There are no firm rules about what you should or shouldn’t do when drawing. If you find any, break them as soon as possible. It is much better that way. You stand far more chance of surviving as an artist if you do. And get more confidence and pleasure as well. No, I have no rules to lay down, only a few tips that may come in useful when you start drawing.

First, don’t be in a hurry to begin. Make yourself comfortable. Relax, and have a good look at what you are going to draw. Half close your eyes, cock your head on one side, then begin.

Second, nothing is so boring as a sheet of clean paper. It says nothing, it means nothing, so mess it up as soon as possible. Get that blank stare off its silly surface.
Third, accept your own style and vision. Don’t try to be like some other artist you have seen and admired. You won’t be able to draw like that artist however hard you try because you are not that artist. You are yourself, separate and distinct, and in that lies your uniqueness. Don’t destroy that quality by emulating the works of others, because it will stop you getting a great deal of pleasure from drawing and painting.

And lastly a story. Once upon a time I had a student who was very keen to learn drawing. Above all he wanted to draw antique statues so that his drawing was as much like the statue as possible. We only had whitewash plaster casts for him to draw from but this did not deter him. Week in and week out he toiled at getting the proportions right, the pose right and all the tricky lighting on the surface. For a whole year he laboured and I must say I admired his persistence.

I helped him as best I could and tried to interest him in other aspects of drawing but it was no good. He wanted to make his drawing ‘life-like’ before he did anything else. One day, a year or so later, by a bit of juggling, I managed to help him get his drawing something like the statue by copying all the lights and darks carefully in the right places. Success, I thought, as he expressed his pleasure at the result we had attained. But the following week he didn’t turn up, nor the next, nor ever again. Wondering what had happened to him, I made some inquiries from one of his friends, a fellow student.

‘Haven’t you heard?’ he asked.

‘No,’ I replied, ‘not a word.’

‘Well,’ said this friend, ‘one day he saw a photograph in a museum of that statue he had been drawing for so long. . .’

‘And?’ I inquired, ‘what happened?’

‘Well, it shook him up so much, he hasn’t been able to do anything since. It seemed so pointless, you see, to compete. with something that could copy the statue much better than he could ever do. So he has given it all up. Completely.’

And so, on to painting.

A point about tone and color in black and white drawing. If everything were whitewashed in nature we could draw the tone that light makes when it falls on objects quite easily. However, the things around us are not painted white.

They are multicolored. And colors, too, bear a degree of lightness or darkness that is independent of the light on them at any given time. Consequently we have to take care in assessing these two different factors. You will be more concerned with this when you are painting. When we are drawing we can eliminate the tone of the color if we want to or we can use it if we wish to. Dark brown hair, or dark clothes on a figure can be made dark even though they are in full light. The thing to remember is that colors have a lightness or darkness in their own right and there is nothing wrong in giving them their full value..

LOOKING AT DRAWINGS

I don’t think it really matters if a drawing looks as finished as a painting, though some artists find this idea not at all to their liking. I, myself, take my drawings to a high degree of finish and detail. I have no firm reason for this. I just like doing them that way. I get so involved, sometimes, with a drawing that I am loath to put it aside. Samuel Palmer, a very fine British landscape artist of the last century, overworked his drawings. On the other hand an artist like Modigliani left in very little. Yet each in his way produced a fine drawing.

The bewildering variety of styles and approach is simplified by the act of drawing. When you have done some drawing and have appreciated the problems, the drawings of the masters and moderns don’t seem so remote. You have an affinity with them. They speak more to you than before. They speak in the language you are now using. Consequently through your own enjoyment of drawing and painting you are able to enjoy the drawing and painting of others.

Some of the drawings you will see will be just pages of studies, like those of Watteau that can be seen in the British Museum. They are drawn in red chalk and are beautifully sensitive. They are not large and one wonders how he managed to keep his chalk sharp enough to enable him to be so delicate.

I can see that they are wonderful drawings. I can feel the limbs underneath the clothes and the poses and gestures are alive with energy. As for how he did them I haven’t a clue, though sometimes when I am doing a drawing myself I can feel and understand just what he was getting at; then it seems clear to me. But when I stop drawing I cannot put it into words. I think that you will feel this too if you go on drawing long enough. It is a sense of understanding that cannot be explained but can only be felt.

I have already suggested as a subject looking out of a window, but this may not always be possible, especially if you want to draw after dark as is often the case.

Interior subjects come from the most unlikely places: a corner of the living-room, for instance. A lamp illuminates a chair, a couch, a figure reading a book or newspaper. A study in light and shade, perhaps with the light falling on the objects and the figure, the background of the room in dramatic shadow, the characteristic pose of a figure reading.

Rembrandt, the great Dutch painter of the seventeenth century, did hundreds of drawings of this type of subject and if you are interested in studies containing lots of light and shade it would repay you a hundredfold to look at some of them. Rembrandt was a master of light and shade; most of his portraits, landscapes, figure groups, Biblical studies, start from this standpoint. A study of Rembrandt’s drawing will also help you to understand the way to draw light falling on the different planes of the head.

There is a room full of Rembrandt paintings in the Metropolitan, but if you want to see his drawings and etchings, it is better to go to the British Museum, where they have an enormous collection. If the drawings, for some reason or other, are not on view you may see them by going into the drawing and print library and have them brought to you. It is a pleasant experience to be able to sit in the quiet and hold a Rembrandt in your hand, able to study it at leisure. You can do the same in the Victoria and Albert Museum, Drawing and Print Department, in London.

Still life, the grouping of miscellaneous articles on a table, fruits, vegetables, flowers, pots, pans, jugs, bottles, china – still life, next to landscape and portrait, are still the most popular of subjects to draw and paint. However, nothing is duller than to see, time after time, the same old arrangement of jugs and china, the same vases of flowers and the same arrangement of plate, cloth and Chianti bottle. You have probably seen pictures of them by the score. Why not, instead of arranging a group, merely throw a heap of assorted things together and let them arrange themselves.

The random group holds more surprises than the carefully contrived stilI life group. I feel, when I see those beautiful arrangements, that I am looking at a piece of window dressing. It is often quite a nice piece of window dressing, but then I ask myself why bother to go to all the trouble of sorting out a beautifully designed effect, which looks quite well on its own, and then draw or paint it? It doesn’t seem right to spend an hour arranging the group and only ten minutes drawing it.

Some of the most delightful random still life paintings I have seen have been painted over and over again by a French painter, only recently dead, Pierre Bonnard. He used to paint the tops of tables after tea or dinner, with the clutter of empty plates and half-filled cups, piled up crockery and so on. Though it is, in fact, only a still life, it has the breath of life in it and so commands our attention in a way the carefully contrived still life does not. The French call still life nature morte, dead life. They have a point there. Well, don’t let your still life become dead life. Let it spring from the spontaneity of life. Go into the kitchen and draw the pots and pans as you find them. Don’t move them about. Accept them as they are. Your work will have an interest that can never be obtained by any other means. After all, when you go outdoors, you won’t be able to push the landscape around to suit your fancy. You will have to take it piecemeal just as it is. So do the same with still life.

To begin drawing you need the simplest of equipment. Here is a list of the tools you will find most useful.

Pencils

Lead pencils are made in different grades, ranging from 6H which is very hard to 6B which is very soft. HB is the commonest grade but is better for writing than drawing. The H range, used by architects and draughtsmen, is not recommended for drawing. It is better to choose a pencil from the B range: 2, 3 or 4B are probably the most suitable. The grade is shown on one end of the pencil and care must be taken not to sharpen that end.

Pencils are handy to carry about and can be bought anywhere. But they are not the best drawing media. The range of tone is narrow, you can’t get a good black with them, they shine unpleasantly when overworked, smudge easily and don’t frame up well. But for the workaday roughing out of ideas for composition, for beginning a watercolor or painting, tracing, or in combination with pen and ink, they are invaluable.

Most of the well-known brands of pencils: Venus, Royal Sovereign, Eagle, etc. give good results. They vary a little in quality, but experience will help you choose the one you like best.

Always keep your pencils well sharpened (Fig. 1). Old razor blades are excellent for this. But if you prefer a knife make sure that the blade is not too heavy, else you will be continually breaking the point. You can get a good point by rubbing on a fine sand paper.

Pen-and-ink drawing is not, as might be imagined, a comparatively recent form of artistic work, for in the great galleries of Europe one may find many interesting specimens of pen work made by Angelo, Raphael, Durer, Titian and others of the great masters. The manner of handling and style of pen work has changed, however, with modern inventions in the way of reproductive methods. The very spirit of pen work has changed only within a comparatively few years.

Continue Pencil Drawing – Even after pen-and-ink drawing is taken up, practice with the pencil should be continued.

The longer the pupil draws with the pencil and crayon the better. They are the most convenient and effective utensils at the artist’s command. Their frequent use should never be discarded.

Inability to make corrections easily in inked lines will discourage the student who is conscientious. Pencil and crayon are valuable because mistakes can be easily corrected at the time they are made. Before a mistake made with a pen can be rectified the ink must be quite dry, and the erasures must be made carefully, especial pains being taken not to disturb or roughen the surface of the paper or cardboard. Erasure may be made with a sharp knife or ink eraser; or the misplaced lines may be hidden or obscured by the use of a glaze of Chinese white.

Outline First With Pencil – Some teachers advocate drawing with pen-and-ink without the aid of a preliminary sketch with pencil. Writes one such teacher, “Practice drawing these (referring to certain subjects to be drawn) as rapidly as you can, without using the pencil in any way, using ink as a medium, you will be more apt to observe with care the exact character of each touch than if you employed the pencil whose marks can be so easily erased. This will, in time, give you greater confidence and facility of hand than can be had with either pencil or crayon.”

The quoted advice is wrong. The beginner should draw as slowly as possible. The writer is positive in these statements, and he is making them after many years of experience spent almost exclusively in making pen drawings for all sorts of practical purposes.

The sphere, the cube, the cylinder, the square prism, the hemisphere and the right-angled triangulared prism. These may be considered in the following order:

1. The surfaces and faces.
2. The edges.
3. The corners.

The surface is the outside of any object.

In the case of the cube, for instance, we find the surface limited and broken up by edges and faces. The face is a limited part of a surface. An edge is formed by the meeting of two faces.

When passing the fingers over the surface of one of the solids, the pupil discovers decided differences. He notes a plain or flat surface, a curved surface and a round surface. He finds that all are not the same shape, and learns that
Edges may be curved or straight.

Corners will be noted, as well as the difference in shape, if he is shown how to study them. Having familiarized himself by a study of each, it is well for the pupil to take the sphere and cube together, in order that he may observe their resemblances and their differences. Explain to him carefully the meaning of dimension.

Dimension is an extent in one direction.

Considered as to surfaces, their differences are notable. The surface of the sphere is curved equally in all its parts, while the cube’s surface has six equal plane faces.

Two of these six faces coming in contact form an edge, which is the subject of a second topic in the study of solids.

While the cube has twelve edges, the sphere has none.

As to Corners – The sphere has none; there can be no corners where there are no edges. The cube has eight corners.

Three or more faces must come in contact to form a corner. The angles of the plane faces of a cube are right angles, therefore on each cube twenty-four right angles are found.

Cylinder and Square Prism – Considered as a whole, the points of resemblance are these: The dimensions are the same in each.

As to Surface and Faces – The cylinder has both curved and plane surfaces; a square prism has only plane surfaces.

Considered as to their edges, the cylinder has curved edges; the square prism, straight edges. Considered as to corners, the square prism has the same number of corners as the cube; the cylinder has no corners.

Two cubes will make one square prism.
Faces are parallel to each other when they extend in the same direction.

Faces are perpendicular when they are at right angles to each other. A square corner would be formed by the intersection of three.

Faces are oblique to each other when they form angles other than right angles.

The solids are considered, first, as “wholes”; second, as “to surfaces and faces,” and, third, “as to edges.”

An edge is formed by the meeting of two faces.

Edges may be curved or straight. The surface of the sphere is curved equally in all parts, while the surface of the cube is composed of six equal plane faces. When any two of these faces come in contact an edge is formed.

A profile limits the part that we see of any round or curved surface. Profiles and edges limit and give visible shape to the faces and parts of faces.

Pastel-stencil work is a new and exceedingly fascinating
line of art work invented by the author of this work.

As its name indicates, it is a dry stencil process, easy and cleanly in operation.

For school room work it is better than any other method of stenciling. It is reversible, and by its use the most complex geometric, ornamental and other forms become simple.

One great advantage is that both sides of the stencil can be utilized. Because:
(1) The stencils are self-cleaning.
(2) Pigment never adheres sufficiently to cause smudging.

Blending Colors

In making designs by means of pastel stenciling one is enabled to blend colors and give variation to the lines and tints transferred, making modulations that cannot be obtained by any other stencil process.

Parts May Be Taken Out

By means of this method, with the use of the rubber or similar eraser parts of the design may be taken out, in the case of decorative design, gaining the effect of one ornament placed upon another.

The materials used are these:

A sheet of drawing paper
(or the blackboard).
A sheet of oil stencil board.
A pencil for making the design on the stencil.
A pen knife, of which only the extreme end of the blade
need be sharp.

An assortment of colored chalks or crayon. These must be soft to produce the best results.

The wax crayon can be used to a modified degree.

Rather strange to say, working with wax crayons is accompanied by less “mussing up” of the person using them, whereas the work itself is not so productive of neatness in effect as the use of the soft crayons.

Adapted for the Lower Grades

Work with pastel-stencils is admirably adapted for children in the lowest grades, because by this means the study of form becomes peculiarly interesting instead of tiresome. Teachers are thus enabled to supply their young pupils with the necessary models in colored form at hardly any outlay, either in time or money.

As an example, let the teacher cut stencils in shapes shown in Fig. 1, making copies for the pupils. By making them in various colors, color as well as form can be taught with a minimum of effort and a maximum of interest.

The sauce crayon mentioned in Chapter XXVI is excellent for pastel stenciling where soft gray and white effects are desired.

The Start of the Diagonal Method of Enlarging and Reducing

Only one drawing, about 4 x 6 inches in size, not four drawings, as indicated, are to be made. Proceed thus: draw a rectangle as in A. Intersect with diagonals as shown in A and B.

Intersect the diagonals with a horizontal line as in C and finally with a vertical intersecting line as in D. All lines inside of the rectangle should be made very light. They are merely guide lines to be erased when the drawing is completed.

Blackboard Exercise – Draw the lines in Fig. 6 on the blackboard with the guide lines, and let the pupils copy them by means of the triangular guide lines. The first one by the aid of a single oblique line. The second by the aid of two oblique lines; the third with two oblique lines and one horizontal line; the fourth aided by the addition of a vertical line.

Errors Quickly Noted – For the beginner, even a common vase or teacup is a difficult subject. Straight, upright and oblique guiding-lines are helpful in drawing curved objects. The following diagrams will make the method clear. By this means, as will be observed, the several parts are balanced with ease, and errors quickly noticed and corrected. The use of these lines accustoms the pupil to judge the relative proportions of the different parts of an object as related to the whole.

The divisions made by vertical, horizontal and oblique lines will greatly aid the pupil in his work. He is thus enabled to become methodical and accurate in his measurements, and will cultivate what is known as the “true eye” for drawing.

Do not, however, encourage the pupil to depend on or permit himself to be crippled by the constant application of mechanical methods or appliances, or allow the use thereof to interfere with free-hand drawing. They are intended for occasional use. To avoid this, have him frequently lay aside the guide line methods and trust more to the eye.

Whenever desirable, more divisions can easily be made. The additional spaces need not be made over the entire surface, but the surface may be subdivided indefinitely in whole or in part, according to the intricacy of detail in the design to be copied, same size, enlarged or reduced.

To enlarge or reduce one may resort to any of the following methods:

(1) Photography.

(2) The mechanical instrument known as the pantograph.

(3) The mechanical instrument known as the proportional dividers.

(4) Free hand drawing. Good practice, but not conducive to accuracy.

(5) Squaring the original by means of intersecting horizontal and vertical lines. This requires great care in preparation and use. The squares must be square and usually require numbering along at least two sides of the original and of the copy.

(6) Triangulation. An old and simply made geometrical form which I have adopted for the purpose of enlarging and reducing.

In my practice it has, since my discovery of its new use, entirely superseded the laborious, if time-honored, methods. By its use ordinary care produces accurate work, no measurements being required except when laying out the perimeters.

In the squaring method even an ordinary reduction or enlargement requires from 16 to 64 squares, the latter with boundary numbers 1, 2, 3,4, 5,6, 7 and 8 on at least two sides of both original and copy. In this maze the draftsman is apt (to become “lost.” In the method I have adopted, the triangulation forms a pattern which aids the eye to keep within the proper corresponding spaces. That is, each triangle, in the original and in the drawing under way, occupies a distinctive and individual position not observable in the squares.

I have not space here to describe the numerous applications and advantages of the triangular method, nor even to describe its operation beyond giving a diagram of its most primitive, simplest form, as shown in the accompanying figures.

These figures merely show the progress of the method. A square or other parallelogram is drawn first, the oblique, vertical and horizontal lines being added.

In a drawing in which the detail is complex, the triangles are easily subdivided, both in the original and in the drawing to be made from it.

Not alone is this method superior in every way to the “squaring” process, but it provides a sure and easy way to make regularly proportional distortions.

Not long ago an engraver on old gold and silver ware came to me. He was distressed. An order had been given to him in which it was required that certain heraldric devices should appear on some silver plate. The devices included the pleasant-looking creature shown in Fig.1.

The engraver’s trouble was that the mythological animal had to be reproduced in narrow vertical and horizontal panels, respectively, of certain definite dimensions. My engraver friend did not know how to get the “critter” squeezed and distended into anything like proper proportions.

Figs. 2 and 3 show the engraver’s purpose was satisfactorily accomplished.

It is to be hoped that the result pleased his customer. It was my conjecture that the griffons might be intended for evolutional ancestral portraits and if my surmise was correct the two distortions might serve as portraits of two of his ancestors-one attenuated and the other obese. Anyway, I would as soon trace my origin to a fine official and officious looking griffon – or whatever it is – as to a grinning, chat. tering chimpanzee.

Another Example – Fig. 4 is another example of what may be done in the way of varying the form of an area in which any design may be placed.

Imitation or copy drawing is valuable at the outset, as it imparts style or method of handling. To an extent it reveals the personality. By its use the pupil gains accuracy of eye measurement, errors in that respect being more readily shown than when drawing from model.

Drawing from copy also trains the eye by giving it some means of correcting its mistake in the estimate of lengths and values of lines.

Perspective or object drawing gives a knowledge of form, color, and construction. Ideas of relation and relative sizes are thus acquired.

Imaginary and memory drawings enable the pupil to express thought and impart ideas.

Intermingling parts of all three supports, helps and explains the others.
In copying one is shown how.
In object drawing one sees how.
In imaginative drawing one thinks how.

EYE MEASUREMENTS

Measurement Exercise – As the pupil progresses, greater accuracy in eye-measurement will become apparent. This can be hastened by frequent practice exclusively in this direction.

A good plan is for the teacher to draw straight lines of various determined lengths, requiring pupils to bisect, trisect and quadrisect them at regular intervals. Thus, draw a line four inches long to be divided in half. Then the same line in three equal divisions; then into four equal divisions.

PROPORTION

Proportion, and What Is Meant by Out of Proportion – For example: If a picture of a man were drawn with the head twice as long as the head should be, as is shown in Fig. 1, Chap. 19, that would be called out of proportion, because it would be unnatural.

It should be in “good proportion,” which means it should be near the natural size as compared with other parts of the body. The ability to draw the figure in proper proportion requires considerable practice, close observation and accurate eye-measurement.

Varying Proportions – In drawing the head of a child, the same proportions as adults does not exist; the child’s head being larger in proportion to the body than in the case of adults. There are also further variations. Putting a very small head on the body of a child would make the drawing appear as much out of proportion as in the case of the overlarge head referred to. In caricature, lapses from true proportion are permitted. Then it is done purposely to produce a ludicrous effect.

Relative Proportions – Ability to represent the relative size or proportion of one object to another is an essential element in correct drawing. To accomplish this the pupil requires aid from the teacher.

An effective method of teaching this is to choose some object for a unit of measure or comparison, and place others beside it, one or several at a time.

Any well-known object will do, as, for instance, a piece of fruit, such as an apple or an orange-or a ball.

Exercise in Proportion – Make a drawing of the object selected and compare it with some other object of about the same size. Then place beside them still another object, two or three times as large, such as a book or cap. Now let the pupil make a drawing showing the three objects in their relative sizes.

Any small wooden or cardboard box may be used in connection with other small boxes to demonstrate proportionate sizes.

Place the apple (or whatever object is selected) on a box and draw both in proportion.

Proceed with the exercise by drawing from imagination (or copy) some other object with which the student is familiar and draw the object in proportion. The subject may be a bird, a mouse, a set of keys, a cup, mug – any object that is not larger than the box itself.