learn how to draw all the fingers of our
left hand.

Little children are very clever at painting and drawing
gloves. Sometimes I have pinned a shabby old leather and
fur gauntlet to a board, and the painting has been surpris-
ingly good. And yet had I suggested the drawing of a hand,
a wail of despair would have gone up. A glove is a step
toward the drawing of a hand.

Have you drawn a hand, gloved ?

If not, I advise a trial. Take for choice a glove of a firm
substance, leather instead of wool, and thick leather in prefer-
ence to thin ; if it has a gauntlet of fur, so much the better.

Ask some kind friend to put his gloved hand on the top of
a stick or an umbrella, and make a careful study of it. It
will be simpler than the hand unclothed. The palm will be
more of a mass, the seams will give the direction of the fingers,
the wrinkles of the leather will give — more or less — the base
of the thumb, the knuckles, and the wrist.

Having made a study of the gloved hand, ask your friend to
remove his glove and resume the position with the bare hand.

If you can make the two drawings on the same sheet of
paper you will find that your previous effort has helped you
considerably to draw the ungloved hand.

Tight gloves distort and contract the hands, loose gloves
vdisguise the shape. Do not let this worry you. Try to draw
what you see — as you see it.

Another time you might persuade some one to hold up a
hand, palm toward you and fingers together. (See No. I,
Fig. 16.)

Do not begin with sprawled fingers spreading apart, it is
bewildering for a start.

Block all the fingers together and draw an imaginary line
from the tip of the thumb to the fingers to check your pro-
portions. Close up your own thumb and note that it reaches
to the first joint of your forefinger. Thumbs, because of the
deceptive nature of a curve, are often deprived of strength,
length, and muscle. Note the large surfaces of muscle, the
D 49

Drawing/or Beginners

almost square shape of the palm. Once you have the larger
proportions of fingers and thumbs well fixed in your mind it
will not be difficult to observe each finger, each knuckle, each
finger-tip separately.

The rather listless fingers (No. II, Fig. 16) can be indicated
on the same lines ; the fingers, though they are separated, can

be first blocked in together.

When drawing a hand holding
a ball be sure that the hand does
hold the ball. I would emphasize
the point that often, very often,
young artists draw a hand holding
a ball, or a pen, or a hockey-stick,
and so absorbed do they become
in drawing the fingers that they
neglect the object the fingers are
clasping, with the result that it
reappears in a distorted form.

And the excuse offered gene-
rally is : "I had to draw it in
such and such a way or the fingers
would not have come right."
When drawing a hand grasping
Fig. 15. Deaw the Object that ^n object draw first the pen, or
IS HELD FIRST, THEN THE whatcvcr thc objcct may be, and
Fingers round it n . . i o t • . i i •

fit the fingers round it, rubbing out

later the part which is hidden. If the thing held is straight
or round, obviously it must be drawn straight or round.

Have you seen an X-ray photograph of a hand, or held
your fingers up to a bright light and seen through the film
of pink flesh the dim shape of the bones ? Muscles, tendons,
veins, flesh, and dimples attract our attention. The bones
we are inclined to neglect.

Indeed, it is curious how fond we are of looking for things
that matter not at all.

For instance, how often do we see a hand pleasantly but
feebly drawn ! We wonder vaguely what can be wrong. Ten
50

Drawing Hands

chances to one the artist has paid too much attention to minor
things. He has tried so hard to give the nails the right shape ;
but what attention has been paid to the knuckles, to the base of
the fingers, and firm shapes between each joint, to the joints
themselves, all of which are a great deal more important ?

The ring on the finger, the watch
on the wrist, is eagerly depicted, for
it is ' jolly interesting.' So it is.
But if the metal is beautifully and
intelligently drawn, and the finger,
or the wrist, looks feeble and patchy,
what then? And the wrist is often
neglected. It is the link between the
arm and the hand, as the ankle is
the link between the leg and the
foot, and both shapes are fascinating
studies for the artist.

We must try to ' get at ' the frame-
work. Once we have the bony struc-
ture in our minds we shall find the
outside shapes less baffling.

Not that I would advise you to

begin by drawing the skeleton.

c^ i J • c 1 Fig. 17. Bones of Hand

htart drawmg freely.

Only, when you feel yourself becoming confused, give a
thought to the bones ; they are a wholesome check. Seek
out shapes. Don't be satisfied with pretty curves and
dimples, cushioned palms and tallow-candle fingers. Move
the fingers to and fro. Twist and turn the wrist. Never be
afraid of losing a position. You will gain something of far
more value than that which you may lose.

The bones of the hand are small but fairly easy to under-
stand. They have no cup and ball or rotary movements like
those of shoulder and forearm ; neither are they shrouded in
huge muscles like those of the ribs and back. Moreover,
they are plainly seen in the hands of the very old, criss-
crossed with big blue veins.

CHAPTER V

Drawing Feet

IF we all walked about in sandals instead of boots and
shoes, the human foot would be much less difficult to
draw.

If centuries of cramping leather, of high heels and pointed
toes, had not spoilt the shape of modern feet, we should be
more interested in drawing the ' human foot divine.'

Artists often declare that a pretty foot is the rarest of all
rare things.

But all start in life fairly well equipped in that respect,
and therefore we may consider ourselves fortunate if we
have the opportunity of drawing Jack's bare foot or Baby's
queer little curling toes.

And this presents an idea. Feet — that is, bare feet — often
being impossible to ^procure as models, why should we not
begin by drawing shoes and boots ?

Baby's ' bootikin,' absurd little shape though it is, gives
a rough idea of the foot, as Baby's small fingerless glove
presents a rough impression of the shape of a hand.

There is plenty to observe in a shoe or a boot, and it is
rather a fascinating study if we choose one with a highly
polished surface. Then, again, a bedroom-slipper of quilted
satin and fur is a joy to paint.

Examine the bootikin. Do we not get a crude shape of a
foot ? Stuff it with paper and perch it on a table before you.
Make a sketch of it, and then sketch Baby's foot in the same
position, and on the same broad outline as the bootikin,
treating it first as two simple angles — the sloping angle of
the leg, and the forward thrust of the small plump foot. The
baby's ankle is so cushioned with fat that it is difficult to
53

Drawing Feet

discover the bone, but that we must try to find, because
from the ankle-bone we get the triangular shape of the heel
and the flat tread of the sole. The fold of fat above the ankle

marks the deepest part of the foot and the highest line of the
instep. This line descends steeply to the root of the toes,
and expands in the bold curves of the five toes.

Now borrow your mother's shoe. Place that before you
and on a level with your eye. (If you begin by trying to
draw the shoe very much beneath you, or, for the matter of

Drawing for Beginners

that, very much above you, you will have a more compli-
cated problem.)

Try first to draw it in a simple position — a side view.

At fi.rst sight one is apt to think a high-heeled shoe a rather
complicated shape, but if you try to analyse it as a rough
block, it is no more nor less than a wedge. The high heel
gives the greatest depth, the toe gives the narrowing point,
the tread of the foot — heel and sole of the shoe — a flat line.
Having marked this simple triangular shape we note the
large oval opening, the stumpy and rounded toe, the beautiful
' slick ' curve of the heel. Of course we know that no part
of the foot enters the high heel, which is merely compressed
leather or wood ; and we should, therefore, trace the foot
within the shoe, in our thoughts if not with our pencil.

Then perhaps we shall catch Jack in a specially charitable
frame of mind, ready to sit bare-footed.

Quick ! let us get pencil and paper, and plant Jack on a
stool with his foot resting on the floor, and to give more
action — and consequently more interest — to our study we
will raise his heel by propping it up on a fairly thick book.

Next we sit down on a low seat or cushion on the floor,
as near as possible to the level of Jack's foot.

Again we are all for simplicity. A profile of Jack's foot,
presenting an angle with the ankle and leg, would be an
interesting study.

Having roughly drawn the triangular shape of the bending
foot, we next proceed to note important facts. The mass of
the heel, the shape of the ankle, the broad fine sweeping line
of the instep (Jack has a particularly well-shaped instep),
and the ball of the foot — the springy cushion upon which the
tread of the foot presses.

Afterward observe the masses of light and shade, and see
how the light picks out the strong tendons about the ankle.
I find it helpful to shade as if I were chiselling out shapes
— a method that may not appeal to you. So long as you
shade intelligently, not beginning a shadow and leaving it
off without reason, but using the shadow to emphasize a
54

f-— ^"If^^*^

Fig. 19. Jack's Foot

Drawing Feet

shape, a swelling, a curve, a bone, or a tendon, that is all
I ask.

Another time we might try a ' full-face ' or three-quarter
view of a foot. And as this presents us with the problem of
foreshortening, let me advise you to begin by drawing the
foot in shoe and stocking ; afterward draw the foot in the
same position without the shoe and stocking, for the very
same reason that we first drew the hand gloved, and later
ungloved. The covering simplifies matters. Instead of the
angle of the toes and toe-nails we have the broad sweep of
leather covering it all in a three-cornered form.

You may prefer to draw the foot with the heel on the
ground. I have chosen to represent the heel lifted. For
one reason it gives action and life to the position, and for
another presents a more acute and more interesting angle.

We have the leg representing one angle, and the foot yet
another angle, and the apex of this angle lies in the ankle,
which we know to be the end of two bones. The ankles are
the ends of the leg-bones, the wrists are the ends of the
arm-bones.

When we are very small we usually draw the feet as two
little spoon-shaped objects, something like a couple of feeble
golf-clubs, which is not so very wrong in effect.

Therefore, when we draw a foot, no matter what the
position may be, the two simple angles of foot and leg are
most important. Once they are settled we can devote our-
selves to noting the tread of the foot and the heel, the curve
under the foot, and the curve of the toes.

Margery has not a very big ankle ; the outside bone is
higher and clearly defined ; the inner one is barely seen.
Partly by observing the folds of the stocking, and partly
by deduction (for we know the ankle-bones are opposite each
other), and also because of a shallow depression, we mark the
position of the bones. That, you see, is a valuable fact.
Ankle-bones settled, we next mark the curve of the heel,
which is slightly exaggerated by the thickness of leather ;
then we note the curve of the foot as it treads on the ground,

Drawing for Beginners

and compare the two sides of the foot, one a long sweeping
line, the other shorter (shorter because of the fullness of
the rising instep), meeting at the toe with an abrupt and
slightly indenting curve.

The sharp shadow under the toe lifts the foot from the
ground, and a shadow defines the top of the instep. The
curve of the strap of the shoe provides another shadow, and
also emphasizes the depth of the foot from instep to arch.
Margery's stocking, being of lighter material than the shoe,
adds to the variety of the surface of our drawing. As the
folds in a stocking indicate the position of the ankle, so will
the bend of the leather in a boot or shoe mark the tread of
the foot and the bending joints of the toes.

A highly polished leather is easier to draw than a soft dull
glace or suede, for it accentuates light and shade. The bright
light on the toe, the half-moon of light on the side of the
foot, the dull disc of light that indicates the ankle, are of
great value ; they show the position of the bones. Keep
these bright ; do not dim their surfaces.

Having now drawn Margery's foot in shoe and stocking,
perhaps we shall persuade Margery to pose in the same
position without her shoes and stockings, as if she were on
her way to paddle in the sea.

Now you see the bones more easily, and having marked
the two large and simple angles of leg and foot, as in the
previous drawing, we continue with the rest of the foot. The
heel looks a trifle smaller ; the toes, being unhampered with
leather, spread, and the big toe asserts itself. Block first the
toes as a large shape, noting their tips and roots, and working
from the tendons (seen between the ankles) and the arching
muscles of the upper part of the instep, and then divide and
sketch the toes and their various angles.

The drawing of the foot clothed has, I am sure, helped you
with the drawing of the naked foot.

The sandal worn by the Romans, with its half-covering of
the toes, and its straps and ribbons across the instep, and
its thick sole — and one can roughly contrive a sandal with
56

Fig. 20. Margery's Foot

Drawing Feet

the monkeys, the tree-
as we use our thumbs,

cardboard and ribbons at home — makes a most interesting
subject to draw.

Sandals, by the interweaving of their straps, draw our
attention to the variety of shapes of the toes, which we too
often overlook. The big toe is an important member of the
foot ; indeed, of the whole body. When the foot is raised
it is the big toe that spreads and separates from the other
toes, and helps to balance the foot. The big toe is as char-
acteristic as the thumb. (Indeed,
climbing animals, use the big toe
to grasp and hold the
branches.) It is usually
square-tipped, thick, and
muscular. The next toe
is slender and long, the
second and third toes
graduate, and the little
toe is curved or doubled
up, and is almost more
negligible in size and
appearance than the
little finger.

It is interesting to learn that by the use of the feet and
the manipulation of the toes, artists, or, at all events, crafts-
men, have been helped in their work. A famous craftsman
of Cairo, who works in wood and produces beautiful lattices
for windows and doorways, uses his left foot as a third hand ;
because of his skill in the use of this foot he is known to the
city as ' the three-handed man.'

When the foot is seen from the back the heel is naturally
the most prominent feature. Also the ankles are more easily
observed.

Having marked the angles of the leg and foot, we should
next notice the straight tendon that runs down between the
ankles and spreads into the firm swelling apex of the heel.
On either side of the foot the ankles are clearly seen. Note
the shapes well, and note also the height of the upper part

Fig. 21. The Sandalled Foot

Drawing for Beginners

of the foot (this is always the widest section), and its sharp
descent to the toes. Seen from the rear these toes present
a bhmted and rather flattened curve. Trace the flat under-
surface of the foot, the tread and balance first, afterward the
curves of the heel, and the space between the instep and the
ground, remembering, always, the foot within the shoe.

The sole of the foot is a flattened surface on the outside
edge. This you can see for yourself in the two sketches
which show both the inside and the outside of the foot.
Moreover, if you take off your shoe, you can pass your finger
under the inner side of the foot, but on the outer edge there
is no space at all.

Walking, kicking, dancing, stamping, swimming — here we
have an immense variety of poses. Dancing, the foot rises at
a steep angle, the heel clear of the ground, the ball of the foot
and the toes resting lightly. (I do not refer to ballet-dancing,
which is more or less of a gymnastic feat ; the shoes are heavily
padded at the toes, and on these pads the ballet-girl rests.)

Stamping, the foot comes down with an all-over flat action,
heel and toe held level. Kicking, the foot thrusts out, toes
upraised. The kicking position shows us the sole of the foot,
and the sole is a curious shape — one that we should not
neglect. Should we draw one of our brothers sitting by the
fire leaning back in a chair, it is highly probable that he will
cross his legs and put up his feet to warm. Shorn of heel and
thick leather soles, the sole of a foot is a flat elongated shape.
The human foot has the padded soft flesh beneath the tread,
with wrinkles on the inner side, and a small firm smooth heel,
something like the outline of an elongated pear.

The shape of the modern shoe worn by the small child gives
us, as it claims to do, the natural shape of the sole.

Turn it over and observe it well.

The general shape of the five toes resembles the general
shape of the four fingers. When you doff your shoe and
stocking look at your toes. Then put up your hand and
observe the back and tips of the fingers. Fan-shaped — are
they not ? So are your toes.
58

Fig. 22. Back and Side View of Feet

Drawing Feet

There is as much character in the foot as in the hand. The
tall, slim, long-limbed person has invariably a long slim hand,
and a slim and narrow foot. The plump short girl or boy-
has the plump hand and foot. The long-fingered hand usually
goes with the long thin toes.

Fashion inflicts queer shapes on the foot. At one time it
insists that all our shoes shall be narrow and peaked, another
time squat and round-toed ; then heels must be worn like
stilts, or shaved down to the thinnest substance.

In China we all know what a fetish was once made of the

Fig. 23. The Inside and Outside of a Foot

tiny foot. When swaddled and compressed, the poor little
foot has no chance at all. And there was a time in English
history when the toes of the shoes were so long that they had
to be buckled back to the knees.

All of which indicates the absolute necessity of knowing the
shape of the foot. Fashion may deceive the many, but the
artist must know that it only tries to disguise the true form.

If we want to see the foot unspoiled then we must go to
the countries where fashion and manners have not affected
it, where generation after generation has walked the earth on
the bare foot, or with only the slight protection of a sandalled
sole. Then we see how finely it supports the body, what a
thing of strength and beauty it can be ! — firm heel, arched
instep, springing muscles of the sole imprinting the ground
with its firm tread I

CHAPTER VI

Drawing Head^ Face^ Features^
and Hair

I REMEMBER, years ago, poring over an old-fashioned
drawing-book which contained — among many other things
— diagrams that reduced head, face, and features to the
very simplest of problems.

The author began by comparing the head to an oval or
egg-shaped substance.

Full face presented a simple oval.

Sideways (or profile) presented a deeper oval, with the
forepart flatter than the back, which thickened a little at
the base.

On this egg-shaped form were traced curving lines, follow-
ing, of course, the curves of the surface, one central line, and
three transverse lines. The central line marked the centre
of the brow, the angle and tip of the nose, and ran through
the upper and lower lips to the point of the chin.

The cross, or transverse, lines marked the angle of the
brow above the eyes, then the angle of the nostrils, and lastly
the angle of the mouth.

When the head tilted and sank forward the lines of the face
curved downward.

When the head was thrown up and backward the lines of
the features curved in a like manner.

Seen in profile (or sideways) the line of the brow, carried to
the back of the head with the line of the nostril, gave the
position of the ear.

This is a valuable little key to the quick placing of the
features. In a word, it helps with the perspective of features.
60

Head^ Face^ Features^ Hair

The unpractised artist is very prone to devote too much
space to the face and too little to the head.

Fig. 24. The Head and Face

We all know that babies have abnormally large heads •
that children's heads are large in comparison with their

Drawing for Beginners

bodies ; that only the adult's head and body balance in nice

proportion — that is, the head is neither too large nor too

small for the body.

But the face never occupies the entire space of the head, as

young artists often seem to imagine that it does.

Look at the size of the crown of the head, at the back and

the sides thereof, and do not spread the forehead right up to

the crest of the head.

Note also the beautiful balance of the head on the neck,

the neck on the shoulders.

The indenting curve at the base of the skull is not level

with the jaw — but see ! — it is a little

below the level of the ear and on a line

with the nostril.

The neck is full of interesting drawing.

There is the full curve of the throat,

and the shorter and stronger

l3 ^ S <2 ^ curve from the base of the back

^ ^ of the skull to the nape of the

neck and the spine. The large

bones of the vertebrae, which
Fig. 25. The Head and Neck ^g ^^^ fg^j ^j^j^ ^j^^ t^p^ ^f

our fingers, resemble, as the French word chainon has it, the
links of a chain.

Two large muscles (mastoid) often attract our attention
when the head is twisted aside. Extending from behind the
ear to the forepart of the collar-bone, they are always more
strongly developed in a boy than in a girl, and in a man than
in a woman. These you can feel at the root of the neck and
the forepart of the throat by twisting your head right and
left ; and they form a cup-like depression when your head is
straight.

The neck, you will notice, is so strengthened with muscle
and bone that it rises like a small pillar from a very solid
base.

A girl's neck is slender, a boy's equally thin, but more
muscular. A woman's neck is full of entrancing curves ; a
62

Head^ Face^ Features^ Hair

man's neck very strong, very muscular, and consequently
rather thick.

As with all other parts of the human body, necks exist in
every variety — short necks, long necks, thick, thin, muscular,
strong, feeble, and fat ; but, and the fact is worth noting, the
base of the neck where it joins the body is always its thickest
part.

With this slight introduction to the general proportion and
shape of the head, we can next turn our attention to the face
and the features.

One hears many curious remarks from young artists ; for
instance : "I simply love drawing people, but I can never
draw a face." This is by no means an uncommon experience.
Another equally frank statement is often heard : " Faces !
'Rather ! They are simply topping ! But / can't draw hands
and things ! "

And there we are !

A curious world it would be if ygung artists were confronted
with embodiments of their own drawings ! Imagine the shock
of meeting a gentleman in plus fours with no face but a turnip-
like smudge, or a lovely languishing lady with exquisite
shingled head and nothing more substantial than a few slight
lines indicating a body — and those quite wrong !

Believe me, it does not do to run away with such ideas.
We may say things so often that in time they seem to weave
a spell.

A young and most promising artist-friend of mine drew
faces admirably, and refused to draw anything else. She
would not draw a hand or a foot. And in time it really
seemed as if she could not — which of course was absurd.
Anyhow, to this day she draws exquisite faces, and the rest
of her drawings would shame the veriest beginner. She is
an artist — spoilt.

If we take our subjects one by one, and make our progress
step by step, we may be slow, but in due time we shall ' arrive.'

And as an excellent aid to our own home studies let us
provide ourselves with a hand-glass or small mirror. This

Drawing for Beginners

is an invaluable help, indeed, a necessity, for the studying
and drawing of our own features.

And at the outset I would utter a word of warning about
the drawing of a face.

It is surprising that young artists often draw the eyes and
mouth as if they were mere patterns stuck on the face, a
method that is evidently copied from fashion and poster
artists, who are very fond of this effective but mask-like effect.
The eyes in their pictures are heavily outlined, the lips are
thickly painted with purple crimson tints. It is a wrong
point of view, and a very harmful one, as you will soon
discover.

Look at the eye, your eye, anyone's eye. What a lumi-
nous, expressive feature it is, composed of most subtle and
exquisite parts !

Look at the iris, the ring of colour, the velvety depths of
the pupil, the shining white surface of the ' sclerotic tissue '
surrounding the eyeball, and the soft pink inner corners.
Remember the ball of the eye is a large object covered by
lids which reveal only part of the whole. Look at the curve
of the lid and its graceful fringe.

But lashes, though dark and sweeping, are not as important
as pupil and lid. Do not draw the lower lid in a thick hard
outline. You will produce at once a mask, not a face. If,
for theatrical purposes, you rub a stick of darkening stuff
beneath your eyes, you then see your eye forced into a slit-
like shape, but only then. The eye is the most expressive
feature. Laugh, and your eye must laugh. I have seen
people smile with their lips when the eyes were not smiling,
and what a futile smile it was !

To picture the lips as two thick slabs of colour is just as
great a crime.

Your mouth may be full and dimpled, it may be small and
thin, it may be wide and of no very definite shape. But it
is not, it can never be, a moulded pattern stuck like a postage-
stamp on your face.

Draw down your mouth, pout, smile, laugh — and note the
64

Head^ Face^ Features^ Hair

teeth revealed. " Roses filled with snow," sang the Eliza-
bethan poet of his lady's pretty lips.

Let us take up the hand-glass in our left hand and a pencil
in our right, and examine our features.

An eye is an oblong shape set in an oval cavity. We see
it in primitive drawings as a round black dot to which is
added a pointed lozenge-shaped frame.

The iris, being the coloured part of the eye, will probably
first attract our attention. That, we notice, is a circular
shape, covered above and below by the upper lid and the
lower lid. Draw the circular shape boldly. We will assume
that the upper lid is firmly and clearly seen, not hidden
by the brow. Having observed it closely and recorded our
impressions we pass to the lower lid, which should be
drawn lightly, for it is a tender delicate form.

Next we examine the inner corner of the eye (nearest the
nose), where are the soft pink tear-ducts, which we touch in
lightly with the pencil.

The outer corner of the eye forms a sharper angle, with
the upper lid curving downward to meet the flesh of the
lower lid and its corresponding upward curve.

Having sketched the shape of the eye as a whole, we might
next return for a closer observation of the iris.

Is there anything in nature more lovely than the iris of
the human eye ? The liquid tint of blue, grey, or brown is
like the luminous colouring of a strange flower. And it is
colour. Therefore, it is a shade deeper, many shades deeper,
than the opaque whiteness of the eyeball. Then shade it
with your pencil.

Within the iris we have yet another shape, the little black
pupil of the eye through which the light passes. This is of
velvety richness, but before shading carefully note the shape
of the bright light on the pupil, and ' leave ' this light, working
the shadow round it.

Suppose we ignore this light, and shade it in with the
pupil ; at once the eye looks lifeless.

Having done all this, we might add a few of the long lashes
E 65

Drawing for Beginners

— not all. We should no more draw every leaf on a tree
than draw every lash of the eye. We choose the most
important.

Finally, we take a general survey, deepen shadows, add a
few details, and then notice that the eyebrows have been
neglected.

We should compare the eyebrows with the shape of the eye.

The hairs of the eyebrow are usually thicker at the base
— that is, nearest the nose — than at the outer edge. They
begin full and thick and incline from the nose outward,
framing the eye in a wide curve.

Eyebrows there are of every variety. You may see every
day eyebrows thick, thin, bushy, soft, fine, and coarse ;
eyebrows dark, and eyebrows so fair that they can hardly
be detected except in a very bright light ; eyebrows traced
as delicately as if they were made of a single hair, and shaggy,
overhanging eyebrows from under which the eyes gleam like
little pools. Note the eyebrows and draw them carefully.

It would seem foolish, having made a close study of one
eye, not to draw both eyes with equal care.

We might this time choose to draw our eyes from another
angle. And as we are drawing a pair of eyes, we have twice
as much to bear in mind. First, we should roughly trace
the position of the two eyes. Sketch the position of the brow,
and the angle of the two eyes, and the size of the eye and
eyelids.

It is useful to remember as a general rule that the space
between two eyes is the length of an eye. Then, having
sketched the position, general angle, shape of eye and eye-
socket, it would be wise to note the position of the iris and
pupil.

These we know must agree. Unless we are very careful
to sketch the iris of both eyes looking in the same direction,
we shall certainly give our drawing a most horrible squint.

If the iris lies in the outer corner of the near eye, it must
lie in the inner corner of the far eye. (If you wish to sketch
a cross-eyed person, then you place both irises near the nose.)
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Head^ Face^ Features^ Hair

Lightly trace the iris and the pupil, and the shape and posi-
tion of the light on the pupil.

Next we note the shape of the upper lid of the near eye
(and its long curve), the deepest and the narrowest part ;
the shape of the inner and blunt end of the eye, the sharper
curved angle of the outer part of the eye. We look at the
far eye, and this curves slightly away from us on the curve
of the cheek. The eyeball nears the blunt end, and exposes
a large space of white.

Lid, pupil, iris, eyelash, eyebrow, all follow in their turn ;
add such shadows as you wish, and you must certainly not
forget the shadow of the nose and the forehead. The eye
lies in a socket. In old people this is very noticeable. The
shadow of the brow falls on the socket and gives a very sharp
and bold outline for drawing.

Drawing eyes from the mirror has certain limitations, so
let us ask some one to ' sit ' for us with an eye in profile.

Bear in mind an important point. The eyeball is covered
by the lid. Then obviously the lid must project beyond the
eyeball. Young artists often draw the eyelid and the eyeball
as if they are exactly on the same level. But anything that
covers must be larger than the object covered.

You would not, for instance, draw a tea-cosy smaller, or
even the same size as a teapot, for you know very well it
would not cover the pot. You would not draw a hat exactly
the same size as the bare skull. It must be larger. Then
why draw an eyelid (^hat covers the eyeball) the same size as
the eye ?

Also you must allow for the thickness of the lid. If you
turn your head upward, and look down at your reflection in
the glass, the thickness of the lid will be very apparent. You
will notice the inner edge resting against the eyeball, and the
outer edge fringed with the lashes. This can be seen even
more plainly if you open your eyes wide, as if in astonishment
or surprise.

The open lid is not so frequently seen as the small lid and
sunken eye, which fact worries the unpractised artist not a

Drawing for Beginners

little. The eyelid of course is there, but the brow swells
forward and conceals part of the lid.

When you draw eyes of this description sketch the ball of
the eye, and the lid, and then sketch the brow.

Eyes, of course, there are in infinite variety. Some are
heavily lidded, some are large and round, some are lashed
with long silken hair. There are the small ' piggy ' or half-
closed eyes, the eyes that pierce with sharp keen glances.
There are the dreamy eyes, the laughing, twinkling eyes, and
the sharp, suspicious eyes.

There is nothing easy about the drawing of an eye. It
will always demand the closest care and attention.

Even when we are drawing the eye of a sleeping person,
when the lids cover the eyeball, there is the exquisite meet-
ing of the lids, the mingling of the lashes, and the shadows
cast by the lashes on the cheek. We must not forget, by
the way, to indicate the roundness of the eyeball beneath
the lids.

A nose presents more difficulties to the young student than
any other feature ; more especially the drawing of a nose
in full view — when we see as much of the left nostril as the
right. And the reason of this difficulty is one of perspective.
We are confronted with something which fills our mind with
perplexity, something of which we shall often hear, namely,
' foreshortening.'

Yet a nose is not such a very alarming shape. Certainly
not as difficult to draw as a hand pointing straight out of
the picture. It is merely two small cavities placed at an
equal distance from each other, winged in flesh and protected
by a round tip and bridged to the face by bone and gristle.

When you draw the nose full face draw the shadow of the
bridge, and the shadow under the tip of the nose, and the
shadow beneath the nose, boldly. Think, if you will, of the
keel of a ship, of the corner of a box. Don't be fearful of
making the nose ugly. Rather a big, well-shaped nose than
one — as we see so often in our drawings — timid, feeble, and
of little account.
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Head^ Face^ Features^ Hair

Your nose will in all probability be smaller than the first
example selected. It is a bold nose. It has a firm bridge,
a rounded and full tip, curved nostrils.

Examine your own nose in a glass, and try to sketch it as
I have indicated in the first example. Begin by drawing an
upright line, then trace down each side of this line the bridge
of the nose, with the shadows — I hope you are sitting with
the light coming from one side — cast by it. Notice the round
tip, and on each side the two little curved nostrils, and round
each nostril the wing of flesh. These will probably be only
slightly defined, for these lines deepen with age. Beneath
the tip of the nose a shadow will fall, and also on the very
tip will be a fainter but decided little shadow. The shape
of this shadow on the tip of your nose is very important.

If your nose is slightly tip-tilted, then this shadow will be
sharp and incline in a three-cornered shape upward.

If your nose is Roman, then this shadow will dip down in
a firm half-moon shape.

Now incline your head away at a slight angle, and observe
your nose.

Again you will notice the long straight line of the bridge,
and the firm tip, and from the tip you get the decided tri-
angular shape of the under part of the nose, with the two
nostrils inclining toward the centre. The near nostril is more
clearly seen than the far nostril. It is round and full and
narrows toward the tip, and the wing of it curves in a very
decided line.

If you close your mouth and draw in a deep breath through
your nose you will notice that your nostrils will quiver and
expand, and if you draw your upper lip down over your
teeth, your nostrils will elongate. These observations help
us to understand the muscles and movement of the nose.

The nostril of the far side is slightly hidden by the point
of the nose, and presents a three-cornered form, the nostril
inclining toward the tip, the wing of the nostril correspond-
ingly shaped.

Again we notice the shadows on the tip of the nose, the

Drawing for Beginners

shadow on the bridge, the shadow of the indented lip where
it falls in a dimple above the upper lip.

The line that extends from the nostril to the corner of the
lip may also attract your notice ; this is the curve which
deepens when we are moved to expressions of mirth or grief.

Throw up your head.

Your nose rises boldly like a small peak on your face, the
nostrils wide at the base, narrow to a point ; the wing of each
enclosed nostril is also long and narrow.

Persuade your sister to bend her head downward.

The nose rises from the broad brow pointing downward and
outward, hiding the upper lip and possibly part of the mouth
and chin. In this position we get the tip of the nose very
well defined. If our model be a child, the width of the
delicate nostrils is very apparent.

The nose seen in profile, with the head flung aside, is sharply
defined ; the bridge slender, end slightly tilted, nostril curved,
and the wing of the nostril well marked.

Now, we know that a nose has two sides, two nostrils ;
we know also that there is another eye, another eyebrow
on the far side of the face. We must never draw a profile
as if it were a flat surface (as we are sometimes inclined to do),
but suggest by the curve of the eyebrow, the eye, nose, and
mouth, the side of the face that we are not drawing.

For the head itself is a ball-shaped object, as we must
never in any circumstances forget.

We should take every opportunity of studying noses in
reproductions of pictures. The Old Masters never scamped
difficult problems of drawing ; and you may also gain a
certain amount of knowledge by examining the photographs
in the daily papers. Once embarked on this fascinating
study of features, you will glean helpful ideas from all sorts
of unexpected sources.

Always try to simplify your objects ; and accept a wrinkle
from the Old Masters, who usually posed their models in
half-lights — namely, with the light coming from one side
only.
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Head^ Face^ Features^ Hair

A nose seen between two lights is more difficult to draw
than a nose seen in one light — and that from above.

And there is such an infinite variety of noses ! You can
amuse yourself by noticing the different characteristics : snub,
aquiline, peaky, pointed, inquisitive. Artists declare that a
pretty nose is seldom seen, but a pretty mouth, I think, is
almost as rare.

Only once do I remember to have seen the ideal mouth, the
Cupid's bow, with the pouting, rather full under lip, and the
upper lip rising into two small dimpled curves. But how
many times do we see long lips — the mouth that shuts with
a thin, ugly, straight line, the loosely drawn under lip, the
pursed-up, discontented mouth ?

Hold up your glass and study your own mouth.

The mouth is sometimes depicted as a mere slit in the face ;
curved upward it represents mirth, curved downward grief or
distress.

Try first sketching your lips closed. Draw a single line
across your paper as a guide, and finding the thickest part of
the lips in the middle, sketch the flattened pyramid shape of
the upper lip and the lower lip with one long curve.

Next you will notice that the upper lip is composed of
two slightly indented curves. The under lip probably curves
slightly in the centre.

Next we look for the shadows. The upper lip, protruding
slightly, casts a shadow, as does the lower lip in a lesser degree.
Observe wrinkles or folds, the shape of the corners, and the
soft indication above the upper lip and beneath the nose.

Then, for a second example, we might smile at our own
reflection and draw the parted lips, revealing the teeth within.
Here we have the curved line. Draw the upper lip and lower
lip first, and then the arc of teeth within, remembering that
the lips hide the greater part, and, therefore, not making these
few teeth too many, too big, or too prominent.

The corners of the lips will, no doubt, throw a deep shadow,
and the lips curving round the teeth will also be thrown into
shadow ; shadows there will be on, and under, the lip. The

Drawing for Beginners

curve of the cheek will help to accentuate the smile, and the
groove running downward from the nose to the mouth expands
over the teeth.

When drawing the mouth in profile we must of necessity
ask some kind person to pose.

Try first drawing the mouth closed, then open.

Closed, the mouth is a curious little triangle. We at once
notice that the upper lip extends slightly beyond the under
lip ; we notice, too, the depth of the upper lip and the more
sharply decided line as compared with the rounded under lip.
We must look for shadows, and mark the opening of the
mouth, and anything that will help to explain the corners of
the mouth, for these are exceedingly expressive, and change
with baffling quickness.

Now look in your glass once more.

Throw up your head, and your mouth follows the curve of
your face, forming a semicircle. You see under the under
lip, do you not ? And the upper lip rises in a very distinct
and acute curve.

Now ask your friend to bend the head downward.

Do we not get the position reversed ? The curve of the
lips is now thrown down, the centre points downward, the
corners curl upward.

And this we offer as a really sound piece of advice. When
you wish to study faces do not draw a stolidly staring,
bored countenance, but ask the friend who is ' sitting '
to scowl, or smile, to look pleased, or disgusted. It is in-
finitely easier to study features in motion than when set firm
as if moulded in wax.

Our little friends Mr Sad and Mr Glad, whom we are so
fond of tracing on the margin of our books, have a good deal
to commend their honest countenances. They have the lines
of laughing and crying faces crudely expressed. With chin
upraised and eyes twinkling, cheeks pushed up in dimpling
curves, and nostrils and lips curled upward — behold Mr Glad 1

And, when we cry, do not our lips curve down in unutter-
able woe, dragging our cheeks in straight lines from our
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Head^ Face^ Features^ Hair

nostrils, puckering our eyes into sad half-moons — like Mr Sad
in very truth ?

While you are studying the features, choose some interest-
ing subject to enliven model and artist alike. Though you
may not complete your original intention, make a beginning
on, say, the subject of a small child sniffing up a slightly dis-
agreeable scent from a small bottle.
Such a conception may provoke such
hilarious amusement that your drawing
will bubble with laughter.

Art students often begin their studies
by painting the head of an old man or
old woman. And the reason is that it
is far easier to draw age than youth,
for the features become more marked
with age and therefore more distinct.
Compare, for instance, the nose of the
old man and the nose of the infant;
the tiny button of a baby's nose, as
against the big bold bridge, the heavily
marked nostril. As the saying goes,
one can hardly ' miss ' the drawing of
an old man's nose.

Compare the mouth of a young girl,
full and pouting, parted over the
white teeth, and the old man's, grim,
straight, and lined ; and the wide clear
gaze of the boy with the heavily lidded eye of age. Even the
ear of the old is loose in shape and wrinkled about the lobe.

Which brings us to those very important organs — the ears.
There is something peculiarly interesting in the drawing of
an ear. There is the soft texture, the delicacy of its curves,
and the contrasting shapes of the large upper part and the
slender lobe. It is a feature of which the amateur too often
falls foul. For some inexplicable reason the ear in a weak
drawing is often its worst feature. Invariably it is given a
queer little waist at the central part.

Fig. 29. Me Glad and
Me Sad

Drawing for Beginners

Where several young artists are gathered together they
can easily draw each other's ears in turn. For, with all the
goodwill in the world, we cannot study this feature alone and
with a hand-glass.

The ear is an oblong, the upper part of which is wide, while
the lower part contracts toward the lobe. It bears a slight
resemblance to a huge interrogation mark. The ear is com-
posed of so many exquisite curves that it presents a somewhat
baffling subject to the pencil of timid young artists.

Look at the ear as one mass and do not at first trouble
yourselves with its manifold hollows and curves. Sketch
very lightly the oblong shape. By slicing the corners of the
upper part, and carving a considerable portion from the
lower part, you have the angles of the ear.

Then look at the large and beautiful curve of the outer
rim and the flattened upper space which creeps from behind
the fold nearest the cheek and swells into a smooth surface
dipping down toward the lobe ; the orifice itself is a dark and
mysterious little cavern tucked beneath the coral-pink pro-
jections nearest the cheek.

Having marked and sketched the biggest shapes, we should
turn our attention to the folds. The ears of young people
are usually of a simple pattern. In the example given, there
is only one large fold curving round the upper rim. There is
also the deep curve or dimple of the inner part, and this we
can shade, following the shape with our pencil and exaggerat-
ing rather than losing the indentations ; within the outer rim
we have a deeper shadow, while the orifice gives us our darkest
tone. We might also suggest the shadows behind and under
the ear.

The ear that you are trying to sketch may not resemble the
ear in this example, but of course it is ' up to you ' to draw
yours as faithfully as possible. The ear you are sketching
may be wider, it may have a more flattened appearance, the
lobe may not be pointed.

It is difficult to suggest any rules to help in the drawing of
an ear. The main thing to bear in mind is the use of the ear.
74

Fig. 30. Ears

Head^ Face^ Features^ Hair

As an organ of hearing it rarely lies as flat against the head as
some young artists depict it.

Seen from the front, it lies apparently very close to the
scalp, but from the back the ear presents a very different
appearance. When it is the ear of a small boy with his hair
cropped smooth, it will often project in a very singular fashion.

The ear rises from the head, a flat trumpet-shaped opening
to catch sounds. The projecting cup extends and rolls over
in a large fold or curve, hiding the upper part from view, and
revealing only a tiny portion of the lobe. The position of the
ear, the way in which it is moulded on the rounded receding
curve of the skull and the cheek, and just above the juncture
of the jaw, can be plainly seen. Open and shut the mouth
and feel the motion with your finger-tip under the lobe of the
ear.

Seen from the front, and almost full view, we have an
elongated shape. The upper part, though flattened and
receding with the receding side of the head, still presents
the fullest curve, and the lobe is as a drooping or pendent
shape.

Mark the large folds first, and then the inner curves, and
the shadows beneath and within the ear. One fold tucks
behind the other fold, resembling, so it often seems, the petals
of a pink rose.

Present these folds simply ; mark the shadows crisply —
that is, with quick, bright touches of the pencil. In the fore-
shortened position a man's cheek swelling forward will hide a
portion of the ear with whiskers and with beard.

If you should happen to be one of a group of young artists
who have taken the opportunity of alternately sketching and
sitting, you will find that it is helpful, interesting, and perhaps
surprising, to lay your sketches side by side at the end of a
sitting and compare the various shapes of the various ears.

Some ears lie flat on the head, others stick out. Some ears
have long lobes ; in others the lobe is small and pointed ;
others again have no lobe at all. There is little chance of
being bored with a too-uniform pattern.

Drawing for Beginners

Hair is a fascinating theme for the artist, whether it be the
bobbed and shingled hair of the modern girl, the floating locks
of the mermaid, the small boy's cropped poll, or the silvery
ringlets of old age.

Hair is a strangely deceptive substance. It expresses,
though it veils, the form from which it springs. It may lie
thick as a cloak, or as lightly as the fluff of a feather ; it can
be coiled as massively as gleaming metal, or crimped with
strange outstanding puffs and bushes ; it may be clipped
short as a beard or trained in wisps of whiskers. There is
no end to the tricks played by (and upon) the hairs of our
head.

Small wonder that we find hair a difficult, baffling subject !

Says Mary plaintively :

" My hair " — she is of course speaking of a drawing — " looks
like a wig."

" And mine like a doormat," adds Madge, even more
plaintively.

The reason why the hair in our drawings resembles wigs
and doormats is that when drawing the substance of the hair
itself we forget the shape beneath the hair. Also, that hair
has very peculiar qualities of its own. Every coil, every
cluster of curls, every curl, has its own shape, its own light
and shade. It has a beginning and an ending. Hair doesn't
rise stiff and stark from the face and head like a new brush,
but in soft down, in short, silky hairs merging into long locks.
False hair and false beards look false because they do not
grow gradually as hair grows from the skin.

Note the way in which the hair springs from the scalp, the
thickness of the roots, the silky tendrils of the temples, the
soft down at the nape of the neck. When we are young our
hair springs thick and long. When we approach old age the
hairs thin, not suddenly, but gradually. And the reason
that shingled hair has an artificial appearance when seen
from the back lies in the fact that the barbers shave the
smooth fine hairs on the nape of the neck.

Look at Rosemary's little curls. The hair clasps the little
76

Head^ Face^ Features^ Hair

head with the daintiest web of silk. Note the curve of each
curl, the wave, the kink, and the final upward fluffy thrust.
Diana's bobbed hair, though stiff and prim, has strong light
and shadows. If we shade it as one mass, it will naturally
look mat-like. But Diana's dark hair covers the shape of
the crown, and the light strikes on the curve of the head and
reveals its shape.

Take a single lock of hair, and mark its shape as if it were
a single object, instead of a mass of fine hairs falling together.
Draw first the general shape. Trailing as it does, without
touching or clinging to the shoulder, we observe its curious
snake-like appearance. Then lightly draw that shape.

Next we notice a twist in the lock. Draw the twist ;
within the twist a shadow is cast by the thick over-hanging
mass ; draw that shadow. Another shadow we observe
beneath the lower curve ; indicate that also, likewise the
several broad shadows which will probably appear above the
thickest mass. That being done, we sit back and look at
our drawing critically. Too solid, we say, and not sufficiently
hairy.

Hair, unless very wet or thickly saturated with oil, has a
wayward disposition.

Within the lock you will probably note a parting of several
hairs, extending from the upper part to the lower kink or
curl. Then note some of these separate hairs, and indicate
with the lightest possible touch.

Diana's bobbed hair, stiff and prim, has valuable lights and
shadows.

First sketch the shape of Diana's head, next look for the
parting from which the dark masses of hair arise and fall
about the ears, brow, and neck. Draw the line of the parting,
the dividing-line of the hair.

On one side you will notice a very sharp little shadow
defining the crown of the head ; sketch this lightly. From
the crown the hair springs and catches the light. Cropped
firm and square, the shadows beneath the lower edges must
of necessity be also firm and angular. Across the light spaces

Drawing for Beginners

you will probably detect hairs. Draw some of these hairs.
They will ' break ' the light and give a hairy appearance to
what might otherwise appear rather like metal or woven silk.

Hair that is frizzy, and grows golliwog-fashion from the
scalp, must be drawn with the lightest touch. Hair smooth
and silken, and parted and worn close to the head, can be
drawn with more firmness. But there is no general rule to
be followed with safety. Hair is so diverse in tint and texture
that only by constant practice can we ' make good ' with our
pencils.

When drawing hair we should keep a light but not a feeble
touch. Draw with delicacy and look for stray hairs to break
the firm masses.

Babette's thick plait offers another variation. Ask her to
turn her head aside and sketch the back of the head and hair,
the parting, the smooth hair covering the crown and then
dividing and twisting into a silky plait. If the drawing of
the plait gives you trouble, practise with some twisted skeins
of coloured wool, or silk ; only recollect that in this case the
material will be of equal thickness, whereas the plait of hair
graduates from thick strong roots to wispy tail.

The movements of the body, the action of wind and weather,
all affect the hair of the head.

Indeed, the little details of floating hair and flying beard
are invaluable when we sketch figures in motion.

Young artists will draw people dashing through space,
flying down or upstairs, chasing balls, bowling hoops, with
their hair as neat and smooth as if they were calm and motion-
less, whereas ruffled hair will give the effect of movement.
In this age of tight and narrow garments, when flowing robes
and cloaks and long veils are seldom seen, hair is an asset we
dare not neglect.

Fig. 32. Baby's Head

CHAPTER VII

Drawing People in Right Proportions

WHEN first we draw human beings we are very
much inchned to draw the child and the man in
the same proportions. Indeed, it is a mistake we
invariably commit.

We draw a tall man with long legs and swinging arms, and
we draw at his side a little man with short striding legs and
swinging arms. We label the tall man ' father,' and the
little man ' son.'

But they are not a man and a child, they are merely a man
and a smaller man. Sometimes we have an uncomfortable
feeling that our children do not look very childish, and we
complain in discouragement : " I canH make my little boy
look like a boy ! "

It would seem perfectly logical to draw children as little
people, and yet, if we pause to reflect, is it really so ?

As a kitten is different from a cat, a chick from a hen, so
must a child be different from a man.

Have you ever remarked to yourself the huge size of Baby's
head in comparison with his body ?

Though the head is large, the features are almost negligible,
the tiny neck is a mere roll of fat. Baby has a large round
eye, a flat wide nostril, a button of a nose, and a half-open,
flower-like mouth. (See Fig. 32.)

The months and the years slowly pass, Baby's features
form, his head develops, his body grows, his limbs extend.

Compare the photographs of Pamela at one year and
Pamela at twelve years ; and look well at Pamela when she
trips beside her aunt.

If we draw Martin and his father sitting side by side on a

Drawing for Beginners

bench watching a football-match, in all probability we should
draw a big man, and at his side a little man less than half
his size. Martin may inherit the square shape of his father's
shoulders, but they will be less than half in bulk. The thick,
strong, muscular neck of Martin's father is very different
from Martin's thin weedy little one. The head of the man is
well shaped and firmly balanced, but the boy's will probably
look very large, a trifle bumpy and big behind the ears. The
ears of Martin's father lie flat against his close-cropped hair,
whereas Martin's stick out from his thin jaws and neck like
little handles on a big vase. Martin's legs are thin and
lacking in calf, his feet consequently appear rather too large
for his height ; but his father's legs are finely shaped, muscular,
and well proportioned.

Now having considered these few points, would you still
feel inclined to draw Martin and his father with the same
proportions ?

There are a few accepted rules that are useful to remember,
though we must never blindly follow any rules, for we know
the human figure is capable of every variety of form. Still,
as a check to an observation that cannot always be correct,
as a trifling guide when perplexing moments beset us, these
facts are worth noting.

A grown man of good proportion, when standing erect,
usually measures seven and a half heads high. Remember,
however, that this is the proportion of a perfectly formed
man. A very, very tall man would not have an elongated
body, but longer legs. The bodies of most men are the same
length. A man when standing with his arms to his sides will
rest the tips of his fingers a little more than half-way between
his hips and knees.

A figure when sitting roughly represents three lines of a
fairly equal length, measuring from the nape of the neck to
the seat, from the seat to the knee, from the knee to the foot.

An elbow usually rests in the hollow below the waist, as
you can prove for yourself by clapping your arms to your side.

A hand measures the same length as the face. Put the
80

Fig. 33. Pkopoetions of the Human Figure

Drawing for Beginners

palm of your hand against your chin and spread your fingers
upward.

A nose is the same length as a thumb. The ear the same
length as a nose.

And, having gleaned these few ordinarily accepted rules, you
will probably find your next model will have arms too long,
legs too short, and a nose disagreeing most profoundly with
the length of the thumb. Nature is a law unto itself, and I
bring these few suggestions to you with some misgivings.

If your eye insists that your model measures but five
heads high, accept that as a fact. Very few human beings
are correctly proportioned.

CHAPTER VIII

Drawing Inanimate Things

HOUSES, hats, motor-cars, chairs, beds, and boats —
all these and many other inanimate things are fruit-
ful of much worry for the young and inexperienced
artist.

"Why is it," we ask ourselves, "that the hat of the man
in my drawing does not look as if it would fit on his head ?
How can I make it right ? "

And the reply comes, " Measure — measure the size of the
hat against the size of the man's head."

It may be that the hat is held in the man's hand, or that
it rests against his chair, in which case measure the size of
the hat with your pencil and put the measurement against the
man's head. In all probability you have committed the very
usual mistake of making the hat too small for the head.

Hats are not as easy to draw as some young artists seem
to believe. The depth and width of the hat can be the most
deceiving and perplexing problem.

Personally I never hesitate to measure hats most carefully
against the heads of the owners.

Tall hats are more than usually difficult, and consequently
more often than not wrongly depicted. The term ' tall ' is,
to begin with, a misnomer. In the old days of rough high
beavers and curled brims the words ' tall ' or ' high ' were
quite appropriate. But nowadays it is not so, as you can
prove for yourself by placing a tall hat against another
object, and checking its height ; for instance, against the
leg of a dining-room chair. You will find that the hat barely
reaches the first rail of the front leg. Which brings under
our consideration ordinary chairs, queer enough looking

Drawing for Beginners

affairs in our early drawings, represented with very small
(and always unpadded) seats, perched on long, crooked, and
stilt-like legs.

The seat of a chair is a little lower than an adult's knee.
How uncomfortable it would be were it otherwise ! And the
back of the chair (I refer to the ordinary dining-room chair)
lies half-way between the knee and the hip, and level with the
outstretched hand of a grown person of average height. Ask
your mother, father, or big brother to stand for a second by
a chair and check these proportions for yourself. The height
of a dining-room table is higher, but only a little higher than
the height of a seated man's elbow. An inexperienced artist is
inclined to draw the table far too high. And a table either
too high or too low would complicate matters pretty con-
siderably for the diner.

A chair is an interesting subject to draw. Even the
roughest and most primitive has good lines and a certain
grace. First sketch the skeleton shape, the seat and the
four legs, as you would a box, by drawing lines from point
to point. This will enable you to get a clear idea of the
perspective. Then compare the curves of the back legs with
those of the front, carry the curve from the legs up to the
back, and add the arms.

Chairs there are of every description, lounge-chairs, and
chairs fashioned out of all kinds of materials. When chairs
are given for tests in drawing examinations they are usually
the simple wooden or Windsor chairs, and if you should feel
inspired to try your hand in this direction, add something of
an outside interest, a velvet or silk cushion, a fur stole or a
woollen scarf; or, better still, persuade Pussy to lie curled
upon the seat. Then you will have several kinds of textures.
Couches, settees, and sofas are often under-represented in our
sketches. They are really very large objects, and made to
hold a grown person when lying full length.

Beds, too, are commonly shorn of half their width and
length. A bed, even a small one, occupies a good deal of space.
If we err over the length and width, we are on the other
64

I ke 5ea h of
achaiv
IS a

Sn adulb's /rnee.

a littlo
ttian
elLo.w

uohcru

A Kat

IS a iattlc. larger
tKau ttio head.

^ChiWs /)ed IS ^ little.

Fig. 34. The Peoportions of Chairs, Tables, Hats, Beds

Drawing for Beginners

hand very prone to draw beds a great deal too high from the
ground. The old-fashioned four-poster with its curtains and
plumes belongs to a bygone age. The bed of to-day is usually
low and lightly framed. Would it not be extremely awkward
if it were higher ? We should certainly require a ladder to
climb into the beds depicted in the drawings of many young
artists.

When drawing tables, couches, or beds make a point of first
drawing the framework, the long seats of the sofas, the legs,
and then the backs and the arms. Tables fall naturally into
simple forms with the top first decided, and then the angle of
the legs. Suggest the length, width, and height of the bed,
adding afterward minor details of sheets, blankets, pillows,
and counterpane.

Boats we rarely draw large enough to hold the crew, let
alone the passengers ; motor-cars are usually depicted far too
small for their owners.

Heads, faces, and shoulders emerge happily enough from
the tops of cars, carriages, and boats, but it is often in the
nature of a conundrum to find accommodation for the unfor-
tunate bodies and legs. Therefore, always draw these hidden
limbs, for even if you make mistakes with shapes and pro-
portions, the mere fact of sketching bodies and legs will serve
to remind you that a certain space is required ; and they can
be erased as you proceed with your drawings.

Another difficulty that besets us is the matter of spacing
the floors of the houses, the windows, and doorways. Tenants
are often seen strolling about their front lawns, and the
houses in the background have windows so closely presented
that nothing larger than a well-proportioned mouse could
possibly move in the rooms. Yet a room, even a small
room, is a considerable height. Your father does not knock
his head against the ceiling. He stands erect, and there is
ample space above his head. Try to remember that the
gentleman and lady require rooms large enough to use. This
matter of drawing inanimate things in proportion is chiefly
a matter of common sense. Leave sufficient space between
86

Drawing Inanimate Things

each window so that the floors are not crammed closely
together and the windows are drawn fairly evenly. Reflect
how uncomfortable it would be to live behind windows
sprinkled haphazard about the front of the house !

If we apply a good deal of common sense, and compare the
size and shape of one thing with another, we shall find the
difficulties of drawing inanimate things gradually fading
away.

CHAPTER IX

Drawing our Pets and other Animals

FIDGETY-PHIL-WHO-WOULDN'T-SIT-STILL has a
very serious rival in our feathered and four-footed
friends.

We can reason with Fidgety Phil, but no power on earth
can prevail if Timmy the cat, or Spot the terrier, wishes to
alter his pose. It will signify nothing that we are in the
middle of a masterpiece ; and the fact that we and our models
are well acquainted will not, by any means, ease the situation ;
the reverse will probably be the case.

My dog Prince always sat on my sketch-book when he spied
on the face of his mistress a certain expression which con-
veyed to his mind that a sketch of himself was about to begin,
instead of a sensible walk on the hills.

Dogs, cats, horses, and birds, especially birds, no sooner
spy a pencil and a piece of paper than up go their heads,
away go hoofs, wings, paws, or tails.

In the first place, when we wish to draw our pets we must
invest in a very large — we might almost say an inexhaustible
— store of patience ; in the second place, if we are wise we
shall sketch our models when they are at rest ; in the third,
we must use a large sheet of paper. For our model will most
assuredly move, and if we are properly equipped with paper,
we can make a fresh start without any erasing or smudging.

We must also be thankful for small mercies. We must
sketch an ear if we can't see a head, a fraction of a paw if the
body is hidden, a comb or beak if that is all that meets the
eye.

We must, in short, " take the current when it serves, or
lose our venture."
88

Our Pets and other Animals

With a large sheet of paper and one or two pencils ready
pointed, steal near to Mufti (the cat, Fig. 36), sleepily coiled
on a couch, and begin.

By crouching beside Mufti we shall have a fairly close
observation. Preferably choose a position a little below rather
than a little above. It is usually better to look up to your
model than down.

Possibly we may sigh at the difficult and baffling shape
presented by Mufti.

First, however, make a
rough note of the curious,
almost circular shape, and
then seek for any definite
' bits.'

Can we detect any of the
big bone shapes, any pro-
jection of the spine, neck,
or shoulder ? Yes ; having
traced the half-circle of the
back we note that the far
shoulder pushes up and
presents an angle (softened, of course, by the fur), from
which angle the loose skin slopes in a gradual curve to the
head.

Notice, too, that the large pointed ears lie opposite each
other, and a line drawn from ear to ear will give the tilt
of the head. Between the ears, a curved line following the
forehead downward will strike the centre of the face between
the closed eyes, and extended downward and outward will
pass over the projection of the nose, the muzzle, and the
mouth.

Next we might pay attention to the width of the broad
back and flanks.

The spine can be traced by the light which strikes on the
fur, the tail being, as we know, an extension of the spine.

The curious square mass of the doubled-up thigh and the
leg beneath is fairly apparent.

Fig. 35. Flttffy

Drawing for Beginners

Look for the opposite thigh and mark any projection, for
that will give you the angle of both flanks.

Sketch the lower part of the face, jot down the position of
the right leg upon which rests the head, and get the angle of
the hind-leg tucked up and meeting the chin.

Next look for more detail. The shape of the ears, the
angle of the eyes, the position of the tiny pink nose — once
those three things are settled we can study the marking on
the fur. And here I must strike a note of warning. The
marking is very misleading, as are the great lumps of loose
fur, and the fluffy, silky down.

First get your facts, and here the word ' facts ' means the
big bone shapes — the shape of the skull, the shape of the
body, the legs, and the tail.

Then we shall know we are clothing a frame of reasonable
form.

Having arrived at tuis stage, then comes the chance to
note the way in which the fur follows these big bone shapes.
First draw the direction of the fur as it curves over bone and
muscle — then the marks, stripes, dots, and so forth, the
smooth silky down that covers the ears, the soft fluffiness
undeif the limbs and about the muzzle, and the thick pro-
tective length of the fur on the back.

The marking on the fine fur will be more delicate than the
markings on the thigh and back. Use your pencil with a
light firm touch.

By way of a final observation, see if any valuable shadows
have been omitted where the firm body presses on the ground,
possibly beneath the tail, or under the chin and paw.

A short-coated pussy with black fur is easier to draw than
a striped and tabby cat. The fur being short and unmarked
will not conceal and confuse the structure to the same extent ;
moreover, the light will strike on the glossy coat and define
the big bony shapes more sharply, the flanks, thigh, shoulder,
head, and paws.

Whether we sketch Pussy asleep or awake, reclining on a
wall, or playing with a leaf, we cannot fail to notice his invari-
90

Our Pets and other Animals

able grace. Never do you see an awkward or ungainly move-
ment. Which fact alone should be an invaluable training for
our pencil. From the tip of Pussy's whiskers to the tip of his
tail, mark the long flowing line of the graceful limbs, the
exquisite curves.

The large open eye, the large upright ear, these are very

Fig. 37. TiMMY

characteristic of the cat tribe. Mark the width of the
cheeks, the short blunted nose, the receding under-jaw.
Note also the stretch of the cat's mouth when open ; the
muzzle pulls up and reveals the gape at the back of the mouth,
and the upper and lower jaw square one with the other. The
tiger, the puma, and all the cat tribe share these peculiar
characteristics.

Robin the puma (sketched in the London Zoo, to which
he was presented by a friend of ours, having outgrown his

Drawing for Beginners

pethood) is a distant relative of Mufti's, and for all I know to
the contrary may be as familiar to you as Mufti.

Make a few comparisons between the household pet and
the ' American lion.' Robin is of course many sizes larger,
and of a stronger and more powerful breed. His limbs are
thick, long, and sinewy, his head small compared with the
muscular neck, his ears rounded. Note the great pawt
and note also the large extension of the jaw when R^bin is
yawning.

It is curious to reflect that for one study of a bird we shall
see fifty of a cat, and more curious when we consider that
with birds we have usually a fairly close association. It is
true that birds are difficult studies. They are the most
elusive models, and it is impossible to glean more than quick,
snap-shot impressions and rough notes, and in that we prob-
ably fin^ the real reason for neglect. Birds are not easy, but
they are inlensely interesting. With all their wealth of
beauty in form and colour, they are a rich harvest for the
pencil and the brush.

Who, for instance, could be more attractive than the perky
little robin with his brown coat and scarlet waistcoat, his
sleek, neat plumage, the cock of his bright eye, and the flick
of his pointed tail ? A most characteristic little gentleman !
Search your memory, and try to sketch him out of your head,
and preferably with your brush.

Make a bold dash at catching his likeness. Mark the long
slope of his back, the clean, sharp swelling curve from the
bill downward, the intersecting lines of the tail and wing, the
short bill curved above, flattened beneath, the eye close to
the bill, the slender strength of the tiny legs, the perfect
balance on the long talons.

By contrast, too, we learn much, and drive observation
deeper.

Compare the singing canary, his slim golden body and
dainty limbs, with the raucous-tongued parrot, his powerful
beak, thick talons, and muscular thighs. Contrast the sky-
lark, the exquisite lightness and buoyancy of his movement
92

Fig. 38. Birds at Rest and in Flight

Our Pets and other Animals

and form, with that clumsy, soft, noiseless bird of the night
— the owl. An owl is a good introduction to the study of
birds ; he has one invaluable asset — tracked to his lair by
day, he can be observed quite closely. His is a simple and
comparatively easy-to-observe shape, as he sits huddled on
his perch, blinking his eyes, a quaint compact oblong form,
from which depends a soft blunted tail ; with shoulders
humped up to his neck, head large and square, and talons well
tucked under the soft breast feathers.

Mark the large hood-like shape of the head, the curious
mask effect of the face from which the tiny beak emerges, and
the eyes, large, round, and heavily lidded, and encircled by
rays of softest feathers. Mark the rich dark shadows of the
eye, beak, and talon with a firm touch. Because — and this
is an important fact when we are drawing birds — it is by
insistence upon such shadows, the soft depth of the eye, and
the strong curve of the beak, and the lines of the tail and the
wings, that we obtain our effects.

When drawing birds try to keep your touch crisp, firm, and
light. Birds suggest delicacy more than strength. The bird
on the wing has something of the buoyancy of the air through
which he flies.

Consider the bony framework of the bird. The small head
and pointed beak with which it cleaves the air, the long neck
(having twice the number of bones of a human being's), the
oblong boat-shape of the breast-bone, ribs, and back, the
length of the legs, back curved, and, above all, the large arm-
or wing-bones somewhat resembling the zigzag shape of the
last letter of the alphabet — a large Z.

When sketching birds take a broad observation. Embrace
the whole shape in a glance, and sketch that shape. Sketch
the slimness of its body ; if it is a bird such as the swallow,
perching and at rest, sketch the balance of its legs and feet,
the angle of its head ; notice the way in which the wings
fold across its back and the tail depends. Then mark the
position of the eye with regard to the beak, the shape of the
beak itself, the short curve of the upper bill compared with

Drawing for Beginners

the lower. Look swiftly from the beak to the eye, from the
eye to the beak. Notice the shape of the head. Mark all
these positions lightly before settling down to the careful
drawing of each particular feature.

When we draw the head of a girl or a boy we draw first the
cranium, then the face, and lastly the features. We check
one thing with another, as we have discussed very fully in
an early chapter. We must apply the same methods when
we are drawing our pets, animals or bipeds.

Compare (and of course with the pencil) the beaks of birds :
the beak of the seagull with that of the swallow, or with that
of the parrot. In the last-mentioned bird the beak seems to
predominate and form the greater part of the skull. Sketch
the curious square shape of the parrot's upper and lower
beak, together with the wrinkled skin, and the sharp cunning
little eye.

Birds' feet and legs exhibit astonishing variations of
form. What, for instance, could be more dissimilar than
a stork's leg and an owl's, the duck's web and the swallow's
claw, the eagle's talon and the sparrow's ? We are very
much inclined to be careless about the drawing of birds'
feet. How often do we see the leg drawn in one long line,
from which fork three long strokes (purporting to be the
claws), and the talon behind the leg, corresponding to the
heel of a human being, forgotten — or, if not quite forgotten,
almost negligible ?

Note, also, that when the bird with the taloned feet moves
along a flattened surface, the feet rest on pads, and the pro-
jection of the long talons pushes the feet in curves from the
ground.

It is true that the webbed foot of the wading bird lies flat
on the surface of the ground, but never the foot with the
talons and claws.

Note the fluffiness of the feathers on the thigh of the birds,
then the thick muscular skin of the leg itself (wrinkled often
on the forepart). Try to sketch the joint, the spread of each
toe, the curved talon and the pointed nail, with strength.
94

Our Pets and other Animals

Do not be fearful of exaggerating muscle. Mark the grip of
the talon and the clutching strength of the tiny claw with
equal decision.

The wing of a bird is sometimes likened to the arm, wrist,
and thumb of the human arm. The joint of the leg, which
has the appearance of the human knee (bent backward),
resembles the ankle of the human being, for the knee-joint of
a bird is higher and hidden by the plumage.

No doubt you have often remarked that the neck of the
bird resembles the letter S. This is especially noticeable in
the swan when proudly ' floating double ' with his neck
carried in beautiful curves ; the stork and the ibis elongate
their necks — the S is more drawn out, while in the case of the
flamingo, cassowary, emu, and ostrich the neck more closely
resembles an interrogation mark.

But we must not linger too long over details. We must
return to a more general survey, and we have not yet touched
on the most attractive aspect of the subject — birds in flight.
Here, indeed, is a fascinating subject for our pencils.

How entrancing are the impetuous rush of the tiny body,
the fluttering spread of the buoyant wings ! Yet no sooner
do we whip out a pencil than the bird is gone beyond
recall.

Think of the wonderful non-resisting shape of the body
that slips through the air as a fish glides through water, the
rudder-like shape of the transparent tail, and the tremendous
span of the spread wings ! How often do we draw wings
that would be of no real use to our birds ! The length of the
wing outspread is prodigious in comparison with the size of
the body.

Observe the seagull with wings folded to its side, and the
way in which the wings are incorporated with the slender
length of the body. Then look closely at a wing extended,
note the clean-cut delicacy of the pointed quills, the vigorous
muscle, and the strength of the shoulder.

When we draw the bird in flight we should first sketch the
angle of the body, then the angle of the wings.

Drawing for Beginners

Make a rough cross indicating these angles, then, having
marked the tilt and swing of the bird, define the shape of the
body, the wings, and the tail.

Whatever the position of the bird on the wing may be,
whether swooping toward you or flying away, whether the
wing be upraised, or down curving, you must aim ^rst at
getting the angles of body and wings.

Have you ever seen a kestrel fall like a plummet from the
sky, and marked the forward thrust of the head as it hangs
suspended ? Have you noticed the seagull whirling and
circling, dipping first one wing and then the other in the
fringe of the foam ? If so, you will understand how neces-
sary it is to grasp the bird's position at a first glance.

Take up a place of observation in an open field, pencil in
hand, and make jottings of your little feathered friends. An
exasperating task I know ! But your patience will be re-
warded if you can sketch the fluff of two little folded wings,
the tiny coiled-up claw, the perk of a glossy head, the saucy
round eye peering through the leaves, minute but invaluable
fragments.

We need not go far afield ; the ordinary poultry-yard will
afford plenty of interesting study.

For choice I should pitch on a young cockerel to sketch.
Of all restless creatures I would give him the palm. But
wait until he sinks into a dusty corner and his jewel-gold
eye is closed. The shapely body and the wondrous com-
plexity of head, beak, comb, and wattles are something at
which to marvel ; it is only by the closest observation, by
utilizing the various suggestions we have already made, that
we shall feel we are ready to cope with the problems they
present.

First sketch your sparrows, robins, owls, swallows, and
tiny feathered friends, later try the more difficult subject —
and for all these sketches you might well take with you your
brush and water-colour box. Sketch with your brush,
instead of with your pencil, for a bird without colour is most
strange and unnatural.
96

Fig 39. The Frog

Drawing for Beginners

From birds on the wing we might pass to the reptiles on
the ground, and those homely little gentlemen the toad and
frog are not to be despised.

When drawing these small people you must get close to
their level. Try to pose them on a bank or raised surface.

There is something so solidly square about the shape of a
toad that it is not surprising that it lends its name to many
curiously shaped rocks.

The European frog, shown in Fig. 39, of glistening eye and
shining back, is more elegant in shape than brother toad ;
his toes are slimmer, his nose more pointed.

Mark the upward tilt of the back, the slant to the top of
the head and nose, and the long sweeping lines of the curiously
shaped hind-legs. Note the forward and outward thrust of
the strong little elbow, and the bandy-legged straddle of the
front limbs.

Of all things a frog's mouth is the most curious. Look at
the gape and the length of it, and the muscles which extend
from beyond the grin to the eye-cavity, and down again to
the tiniest dot of a nostril piercing the blunt nose.

And if you should wish to portray the frog in action, you
will be surprised at the enormous stretch of his hind-legs, one
second folded in a close curve over the long-taloned feet and
the next opening in a large sprawling S shape.

From the frog at the foot of the tree we might pass to the
sprightly squirrel on the branch above, cracking nuts and
distributing shells over the heads of the passers-by.

Squirrels are almost as difficult to study as birds. The
only stationary ones are stuffed and in museums, and no
matter how beautiful and natural stuffed things may look,
there is always present the fixed glassy appearance that we
invariably exaggerate when drawing. Therefore draw in
museums only when debarred from drawing straight from
Nature.

When you are drawing a squirrel do not let yourself be
diverted by the magnificence of his tail from more important
things. (Is he not called Sciurus — ' Shadow-tail ' ?)
98

Our Pets and other Animals

Begin by sketching the definite shapes — the small mouse-
shaped head, the long curved back, the small but strong
hind-legs with which he shins up the trees like a flash of

Fig. 40. Rabbits

lightning; his eye — the dark, bright piercing eye, set
diamond-shaped in his head ; the small pointed nose ; the
rounded curves of whiskers ; the shapely ever-moving ears.
Note also the dainty feet and paws, the delicate strength
of the claws and talons.

The squirrel, together with the mouse and rabbit, form
<^ 3 S 0 I fe 99

Drawing for Beginners

part of that large family known as rodents. The word
' rodent ' means ' gnawing.' This is helpful to remember
when we are drawing these animals, for it explains at once
the characteristic shape of the teeth, mouth, and head.

When we sketch mice or rats the long, narrow, pointed
muzzle and long, narrow, overhanging teeth are very
noticeable ; once we have marked these, and added the
long sloping f^^rehead, the small under-jaw, the wide up-
standing rounded ear and bright dark eye, we have the main
characteristics.

Squirrels and rabbits have shorter snouts and more blunted
muzzles, but the teeth are long and pointed ; this we must
carefully note in our drawings.

Rabbits are endearing but difficult models, for they seldom
stay long in one position and are easily startled by a sudden
noise. Nevertheless, if you sit by the hutch and keep very
still, pencil and paper in hand, Master Bunny will eventually
creep from his straw.

Then note the three-cornered shape of his head, with the
long ears closely placed on the very apex, and the beautiful,
wide-open eye with its long lashes. The nose, always twitch-
ing, is blunt and short and pink, the nostril very small but
of a very decided shape, and the muzzle rounded and full.
The hind-legs are of an extraordinary size, but gathered
together in a hunched position as Bunny sits in a hutch
nibbling morsels of food they are not so noticeable ; the spine
rises from the head in a long steep curve from the neck to the
top of the thighs.

There is nothing more soft and fluffy than the tail of a
rabbit — ' Cotton-tail,' as he is called in America. So soft
is it that we must indicate it with the most delicate touches,
noticing the way in which the hairs grow from the root of the
tail and spread outward and upward like the down of a
powder-puff.

By drawing our small friends, rabbits, squirrels, frogs,
birds, and cats, we shall be aided in attempting, presently,
the more ambitious creatures, dogs, cows, bulls, and horses.
100

Our Pets and other Animals

Horses are of all animals the most difficult to draw. To
their exquisite proportions, the wonderful delicacy of their
slender limbs, the spirited grace of their beautiful bodies, we
feel, despairingly, that only a Rosa Bonheur, a Lucy Kemp-
Welch, or an A. J. Munnings can do justice.

Let us study first the heavier breeds, the big dray-horses
with their kindly frank faces, their great fetlocks, their splendid
massive bodies. These will give fascinating subjects which
need not overwhelm us.

If you have no opportunities of sketching the cart-horse in
the farm-yard, you may possibly make a rapid sketch from a
window, or track your subject down in a side-lane, as I have
done in this drawing.

The positions of my two cart-horses are foreshortened.
The long bodies are hidden by the hind-legs, and the finished
sketch is nothing more nor less than a square, from the upper
part of which extends the neck and crest of the head.

As I have said before, when drawing things foreshortened,
sketch the nearest shapes first, and the receding shapes later.
If we mark the angle of the flank, the angle of the large bones
of the back of the knee, the shaggy fetlocks, we shall perceive
that the fore -legs — having the length of body between — are
shorter than the hind-legs. The body, too, dwindles.

Drawing the horse approaching toward us or as seen side-
ways, we must run the eye from one point to another.

Look at the angles of the limbs, the ' slew ' of the haunches ;
glance from knee-cap to knee-cap ; from the massive deep
chests to the beautifully rounded hindquarters. Note how
the curves and muscles of the arched neck compare with the
muscles and curves of the thigh, and the silky thick flow of
the mane with the long wavy ripples of the tail and the shaggy
clustering of hair round the fetlocks.

Try to make separate studies of the separate parts of the
body, head, and legs. When you are sketching the head in
profile remark the great length of it (the skull of a horse is
an amazing size, almost as long as the body of a human being),
then mark the greatest depth from the eyebrow to the outline

101

Drawing for Beginners

of the bones of the cheek, trace the long nose, the rounded
nostril, and the curve of the soft mouth, the lips, and the
swelling curves beneath the under lip, then reproduce the
softer portions, until you reach the cheekbone again. Mark
the position of the beautifully shaped ears, and drop a line
from the ear-socket to the socket of the eye, checking this
position with that of the brow and cheek. Get the angle of
the eye, the lid, the shape of the beautiful eye itself ; then
give attention to the nostril, which we are apt to inflate too
much in our drawings. Notice the softness of the muzzle
and the shape of the nostril, and the way in which the fore-
part tucks behind the sides.

Having sketched the main features, you can revel in the
drawing of the different textures, the luminosity of the eyes,
the soft delicacy of ear, nostril, mouth, and muzzle, the
muscles and veins seen beneath the skin, the forelock, and the
rippling waves of the mane.

Take a full brush of colour and, wiping it to a point, try
to sketch a pony galloping, a horse rearing over a fence, or
cantering across a grassy meadow. You can do much interest-
ing work by your remembrance of horses in action. Obviously
you cannot draw a horse in action from anything but close
observation wedded to memory.

Study, too, pictures of horses. Look well at photographs
in the newspapers, and copy those with the brush, remember-
ing always the one great handicap of the camera, that the
near things are distorted and made to appear too large.
(This fact you have doubtless proved often for yourself when
photographed with your feet crossed and pointing at the
camera, giving the astounding impression that you have the
proportions of a well-nourished giant.)

And behold ! we have travelled all this way with but a
passing glimpse at our most favoured pet — the dog ! The
study of dogs is a whole world in itself, from the tiny shiver-
ing black toy terrier to the magnificent English mastiff.

Sketches of dogs are inclined to be scrappy, as indeed are
all the sketches of our active little friends. But first we
102

Fis. 42. Dogs

102

Our Pets and other Animals

must decide in our minds the chief characteristics of our
models.

What with the distorted short legs and long body of the
dachshund, the length and grace of the deerhound, the
stocky sturdy build of the wire-haired terrier, the prodigious
muscle and width of the bulldog's body, we have ample
variety.

We must bear in mind the general build of the dog. If
not, we are apt to give the Cairn legs as long as the pug, the
schipperke ears as starkly pointed as those of the Alsatian
wolfhound. It is easier, of course, to draw the breeds that
have short and silky hair than those that are clothed in
long plumes of fur, for then we can see the shape of
their limbs, the symmetry of their bodies. A bull-terrier is
easier to draw than a sky-terrier, a greyhound easier than
a borzoi.

Here we have the head of Benjamin (an old English terrier)
with ear cocked and eye alert.

Observe first the long barrel shape of the head, then the
blunt muzzle and the rounded nostril. Having marked the
position and angle of the head, we can next note the breadth
and slope of the round forehead, the angle of the eye, the
position of the far eye (indicated and accentuated by an eye-
lash), and the curve of the muzzle.

The mouth is partially hidden by the soft white hair (and
there is nothing softer in Nature than the mouth of an animal).
Look carefully at the receding — slightly receding — nose and
jaw. The protruding under-jaw gives at once the suggestion
of the bulldog strain. The massive, protuberant under-jaw
is characteristic of that breed.

Ben has a full eloquent eye. The overhanging triangular
flap of the ear lends a sharp and useful accent to the rounded
shape behind the eye, and behind that we can perceive the
full lobe and root of the ear.

Sambo (Fig. 42), mystified by a frog, is yapping away in a
crouching but vigorous position — in which you may be sure
he did not remain very long ; hence the absence of the other

103

Drawing for Beginners

two legs. (But this is the way I wish you to tackle your
doggie friends. Dash at any position, even if it is fleeting.)

Sambo's body is somewhat contracted, and so is his neck.
Roughly, he represents a triangular shape, as shown. The
big muscles have fair play ; the thin flank of the hind-leg
and the shoulder-bone of the fore-leg are very noticeable.
Also the shadows behind the upper part of the front leg and
back leg force the rounded shape of the ribs.

Next comes beautiful Bracken (so named because of her
glorious golden-brown and red coat). Her back is curved
and her fore-legs coiled ; on these rest her muzzle, now, alas !
growing grey. The position suggests a perfect curve — out of
which trails the long tail and left leg. Aim first at sketching
the large coil of the big body, then the flat angle of the hind-
leg, and the fullness of the trunk. The extended leg pushes
up the position of the left shoulder-blade ; also we can see
the inner line of the neck. Between these two shapes trace
the curve of the neck itself and the triangular shape of
the head, and the soft flat line of the chest against the
ground.

We should now examine the curious curve of the hind-leg
and the way in which the muscles and sinews draw back, also
the shape of the bone as it touches on the ground, and the
great paw as it comes forward and lies limply at rest.

How different is Bracken's ear from Ben's — long, soft,
pendulous ! And the brow is more benevolent and more
deeply indented between the soft brown eyes.

A word of warning about muscular creatures at rest.
When muscles are lax and sinews free from strain we are
inclined (in our drawings) to forget them altogether, and a
finely built dog sleeping will look, if we are not careful, far
too limp and flabby a creature. We must always remember
the muscles ; note and draw them carefully, they will keep
our drawings up to pitch.

Dogs leaping and jumping, dogs running — the jog-trot of
the terrier, and the easy gallop of the deerhound — here are
interesting subjects for your pencil and brush.
104

Our Pets and other Animals

We might take up a brush fairly full of paint and sketch
a little fresco of dogs in action. I say advisedly ' brush.'
We can't stipple with a full brush. We must make up our
minds, and draw, without hesitation, the thin or plump body,
the long or thick legs, the short or pointed nose, the flowing
or stunted tail. The fresco may not be very true to Nature,
but it will certainly teach us a good deal.

105

CHAPTER X

Colour^ and how to Find it

COLOUR is the most deceptive thing under the sun.
No two people see colour in exactly the same way,
no two people reproduce — or paint — colour with ex-
actly the same blending of tints.

If a colour-group is placed before several young artists
with paint-boxes in their hands, we shall not find — providing,
of course, that they are not copying each other — the artists
choosing the same tints wherewith to paint the same objects.
In all probability every painting would be quite different.
Which proves that colour appeals to all of us in varied degrees.

Painting is not a mere matching of tints, or placing one
tint against another tint.

We might begin our picture with a conscientious desire to
match every colour exactly and yet produce something
horribly wrong. Because we began with a wrong idea in our
head. We started from an entirely false basis.

We must not begin by asking ourselves, " Is that an orange,
blue, or green tint ? " but, " What is the colour that pervades
and envelops the whole ? "

Have you ever walked in the meadows or down a street in
a city and remarked to yourself how different everything
looked when last you were there ?

Perhaps it was then a brilliantly sunny day, and on the
day on which you made the remark the same street was
dripping and shining from recent rain-storms. It would
indeed be different. Then the sun filled every chink and
shadow with golden warmth. It played on the fronts of the
houses, it sparkled on the window-frames, it picked out the
red flush of the bricks, it spied the orange peel in the gutter,
106

Colour^ and how to Find it

the jewels of a lady walking along the street. It was a gay
scene, beneath sunny blue skies dashed with warm clouds.
And the charm of the country scene would be even more
intensified by the brilliancy of the clear air and bright sun,
which emphasizes the lichen on the cottage-roof and walls,
the yellow in the old flagstones, the gleaming of the ricks,
the rich shadows flung by the soft green foliage of the tall
trees.

Then — the next time !

Heavy rains swept the streets or drenched the meadows,
clouds hung dark and threatening, pavements gleamed
coldly, the muddy lanes were glittering, heavy foliage drip-
ping, thick soft mists arising, all was wet, grey, and cold.
There were dull shadows where the people walked the streets,
the tops of the houses were shrouded in murky fog, and in
the country lanes the cows moved between the heavy hedges
wrapped in a moist cold air.

Do you realize that there must always be one general hue
that envelops, and blends, and harmonizes ?

Have not you sometimes said of a painting, " I don't know
what is the matter with that picture . . . but I don't like it " ?
You have a very definite reason, but you cannot put it in
words. You don't like it, and if you lived to be a hundred
you feel you would never like it more or hate it less. In
other words, you feel there is something that jars upon you.
If we tried to analyse your feelings about that picture, we
should probably discover that a crash of discords upon the
piano bore a strong resemblance to the jarring colours of the
picture.

The man who painted the picture did not try to discover
the general colour that ran through his picture, and blend
it harmoniously together ; but, like a simultaneous crash of
all the notes on the piano, he banged every tint thick and fast
upon his canvas.

On certain islands in the South Seas the native mothers fill
hollowed-out trunks of trees with water and in this water
boldly place their infants, and the babies swim.

107

Drawing for Beginners

From this example some people argue that all babies will
swim as naturally as they will later walk and talk.

On that particular point I am not prepared to give an
opinion, but this I do know, for it has been often proved : if
we put a box of chalks into the hands of a small child of four
or five, the child will as often as not use the colours rightly
and naturally. I have seen paintings by tiny children as good
as any done by practised artists. Give the child a string
of beads, a coloured ball, a bunch of cherries, or a twisted
morsel of coloured thread, and Baby will chalk these colours
with astonishing ease. The shape may be funny, but the
colour will be pure, fresh, and sweet. Which proves that the
sense of colour is a natural sense.

It is a very stimulating thought that we are born with this
delightful gift, which only needs a natural development.

As we grow older, and more diffident of ourselves, we seek
out rules and hamper ourselves with stupid regulations. But
if we merely ask ourselves a few simple guiding questions,
such as, " What is the general colour of the thing that I wish
to paint ? " and keep our mind focused on that one thing,
our troubles will melt away.

Each colour depends to a great extent on its surroundings.

There's Timmy, the tabby cat, for instance. What colour
would you call his coat and eyes ? "A buff fur striped with
sharp black lines, and yellow eyes," you would most probably
reply.

But look at Timmy lying on the summer grass. His buff
and white fur reflects the green of the grass ; his glossy black
stripes fade in the sun like old silver, and deepen in shadow
like the rich dark colour of the tree-bark ; his eyes, most
curious of all, empty into round pools of colourless light.
Thinking of Timmy's colouring suggests another subject on
which we have not time to dwell — the protective nature of
colour. It also reminds us that colour is influenced by other
surrounding colours.

" What is colour ? " cries the young artist.

We say that black is black and white is white, that snow is
108

Colour^ and how to Find it

white, the clean Hnen handkerchief is white, the ermine fur
that you wear round your neck is white. Drop your hand-
kerchief upon the snow, lay your ermine on its unbroken
surface, the one will look murky and grey and the other
yellow.

Black is just black, you say. But is it ? Objects are black
because they come in contrast with other colours.

Search about for black things in the room. You will see
that there are as many shades in black as there are in other
tints, according to the light in which the black object is
placed, and also according to the colours with which it is
surrounded.

Look at the black coat of a man in a subdued light, when,
for instance, he is sitting in a room ; and look at the same
black coat when the man is walking out in the streets under
the blue sky.

The black coat under a subdued quiet light is deep and rich
and warm, but in the open air the light strikes on the shoulders,
the arms, and the skirts of the coat, and if a cold blue light is
reflected from the sky, then the black coat will reflect that
colour and tint. Obviously, being a dark material, it will
absorb ; but light and shade there must be, and the black
will mingle with the general colouring of the street.

' A sense of colour ' in the mind of an artist is simply the
faculty of choosing tints.

One artist may revel in exquisite golds, reds, and blues ;
another may prefer silvery greys and blues, warm fawn, and
dull reds. But it is not true to say that the latter has not
as much sense of colour as the former. His choice of tints is
different. He sees Nature in more subdued hues. That is
all. His theme of colouring is quieter, more subtle.

If your taste inclines to more delicate shades, do not be
discouraged because by that choice you are told you haven't
much sense of colour. That you know in your heart of
hearts is not true. The beauty of twilight, or the delicacy
of a misty landscape, or the sombreness of the grey old
woman in her dark frock have fully as much ' colour ' as

109

Drawing for Beginners

the gorgeous sunset, or the meadows rioting with gold and
crimson blossoms.

It is worse than useless to plaster your picture with brilliant
reds, yellows, and blues because you think by so doing you
display a fine sense of colour.

It is perfectly true that we must use the colours as fully
as we feel justified. But we must feel justified.

The great colourists of old used their crimsons, and golds,
and blues, and purples lavishly, they revelled in rich silks
and brocades, in brilliant skies ; in short, in the dazzling
mixture of many tints. Out of these gay scenes of streets,
piazzas, palaces, and market-squares floated the brilliant
colours, blended and made harmonious by the dazzling light
of the sun.

Nature always harmonizes, and blends tints unerringly.

When we with our miserable little colour-boxes would
paint crude tints. Nature takes us by the hand and shows
where we go wrong.

Imagine a subject composed of nothing but clashing colours.
Could anything, we ask ourselves, right that wrong ?

Once I saw a girl standing in a field not far outside the city
of Madrid. She wore a purple handkerchief on her head, a
crimson and purple skirt looped over her petticoat. She had
in her arms a huge sheath of blue cornflowers and she stood
knee-deep in scarlet poppies. Not one red agreed with
another red, the purples were vivid, and the blue was crude.
Yet the whole scene was pleasing because it was bathed in a
brilliantly clear air. The purity of the atmosphere made all
the crude tints harmonize.

Painting does not mean placing all the paints upon a sheet
of paper. That any foolish person can do.

But painting is selecting the right tints, and playing our
tunes with those tints harmoniously.

Suppose we take a simple object, a small Flanders poppy,
scarlet hued, with folded petals of silk, and look at that with
a view to painting it.

Then we will ask ourselves, " What is the colour that flows
110

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IT sHul'LIi Xo|- KK PAINTED, {b) Two CiiUlin; SCHEMES,

AND Fllisl' iMl'llKSSKtXs (iF linTlI

Colour^ and how to Find it

through the poppy-blossom, stem, and leaf ? " The poppy
is composed of red and green tints, and yellow there is in
both red and green. Therefore, if we wish to paint the
poppy, and we are of course drawing with the brush and with
colour, we could safely decide to sketch it in a pale yellow
tint.

On painting the scarlet petal the yellow will melt and
become one with the red, and again on painting the stem and
leaf the green will absorb the yellow.

If we had not taken the precaution to ask ourselves that
question and had simply sketched the poppy in any tint, say
Prussian blue, then the result would have been a dirty cold
blue creeping into the purity of the scarlet and destroying
the vivid glow.

Or, if we had waited for the blue to dry before applying
the red, we should not have improved matters. Our poppy
would have had a harsh blue outline, and who ever saw a
poppy so decorated, except on a china plate or on an old tin
mug ?

Possibly you might argue that the subject is a simple one
for the brush, that the problem will be very different when
more complicated subjects are attempted.

Gather together several colour-groups and test the problem
of colour for yourself — a stick of asparagus, a leaf of rhubarb,
apples on a dull painted platter, a sprig of honesty, or a spray
of Ted or yellow (single) chrysanthemums in a copper-coloured
vase, a coloured straw hat decorated with a prettily shaded
scarf, a Japanese lantern, lighted, and a few objects placed
around it. And, having settled upon one of these subjects,
ask yourself the same question : " What is the general colour
of the subject ? " Is it cold ? Is it warm ? Does a yellow
tinge prevail, or a cool grey-blue ? Has it a flush of red, or
is it suffused with pale pearly tints ?

When you are painting groups it is just as well to place
them before a plain background, a wall-space, or an angle
formed of two plain boards of wood joined together, thus
concentrating light and shade and preventing your attention

111

Drawing for Beginners

from being distracted by movement in the background.
Backgrounds should be plainly tinted. Some neutral tint
(neutral meaning ' neither ' in the sense that it belongs to no
very definite colour), fawn, buff, or grey. Then your colour-
group will have every chance of asserting itself.

When using water-colour always work from light to dark.
That is, sketch your painting with a light colour. If you
sketch it with a dark tint, then that tint will either run, and
spoil your delicate tints, or else it will outline the edges with
a harsh dark tint like the edges of clouds in a stormy sky.

Also avoid ' body colour ' — or flake white. White paint
is thick and opaque. Once white paint enters our painting,
there it must continue. We cannot make dabs of white paint
without a patchy effect. White gives a different texture,
and, being thick, takes away all clearness and sparkle, all
richness and depth.

A common fault into which young artists often fall is to
paint the white clouds in a landscape with white paint. But
the delicate colouring of the clouds should be sketched with
the faintest tint (the prevailing tint of the landscape), and the
white paper left to give the effect of the white clouds.

Never be afraid of using pure colour. To enrich or deepen
shadows, to sharpen high lights, to lend sparkle or brightness,
place the pure tint straight on the paper without mixing or
putting it first on the palette.

To soften and blend your tints take a full brush and flood
the water on the paper and let the colours mingle on the
paper.

Should you have an unpleasingly harsh effect, do not
tinker at your painting. Let it dry. When it is quite hard
and bone-dry take a brushful of clear water and pass it over
your drawing, and work on the drawing when it is moist.

Small children find it amusing and instructive to map
out discs or squares and fill these spaces with colours. By
blending, mixing, and playing with a few tints you realize
the immense variations that can be obtained by judicious
handling.
112

Colour^ and how to Find it

A few petals plucked from a brilliantly coloured flower (a
geranium, say) will give one's colour-box a great stimulus.
Try to paint the petal ; paint a number of petals, and notice
their dazzling tints.

For purity, depth, richness of tint, the breast feathers of
a brilliantly coloured bird (parrot, macaw, or parakeet) are
perhaps unrivalled. Lay one down on a small sheet of white
paper — an envelope — and try to paint the shape and tint.
Try also to mix the tint and lay it on the paper with the
burst of freshness that is the chief charm of the feather. Fill
your brush generously full, and apply it quickly, lightly but
firmly. When it is drying define (or draw) with a few sharp
shadows and strokes the tiny stem, the fluff about the stem,
the broad vane.

Leaves, too, lend a delightful variety, leaves with their
gorgeous autumn raiment. Small children revel in painting
their varied tints and shapes. Nature is very lavish with her
bright colours and she uses the widest range of tints.

Again I must insist, at the risk of appearing wearisome —
bear always in mind the general colour of the object. Which
rule applies with equal force to a lemon or a landscape.

Of course you will make mistakes. We all do that. You
may begin your drawing as a cold scheme of colour when it
should be warm, or vice versa. It is quite possible that you
may veer round and find yourself finishing in direct opposition
to your starting-point; in which case your picture will be
far from successful.

If you are painting from Nature and out of doors, you may
be betrayed by Nature herself, for the weather has a habit
of changing suddenly and so complicating matters.

But provided you do make up your mind and nothing
prevents you from persevering in your choice, you will have
accomplished something pleasing because you will have
achieved a pure harmony in colour.

118

CHAPTER XI

Measuring and Perspective

THERE is no general way of doing things," says a
great writer on art. " No recipe can be given for
doing as much as the drawing of a bunch of grapes."

If there are no known recipes for drawing things success-
fully, there are, nevertheless, several methods by which the
young artist is helped out of difficulties and started on the
right path.

The application of a few rules of perspective, the use of
plumb and parallel lines, the measurement and comparison
of one part of a drawing with another part — all these things
contribute toward the training of the eye and the quickening
of the brain.

Provided that you honestly desire advice, there is nothing
to be ascertained but the direction in which that advice
should be followed.

In short, what do you wish to know ? What is the special
difficulty that perplexes your mind ? Does your drawing
look out of proportion ? Is it too bulky for its height, too
short, too thin, or too tall ?

Then we will measure one part against another part.

Perhaps it seems to you that the object or objects in your
drawing are falling forward or inclining backward.

Then we will apply a plumb-line.

If you have embarked on an ambitious subject such as the
drawing of a house, or a street, and you cannot ' make it
look right ' — " It won't go back," or (equally possible) " It
won't come forward " — then we must delve into the mysteries
of perspective and apply common sense and plain argument.

Perspective is sometimes called the grammar of art because
114

Measuring and Perspective

it assists us to draw correctly, as the grammar of a language
helps us to speak and write correctly.

In the first place let us consider proportions.

If you are sitting at your work, lean back in your chair and
face the object that you are drawing, and hold a pencil or ruler

loitfr *

Pencil

Fig. 44

up at arm's length and level with your eyes. Close one eye
and measure from one end of the ruler, or pencil, to the thumb,
then swing the hand — still at arm's length — and compare
the measurement with another portion of the same object.

Look at your drawing.

Compare the same proportions in your drawing. The pro-
portions must agree.

Let us presume that you are drawing a simple subject such
as a small basket and you are in doubt as to whether the
depth of your drawing of the basket is too great for its width,

115

Drawing for Beginners

Hold your pencil at arm's length and mark the depth with
your thumb. Swivel your wrist, keeping your thumb in the
same position on the pei;icil, and place it in mid-air on the
outside edge of the basket, measuring the width and counting :
" once," then shifting, " twice," again shifting, " thrice "
(probably not quite three times).

Drop your arm and look at your drawing.

Measure the depth of the basket itself with your finger
and thumb on your pencil and place the measurement against
the width.

In that manner you can prove for yourself whether the
proportions of your drawing are right or wrong.

The reason why we close one eye and extend the arm is
this. By closing one eye we concentrate our vision. We
see one object, minus all its distracting surroundings. When
the elbow is straight the arm is extended at its greatest
length. Without taking this precaution we might cheat
ourselves and unconsciously alter the position of the hand,
and confuse measurements.

By straightening the elbow we keep the hand at the same
distance for all measurements.

Do not make a fetish of measuring. Use it merely as a
check, as a corrective. Draw first, measure afterward. The
obnoxious habit of measuring first, and ticking off the
measurement on the paper, is a trick unworthy of an artist.
Moreover, it is a trap. The more we measure the less we
prove. It is quite possible to measure until we stupefy our-
selves.

If you are in doubt — measure.

Ask yourself, " Have I made the nose too short ? " Take
a measurement of the nose and compare it with the length of
the face. " Have I drawn the house too tall in comparison
with the poplar- tree, or the fence too high for the barn ? "
Measure the house against the tree, or the height of the fence
against the height of the barn.

Possibly the proportions of the house, tree, fence, or barn
are fairly satisfactory, but you are not quite satisfied with
116

Measuring and Perspective

the lines that run parallel with your eyes, the top of the roof,
the top of the wall.

Then put up your pencil or ruler, holding it at one end and

Fig. 45

parallel with your eye, and at arm's length. Close one eye.
Raise or lower it until the roof or wall is almost but not quite
covered. The pencil or ruler has a smooth unbroken edge, and
every divergence from the straight line will be apparent.

117

Drawing for Beginners

Parallel lines of roof, wall, box, or house can thus be
easily corrected. But what of the upright lines — the
lintel of the door, the frame of a window, the sides of a
wall ? How shall we prove whether we have drawn these
correctly ?

Take a piece of thick silk or cotton, preferably of a dark
tint, and weighted with a lump of lead (or some similar
heavy substance), and you have one of man's oldest tools, the
plumb-line.

Hold this at arm's length and between the finger and thumb
and before the object of your drawing.

The plumb-line will prove whether the door or window is
perfectly upright (or perpendicular). Pull your drawing-
block, or drawing-board, forward and let the plumb-line hang
before the doubtful line of your sketch. The plumb-line
always finds the true perpendicular.

When, however, you are drawing complicated subjects such
as a large box, pieces of furniture, a portion of a room, house,
or a street, you are faced with greater difficulties.

" How are things in a drawing made to go back ? " is a
question that requires a little more elucidation.

Probably as a small child you began to appreciate that as
objects retire or recede, so must they become apparently
smaller — a first rule of perspective.

Did you not sometimes play at the game of hiding from
your sight a house or a tree by putting your fmger, or even a
single hair, close to your eye ?

You must have noticed that the boat becomes smaller and
smaller as it nears the horizon ; that a man climbing a distant
hill or mountain is reduced eventually to a mere speck ; that
a huge aeroplane looks no larger than a tiny fly among the
clouds ?

Therefore you have fully convinced yourself that objects
must become smaller as they recede.

In other words, as objects retire, or are farther from the eye,
they occupy less space upon the field of vision.

The objects in the nearest part of your picture — that is
118

Fig. 46. Objects become Smaller as they Recede

Drawing for Beginners

to say, in the foreground — are largest ; the things in the
middle, or middle distance, are smaller ; and the things
in the far distance, or background, are smallest. And to
explain these apparently simple facts we must exercise our
wits.

You know that when you stand on the seashore and look
seaward the extent of your vision is bounded by the meeting
of the sea and sky, which boundary is called the horizon.
The horizon is the line that follows the line of your eyes, the
boundary line. The word is derived from the Greek horos,
a limit or boundary.

When you stand on the beach and look at the sea your
position is low, and your horizon is low, because it is on a level
with your eyes.

But climb the cliffs and turn seaward ; the horizon is the
level of your eyes.

Ascend to the very top of the cliffs. Now you are high
indeed. Look again toward the horizon ; it has extended ;
again it is the height of your eyes.

The line of the horizon is not always visible because of
intervening objects, but as the horizon is the height of the
artist's eye its position must be clearly understood, and in-
dicated— for a time at least — in your drawings.

It is possible that you are still unconvinced. Perhaps you
live in a city where roofs and houses block a distant horizon
from view. Then we may apply another illustration and
explain matters differently.

Suppose you descend to the street in a lift and look up
at the buildings. What do you see ? Every window, every
cornice and roof, coming down to the level of your eye.

Now take the lift to the top story of your tall building.
What do you then see ? Everything reversed. The eaves
of each lower building, the roofs and cornices, rising to meet
the level of your eye.

And the level of your eye is the height of your horizon.

" Is the thing below the level of my eye, or is it above the
level of my eye ? " is the inevitable question.
120

Measuring and Perspective

You sit in a chair and look at the cornice, the beading, the
top hne of the picture frames, the mirror over the fireplace —

Fig. 47. Above the Eye-level

are they not above the eye-level and do they not come down
to the level of the eye ?
Cast your eye downward, still sitting on the same chair.

121

Drawing for Beginners

What do you see ? The outer edge of the carpet, the rug,

Fig. 48. Below the Eye-level

the wainscot, fender, the rail before the fireplace — all rise to
the level of your eye.

You stand on a railway bridge and look at the long level
122

Measuring and Perspective

stretch of the lines and you note that the rails — wide as they
are below your feet — seem to narrow down to a point in the
far distance on the horizon. That point is called (what else
could it be called ?) the Vanishing Point. And perspective
says : All retiring lines have vanishing points.

Have you not observed the long straight street and its
rows of lamp-posts or electric-light standards and noted that
they diminish in size as they recede, though you know for a
fact that they are all uniform in size ?

As the lamps lessen in height, so does the pavement narrow,
and the houses on each side of the street diminish. For all
lines that lie parallel disappear to the same point on the horizon
— the vanishing point.

The lines of the long esplanade by the sea, of the long
buildings, of the long passage or tunnel, all recede, and if con-
tinued in our imagination meet at the level of the eye, which
is the horizon. For the vanishing point is that point on the
surface of the picture where retiring lines if continued would
meet.

A large picture in a frame is perhaps the easiest example of
parallel lines diminishing.

You are well aware that the sides of the picture are parallel.
They are equal. Measure with an inch measure if you have
any doubts on that point.

Now hang the picture on a wall ; stand aside and at one
end, several paces away, and make a quick sketch of it in its
frame. Does not the near end of the frame appear larger
than the far end ? In other words, the picture-frame appears
smaller as it recedes.

Measure the farthest end against the nearest by holding
the pencil at arm's length. Continue the diminishing lines
until they meet. Again we get the vanishing point resting
on the (imaginary) line of the horizon at the height of our
eye.

Let us procure a cardboard-box, and placing it on a table,
three-quarter view, and about the height of the eye, take up
our pencils and proceed to sketch it.

123

Drawing for Beginners

In all probability you will say, " I can't tell whether the
lines are running up or down."

Can you see the top of the box ? If you sit about the same
height as myself, you will say, " Yes, I can see a little bit of
the top."

If we see even a small portion of the top, the eye is above
the top, and if the eye is above the box, what must the lines
do but rise to the level of the eye ?

The top of the box is nearest to the level of the eye, and

Fig. 49. Can you see the Top of the Box ?

the lower part of the box is farther away (the depth of the
box is between). Therefore the top lines of the box rise a
little, but the bottom lines rise a great deal.

If we have two lines which go gently on, one at a slight
angle and one at a stiff angle, what must be the final result ?
They will meet at the height of your eye, or at your horizon.

The higher you sit on your chair, the more you can see
of the top of the box. The lower you sit, the less you
can see.

Place the same box on the floor, sit on a chair, and make a
drawing of it.

Then place the box at a height — say on the top of a cup-
board about 6| feet high — and draw it again.

In the first drawing, up come the lines to meet the level of
your eye. In the second sketch, down come the lines to the
same level. In other words, your horizon in the first drawing
124

Measuring and Perspective

is higher than your object, in the second drawing it is lowfer
than your object.

Some things have more than one vanishing point — for
instance, this same

cardboard-box. A box Horizcrv ov hei^hto^eye
is an angular object.

It has two sides which,

iL nas two siaes wnicnj . , '

11 1 1 ^ vaiiish.ia§

run parallel, and two o

ends which also run
parallel one with an-
other.

Place the box so that
two sides can be ob-
served, and sketch it
lightly and without
measuring. Roughly
sketch its position, and
decide whether the eye
is above or below the
top of the box, i.e.,
whether the horizon is
low or high. Then draw
the line of the horizon
right across the paper,
because hoth vanishing
points must be on the
same level — at the same
horizon.

Young artists find it
difficult to accept this

fact. They are exceedingly prone to provide a different
horizon for each different angle.

The horizon at sea runs straight across the line of vision ;
as you know, it runs level with the eyes. Then why try to
reach several horizons in the same picture ?

In other words, it is not reasonable to assume two horizons in
drawing one object.

125

Fig. 50. The Rising Lines

Drawing for Beginners

If more of one side of the box is seen than the other, then
the side of which we have the broader view will have its
vanishing point farther away. The side of the box presenting
a more acute angle will have its vanishing point nearer.

Hortz-of\) ov hei^h't o^ c^e

Vanishing voi'fl-t

Fig. 51. The Falling Lines

The vanishing points will be near or far apart according to
the angles.

The farther the vanishing points are apart, the farther we
are from the object ; and the nearer we are to the object,
the nearer together are the vanishing points.

We may now feel justified in drawing something a little
more ambitious and a little more interesting than a box. If
we select something the shape of which bears a general re-
semblance to that of a box and place it in the same position,
136

Fig. 52. VAJitsHiNG Point close to Spectator

Measuring and Perspective

we shall have the same perspective. A toy house standing
on a little platform will serve our purpose excellently. The
parallel lines of the projecting chimney-pot, the upper line of
the roof, the lower line of the roof, the lower line of the roof
on the far side of the house, the near line of the platform,
and the far line of the platform — these all run parallel and
meet on the horizon, the eye -level on the left of the diagram ;
while the front angles, the two overhanging points of the eaves,
the base of the house, the front base of the platform, the
windows, shutters, and doorways, all lie parallel, and disappear
at the other vanishing point on the right of the diagram.

When you are sketching houses, boxes, or other objects that
demand clear perspective, do not begin by drawing a mere
plan of the lines. Remember you are trying to be an artist.

Sketch your house first, then puzzle out your perspective.
Check the drawing by the perspective, never the perspective
by the drawing. You will find, as time goes on, that you
will rightly register the perspective with more and more ease.

Rules for perspective might be cited without end, but a
few diagrams well studied will obviate many questions.

Receding lines that are not parallel to the earth, says a per-
spective rule, do not meet on the horizon, but either above or
below.

The sloping lid of a box, the sloping flap of a cellar, and
the sloping roof of a house do not lie parallel with the earth.
This rule is clearly demonstrated in the diagrams shown on
pp. 130 and 131.

The student often meets in examination papers the state-
ment : " The drawing of a direct front view, or a full side
view, will disqualify a candidate."

" Why is this ? " students invariably ask.

Think for a minute.

A box, a table, a wall, that faces your vision exactly has
lines that lie parallel, and never meet. They cannot meet
because they do not recede from you.

A full front view, or a full side view, has no vanishing point
right or left.

I 129

-50?

Cfi

u —

Drawing for Beginners

Therefore it must be crystal-clear that such views offer no
test of accurate perspective drawing.

Then we have this rule :

'Parallel lines that do not recede never have the appearance of
meeting anywhere.

Look at the diagram of a village street.

The nature of the ground prevents the building of a long
straight street, and the houses are dotted about. Although
they present a diminishing effect (they are receding from the
vision), yet they diminish to the horizon at four different
points. Observe this well ; it will demonstrate that :

// there are ten retiring lines and all parallel, there will he
only one vanishing point for all ; hut if among the ten there are
not two parallel lines, there will he ten vanishing points.

Perspective comes to our aid when we are perplexed with
curves of arches, bridges, and doorways — beautiful objects
that tempt the pencil and deceive the eye.

First sketch the arch or window, marking the direction of
the base, the thickness of the wall ; then, if you are in doubt
about the rightful position of the curve, and the highest
point of the arch, enclose the base lines in a square, drop a line
from each corner, and at the intersection (or meeting-place)
draw an upright line ; that should find the centre of the arch.

In other words, enclose curved shapes in rectangular shapes.

Although a single arch, or even a couple of arches, might
be sketched fairly correctly without such aid, a cluster of
arches presents a more complicated problem, and we should
feel justified in using this method of checking perspective.

Circles, we know, are exceedingly difficult to draw correctly.
An artist, of course, should draw circles without resorting to
mechanical means, but a beginner, on occasion, may wish to
check his drawing of a circle by enclosing it in a square.

In Fig. 57 we have an upright circle in a square, also a
circle enclosed in a square and in perspective — i.e., receding
from the spectator.

Strictly speaking, many perspective problems belong to
geometry and not to art, and provided that we understand a
132

Measuring and Perspective

few simple rules, we need not worry ourselves with intricate
problems.

But there is one deduction to which we must pay attention.

Fig. 56. The Fobeshorteking op Curves and Arches

Every receding line or surface must necessarily be fore-
shortened.

What is foreshortening ?

A coin seen upright and straight in front is a perfect circle ;
a coin seen lying down is a coin diminished and a coin fore-
shortened. In the first example the circle is complete. In

1S3

Drawing for Beginners

the second example the surface of the coin is receding and the
coin appears to be thicker in the part nearest the spectator.
It does not appear to be a perfect circle.

Every object or thing that advances toward the spectator
is foreshortened. For instance, some one points a finger
directly at the artist. What does the artist see ? He sees
the tip of the finger, the tip of the thumb, the width of bent
fingers, knuckles, palm, and arm, but the planes or surfaces
that recede — such as the shaft of the finger itself, the fore-

Fig. 57. A Coin Upright and a Coin Foreshortened

arm, and the upper arm — all these are seen in a foreshortened
state.

Put up your own hand and clench your fingers, but with
the thumb erect. Now lower the upper part of the thumb,
inclining it away from your vision. Your thumb is now fore-
shortened, the upper part is receding.

The human figure, being a rounded object, must always
present some parts foreshortened.

In the head, the width of the shoulder, the width of the
hips, the smooth rounded limbs, the curves of foot and hand
— nowhere do we find an absolutely flat surface.

If you wish to find the human figure depicted without any
foreshortening, you must refer to the drawings and carvings
of the ancient Egyptians, In Fig. 58 we have a copy from a
carving produced about the year 1490 B.C. (For the laws of
134

Measuring and Perspective

perspective were all but unknown until the fifteenth century.)
And what do you find ?

The head in profile, the shoulders squarely and flatly pre-
sented (front view), the legs apparently tacked on to a flat
surface instead of a rounded body, for they do not recede
one behind the other, but present knee against knee-joint,
ankle against ankle, and foot against
foot. And to add to the peculiarities
of early Egyptian art, the front view of
the eye is inserted along the profile view
of the forehead, nose, mouth, and chin.

Does this not bring home that unless
you absorb a few laws of perspective,
proportions, and foreshortening, you will
find yourself heavily handicapped ?

You can provide yourself with a good
deal of amusement and useful instruction
by searching for perspective, not only in
your own paintings and drawings, but in
the work of other people.

Study pictures in books and magazines,
and photographs in the daily papers,
and you will find endless examples of
perspective.

By tracing parallel lines and finding vanishing points of
planes and surfaces, much that bewildered you in the past
will become clear and reasonable.

Planes, horizontal planes and perpendicular planes, are
terms constantly used with regard to perspective.

A horizontal plane is a plane parallel with the earth ; a per-
pendicular plane is one perpendicular to the earth. The top of
a table and the ceiling of a room are horizontal planes ; the
walls of the room are perpendicular planes.

It might, very reasonably, be concluded that in using the
words " tracing parallel lines " I intended to convey that
lines should be drawn across the pictures. But that certainly
was not my intention. There is no necessity to commit the

135

Fig. 68. Egyptian

FiGUKE

Drawing for Beginners

crime of scribbling with pencil or ink on the printed pages.
A thread of white or black silk or cotton laid upon the sur-
face will serve your purpose.

To explain more clearly. Lay a thread of cotton on one
of the perspective diagrams, hold one end on the vanishing
point, and from that angle swivel the thread on to the
various parallel lines. Remove the thread to each vanishing
point.

Test any of the perspective examples in this way by merely
laying the thread on the paper, holding the right thumb on
the thread at the vanishing point. An old reel with a small
quantity of cotton is, perhaps, easiest to handle, then the
thread does not slip out of the left hand.

Use black thread if the drawing is lightly sketched on
white paper, and white thread if the picture is in a dark
tone.

Let me presume that you wish to analyse the perspective
of the accompanying photograph of a picture-gallery, which
is a very simple example.

Lay the thread first against the lowest line of the left wall,
and find the inclination of the floor ; then lay it on the top
line near the ceiling. You will easily discover the point
where these two lines meet. Hold the thread on that place
and test the right-hand side of the picture by laying the
thread first against the base and then against the summit of
the pillars.

By careful adjustment you will soon fix the actual position
of the vanishing point, which lies, does it not, between the
two dark frames on the facing (far) wall and the light frames
of the two adjoining pictures.

All the pictures on the left-hand wall lie parallel with the
wall and diminish as they recede. All the pillars on the right
side diminish both in height and bulk. Is not the nearer
pillar a great deal larger in girth than the next, and the
second pillar larger than the third ?

Although the pictures are grouped at different heights from
the ground, yet they all diminish to the same vanishing
136

Measuring and Perspective

point — the vanishing point which Hes on the horizon, this
being the height of the camera lens.

The pictures on the far wall exactly face the spectator,
therefore they do not diminish.

You were told to lay the thread first on the floor, then on
the ceiling. This is always the wisest plan. If you find the
boundary lines correctly, then all within those lines falls into
place.

When you are drawing from Nature always check the out-
side lines. If sketching the whole of the house, find the top
line of the roof, and the base of the walls ; then the rest of
the roof, the windows, doorways, lintel, and porch will all
fall into place and save you an enormous amount of needless
bother. If the outside lines are correct, then it stands to
reason that everything within those lines will agree.

It matters not whether it is only a box or a house, a barn
or a chair, a boat or a book — always, always check the extreme
limit.

By the very simple aid of a thread you can discover many
things. You can trace the low horizon of pictures that repre-
sent the low-lying ground. You will also discover that the
low horizon gives ample space for the sky, and that clouds
also conform to the laws of perspective and disappear as they
recede.

Pictures of interiors of houses are extremely interesting.
There you note that the walls, floor, and ceiling (or rafters
of the roof) diminish to the same vanishing point (because
they lie parallel one to another), but that the chairs and
tables, unless they are arranged parallel with the walls,
have each a separate vanishing point, though each vanish-
ing point must, of necessity, meet on the same horizon. (See
Fig. 53.)

By making a friend of perspective and interesting our-
selves in its various little problems, looking not only for
the perspective in our own drawings, but for the per-
spective in others, we shall soon acquire a useful amount of
knowledge.

137

Drawing for Beginners

Shadows and reflections both bow to the law of perspective.
Reflections in water, we are told, are geometrical but not
pictorial. Objects are repeated in water geometrically.

All reflections of lines parallel with the surface of the water
vanish on the horizon at the same point.

For example, we sketch two upright posts supporting a
beam of wood.

The beam diminishes as it inclines toward the horizon ;
carry on these diminishing lines till they meet on the
horizon.

The lines in the beam of wood reflected in the water are
parallel with those in the actual beam above ; these too must
incline to the same vanishing point.

If a bridge is sketched with the curve of its arch reflected
in the water, the reflection must incline toward the same
horizon and the same vanishing point.

It is quite possible that you are a keen observer, and that
your quick eye has already noticed these facts. Nevertheless
there is no harm in impressing them upon you. Water is
exceedingly deceptive. The rippling play of the winds on
the surface and the break of the waves are apt to lead the
eye astray. Which point was realized by many of the Old
Masters, who safeguarded themselves by omitting reflections
and painting sky and water with the same colour and the
same brush.

Now for a final observation ; perhaps you have not noticed
that the reflection of the sun and moon, the stars and the
clouds, are the same distance below the horizon as the
originals are above.

It is by no means uncommon to find a young student
neglecting shapes and proportions of shadows ; and here
perspective holds out a helping hand.

The extent of the shadow is ruled by the position of the source
of light.

When the sun is high in the heavens the shadows are com-
paratively short. When the sun is sinking the rays elongate.
That is a matter of pure observation. Even a baby will
138

VIoYlZ o(\i

of. lines parallel vutfi th^

Vanrsh, on the iioi'J7or\.
■to the- sawe poLfii

a re the, -""-

below

-The.

boruo

as.

the.

Fig. 60. Reflections

Drawing for Beginners

sometimes notice the long shadows cast by a stone, the
flickering ribbon of shade thrown across its path when the
sun is low on the horizon.

By comparing diagrams of sun and shade you can make
your own deductions.

The sun is so far removed from the earth's surface that its rays
are 'parallel. But the rays from lamp or candle radiate on all
sides and cannot be considered parallel.

140

CHAPTER XII

Sketching Out of Doors

To the keen, enthusiastic young artist there is nothing
more fascinating, more enthralHng, than sketching
out of doors.

A walk abroad among foreign scenes and strange people
or a walk at home among one's own familiar haunts can be
equally fruitful.

There are one or two points which need explaining, and
one or two pitfalls of which the novice might be warned.

For the ardent young sketcher frequently digs a pit for
his own feet. He begins a ' sketch,' but he pursues it into
a finished study.

A sketch, it must be remembered, should he a sketch and
nothing more. It is a trifle, an impression.

" How unfinished ! " remarks some one, looking over the
young artist's shoulder. Do not let the remark influence you
against your better judgment.

Did you begin the sketch as an impression of a particular
thing — the wind swaying a spray of flowers, a branch, or a
tree, a cloud passing over a distant hill and blurring its con-
tour, a scrap of rugged masonry, a sunny portion of a terrace,
a garden seat, a toy flung on the grass, a fragment of a
flower over which a bird or butterfly hovers ? Then do not
try to finish it. All the spirit of the sketch will vanish if
you ' finish ' one tiny portion at the expense of another
part.

Experience, that hard taskmaster, and experience only,
will teach you how far to carry your sketch.

But the main thing to remember is this. If you wish to
sketch — sketch. Leave the finished study for other times.

141

, %

Drawing for Beginners

And never, never tinker with your sketch when you take it

home.

Now, having given fair warning, let us proceed to details.
The secret of successful sketching is to arrive at your

chosen place fresh and eager for work.

If you burden yourself with a lot of sketching paraphernalia,

you will arrive with
aching arms, hot and
tired, and possibly cross.
" Travel light when
sketching " is a good
motto. Take with you
only essential sketching
materials. A block or a
book, and, if the book
has limp covers, a piece
of board or stiff card-
board on which to rest
it, a pencil, india-
rubber, paint-box,
brushes, and a bottle
of water are necessities.
An easel, a camp-stool,
a sketching umbrella,
personally I should re-
gard as superfluous.
It is usually possible to hold your book in such a way that

your paper is shaded by your shoulder, your hat, or the

opposite page.

A stile, fence, stone, stump, or bank more often than not

offers a convenient resting-place and saves you the trouble

of carrying a camp-stool.

If the weather is damp, an ordinary newspaper carried

under your sketch-book and folded and used as a cushion is

a good precaution against catching colds ; should the weather

be very hot the same paper, folded and held fan-wise, shields

the page from the glare of the sun.

142

Fig. 61. An Impression

Sketching Out of Doors

A great point is gained by starting in a business-like frame
of mind. It is a mistaken idea that an artist drifts into
painting a picture as a cloud drifts across the sky. To
obtain practical results you must start with practical inten-
tions. You must be firm with yourself. You must choose
your subject quickly and settle down determinedly, and you
must not he too ambitious. Young people balk their efforts
by attempting subjects that are so ambitious that they might
well make a practised artist hesitate.

" I should love to paint a field of corn, with poppies and
convolvuluses . , . and perhaps a little dip of the sea —
and a glimpse of the village church beyond," one will exclaim.

And another will say :

" Let's go on the beach and sketch the harbour, and the
boats, and the cliffs. It would be simply topping ! "

I admit the attractiveness of such subjects. The very
suggestion quickens one's pulses. But the difficulties !

Once upon a time there was a man of most eloquent tongue
who wrote about art, and more especially about pictures.
He advised artists to take a stone and study that. There's
something very interesting in the drawing of an old lichened
stone, though it is far from easy. A wise principle of selec-
tion, however, is — choose one simple subject rather than a
dozen complicated ones.

From the field of corn choose a blade of wheat with per-
haps the tendril of a convolvulus creeping up its stalk ; a
cluster of poppies, a tall grass. If a butterfly flutters near,
watch intently the angle of his wings, the exquisite poise of
his body, the clutching, delicate strength of the tiny legs,
and draw your remembrance of him.

In a meadow-land of gold and silver, where cows are " forty
feeding like one," choose a spray of buttercups, a single fine
marguerite ; take one cow under your observation ; make a
sketch of a portion of a tree, a gnarled branch, or some
twisted roots with an over-curling plume of a fern. Sketch
the stile, or the fragment of a paling round which a spray of
ivy is climbing.

143

Drawing for Beginners

Should you wish to sketch a cottage, be careful not to sit
too near. If you do, your perspective will be very violent

Fig. 62. When sketchinq a Cottage do not sit too near

and look exaggerated. Sit half a meadow away rather than
at the front gate.

And if the cottage is complicated (that is, filled with detail,
the thatch deep and overhanging, the creepers thick and
concealing the shape of the wall, and the little lattice-windows
nearly hidden from view), draw a portion of the cottage — a
144

Sketching Out of Doors

corner of the eaves and one window, a portion of the roof
and the queer old chimney, the porch with its potted plants
and window-seat, or the well-head with its dripping rope and

Fig. 63

shining pail. And a word of advice about a garden. There
is nothing more difficult than garden scenes. The subjects
are many, the lights are often broken, the shadows are con-
fused. Content yourself with a woodshed, or portion of a
summer-house, a few mossy steps, a garden roller, a corner of
the terrace, a wheelbarrow, or a cluster of pots and a trowel.
At the outset ask yourself whether the object you intend
to draw will best fit an oblong or upright sheet of paper.

K 145

Drawing for Beginners

If you wish to draw a tall subject, such as a tree, a narrow
building, an upright flower or figure, hold your sketch-book
in an upright position. If you intend drawing a long-shaped
subject, a reclining figure of a person or animal, a wide-
spreading building, a
stretch of low-lying
ground, hold the book
open at the full width
of the page.

Beginners are prone
to dash at a subject,
and, finding they have
drawn it on a smaller
scale than they intended,
add other details until
the page is filled.

But why fill the whole
page ? An artist's
sketch-book is a book
of scraps. He seldom
carries his sketches up
to the margin of his
paper. One page may,
and often does, carry
an amazing variety of
subjects.

If you decide to do

Fig. 64. The Well-head nij.ii .

^ a small sketch keep to

that intention. Should you feel unhappy because a wide
margin surrounds your small sketch, frame the sketch with
a lightly drawn pencil line.

It is astonishing how important are these apparently trivial
matters, how much they influence the sketch for good or ill.

We will presume that you have arrived at your destination
and are sitting in a shady place, faced with a bewildering
number of beautiful things. After fixing and unfixing your
mind many times you at length decide to draw something
146

Fig. 65. Flowering Rushes

Drawing for Beginners

that is close at hand — a tiny clump of white flowers with
feathery foliage, golden disks, and silvery petals growing
humbly near the shorn stubble of the cornfield. It is a wise
selection. Being of a lowly habit, the flowers will not be
tossed and stirred by the wind, and so worry you at the very
outset of your task. Moreover, the flowers have simple
forms. They resemble tiny umbrellas with long handles.
Draw first the shape and curve of the slender stem, then the
circular gold centre, then the ' mass ' shape of the petals,
dividing up each petal later, noting their wayward manner
of growing.

After this your eye probably will be attracted by the
gorgeous berries of the woody nightshade twisting its jewels
round the ash stump and fence.

Draw the post and paling before the entwining tendrils and
stalks. Wide-flung circles and rampant growth such as
these lead the eye astray. But if the upright post and the
cross-piece are once fixed on paper, then we have two simple
and solid shapes lending contrast to the delicacy of the
twining stem. If you began by drawing the stem of the
plant, your eye might be misled by its strength and sinews.
The foliage is vigorous. There is no feeble indecision in the
sweeping curves and twisted heart-shaped leaves. Sketch
the looping curves of the stem, then place the leaves, drawing
from tip to tip on the outside edges. The berries gem the
post in fanciful clusters, hanging from thread-like stems.
Make the post firm and strong and shade it broadly. The
richest tone, however, is reserved for the berries, and the
leaves have a high polish.

It is undoubtedly a tempting subject for the brush. Mix
your colours clearly. The berries will probably attract your
first attention. Try to get the rich tints glowing and bright,
then the colour of the leaves, allowing for their transparency
by laying the paint freshly and broadly, and, when dry,
adding some of the deep greens and browns of the back-
ground.

In all probability you will be disappointed with your first
148

< f/

Fig. G6. Sketching Plants. Thumbnail Landscape Sketches

148

Sketching Out of Doors

efforts. The open air is one of the most exacting of con-
ditions. The pure clear atmosphere reveals every blot and
blemish. Your model challenges your poor attempts with its
incomparable beauty.

Nevertheless, do not be discouraged, for you have this great
encouragement, that if the painting or drawing looks at all
passable out of doors it will look infinitely better within
doors.

A clump of brilliantly coloured fungi is a delicious subject
for pencil or brush, and one that is often found in the wood-
lands on a summer's day. What could be more simple in
form than a toadstool, with its curved top and ridged surface
beneath, and the bulbous-shaped stalk ? Being a rounded
surface, one part will be lighter than another. Try to place
the shading correctly. The edge of the fungus may be
broken, chipped, splotched, or stained. Do not neglect any
of these happy accidents. Dame Nature springs the most
extraordinary surprises upon those bent on discovering her
secrets, and if we are lax in small matters we shall miss the
beauties in larger objects later on.

A trailing spray of blackberry is a charming subject for
brush and pencil alike. Sketch the direction of the spray,
then the mass of each spray, then the direction of each leaf
in the spray.

When the sun is high in the heavens and the colours are
faint and sickly, use your pencil instead of a brush.

A bit of a fence overhanging a piece of rock or sandstone,
or a fence topping a grassy bank, or a stile dividing two fields,
are equally interesting subjects for a sketch.

And here I must repeat myself at the risk of appearing
wearisome. In no case do I wish you to choose necessarily
the subject that I have discussed. My examples are chosen,
first, because they are simple and direct ; secondly, because
they are within reach of the majority of young artists ; and,
thirdly, because they represent variations of themes found
over a broad area.

Draw the nearest upright post, get the direction of the

149

Drawing for Beginners

farther ones, and the bars that link the three. If you are in
doubt about the angle of the bars hold your pencil at arm's
length and then you will note their direction. If you desire
to check the perspective, lay your book on the ground and
seek for a long piece of slender grass. Hold one end of the
grass on the right of your drawing and above the top bar —

Fig. 67. Choose Simple Subjects

for that is the height of the eye in this little sketch (Fig. 68).
The palings are curved and bent, and overhang the rock. The
rock is a thick crumbling substance, its rounded edge pro-
jects, and its flat surface is slightly cleft and cast into shadow.
Always draw the largest and most important parts first,
such as the fence, and the rock, then add the grass tufting
the summit, and the bramble swinging down into space. An
oak-tree stands close by. Its roots have become welded into
crevices of the rock, and it rears a twisted and graceful trunk
bending slightly backward in its efforts to reach the sun.
The rock and tree have characteristics in common. Sketch
the mass of the projecting boulder, then the root of the tree,
150

^»S^Y\ ""^

'-^r:

Fig. 71. The Twig of a
Poplar

Fig. 72. A POPLAK-TREE

Drawing for Beginners

mark the girth of the trunk, and draw the tree, building up
with big curves, and noting the snake-hke twist of the
slender branches. Mark the richest and deepest shadows,
how the shadows break into shadow shapes of twigs, leaves,
and grass.

Trees are difficult — that much is admitted even by Ian,
who is devoted to his pencil.

" Oh, yes," said Ian, " I can draw horses, and men, and
houses — but trees " and he paused thoughtfully.

To draw a tree from life, we must aim at the main structure.
First draw the trunk, then the biggest branches, lastly the
leaves.

There is a curious fact about trees that is worth recording,
for it is often helpful when we are faced with the difficulties
of grasping such a big subject. A branch of a tree will have
all the characteristics of the tree itself.

Examine a small branch of an oak-tree — just a spray of
leaves. Are they not sturdy, stout fellows ? Does not each
twig strike out in an independent fashion — spreading
strongly ? And is not the branch from which the twig is
broken gnarled and twisted, stubborn and strong ? Walk
some distance away from the oak-tree, then turn and observe
it carefully.

Has not the tree the same characteristics as the branch, as
the twig ?

Compare a twig of the poplar-tree with the tree itself. Is
not the twig the same pyramid shape as the parent tree ?

It is a good idea to draw some twigs of a tree before trying
to draw the tree itself. And this is an excellent subject when
the weather is too cold to stand out of doors. Gather some
bare twigs and carry them home and make careful drawings
of the twigs. When spring is approaching you will find
delightful little subjects in the swinging green and red catkins
and the soft down of the pussy willows, and autumn provides
us with a wealth of clustering nuts. Which studies will help
you with your drawing of the tree.

When drawing the branch of a tree look from one side to
152

sketching Out of Doors

another side, from one angle to another angle. Build up the
tree, as if it were growing under your pencil, with its rough-
ness, nodules, and irregularities. Do not draw it too smoothly.

Fiff. 73. Twigs in Early Spring

like the polished leg of a table, but try to give it a natural
sturdy growth.

Trees of a striking peculiarity are easiest to draw, as are
people with strongly marked features. Such are Scotch fir-

Fig. 74. Twigs of Trees without Leaves

trees with spiky needles, bony branches, and spiked trunks ;
thorn-trees, small and twisted with the winds ; oak-trees
that have braved many a storm, with lopped branches and
thin foliage.

You will find it interesting to sketch clumps of trees with
the brush, either in black or white or colour — a few tall elm-
trees in a distant meadow, or a fringe of fir-trees against

153

Drawing for Beginners

the sky. This teaches
you to observe trees
as a whole, and also
impresses upon you
the varied silhouette
of each type of tree.
Before we embark
on the subject of
landscape — for our
horizon is broadening
rapidly — we might
spend a few moments
discussing the sketch-
ing of ruined castles
and old houses, which
so often form an ex-
cuse for an excursion
or a picnic, and of
which we usually
desire to carry home
some little memento
in the shape of a
sketch.

Do not attempt
complicated subjects.
If the ruin is large
and there are many
turrets, many towers,
flights of steps, and
long passages, choose
a modest fragment.

An angle of a wall
against which twist
the bony stems of

ivy, one little window framing a patch of blue sky, a morsel

of broken masonry, or a few steps — any of these will give

you the materials you need.

154

'^^.^il

Fig. 75.

A Tree drawn with a Tv/ig

DIPPED IN THE InKPOT

3i^^

^.'^.^%

Fig. 76. A Silhouette of Treks. Sketches of Ruins 154

Sketching Out of Doors

A ruin invariably presents a crumbling, and softened, and
somewhat elusive outline.

Rough in the whole mass, the general structure. Look
for the highest point, compare the position of each thing
with that point, then, having settled on the principal forms,
look for the darkest dark and brightest light. Try to give an
impression of the roughened surface. Draw the near shapes
with care. If you sketch the masonry in the foreground with
accuracy, then the parts that lie farther away can be more
slightly drawn. The little bit of knowledge acquired by
sketching something with care has a very solid value. Young
sketchers faced with picturesque ruins are often tempted to
try a tricky way of drawing.

We have all seen ruins ' touched in ' with sharp and telling
bits of light and shade (apparently with ease and quickness),
and we are fired with a desire to do likewise.

Believe me when I say that this is yet another pitfall for the
unwary. The tricky methods of drawing never advance us one
step. We must sketch only what we see, and that with care.

Look also for the perspective (another thing that is often
ignored when sketching out of doors), check the top angle,
and the base of the arch, also the fragment of carving,
and the window in the wall with the near and projecting
masonry.

Once we are fairly embarked on the subject of ruined
buildings and trees, we feel more capable of trying real
landscapes on a larger scale.

As an introduction to this more ambitious task, try your
hand at thumbnail sketches. By thumbnail I mean tiny
impressions of fairly large things, small houses, small trees,
and the broadest indication of the curve of the ground, of
fields, hills, and hedges. Not scribbles, but honest though
minute sketches marking the chief characteristics : the lie
of the ground, the position of the houses, the shape of roof
(whether pointed or flat), the comparative size of the trees
or shrubs, the tint or tone of trees, grass, roof, and walls.
(See the examples in Fig. 66.)

155

Drawing for Beginners

Needless to say, distance does lend enchantment to the
view in these thumbnail impressions, and they are far easier
to draw when seen from a long distance. They are useful,
too, for the few minutes' wait at a railway-station, or the
short space of time spent at places when motoring. We can
seize on a few of the salient or chief characteristics of the
landscape and jot down tiny little pictures of houses and
trees, hills and valleys, cliff-end and sea. The concentra-
tion necessary for these sketches will help us to grasp the
chief characteristics of larger sketches.

A barn on the top of a sloping field, with a horse cropping
the turf, and a morsel of a fence is as simple and direct a
subject as one could find. Begin by sketching the slope of
the ground, on which erect the shape of the barn, with its
pointed roof, then the upright palings and short bushes, the
horse with bent neck and the barrel shape of its rounded
body.

Then as to the colour. A soft yellow light pervades sky,
barn, grass, and horse, and on this float the rounded misty
shapes of the grey clouds. The golden-brown roof is touched
with cooler grey shadows on the near side, and the grass
mingles with the reddish soil, something the same tint as the
barn. The hedge is olive deepening to brown, and the flank
and neck of the horse is a richer brown and olive sharpened
with darker tints.

Light and shade out of doors is often most bewildering to
the young student. The light is suffused, the air is clean
and penetrating, shadows flicker and change.

Before beginning a sketch try to decide on the most de-
finite bits of light and shade. Make a thumbnail sketch in
the comer of your book if you will, in pencil or charcoal.
Say to yourself, " The sun was out, the rays shone from
that particular angle." Should you find the shadows and
rays vanishing before the approach of large clouds, wait
till the clouds pass. If, instead of passing, more clouds
appear, then begin another sketch, for those clouds change
the whole effect of the landscape. And how much they
156

Fi^-. 77. A Si-\iri.K La.mi.-m'apk

156

Sketching Out of Doors

change it can be proved by referring to your thumbnail
sketch.

Sketching on the seashore raises a fresh crop of difficulties
and delights.

Boats are not easy things to draw when lying on the

Fig. 78. On the Seashore

beach. " And that is the reason," Audrey explains, " why
I prefer to draw them in the water."

Audrey is wily, but she doesn't altogether avoid her diffi-
culties. If we are spared drawing the curve of the keel seen

Fig. 79. The Shape that is hidden by the Waves

when the boat is exposed on the pebbles, there is all the
rigging to lead us astray when the boat is in the water.

Moreover, we must know something about the shape that
is hidden by the waves. As it is necessary to know the
shape of the limbs covered by the clothes, and the branches
covered with the leaves, so is it essential that we should
know something of the build of the boat.

Should our artistic eye be attracted by the rich tints of

157

Drawing for Beginners

the sails of fishing smacks or long-shore boats, we must be
careful not to neglect the rigging and shape of the sails.

I have a distinct remembrance of five drawings by five
little ladies of a fishing smack with sails exactly the same
shape fore and aft. Compare one sail with another sail.
Begin by drawing the long sweeping curves of the hull, and
then the angle of the mast. With these two facts carefully
noted you won't go quite so far astray.

A beach, however, has a lot to offer besides the boats.

There are the capstans, and the high black houses where

Fig. 80. Study of a Boat

the fishermen store their nets and tackle, and the lobster
pots, and the heaps of coiled ropes. There are the rocks
with their brown and mossy sides reflected in limpid pools ;
crabs; shells of all descriptions; starfishes most obligingly
lazy and quiet ; sprays of deliciously coloured seaweed ;
sand castles, wooden spades, and scarlet buckets.

The beach is full of interesting little colour subjects. The
air is clear, and the water reflects the light ; bright caps and
frocks, sails and seaweed, and the striped tents and scarlet
buckets are all most attractive.

All our former discussions, our thumbnail sketches, pencil
and chalk studies, and small landscapes in colour will render
sketching by the seashore easier.

If we wish to sketch people sitting on the beach, or children
158

"^"^"is 4§a

."'* 3f.-^

Fitf. si. On tiik Hkach

i^S

Sketching Out of Doors

playing, we shall have to be very rapid. It is wisest to sketch
the stationary things first. If we desire to sketch Mollie or
Rosemary by their tent or climbing the breakwater or rocks,
do not let us waste time waiting. Sketch a bit of the tent,
the breakwater or rock, then when Mollie or Rosemary
appears you will be prepared. Also, and I speak feelingly
on the subject, they may dart away before you have painted
the colour of their shoes, belt, or even dress — if so, write the
colour tint in the margin.

But with the distant promontory and the glossy procession
of rocks stretching into the sea, you will happily find some-
thing at rest. Only, remember this, never begin a sketch
in the morning and finish the same at night. The light will
be wholly different. Sketch a morning scene by morning, a
noonday scene at noonday. If you have not done all you
desired to do during those periods of time, put the sketch
away until those hours recur. It is highly improbable that
you will see the same effect again, for that is at once the
bane and delight of sketching — its never-ending variety.

159

CHAPTER XIII

How to Catch a Likeness

THE word ' portraiture ' has an awe-inspiring sound.
Portraiture is something that we may possibly
attain in the far-off days when we are grown up.

Granted that the art of portraiture may be too ambitious
for our humble pencil, yet there is every reason why we should
train our eye, hand, and brain in the devious ways of catching
a likeness. It will be a big help to the portrait-painting of
the future.

The gift of catching a likeness, of transposing a recog-
nizable drawing of a face to paper, is a very wayward gift.
It does not follow that because we are artistic we shall have
a jiair for portraiture.

There are some people — far from artistic — who can catch a
likeness.

There are many amateurs (by which I mean those artists
who do not take the artistic profession seriously) who have
a wonderful facility for drawing a likeness ; also there are
very clever artists to whom the gift of portraiture is denied.
All of which demonstrates that this peculiar gift lies apart
from other branches of art.

Whether we have this gift, or whether we have merely a
feeling that we should like ' to try our hand ' at sketching a
likeness, it is our plain duty to make a few efforts, for it
stimulates three very valuable qualities : it promotes care-
fulness, accuracy, and reasoning.

Now we might consider a few methods by which we may
become proficient in this very elusive art.

Possibly at some time of your life you have amused your-
self with sketching the shadows of your friends. You placed
160

How to Catch a Likeness

a candle or some other light at such an angle that the shadow
of the profile was thrown on a sheet of paper pinned on a
wall ; then by tracing the outline of the shadow with a soft
pencil, or piece of
charcoal, you secured
an outline sketch.
The size of the pic-
ture is its disadvant-
age. Who wants a
life-sized outline of
even their dearest
and their best ?

But in a sizable,
careful little outline
drawing of a friend's
features filled with
black ink or paint
we have an old-
fashioned method of
portraiture — the sil-
houette.

Silhouette drawing
is not such a difficult
art as it might at
first appear. It is,
moreover, an excel-
lent stepping-stone to
the broad highway of
portraiture. And it
has two very popular advantages : it is quickly done, and it
is pleasing when done.

Armed with a smooth card or a firm-surfaced paper, a
pencil, a fine brush or pen, ivory black paint or black drawing
ink, we have all that is necessary.

Ask your model to move his head aside till he presents his
profile, then take up your pencil and lightly sketch head,
face, features, neck, and hair.

L 161

Fig. 82. A Light Sketch and a Silhouette

Drawing for Beginners

Look critically at the proportions of your drawing. Com-
pare your sketch with your model. Is the face the right
size ? Does the forehead creep too high to the crest of the
head ? Examine the curve from the brow to the bridge of
the nose. Is it sufficiently indented ? Carefully note the
length of the nose, the shape and projection of the upper and
lower lip, the curve of the chin, and the moulding beneath
the jaw.

Do not make the neck too thick. You can add bulk to
your silhouette, but you can't take it away. Carefully note
the shape of the head.

There are various methods of ' finishing ' the neck. For
our first essay the neck may be finished in a sloping curve
beginning at the nape of the neck and sloping thence in a
sharp curve downward to the forepart of the throat.

Always sketch the shape and position of the eye, also the
nostril, ear, jaw, and corner of the mouth. This will help
to check proportions and keep the features in place.

Having drawn the general shape of the coiled, floating, or
clipped locks, the stubby moustache or beard, we shall find
it easy to indicate the shape and character by the fine hairs
projecting beyond the outline.

When the outline is ready to be filled with ink or paint
(and supposing that paint will be your most likely medium)
mix a good quantity of ivory black or sepia on the palette,
and lay it on smoothly and evenly.

The silhouette filled and the outline firm and clear, you
will note any projection of hair, frills, collar, lace, and
ribbons. Draw these with a delicately fine line.

A word about the size of your silhouette. Do not make
the drawing too large, but, on the other hand, do not aim at
making it minute. If you sketch it no larger than a postage-
stamp you will find it difficult to correct in the early stages ;
and if you draw it very large you will lose the dainty effect
that is the chief charm of the silhouette. One and a half
inches high is a fairly reasonable size.

If you are not satisfied with your first attempts at a
162

How to Catch a Likeness

silhouette, do not despair, try again. Make another start —
sketch a fresh model. Do not expect to succeed without
practice, for remember you are up against a difficult problem.
You are not merely trying to depict ' a nose,' ' a face,' ' a
head ' ; but a very special nose, face, and head.

Moreover, there is another excellent reason for many
attempts. There is no satisfactory
method of correcting a silhouette.
If we make a false step and give
too long a nose, too thick lips, too
square a jaw, we cannot afterward
amend our mistake. It is of course
possible to take a brushful of thick
white paint and fine down our
outline. We can also use a scraper
(a very sharp knife) and scrape
at the surface of the paper. But
neither method will be satisfactory.
The pure, hard, sharp outline is
the hall-mark of a good silhouette.
The one unforgivable sin is the
ragged edge.

It is a thrilling moment when
we can trace a likeness between
our model and our silhouette. And
I can truthfully say that, given
a little patience and intelligent
application, there is no reason against, and every reason for,
that happy result.

The drawing of likenesses in silhouette (for there are many
other subjects to which we can apply this fascinating little
art — sprays of leaves, birds, or fluffy animals, grotesque and
quaint figures, landscapes of fantastic description, to quote
but a few) has this advantage. It hides defects.

The double chin, the dragged lines of eye, mouth, and
nostril, the wrinkles of forehead and face, the untidy head
of hair — all are softened and veiled with the kindly brush.

163

Fig. 83. A Spray of Leaves
IN Silhouette

Drawing for Beginners

Once your interest is aroused in portraiture the art of the
silhouette will not wholly satisfy your cravings. It is a
charming but, it must be admitted, a limited art.

Now we are prepared to pass on to more ambitious sub-
jects, and here I must offer a word of advice, for I do not
want to make this difficult business of portraiture unneces-
sarily more difficult. We must go warily. The fascinating
task of drawing likenesses is sometimes apt to give offence.

" That — my portrait ! " said an old lady, ruefully regard-
ing a drawing of mine. " Ah, well ! " — following up with a
sigh — " I was considered rather nice-looking in my day."
The sad result was that the old lady refused to pose again,
and the rest of the holiday was wasted, so far as further
endeavours at sketching a likeness were concerned.

It is just as well to bear in mind what was written of
Sir Joshua Reynolds, the great portrait-painter of the
eighteenth century :

His pencil was striking, resistless, and grand ;

His manners were gentle, complying, and bland ;

Still born to improve us in every part.

His pencil our faces, his manner our heart. ■<*

Compare our beloved Sir Joshua with the Chinese painter
who, like most Chinese artists, was excellent at copying a
likeness, defect and blemish complete, and to whom one of
his sitters objected that he had not made him handsome
enough. The painter replied, blandly but firmly :

" No hab got handsome face, how can hab handsome
picture ? "

Supposing that it is your intention to sketch the likeness
of a person who has what is sometimes called an unfor-
tunate profile, you should not pitch on the particular position
of a profile for choice.

The pencil says that my model has a small eye, snub nose,
receding chin, and it records these facts remorselessly. It
may not mean to be unkind. But the outline is such and
down it goes.
164

Fig. 84. Expression in Portraits

How to Catch a Likeness

In such a case a three-quarter view, or even a full face
would be wiser — and kinder.

Some people run away with the idea that portraiture is
merely seeking out defects and exaggerations — but that is
caricature.

We should look for the pleasing characteristics. We do
not, it is true, wish to draw the ' pretty pretty ' face — the
chocolate-box style of beauty — but there is no reason against
recording pleasant rather than unpleasant facts. It takes a
very big man to rise above facial defects, and an Oliver
Cromwell to wish to be painted ' warts and all.'

We will presume that a group of girls and boys are waiting
primed ready to sketch portraits. And one has been selected,
or very good-naturedly volunteers, to sit as a model. Some one
remarks, not very politely and a little despairingly, " There's
absolutely nothing in Rachel that isn't just ordinary ! "

Ordinary ; what is ' ordinary ' ? ' Common, customary,'
says the dictionary (among other things).

Is Rachel ' ordinary ' compared with the rest ?

Look swiftly from Rachel's lips to those of Patricia.
Rachel's upper lip is ' ever so short ' compared with Patricia's
rather pouting mouth ; and her eye — she has a fine-lidded
eye, with clear, open pupil. John's eye is slightly hidden by
his brow, and his iris is dark. And compare the three pairs
of eyebrows. Rachel's extend thickly from the nose to the
outer edge of the eye, Patricia's are thin and silky, and John's
are queer little dabs of hair, one of which gives a humorous
twist and expression to his face.

Expression, ah ! — now we are getting to the root of this
portrait business. . . .

Let us break off for a moment.

When we have seen a portrait by a famous artist — or the
reproduction of one — what lingers most clearly in our minds ?
Does not the expression haunt our memories ?

To quote a few of the greatest portraits in the world :
Think of the gentle austerity of Titian's Doctor, the shy
grace of Velasquez's Baby Princess, the demure questioning

165

Drawing for Beginners

of Reynolds' Strawberry CHrl, and the tragic dignity of
Rembrandt's Old Woman.

I doubt if you could give the faintest description of the
features of one of these portraits.

And now let us look at our portrait of Rachel or Margery.

That may be Margery's eye, nose, mouth, chin, hair, and
ear, but if we have missed Margery's mischievous look, the
wicked twinkle in her bright eye, the twitching curve of her
lips, and the jaunty tilt of her glossy head ; in short, if we
have not captured her expression, Margery's portrait is no
portrait at all.

When we draw likenesses we must not labour first with
one feature and then with another, but try to grasp every-
thing together.

We begin by noting any peculiarity, such as the poise of
the head on the shoulders, afterward roughing out the angles
of the features, or the arrangement of large masses such as
a woman's hair or a man's beard ; then we confine ourselves
to the drawing of the features.

There is no sense in racing along if by nature you are a
plodder. We must all ' gang our ain gait.'

Personally, however, I have a feeling, or rather a con-
viction, that if I cannot capture something of the likeness
in the earliest stages it will always elude me.

From the very first attack the angle of the head, the
placing of the neck on the shoulders, the cock of the eye,
the droop of the lip.

There is another point to bear in mind. Do not get too
easily discouraged. Don't be depressed if your efforts do
not gain immediate success. You must try many times
before you can hope to be proficient.

After all, you do not expect to play a sonata of Beethoven's,
or to write a thesis on an abstruse subject, or to compose an
exquisite lyric — without practice.

And remember too that you are in search of the unex-
pected. It is your business to find and record facts usually
unnoticed by persons who are not artists.
166

Fig. 85. Likenesses

Drawing for Beginners

Naturally some people are more easy to draw than others.
Those with marked characteristics are the easiest of all. If
you have any choice in the matter, choose some one with
striking features, the drawing of which you cannot miss.

Take your subtle and
more delicate studies
later.

When I was a child
I was very fond of
copying photographs
of celebrities from
papers and magazines
— not such a bad
method of training
the eye and hand in
the curious ways of
catching a likeness.
And I remember copy-
ing a charming profile
of a certain little
princess (her daughter
is now as old as the
picture to which I
refer), and her Royal
Highness' s ear was of
a prodigious size. If
■^ '' some one looked at

Fig.86. PEX-POKTBAiTO^LomsAM. Alcott ^^^ drawing without

recognizing the subject I would say indignantly, " Oh, but
you must see who it is by the ear ! " That I knew to be
right. I was quite annoyed when a friend said with an air
of surprise, " But I have never noticed the Princess's ear was
so large ; surely you are mistaken."

You must be prepared for that sort of criticism. If you
make it your business to observe things that are out of the
way, you are certain to meet with such remarks.

It is not only with eyes, nose, ears, mouth, expression that
168

How to Catch a Likeness

we must be observant, but we must note and compare the
little unobtrusive characteristics and traits which distinguish
individuals.

One sits erect, another lolls in a languid manner, another
slouches into awkward attitudes. Some perk up their chins,
or incline their heads slightly to one side. All of which are
valuable helps to the getting of a good likeness.

It will lessen your difficulties if you remember to leave a
space between yourself and your model. It is a sheer im-
possibility to see such a large object as a human being in
proportion unless we remove ourselves a good many paces
away.

If you place yourself close to your model, as young artists
often do, you will see the top of the head, the top of the
shoulder, the upper part of the body, and the feet. You will
have the curves of the features very much accentuated, and
it will be exceedingly difficult to get the whole picture ' in
drawing.'

Artists when painting full-length portraits invariably pose
their models a good distance away from their easels, and
sometimes the models are placed on a low platform. We can
dispense with platforms, but we cannot dispense with distance.

Naturally, when drawing the head you can sit near your
model with safety. But when the object is large then you
must move away until you get a good and comprehensive
view.

I would not discourage you from drawing people who
happen to be near if you feel a strong desire to attempt it.
Do not resist the impulse to sketch some one who is bending
over the same table as yourself, for example, but bear in
mind that you are close to your model and make allowances.

It may be that you are not able to procure many sitters,
that you live where there are very few people, and your
opportunities of observation are therefore very restricted.
That need not prevent you from drawing portraits. You
must study the few. Even the greatest artists have contented
themselves at times with a moderate range of subjects. And

169

Drawing for Beginners

some of the finest portraits are the portraits of the artist's
relations and friends. Gainsborough painted his own
daughters. Some of Rubens' best portraits are those of his
wife Helena ; Rembrandt was for ever painting himself, and
his clever rubicund face eyes us shrewdly from many a
canvas ; and there is the painting of Van Dyck himself
with the sunflower.

And so we narrow our portrait-drawing down to ourselves.
If you are driven to the drawing and painting of yourself
(and it is always easier to draw other people, because one
cannot back away from one's self and so get a good ' general '
view), and you are presumably standing before a looking-
glass, remember this — you are drawing yourself not actually
as you are but a size smaller.

A mirror reduces and makes us appear smaller, and this
reduction forces the little things upon us at the expense of
the more important.

It is very easy to prove this. Stand a few paces away
from the looking-glass and ask some one to dab with a colour-
brush the reflection of your head, the crest of your head and
the tip of your chin, and measure this space with the brush
against your own face. You will find that the looking-glass
face is about a third the size of your own.

The art of catching a likeness, then, brings us to this
point. We must first of all have good ground-work. We
must practise drawing faces and features of various people
in various positions.

We must draw with knowledge, not guessing at things,
sketching at random and trusting to luck.

We must be prepared to catch the fleeting look ; we must
hold ourselves, as it were, on the very tiptoe of expectancy
for the smile, the glance, the pout, the thoughtful or mirthful
expression.

A line well expressed will send our hopes soaring high, and
a line faulty and wrong will dash all those hopes to the
ground. Never be daunted by mistakes, but take your
courage in both hands and persevere.
170

CHAPTER XIV

Action and Composition

WHEN I was very young I cherished intense admira-
tion for a certain httle friend who was fond of
drawing birds — not single studies of birds, but
birds in flight. Flicks flick, flick — so many swift touches of
the pencil and the birds sprang into sight, crowds of little

Fig. 87. Birds in Flight

birds with curved wings against solid chunks of rolling
clouds. Have you not drawn them yourself ? Have you
not sometimes watched the birds crossing the sky and tried
to follow their flight with a pencil ?

Fishes are not so easily studied, but sometimes they can
be observed in tanks, or in the wonderful Nature pictures of

171

Drawing for Beginners

the ' movies,' and fishes swimming in water bear resemblance
to birds flying in the air.

We are inclined to neglect our opportunities of studying

Fig. 88. Pattern formed by Children playing a
Round Game

things in action. Now that most of us can see in the cine-
matographs things moving as they never (seemingly) moved
before, we should be all the better primed for this very

fascinating study.
ffi \ When crows caw and circle round tall trees,

I /'I or pigeons rise in great sweeps and eddies

from the ground, it seems as if they were
weaving patterns against the sky, and if each
little beak held a gossamer thread there would
be an exquisite pattern floating against the
clouds.

Given sufficient motives or reasons for
gathering groups together, then the result
must be patterns shaping and reshaping.

Consider — from this particular point of view
— a group of children playing a round game,
a ring of swaying bodies from which one or
two units separate and dart to and fro, inter-
Patte'rn FORMED wcaviug aud making another variation of the
BY A Country same shape.

Or old country dances and games in which
two long rows of people face each other, and become linked
by individuals coming from opposite ends and meeting and
dancing in the centre.

Or again : a crumb dropped in a bowl of water containing
fish, and tiny glistening bodies moving in star-like shapes.
172

Fiff. 89

<rr\

Fitj. 90. Ai'iiiiN AMI Riniii.M in ( 'mmi'iki tion

Action and Composition

Birds in the air and fishes in the water form shapes by the
grouping of their bodies.

Children chasing a butterfly or a ball ; children playing

Fig. 91. Pattern formed by the Movement of Fish in the Water

with kites ; children rushing along a flat surface bowling
their hoops ; a flock of startled geese rising from a marshy
mere ; a cluster of grubbing
sparrows among the puddles
of a muddy street ; a flock of
sheep chased by a dog ; a
slow procession of cows mov-
ing along a lane — all and each
move in a certain pattern.

You will ask, is it possible
for anything to move with-
out making some continuous
pattern ? The answer is that
there is no end to movement.
We dance, and our arms and
legs follow the curves and
actions of our body. We
run, and the same thing
happens in a different degree.
The dog wags his tail, not in one, but in many continuous
movements.

173

Fig. 92. We Dance

Drawing for Beginners

When we wish to plan a drawing or painting we must put

this sense of movement into our picture. Obviously our

figures and objects will be
stationary, but there must be
a sense of movement that
carries the eyes pleasantly
throughout the whole. We
must make patterns, and
evolve action or rhythm be-
tween each object.

If we pick up a book, at-
tracted by the first page or the
first few chapters, and we find
that there is nothing further
to hold our interest, what do
we do but discard the book ?
So it is with a picture. We
must arrest the eye. But we

must also hold the interest pleasantly within the picture.

We must not put something down which says " Stop ! " and

then treat the subject in such a barbarous manner that

the eye wanders dis-
satisfied out of the

picture. We must,

like the writer of the

book, give something

more than a first

attraction. Take as

an example the

simplest instance,

that of a sheet of

paper containing an

upright line.

If we have one

Fig. 93. We Run

Fig. 94. Improving an Empty Space

sharp line in the centre and no more, the space appears
empty on either side, but add a few natural lines and the
space is pleasantly broken.
174

Action and Composition

If we sketch a cottage on a plain and put it down squarely
on our paper, the cottage in the centre with a tree on either

side and a stretch of _

flat country beyond,
how foolish and
empty the flat plain
appears !

But shift the cot-
tage to one side,
and search for some
little ' incident ' (or
action), though it is
but a pathway, to
impart an interest Fig. 95. An ' Empty ' Picture

to the larger space.

Then the sketch becomes at once more satisfactory — it
holds the eye. Firstly, we are attracted by the cottage
and trees massed pleasantly together; secondly, by the

Fig. 96. An Interesting Rearrangement

pathway, which brings the eye back again to the centre of
the picture.

Nature has her compositions ; we merely select from them
with a little care. We do not aim — the Fates forbid ! — at
rearranging Nature. But we do aim at choosing a happy
time, or, rather, sketching a good subject at a happy moment.

175

Drawing for Beginners

Landscape, figure, domestic pictures, historical scenes —
whatever the subject demanding our attention — this problem

Fig. 97. A Single Figure Poorly Composed

arises — ^what arrangement, plan, or movement will you give
your picture ?

Let us assume for the sake of argument that you wish to

Fig. 98. The Effect of Composition

draw the single figure of a girl. We sketch her in a simple
position, standing with her arms to her sides, and more bulk at
the head than the base ; how silly she looks — how meaning-
176

Action and Composition

less ! But give some reason for this particular picture—
the flowing of a scarf, the widening of the design at the base,
an uplifted arm holding a basket, clouds floating behind her
head, and sloping banks on either side. Then the eye is
caught first by the central figure, next by the shawl, arm,
clouds, and led at last to the banks and trees.

Possibly you might object to that particular pose. You
want something quieter and more
restrained ; in fact, you wish to
keep to the original pose of the
slim upright figure. Very well; but
would it not be wise to place your
figure in an upright space, and in-
troduce either a misty effect with
delicate lines, or else something
that will help your figure ?

I have seen it stated that arrang-
ing ' pictures ' is a very different
affair from arranging simple studies
of ' ordinary ' subjects ; that one
could not possibly apply the same
ideas to both.

But this is a false notion, and
precisely where many people go
wrong.

After all is said and done, your so-called ' ordinary ' sub-
jects, your pots and pans, your flowers and books, may be
the subjects in which you excel. For everything to which
we direct our attention should result in a picture, must result
in a picture. It may be a bad picture if we do not take the
laws of Nature into consideration, but a picture nevertheless
it will be.

We will take the subject of three pots, one large and two
of a medium size.

These we place in a row, the large pot in the centre and
the two smaller pots on either side (Fig. 100).

You can see for yourself that this is an unsatisfactory
M 177

Fig. 99
Another Arrangement

Drawing for Beginners

arrangement. The eye lands on the central object and then
slides out of the picture. Better to group the pots together

Fig. 100. A Group of Pots

in a less mathematical manner, making a more irregular
pattern (Fig. 101).

Had the two small pots been of different heights, the first
arrangement would have balanced itself better.

Or, if we strongly desire an oblong
instead of an upright composition,
we could place two of the pots to-
gether and the third a space apart,
linked by a fragment of ribbon, a
feather, a spray of leaves (Fig. 102).
The study of a simple subject,
such as a flower with some leaves, is
an easy introduction to composition.
First choose an oblong, circular,
or square space, and say to your-
self that in that space you will
sketch the flowers or the leaves.
Try to fill the space pleasantly.
The word ' fill ' must be taken
with reservation. I do not mean that you should aim at
crowding a varied number of flowers or leaves together, but
at arranging a spray, a very slender spray with a few leaves,
and selecting its characteristics,
178

Fig. 101. An Upright
Composition

Action and Composition

Having sketched your study with pencil or brush, consider
it well. Is the composition lop-sided ? Have you crowded
too much into one place ? Have you left a space crying
aloud for some attention, though it l)e but a few short strokes
of the pencil or brush ?

Turn your drawing upside down. Look at the picture as
a pattern, regardless of other interest, and try to consider it
as such. Or, again, collect a number of small objects, a
few vases, ornaments, shells, ribbons, books, hats, balls,
gloves, candles (and
candle-shades), and, ar-
ranging those which
harmonize together in
groups, make swift
sketches merely for the
sake of arranging
patterns, of practising
composition.

Whether we wish to
push on our studies and
become eventually pro-
fessional artists, or

whether we only intend to amuse ourselves by sketching now
and again, we shall certainly have to give attention to these
considerations.

If you are a professional artist, the space that you intend
to fill with pen or pencil bulks very largely on your horizon.
If you illustrate stories for magazines, or for books, then the
arrangement, or composition, demands a great deal of
thought. The editor or publisher specifies the number of
square inches allotted for your picture, and it is by no means
an easy task to fill that space satisfactorily.

If portraiture is your special forte, then it is essential to
arrange the composition so that it fills the canvas and paper
pleasantly. Sometimes I have seen portraits arranged with
so little care that the unfortunate subjects seem to be slip-
ping out of the picture.

179

Fig. 102. An Oblong Composition

Drawing for Beginners

The biggest spaces should be given to the most important
part of the picture.

Several young artists gathered together would find it
helpful to enter into a friendly competition in a particular
subject to be drawn in a specified space. They would work
independently and would eventually compare their sketches
and discuss the various points.

It is remarkable how seldom similar sketches agree. Our
neighbours' interpretation of the same thing often arouses
great astonishment in us, and gives us much food for thought.

As time goes on our minds will naturally incline toward
good composition.

Nature's beautiful ' arrangements,' her ' composition,' her
' rhythm,' her ' action,' will strike your eye at every turn.

A group of tossing elm-trees against the clouds and a few
dark wings streaking the sky ; a tumble-down shed round
which cows are grouped, standing or lying, lazily chewing
the cud ; a shuffle of chimney-pots against a city sky and a
trail of smoke ; a boy flying down a long, narrow wet street,
with a bundle of papers beneath his arm ; a swan ' floating
double ' past a tuft of reedy grasses ; an old man leaning on
a thick stick or with a bundle on his back and climbing a
steep path ; a woman sitting under the light with her sewing
grouped at her elbow ; boys and girls gathered about a game,
or fire, or a gate — all these are natural ' compositions,' and
charming ones.

You might turn your attention to advertisements, for these
are arranged with a view to attracting the eye and gripping
the attention. Look at them as so many patterns, and ask
yourself if the allotted spaces have been filled pleasantly.

Look at reproductions of the Great Masters. The wonder-
ful way in which these painters grouped their subjects is an
education in itself. The extraordinary simplicity of the
arrangement, action, and composition will often surprise you.

The shapes of some pictures have given rise to quaint
legends, and probably the most famous of all is that of
Raphael's Madonna della Sedia, or Madonna of the Chair,
180

103. Thk Madonna uella Sedia
Raphael

Photo Anderiion

180

Action and Composition

The story goes that Raphael was passing through a village
at vintage time, and seeing a mother and child sitting in a
doorway was filled with a desire to paint the beautiful group.
The only materials to hand were empty wine- vats. On one
of these Raphael seized, and began this picture on the up-
turned bottom of the vat.

Then Raphael snatched a half-charred ozier stick,
And on the wine-cask at that moment drew
That Child and Mother, just then glorified
By the last sunshine's deepest, softest hue.

The picture is treasured as one of the world's most beautiful
paintings, but whether the wine-vat legend was invented to
explain the peculiar shape we shall never know. As a com-
position pure and simple, look and judge for yourself.

181

CHAPTER XV

Light and Shade

WHAT constitutes light and shade ? " is a question
more easily asked than answered.
Briefly, all objects on which light falls present
light and shade.

Twist a piece of paper into a cone and look at it with half-
closed eyes. What do you see ? One side is light, one side
is dark, where light and shade mingle there is half light and
half tone.

In Nature all tones and tints are gradated. Light blends
into half light, half light into half tone, half tone into shade,
dividing and subdividing indefinitely.

There are no outlines in Nature. ' Outlines,' or ' edges,'
are merely names for the particular parts thrown into promi-
nence by light and shade. Certain parts present sharply
defined shapes ; but shadows dissolve into light, and light
dissolves into shadow.

An outline drawing is a drawing that represents the out-
side or extreme edge of a person or object, as the contour line
in a map is the extreme outline of a country. There is no
visible outline to a leaf, vase, or hand.

Outline drawing merely represents a shape without shading.

Therefore when we speak of ' drawing light and shade ' we
mean drawing broad masses of light and shade, giving the
right balance — neither too much nor too little value to each
light, each shadow, each cast shadow. Drawing objects in
light and shade with a pencil point is a tedious business. It
is best to adopt some means by which we can cover the
ground quickly.

There are many methods of tackling this very interesting
182

L.ight and Shade

subject, but I should advise (at any rate as a beginning)
drawing with black and white chalk on a tinted paper as the
quickest and most straightforward manner of drawing broad
masses of light and shade. Besides, it has one great advantage
over ordinary stump or chalk, charcoal, pen and ink, or wash :
it reverses the usual style of drawing. The method of drawing
with light and dark chalk upon tinted paper exactly reverses
the method of drawing with pencil, stump, and charcoal on a
white ground. Then we draw middle and darkest tones and
leave the white paper to express the light. But if we draw
on brown, grey, blue, or otherwise tinted paper, we draw
the lights with white chalk, the shadows with chalk (or
charcoal), and leave the tinted paper to express the middle
or general tones. By these means we build up the shapes
quickly. We look for the shapes of the lights — which
are too often undefined — no less than the shapes of the
shadows.

As it is easier to draw broad, simple, and strong masses
of light and shade, choose several simple objects of a uniform
colour and place them on a table and in the bright and con-
centrated light of lamp, candle, or (shaded) electric bulb.
Bring the light fairly close to the level of the table. A small
piece of candle or a low lamp will give a better, because a
less diffused, light.

Choose a white ^gg, a table napkin in a white ring, a white
paper-covered box, a white paper flower, or other such
things. A newspaper folded in a white wrapper, a white
cup, or cup and saucer, white enamel bowl, white glove — all
these will be equally suitable.

First ask yourself where is the brightest light, and draw
the shape of the light with white chalk. Then look for the
darkest shadow, which will naturally be the part that is
farthest away from the light, and probably where the object
rests on the ground. Draw the shape of the dark shadow.
Next look for the middle (or binding) tone and blend with
white chalk if in the light, and shade with black chalk if it
forms part of the shadow.

183

Drawing for Beginners

When the surface is highly polished, as, for example, on
the curve of the napkin ring, there will be a ' high light.'

The general colour of the tinted paper will give the general
prevailing tint of the background and the middle tints of
the models.

Keep a wary eye on the shape of the shadows cast by the
various objects. Beginners find it difficult to realize that
cast shadows bear a resemblance to the objects by which
they are cast. Not only do objects project their shadows in
a major or lesser degree according to the distance of the
light (as we have already noted in perspective diagram.
Fig. 60), but they reflect their chief characteristics. For
example, the ^gg, you will observe, casts a smooth, even,
oval-shaped shadow. Beneath the shaded objects the box
and napkin are roughly sketched with white chalk, giving a
slight indication of the position of the shadows.

When we have absorbed some of the lessons to be learned
from drawing objects in a bright and artificial light, we
should proceed to draw objects in the more subtle light of
day.

A few ordinary models, such as a couple of books and an
old silver candlestick, placed on the edge of a table will serve
our purpose very well.

The books, one bound in light cloth, the other in dark red
leather, the unlit candle, and the candlestick present three
different tones.

Note first the brightest lights and the darkest darks.

Seen through half-closed eyes the silver is a shimmer of
lights and soft reflections, and requires a few careful strokes
of white and black chalk, following the shapes as closely as
possible, making good use of the definite lights and shades
on the rim, the barrel, and the twisted support. The light
catches the edges of the dark book ; also there are slight
reflections on the polished table. You may now suggest the
middle lights, leaving the paper itself to express the middle
tones.

Other articles will, of course, serve the purpose. Choose
184

Light and Shade

a few near in shape and in three shades — hght, dark, and
middle — and place them in a simple light and clear of their
surroundings.

If you have not the ordinary bread-knife depicted in my
drawing, choose another, but let it be a large knife rather
than a small one, and do not select a clasp-knife. The latter
is not so simple in form, nor so shapely, as an ordinary
cooking- or carving-knife. The French cooking-knife is an
excellent study for light and shade, for it has invariably a
straight, smooth, and pointed blade, and a shapely handle.

The bread-knife presents a simple plane, a flat blade and
a rounded handle. The brightest lights leap at once to the
eye from the edge of the blade and the square-shaped hasp.
The rounded handle throws an oblong shadow ; the blade also
throws a de-cided shadow on the tray.

The wooden handle shares the tone with the background.
It is a middle tone, and only requires a few slight touches
to ' lift ' the light shape away from the background. The
shadows on the rounded handle are strongly moulded (or
shaped) ; the groove in the wood catches both light and
shade, and can be drawn with a dark streak against light
strokes of chalk.

The little Japanese figure of papier mache in my drawing
(Fig. 105) has a face almost as white as the white edge of
the stand. She turns to the light and presents a narrow
upright shape. The glossy hair has dark shadows, not quite
so dark as the dark folds behind the sleeve and sash. A
broad white shadow lies over the upper part of the back.

There is little variety of colours and tints in these groups.
They are neutral, with the exception of the lady's grey-blue
dress, and the mauve silk flower in her hand, and the small
book with the dark crimson cover supporting the candlestick.

And the objects gathered beneath the bright artificial light
are all of a uniform whiteness, chosen for this very reason.

Colour confuses the consideration of tones. Whether
colour represents dark tones or light tones depends to a
great extent on the light which falls upon it.

185

Drawing for Beginners

Naturally, however, rich colours retain the shadows and
lighter colours reflect more light.

Look through half-closed lids (not for colour, but for pure
light and shade) at a large armchair upholstered in one
uniform and unpatterned material. Note how the colour
varies under the play of light and shadow. Cannot you see
the difference between the colour in the shadows and the
colour in light ? And a contrast between the back and the
seat of the chair, the tops and the sides of the arms, the
edges of the arms and seat and the edges of the back ? The
sofa, settee, and table covered with a plain piece of material
offer the same object-lessons of light and shade.

Observe — in a bright light — a cream-coloured jug or cup
decorated with a broad band of pale colour. The pink, blue,
or yellow band merges into the shaded side of the jug, and be-
comes almost indistinguishable from the cream surroundings.

Place a pale blue, pink, or yellow enamelled mug, or
tumbler, upon a white plate and in a strong light. Do you
not find that the mug or tumbler — though a shade darker
than the white plate — mingles with the cast shadow thrown
on the plate ?

The contents of a small table — a man's smoking table no
less than a lady's toilet table — ^will offer innumerable objects
for the study of pure light and shade. A cigar-box with its
gilt and gaily tinted labels is a very good object-lesson in
light and shade, and seen in a shaded position the light
label blends with the polished dark wood on the shadow
side.

A cigarette, like a cigar, presents a tubular shape, light on
one side, dark on the other. The gold or cork tip of the
cigarette merges into the shadows of the shaded side ; the
crimson and gold band of the cigar mingles with the rich
brown shadows of the cigar itself.

If you arrange several objects of contrasting colour closely
together and in the same light, the contrast helps to force
the effect.

Draw a cluster of purple grapes and light green grapes
186

Fig. IOC). Light and Shade on Coloured Objects

186

Light and Shade

side by side. The purple grapes catch the hght and hold
rich shadows. The light grapes should be as firmly but more
delicately drawn ; they require light touches of chalk, and
shadow-shapes drawn with a gentle hand. The depth and
shade of the grapes vary very little. There is a slightly
heavier tone beneath the dark round globules.

A white or cream bird's wing leaning against a dark green
bottle with a shadow projecting over the feathers makes
a very interesting contrast of light and shade. Only the
stopper of the bottle reflects pure light. The rest of it is
submerged into shadow, and, half closing your eyes, you will
find that the bottle loses itself in its own shadow cast on
the ground.

The whole of the wing is a light tone, the lightest portion
being that which is nearest. Draw the triangular shape with
firm touches of white chalk, then shade down with black
chalk where the shadow lies. There is a rich shadow in
the foreground. The wing, though deeply overshadowed, still
remains many shades lighter than the ground.

If the bottle and wing are a thought too difficult, draw
something a little less complicated.

Arrange several objects of contrasting tints in a strong
light, either with or without a cast shadow (which is easily
arranged by intercepting the light with a few books, or a
piece of cardboard). If it be a woman's hat with a con-
trasting plume or wing, either the hat should be dark and
the feather light, or vice versa ; or you may place together a
man's black hat and a pair of light kid gloves, or some yellow
and white flowers in a dark vase. A sunshade of brilliant
colours lying open on the grass, half in shadow, half in light,
provides an excellent model.

A coat, a cloak, and a hat, or three hats, all of a similar
colour, placed on chairs several paces apart, present a more
fascinating and more difficult study of light and shade.

The reason why the separation of the articles makes
the study more interesting and a hundred times more diffi-
cult is that there is space between each object. And this

187

Drawing for Beginners

introduces a new problem which requires very careful
consideration.

If you had three red apples of a bright and more or less
uniform colour and shape and placed them one on the near
end of a form, one in the centre, and one at the far end, and
you took up your pencil and drew the light and shade of the
three apples, would you draw each apple with the same
degree of light and shade ?

If you put the apples on the ground in the playground, or
garden path, or open field, five, seven, and twenty paces
away, and tried to draw or to paint them (the question of
light and shade applies with equal force to drawing and
painting), would you draw them exactly the same ?

Would you not give the near apple more distinct light and
shade, more accent, more strength than the apple farthest
away ? Of course you would ! Even if you drew without
thought you would instinctively draw something a good dis-
tance away in a broader and simpler manner.

For the sake of argument let us presume that we are
painting a picture representing three ladies in black velvet.
One in the foreground, another in the middle distance, and a
third in the far distance. If we painted the black velvet
dress in the far distance as richly, as strongly, as definitely
as the black velvet dress in the foreground, we should paint
an untruth.

Things in the extreme distance must not be as strongly
depicted as those in the foreground or middle distance, as I
demonstrated when stating the first rule of perspective.

If we draw or paint a picture of a street with its diminishing
houses, railings, lights, pavements, drawn correctly in per-
spective, but ignore the air that intervenes and blots details
from view, then we shall draw something that is not true
to Nature.

The policeman on his beat at the end of the street is merely
a dark uniformed figure ; as he approaches we note that he
wears a high helmet ; nearer still, we see his silver badges
and buttons and shiny boots ; as he passes under our window
188

Light and Shade

we distinguish the tint of his complexion and the shape of
his features.

But it would be untrue to Nature if we painted or drew
details in his face when he first appears. His face is a blur
— because of the space that intervenes.

Things in the distance cannot be as strongly drawn as
those in the middle distance. For between the artist and
the distant object floats a veil of atmosphere.

Some young artists will argue that they have seen pictures
drawn with firm lines and details even to the very horizon.
This is perfectly true. But we must bear in mind that we
are discussing the subject from the point of view of pure
light and shade. It is quite correct to say that details can
be drawn with firm outlines and the effect of space more or
less ignored. That represents a certain style of drawing or
painting, a conventional kind of art. But, if we are honestly
trying to draw light and shade, if we are drawing varied tones,
painting not merely flat washes of colour, but gradated tints
to represent the light and shade of colour, then we cannot
ignore the truth. And it is by these observations, and the
recording of these observations, that our work becomes
artistic or otherwise.

Such facts, like all simple laws of Nature, we cannot avoid
even if we would. The newspaper with its photographs of
ordinary events confirms them daily. Look, for instance, at
a photograph representing crowds gathered together in the
open. In the foreground are large strong masses of light
and shade, broken up into details — clothes, hands, faces, and
features ; in the background are misty effects, either of trees
or other details of a landscape ; in the middle distance are
groups of people, some sitting and some walking, their
clothes of dark or uniform tint, their faces misty blurs, their
features indistinguishable.

The clearer is the atmosphere, the more distinct is the dis-
tance. The more brilliant is the sun, the richer and deeper
are the shadows. The rich shadows of a tropical scene will
be richer in the foreground than in the distance. It is purely

1^9

Drawing for Beginners

a matter of degree. From simple objects grouped on a
table to complicated scenes in a landscape, all will present
their own peculiar and fascinating problems of light and
shade.

No doubt you will wish to try other methods of drawing
light and shade than drawing on tinted paper with chalks
of black and white.

There is the much vaunted method of rubbing on powdered
chalk with a stump of twisted paper or kid in varying tints
upon a white paper. With this method we can obtain very
subtle gradations by erasing with rubber or bread and by
stippling in with the stump. Provided that we attack the
study with vigour, sketching it in the first place with char-
coal, and rubbing on the chalk speedily, and not spending
too much time smoothing the surfaces, it may help us
to learn a good deal about light and shade. Nevertheless
there is a very great danger of expending too much time
over the surface at the expense of the structure. It is quite
possible to stipple in a head or an arm with such beautiful
shades of light and tint that the essential shape of the nose,
head, and arm is forgotten. In other words, the drawing
is lost.

Have you not seen old-fashioned stipple-drawings of
bygone days so lacking in definite shape that the gentle-
men and ladies are dropping into a sugary, boneless state ?
And that constitutes one great danger of drawing with the
stump.

There is another method. By covering a sheet of Michelet
or other grained paper with charcoal lines lightly rubbed to
a fairly even tint, wiping out the lights with rubber or bread,
and drawing the shapes with charcoal, one can achieve a
very artistic study of light and shade.

Another method strongly advocated by one very famous
art teacher is drawing with pen and ink on a smooth white
surface. It is certainly a very direct method. Pen and
ink, however, is not for beginners a very good method
of drawing light and shade. In the first place, it is an
190

Fio;. 107. Stump-drawing of Old Man's Head

190

Light and Shade

extremely difficult medium because it requires a considerable
amount of experience to alter and correct a false bit of tone

Fig. 108. Light and Shade drawn with Pen and Ink

satisfactorily, but, above all, broad smooth masses of light
and shade, unless done by an experienced hand, have a very
mechanical effect.

Light and shade can be studied with the brush by mixing
sepia and flake white, ivory black and white, or charcoal

191

Drawing for Beginners

grey and white. This method is more akin to pen and ink,
inasmuch as it requires a practised hand to apply clear fresh
washes of colour.

For the beginner a ' dry ' method is certainly the wisest,
and he will gain valuable experience by constant experiment
with it.

Vd\

CHAPTER XVI

Correcting our Drawings

How many times do we cast our pencil down and
exclaim, " Oh for a little help ! " Or we take up
our drawing and despairingly rend it in half.

If we have landed in a hopeless morass of difficulties, we
had far better tear up our drawing or fling it aside — and
begin again. To begin again, however, on the same object,
round which clings the flavour of defeat, is dishearten-
ing. Personally I prefer to start on quite another subject.

On the other hand, if you are pluckily determined to dis-
cover your mistakes you should put your pride in your
pocket and seek out your nearest available friend, who,
though ignorant of drawing, may detect the something that
is wrong. He or she will probably laugh (how easy it is to
laugh at the mistakes of other people ! ) ; but try to find the
reason for that laugh.

" Why laugh ? "

" Oh, I don't know why, but it is so screamingly funny."

" Where does the scream come in ? "

" I don't know."

" You must know. Is it the face, or the eyes, or the hand ?
I am sure the hand is quite good."

" N-no, but, oh ! " — another explosion of merriment —
" oh, dear ! did you ever see such a leg in all your life ? "

And in all probability you have taken more care with the
drawing of that leg than with the rest of the drawing put
together.

Now that your attention has been drawn to the leg, look at

it carefully ; something may strike you as peculiar. It may —

you possibly concede — look a trifle ' out,' but where is it

N 193

Drawing for Beginners

wrong ? You may pounce on the doubtful drawing, but how
will you correct it ? You might even make matters worse.

Hold up your drawing before a mirror. The picture will
be reversed, and seeing the unfortunate detail from an entirely
different point of view sometimes — if not always — flings the
mistake in your face.

Should you find it to be so in this instance, try again.
Put down your drawing and erase it gently. Never use the
rubber viciously or revengefully, as you may be tempted to
do, for you must always treat the surface of your paper
with respect.

Supposing, however, that you are still unconvinced ; that
you believe your drawing to be right and your critic wrong.
Try another test.

Hold up your drawing to a strong light — of a lamp, or at a
window — and look at the back of it, when your drawing will
be seen reversed. Can you now perceive anything wrong ?

He-who-cannot-draw sometimes fancies things are wrong
— ^that I will admit ; and he-who-cannot-draw can be just as
obstinate in his opinions as the artist.

Should you honestly feel that your drawing is a correct
interpretation, stick to your opinion. But try to keep an
open mind, and never despise advice because it is humble.

Some of the greatest people have sought the advice of
simple folk. Wasn't it Moliere who read his plays to his
cook ?

Try to get an expert's opinion. ' An expert ' does not
necessarily mean an expert artist — that we cannot often hope
to find — but one who is expert in the particular subject that
is engaging our pencil.

For instance, if I made a study of a cow or sheep, I should
preferably take that drawing to a butcher or a farmer for a
criticism. The criticism might be shattering, but there is
this to be said for it. The man who is familiar and more or
less an expert with such animals will instinctively pounce on
glari g mistakes.

A doctor has a sound working knowledge of the human
194

Correcting our Drawings

frame, and I shall never forget the laugh of a doctor when
his eyes lit on my first attempt at drawing the figure with
the surface muscles exposed. I learned a lot from that laugh,
or rather from the remarks with which he tried to excuse
his merriment.

A builder might let fall a few helpful remarks concerning
the drawing of the steeple of a church. " Rather a steep
steeple," said one when looking at a sketch of the village
street made by a young friend of mine.

And the carpenter might possibly remark that there was
something very peculiar with regard to the chair on which
the lady (of your drawing) is sitting.

When drawing a vase on a table, the glass round which a
model has clasped his fingers, the tankard on the sideboard,
the porch under which mine host is welcoming or dismissing
the guest, turn the paper upside down and regard it from an
* upside down ' point of view. This is a most useful way of
correcting things with two sides alike, and probably you will
notice that the vase bulges rather lower on one side than
the other, that the glass veers to one side and its stem is
not quite straight, that the handles of the tankard do not
balance, that the posts of the porch are leaning acutely in
two different directions.

Another method of correction. If you have drawn a vase
and feel that it balances badly, draw a line down its centre
and measure from the central line to the outside edges, then
note whether the measurements agree.

Bear in mind, however, that these are corrective devices.
Never begin drawing with mechanical aids of the kind.
Always draw freely. Make your correction afterward. If
you are not very severe with yourself on this point, you will
find yourself depending on these measuring systems. And
overmuch measuring maketh an artist brainless.

Another excellent corrective is to hold the drawing at
arm's length, or, better still, place it near the model (on a
chair or on the floor), then resume the position from ^ /hich
you are making your study.

195

Drawing for Beginners

Glance quickly from your drawing to the model. The
strong, and often cruel, contrast of drawing versus Nature
' does the trick,' and emphasizes faults of light and shade,
construction (or framework), balance, and proportions.

In the drawing of the " human form divine " there are
many things tp deceive the eye and make the task difficult.
Clothes are the greatest offenders — skirts, wide trousers, full
sleeves, thick leggings, large bonnets, baggy tunics, cloaks,
robes, hats, wigs — anything, in short, which is bulky is de-
ceiving.

How often do we see the lady's feet emerging from her
pretty floating skirt in a position which is a physical im-
possibility !

The Tudor and the Early Victorian costumes are great
temptations to the novice, who greedily seizes upon the
picturesque ample robes and skirts to hide the difficult
drawing.

They may save a little trouble in the small matter of
drawing arms and legs, and even feet, but beware lest they
plunge you into worse difficulties !

A young artist of my acquaintance loathed the drawing of
hands. She used the most ingenious devices to hide the
hands from view. Winds blew, aprons flew, cloaks floated
and concealed, but if the hands had of necessity to appear
then she was utterly lost, and found that she had no know-
ledge wherewith to inform her drawings. Dutch men,
women, and children — what favourites they are ! And there
again do we find the lure of the dress in the wide trousers of
Jan, and the big sabots of Jan's pretty sister. The wider
the trousers, the fuller the skirts, the less shall we see of the
difficult legs, says the young artist. But no matter how
thick and frilly are the petticoats and how wide are the
trousers, those difficult legs are not to be ignored. They
must be traced lightly beneath the garments.

We cannot disguise the fact that if we are drawing human
beings, two legs, two arms, and a head and body of reason-
able proportions are essential for each.
196

Correcting our Drawings

Should you have an uncomfortable feeling that there is
something not quite correct in your drawing, that the feet do
not come in the right position, that the hand protrudes from
the frilled wristband at an angle not quite in harmony with
the elbow, take your picture to the window, lay it against a
pane of glass, and trace the head, hands, fee^, and all parts
revealed on the back of the paper. Then return with your
drawing to the table and (still with the back of it uppermost)
connect your tracings by sketching in the rest of a human
body.

Ere you have finished your sketch you will possibly appre-
ciate that you have made the limbs play queer tricks ; it is
highly probable that you will have made the farther limbs
longer than the nearer ones. We have sometimes noticed in
sketches of persons sitting with legs crossed that the limbs
are inextricably mixed !

Should the paper on which you are drawing be of too thick
a substance for this test, take a piece of tracing paper, or a
smooth piece of ordinary tissue paper, and on this trace your
drawing. Then remove the original drawing, and, laying the
tracing paper on a white surface, link up the head, feet, and
hands as suggested above.

In all these methods of checking ourselves, it is the fresh
view of our drawing that reveals its weaknesses.

When painting, if you feel that your colours are not what
they should be, that your tones are dark, or too uneven,
that your highest light is not ' in tune ' with your middle
light — take a piece of smoked glass and look through this at
the reflection of your painting. Gone are the pretty colours,
the subtle tints. Your painting will be merely a prosaic
black and white affair, and with everything reduced to black
and white, to high tones and low tones (light and shade), in
all probability the wrong tone will shriek at you.

But if, after all these various methods, you still can see
nothing wrong, though a horrid feeling prevails that all
cannot be right, if neither advice nor the devices described
give a clue — then, lock up your drawing, put it away for a

197

Drawing for Beginners

few days, or a few months, until you have entirely forgotten
the circumstances in which it was drawn. When you again
examine it the chances are that you will see at once what is
wrong.

Either you will say, " How could I miss seeing that mis-
take ? " or (and, believe me, the chances of this are very
remote), " Why ! there is nothing wrong — after all."

198

CHAPTER XVII

Materials

A LARGE stock-in-trade is a mistake. If you provide
yourself with a lavish quantity of materials, you are
probably handicapping, not helping, your studies.

Far better use a few tools, a few materials, than fly from
one paper to another paper, from one pigment to another
pigment, from chalk to charcoal, and charcoal to pastel.

To begin with, buying many expensive materials has the
great disadvantage that it is likely to check your most
valuable instinct for experiment.

If you stop to consider whether you are wasting good
material, and the question arises, " Have you anything ' to
show for ' the expensive paper and paints ? " the probabilities
are that you will decide to finish a poor piece of work instead
of flinging it aside in favour of a fresh start.

A few materials well chosen, a few tools well handled, are
worth a whole shop-full used irresponsibly.

Buy a paper that will serve several purposes. Cartridge
paper will ' take ' pencil, chalk, or water-colour. It is a
useful all-round paper. Therefore, I would advise a cart-
ridge-paper sketch-book. Do not begin at the wrong end of
this, or on the wrong side of your paper. Lay the tip of
your finger upon the surface ; you will soon detect that the
right side has a smooth and satiny surface. Michelet paper
is suitable only for charcoal and crayon, and thick hand-made
water-colour paper is rather unnecessarily expensive for the
early stages.

If your mind is definitely settled on brushwork invest in a
medium Whatman or O.W. paper, in sketch-book or block
form. The block should not be smaller than 5| by 7 inches.

199

Drawing for Beginners

Nothing cramps the style more effectually than block or book
of a minute size.

Buy pencils of a medium quality — HB, B, or BB. BBB's
are useful for soft and sympathetic studies, for rich shadows
and textures.

Rubber of soft crumbly substance is preferable to hard or
gummy rubbers ; ink-eraser should never be used, it destroys
the surface of the paper.

A sketch-book, a pencil, a piece of paper, and a knife —
these are all that are required for a start.

If you wish to draw on a larger scale, you must buy paper
by the sheet, which necessitates a drawing-board, drawing-
pins, and an easel. Easels are stocked in every quality,
size, shape, and description, and listed in all the colourmen's
catalogues.

For water-colour painting you require a small colour-box
(japanned boxes are lighter and more useful for sketching
purposes than wooden boxes), a moderate range of colours,
and a couple of good camel-hair or sable brushes.

Good brushes are essential. You can trim your pencil,
your chalk, your charcoal to suit your various needs, but
you must abide by the brush. A brush that spreads and
splits, or that moults its hair over the paper, will be of little
use. A large full brush and a small brush will suffice for every
purpose. Or, if preferred, one full brush of a medium size
(number five or six) with a fine point will do the work of two.

When choosing a brush dip it in a pan of water and roll
the point on the hand, or on a piece of paper, to make certain
that it has a good point.

The old-fashioned hard cakes of paint had many excellent
qualities ; the colours were lasting and good, but the rub-
bing process was certainly tedious, and they are seldom seen
nowadays. The half -pans of moist paint have taken their
place ; they are not wasteful, provided they are used with
ordinary care. On the other hand, tubes of paint — bearing
in mind that we invariably squeeze out more colour than is
necessary — are, most decidedly, extravagant.
200

Materials

We can trust any reputable colourman to fit a box with
paints, and we strongly advise buying the best paints and
leaving those of a cheaper grade alone. It is by far the best
economy. The small boxescontain eight to fourteen half-pans.
Group your colours together carefully. Nothing hampers
a young artist more effectually than sprinkling paints hap-
hazardly in a paint-box. When cobalt jostles vermilion and
lemon yellow flanks ivory black your paint-box is unbusiness-
like. Group together blues, reds and yellows, browns and
black.

A box to hold twelve pans should contain the following
colours :

Chrome yellow Vermilion

Yellow ochre Vandyke brown

Raw sienna Ivory black

Burnt sienna Prussian blue

Light red Ultramarine

Crimson alizarin Cobalt

For a box of fourteen colours the following is a good
selection :

Lemon yellow
Chrome No. 1
Yellow ochre
Vermilion
Crimson alizarin

Light red
Raw sienna
Burnt sienna
Sepia
Ivory black

Cobalt

French blue or French ultramarine

Prussian blue

A tube of Chinese white

For a beginner a small range is better than a large number
of colours. A multiplicity of tints is apt to bewilder the
mind. By experimenting with a few paints we can obtain
a surprisingly wide range of tints. We must learn too the
good as well as the bad qualities ; how one tint will permeate
others, how the liquid brilliance of one will neutralize the
dull opaque quality of another.

201

Drawing for Beginners

Now and again indulge yourself in a new paint.

Moist aureolin, cyanine blue, orange madder, are all a little
dangerous — a little expensive and delicious to handle.

Before leaving the subject of water-colour paints I might
mention the water-colours in tubes known as ' slow-drying.'
These are recommended for hot climates.

One stipulation more.

Whether you have a lavishly stocked box, or whether you
content yourself with a modest range of colours, you must
always treat your box respectfully.

Keep the paints clean and dry, the palette clean.

It is a good rule to start a fresh painting with a fresh
mixing of colours.

Before putting your box away see that no paints are sub-
merged under water. Colours soon deteriorate, and it is
astonishing how quickly mould will accumulate on certain
tints. A tiny piece of sponge is useful, and pieces of soft
rag, freed from fluff, are almost a necessity for cleaning
purposes.

Chalks or pastels are often used as an introduction to
colour-work, and an excellent beginning they are. They are
not so messy as paints. They train the eye quickly. We
must abide by the chalk or pastel ; it is difficult to correct or
erase.

Chalks are the cheapest of all colour mediums, and a box
of twelve pastels costs a very small sum.

The large boxes containing a range of beautiful tints are
necessary for more advanced work.

Pastels require pastel paper, but this is not expensive and
it is easily procurable. As a substitute for pastel paper use
brown paper, the ordinary packing paper with a not too
smooth or shiny surface. This will serve excellently for
chalk, both black and white.

White (unsized) sugar-bags are useful for water-colour
painting. The inside of a thick white envelope provides a
choice paper for pencil or black chalk.

Michelet paper, or imitation Steinbach, is useful for char-
202

Materials

coal studies. A grained paper is more satisfactory than one
with a smooth surface, for the latter tends to exaggerate the
brown instead of the rich black shades of charcoal. Vine
charcoal is sold in small cheap boxes and the Venetian char-
coal in larger quantities.

Plain wooden easels last a lifetime. On the other hand,
the hinged easels — of which there is an enormous variety —
made to pack in a small valise or to carry in the hand, are
equally serviceable for indoor and out-of-door study.

If an easel is not at hand a chair can be used as a substitute.

Sit on one chair and place another chair with its back
toward your knees. Put your feet on the back rail of the
second chair and the drawing-board will then rest on your
knees and (at an angle) against the back of the chair. The
seat of the second chair can be utilized for your various tools.

For charcoal studies a bottle of fixative and a sprayer are
almost a necessity. Charcoal rubs with the slightest impact.
Scent-sprayers can be used in place of the ordinary metal or
glass sprayers sold for the purpose by the artists' colourman.

Once more I advise the young student to dispense with all
unnecessary paraphernalia and buy only necessities.

Ponder well what the Scottish mechanic said when his eye
fell on Turner's painting of Modern Italy :

" Eh, mon, just see what white leed and common paint
can dae in the hand o' genius."

CENTRAL

203

INDEX

Animals, drawing, 98-105
Ankle-bones, position of, 55
Atmospheric effects, 107, 109, 156,

188

Baby, proportions of a, 61 , 79
Birds, drawing, 92-96
Boats, drawing, 157-158
Bonheur, Rosa, 101
Brush-drawing, 17-18
Brushes, choice of, 200

Cartridge paper, 14, 199
Chalks, coloured, 202
Chalk-drawing, 14-17
Charcoal-drawing, 18-19, 190
Composition, 171-181
Cottages, sketching, 144-145

Ears, drawing the, 73-75 ; of

animals, 99-104
Easels, choice of, 200, 203
Expression, importance of, 165-

166
Eyes, human, 65-69 ; of birds,

92-93

Figures, drawing, 37-43; balance

of, 39-40
Foot, drawing the, 52-59 ; of

birds, 94
Frog, drawing a, 97-98
Furniture, proportions of, 84-86

Gainsborough, Thomas, 170
Giotto, 20-21, 22

Hands, drawing, 44-51 ; propor-
tions of, 83
Heads, drawing, 60-62
Horizon, in perspective, 120

Indiarubber, choice of, 200
Interiors of houses, in perspective,
137

Kemp-Welch, Lucy, 101

Landscape, thumbnail sketches

of, 155 ; painting, 156
Light and shade, studies in, 182-

192

Madonna della Sedia, 180
Man, proportions of, 80-82
Measure, how to, 115-116
Michelet paper, 19, 190, 202
Mouths, 71-73
Munnings, A. J., 101

Necks contrasted, human, 62-63 ;

birds', 95
Noses, human, 69-71 ; animals',

98-99, 104

Outline drawing, 182

Paints, water-colour, choice of,

200-202
Papers, drawing, 14, 16, 17
Parallel lines, the use of, 114-118
Pen-and-ink drawing, 190
Pencil-drawing, 13-14
Perspective, 114-140

205

Drawing for Beginners

Plumb-line, the use of, 114-118
Powdered chalk, drawing with,

190
Proportions of inanimate objects,

83-87

Raphael, 181
Rembrandt, 166, 170
Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 164, 166
Rubens, Peter Paul, 170
Ruins, sketching, 154-155

Shade, studies in light and, 182-

192
Silhouette portraits, 160-163
Sketching outfit, 142
Sprayers, 203

Steinbach paper, 203
Stump-drawing, 190
Subject, choice of, 20-27 ; contrast
of, 24-27

Thumbnail sketches, 155
Tinted paper, 183
Titian, 165
Tracing paper, 197
Trees, drawing, 152-154

Van Dyck, Antony, 170
Velasquez, 165

Wash-drawing, 191-192
Wings, of birds, 95-96

•.T-'Pl''""'^ * ?

5T10N

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