Action – When the vital element of action enters into the drawing interest is quickened in the mind of the beholder.

Generally speaking, action in pictures simply drawn is shown most frequently by lines diverging from the horizontal and vertical.

Thus, in Figs. 1 and 2 the lines on the left at the bottom, including the curved ones (which are resting horizontally) convey the impression of rest; whereas, similar lines at the right, being inclined, indicate unrest, or action.

In Fig. 3 none of the lines are at rest; action is shown throughout. In Fig. 4 there is the same divergence from the upright and the level.

For exercise draw objects that convey a sense of action, based on lines similar to those shown here. Beginners may copy these.

Value of Lines – Lines have direction and quality. Quality is of secondary consideration just now. On the correctness of direction will depend the completeness of the impression conveyed.

The eye of the beginner cannot grasp the direction of the lines of an object in action. Therefore, he must depend on copies to assist him in his early efforts.

This gives him practice in expressing action. It will aid him also in his memory work.

Drawing, in its elements, means form, color and action. Not only to the untrained mind, but to many far advanced in the study of art, form and color are subservient to action. If action is absent. interest is transient. Of course the drawing itself does not move but the idea does.

Memory Work

After the simple lines of the action exercises have been learned, they should be adapted by the pupils and connected with little stories and language lessons.

The boys might be permitted to portray boys playing ball.
while the girls could make pictures of children rolling hoops.

The suggestions should be given by the teacher. Afterwards, the most successful efforts may be reproduced on the blackboard.

Suggestions for subjects:

Man running from policeman. White man running from Indian. Indian running from white man. Ship riding before a storm.
Boy chasing a dog.
Dog chasing a boy.

Single Line Action Exercises

Imagination Exercises in Action Drawing – Fig. 5
Make the boy with the bow look like an Indian. Put an arrow in the bow.
Show the wagon, and the boy falling off. Show the first boy standing on the sled.
Show the second boy dragging his sled up hill.
Show the boy with the pail, pumping water into it. Show the boy with the rake gathering hay.

Border Exercise in Action Drawing Fig. 6

In the border below the circle the exercise looks rather difficult. It will be made easy if these directions are followed:

First, draw the guide lines, then draw all the black clots on the hats, first being careful to place them the proper distance apart-each one a little less than half the entire’ width of the border from each other, seven in all. Make the entire drawing about eight inches wide.
Then draw the hats-all seven. Then the arms.
Then their legs in the air. Then their legs on the ground.

The value of these exercises consists largely in fostering the inventive faculty of the child, in bringing out his individual ingenuity. The teacher should let the pupil depend on his own imagination entirely, afterwards suggesting improvements and pointing out the most palpable errors.

The Subjects - The stories illustrated may be original, or from suggestions offered by simple nursery tales and rhymes. For instance:

John flew a kite, but the wind was so strong that the string broke and the kite fell towards the ground. But it never reached the ground. It was caught in a tree and stayed there for a long time, so long, indeed, that there was nothing left of the kite except a few rotting sticks. Did John cry? No, he went home and made another kite.

To illustrate this, one or more pictures may be made. Examples: A boy flying a kite. The kite falling (upside-down). The kite lodged in a tree.

Reverse the Operation – For instance, draw a picture and write a little story about it.

As for example: A picture of a bird feeding a little bird in a nest. The story: “One day a bird fed its little one and then flew away to get another meal, but the mother bird never came back. A bad boy threw a stone at it just as it was picking up a nice little worm for the birdling’s luncheon. Wouldn’t the bad little boy feel sorry if he knew that the little bird in the nest starved to death because its mother never came back?”

Many of the Mother Goose Melodies provide easy, yet interesting, material for simple illustrations, thus:

MOTHER GOOSE MELODIES SIMPLY ILLUSTRATED

Anniversaries – On holidays, national anniversaries and other seasonable occasions, or rather for some days preceding them, it is well to direct the pupil’s energies toward the symbols and pictures by which these events and persons are commemorated.

New Year’s Day suggests Father Time, his scythe and hour glass. The New Year itself, as portrayed by a child, illustrating the new born year with the date thereof made prominent. Good resolutions – someone writing in a diary, etc.

February presents Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthdays as subjects, besides St. Valentine’s day. Events in the Jives of the two great patriots are good subjects, or simply their portraits surmounted by or surmounting, for instance, a hatchet and a cherry tree trunk, or a rail fence or broken shackles, made into a frame – as the case may be.

SEPTEMBER – Draw Autumn flowers, such as the golden-rod, sunflower, and others found in your locality, grasses, grains, bushes and trees.

OCTOBER – Draw fruits, Autumn leaves, pumpkins and ‘Jack-o’ lanterns.

NOVEMBER – Draw objects suggested by Thanksgiving – The May flower. Indians. wigwams, turkeys and corn.

DECEMBER – Subjects suggested by Christmas, such as Christmas trees, stars, holly, Santa Claus and reindeer, toys of all kinds.

JANUARY – Eskimo huts, snow forts, snow men, snow crystals, skating and coasting.

FEBRUARY – Subjects suggested by Lincoln’s and Washington’s birthdays and Valentine Day. .

MARCH – Draw kites. windmills, boats and pussy-willows.

APRIL – Draw buds and twigs, tulips and other early Spring flowers, umbrellas & ducks.

MAY – Draw baskets, birds and their nests and eggs, trees, flowers and simple landscapes.

JUNE – Draw flowers, vacation scenes, landscapes.

The Months – The illustration below offers a suggestion for each month of the year. The designs are intended for those who are well advanced as well as for beginners. The latter may use them as copies, while the former may find in them bases for improvement in form and idea.

Here are three suggestions for simple story pictures:

MEMORY DRAWING

Practice drawing from memory. Take a single figure, a simple subject, and, having drawn it two or three times from the original, lay both aside and then, by no aid except that of your memory, draw the object once more. Then compare it with the original and see how near it you have made the sketch. This is an interesting as well as a practically helpful exercise.

CORRECTING ERRORS

The pupil will be benefited if he will frequently criticize his own work from his own viewpoint. Thus only is improvement possible.

It is a mistake to suppose that it is necessary to have separate instructions for drawing each form or even each group of forms. Certain fixed niles govern drawing, and, once these are mastered, they can be applied to almost anything that can be represented by pen, pencil or brush.

Pen-drawing, the study of perspective, composition, light and shade, nature sketching, charcoal and crayon work, and other studies may be taken in accordance with the provisions of the state course of study.

Effect by Suggestion – By combination and juxtaposition, we are enabled to establish the meaning of lines that by themselves would not be recognized in the way intended. For instance, the lines in the upper left hand corner of Fig. 6, by themselves, would not be understood as representing rain. But place an open umbrella in connection with the lines, and the eye interprets them as portraying rain. For practice, draw plain lines on the blackboard and add figures as here suggested.

Draw on the blackboard the lines A in Fig. 7.

The student should copy these as an exercise. The scallops, by themselves, represent nothing in nature. Invert them and place a sketch of a sailboat and waves are suggested.

The lines inside the frame below, by themselves, would hardly be recognized as representing glass. But draw objects beyond the “glass”, partly hidden, and the meaning becomes clear.