What I call the black media are charcoal, conte crayon and carbon pencils. They all give dense black lines, have a wide tonal range and, on grey or tinted papers, with the additional use of white chalk, reach a degree of richness no other drawing medium can give. For inside and outside drawing, you will find them most effective. They combine well with watercolor and pen and ink, are very exciting to use and achieve quick, lively results.

The only thing to remember about them is that after a drawing is completed, the drawing must be fixed or it will smudge. For this purpose you use a fixative that is sprayed on with a diffuser. Fixative can be bought at any artists’ supplier but, as it is very volatile, must be kept tightly corked when not in use. It dries in a few seconds.

A cheap fixative can be made from one part white shellac varnish and one part wood alcohol. Add the shellac to the wood alcohol and shake until it is dissolved.

When the fixative has been lightly sprayed all over the drawing, let it dry, then test whether the black still comes off. If it does, lightly spray again. Two fixings should be sufficient but sometimes a denser drawing may need more. Charcoal certainly needs two fixings always, being more powdery than either conte or carbon.

Charcoal

Charcoal, like pencil, is graded into hard and soft sticks, and thin and thick sticks. The usual way to buy them is in boxes that contain all the grades and thicknesses. Charcoal is delightful to use, easy to erase, but is inclined to be messy when overworked. It is a good medium to begin drawing with but it is rather difficult to fix when overworked. You can now buy charcoal pencils which have all the qualities of the loose sticks. These are certainly not so messy, but are a little more difficult to erase.

Conte Crayon

Conte crayon comes in short square sticks, is graded into hard, medium and soft, is more difficult to erase than either charcoal or pencil, but does give a richer tone and line than either. It is less liable to injury and smudging and is easier to fix. It can be used in a holder which is made especially for the purpose and can be bought at most artists’ suppliers. Conte, being brittle, is not so easy to sharpen, so a holder is a good thing to use. You can get conte in pencil form and, though it is cleaner to use it this way, it is just as difficult to sharpen. Great care must therefore be taken to sharpen the point towards you not away, as you do with a lead pencil.

Conte can be bought in various shades of brown (often called sanguine) which, except for the color, are exactly the same as the black sticks.

Carbon Pencils

Carbon pencils are probably the best all-round media of all those described. They sharpen well, are not too messy to use and only require the lightest of fixing. They give good rich tones and can be used in combination with all the other black media, including watercolor and pen and ink. They are highly recommended for both studio and outdoor work.

Carbon pencils are manufactured by Wolffs and corne in three grades marked B, BB, BBB, the last being the softest.

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.

We are told, and rightly so, that it is great fun to be able to draw and paint. Every manual of painting stresses this, and then proceeds to make the whole thing seem so difficult that we are discouraged before we begin. Of course it is difficult. But should that really concern us?

There is a saying that goes: if a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly. Which means, in essence, that whatever you do, do it for the enjoyment it gives you. If you are concerned only with doing it well you may feel so inadequate that you won’t do it at all. And look at all the pleasure you will miss.

I was the despair of my teachers. Yet if I had taken them seriously I would have given up long ago. But drawing and painting were too pleasant to abandon just because I wasn’t going to be any good at them, so I went on enjoying myself and got better and better in spite of myself. It was as simple as that.

Of course this may confound many people. It sounds too easy. How can you achieve anything, they could argue, if (a) you haven’t any ability or (b) you don’t work hard? But then most of the things we do in life are, in reality, easy. It is our thinking about them that makes them difficult. If we knew how complicated it is to take one simple breath, we might give up and suffocate. Yet breathing comes so easily to us we do it without thinking. And I submit it is the same with drawing and painting. It is easier than we think. All we need to know is what to use and how it behaves when we use it.

I have written fully about the equipment you will need and what its uses are; and I have suggested exercises and discussed different modes of seeing. But I have not laid down any firm rules about anything. If you are going to express yourself you will break all the rules anyway. Instead I have laid down some general lines on which to travel. Let your own inclination be the best judge of what is most useful to you.

Above all, let your materials do the work, let your hands have their way and let your eyes dictate their impressions. Don’t force anything. Let it happen naturally. After all it is quite natural to want to draw and paint.

Only three colors are necessary at the beginning. More than three are inadvisable, and, in fact, make the study complex and difficult. For the purpose of the beginner, the three primary colors, yellow, red and blue, will produce every other color desired. In other words, all other colors contain combinations of two or three of these colors.

Mix blue and red, and you have purple or violet, or lilac, according to which of the two prevails.

Mix blue and yellow, and you have green.

Mix red and yellow, and orange is obtained.

Mix all three in equal proportions, and the result is a muddy brown.

Modifying the mixtures, for instance, three parts of red, two of blue and one of yellow produces a chocolate tint.

The colors usually accepted as standard are the primaries, yellow, red and blue, and the secondary colors, orange, green and violet. Complementary colors are various proportions of the primary colors, such as olive, russet, etc.

Tone indicates any change of color. There are warm tones and cold tones.

Warm tones are those in which yellow and red prevail.

Cold tones are those in which blue and black are added sufficiently to produce a sense of coolness or dullness, such as russet, olive and grey.

Shades are the darker tones. Tints are the lighter tones of a color. The less color in proportion to the water used the lighter the tint becomes.

Hues are the intermediate tones between two intermingling tints or tones. Thus a green tone running into a yellow tone becomes a yellow-green hue.

Value is lightness or darkness of tone irrespective of color produced by its contrast with another.

Scale of color is the orderly series of tones; thus, yellow running from full strength to white, or from yellow to black.

Some Nevers

Never “scrub” with the brush or manipulate it any way so that
the hairs of the brush become unevenly separated.

Never retouch a wet wash.

Never put one wash over another until the first one is dry. Never work with a partly dry brush except to put in minor details
to complete a water color.

Never put your brush aside without rinsing and drying it. Never put the color box away without cleaning it.

Color on Color – In working with water color, a better result is usually obtained by placing one color over, the other when wishing to make a tint, rather than mixing the tint beforehand.

Thus, for instance, if one wishes to produce a green, place an area of yellow on the paper, and after that is dry wash a tone of blue over it with a brush. The result thus obtained is a green of better value than could have been secured by first mixing the blue and the yellow. By the former method, while slower, a higher degree of transparency will be obtained. In painting landscapes, for instance, where one or the other of the first washes happens to show through, little accidental effects are secured which would otherwise be obtained with much difficulty.

Water color painting is a series of washes. A wash is water tinted with color to be applied more or Iess evenly to the surface of the paper.

A flat wash is one in which there is no variation in tone. A wash may be light or dark – from a slight admixture of color to full strength; the latter being seldom used.

A graded wash is one where the wash varies from light to dark,
or vice versa.

A broken wash is where the wash is divided by the outlines of other washes of another color.

A mixed wash is one where one color runs into another – as from yellow to green, etc,

A wash may represent a tint, hue or value.

A wash should be applied as follows: Dip the brush in water.

Press it into one of the colors; extract the color with downward strokes; do not wiggle the brush backward and forward. When enough color has been taken up gently press the color from the brush into one of the compartments in the cover of the box. Then dip the brush into water again and mix the water with the color in the compartment. Stir gently and take up a brushful of the tint. Apply to the paper, renewing the color before the brush is dry. If the color runs too much, quickly dry the brush on the cloth and with the dry brush take up the superfluous color. A blotter may be used for the same purpose.

Parts to be Painted Last – Parts that are in heavy color should always be put in last. Otherwise if additional washes are put in the background or middle distance the heavily painted portions will become dissolved and spread into the other parts. Thus, if the red chimney of a house were painted before the sky or clouds behind it were quite finished, and then a wash spread over the red chimney, the red would spread into the cloud or sky, spoiling the latter.

Let Light Tones Prevail – In the beginning of water color exercises the prevailing tones should be light. Excessive color is productive of muddiness in texture. Purity of tone is more easily obtained and preserved by the application of tones few in number (or in combination) and light in quality. If more strength is found necessary, repeated washes, one over the other, each one being allowed to dry, will bring about the required result.

Neutral Foundation – A pleasing effect is usually secured by making the variation in light and shade, especially in the foreground, and even middle distance, by means of grey or neutral tones, just as if the picture were to be composed of grey and white effects alone.

Then the various local colors may he applied in transparent washes over the grey tones. The grey tones will show through the washes of color and produce much the same effect as if various grades of strength of color were used. It is the same principle as in coloring a photograph, except that the colorist has the advantage of adapting the strength of the underlying tones to suit the requirements of the subject; parts of a photograph usually being too dark for the super-added colors to show adequately.

When Backgrounds Are Unnecessary – When painting single objects or simple groups, such as flowers, a book, a vase (almost any still life subject, in fact), it is not necessary to show the actual background. A broken tint is generally sufficient and less confusing in result.

Select Simple Subjects – When drawing from nature in color as well as in black-and-white, simple subjects are best at first; the simpler the better. A stump of a tree, a fallen log, a group of rocks, a bunch of grass or weeds. an old water trough, an old shed or shanty; in fact, any single object or group is advisable rather than a widely distributed subject of an ambitious character.

Old and weatherworn subjects are better than new ones.

The Beginner in the use of water colors should be provided with the following materials:

- A box of water colors and two or three brushes.

- A tablet of white water color paper (4 1/2″x6″).

- A cup for water (one that is not easily tipped).

- A piece of blotting paper.

- A piece of cotton cloth (free from starch) for the purpose of drying the brush or taking up superfluous color and cleaning the color box.

- A small sheet of white paper on which to try colors.

Water Color Paper – In water color work, the paper best adapted for the purpose is that which is made of linen possessing a moderately rough surface, together with a good substance of body, that is to say, thickness.

If paper not in tablet form is used, before starting even the outline the paper should be slightly sponged on one side, and, before it has a chance to dry, the edges or margins, to the extent of a half inch, should be passed over with strong mucilage, paste or glue.

The paper should now be pressed firmly to the drawing board. As the paper dries it becomes stretched and is ready to receive the colors. When the work is completed cut the drawing within the lines where pasted, The paper must be quite dry before this is done.

Paper especially adapted for water colors already prepared in tablets can be secured, tile sheets of which may be removed after the water color is completed. The drawing board need not then be used.

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS

Position of the Tablet – The tablet should be inclined at an angle of about 35 or even 45 degrees: This is for the purpose of letting colors flow downward, which is the general direction in which the brush should be manipulated.

Outlining the Design – Make complete outlines of the subject to be painted before applying color. These outlines should be very light, so light as not to be observed, except on very close inspection, when the water color is completed.

Erasing – Use the rubber eraser as seldom as possible, otherwise the rubber is apt to disturb the surface of the paper and cause the “washes” to appear streaked.

Parts to be Painted First – As a general rule, put in the background tints first. Then the parts in the middle distance, and the foreground last.

Some teachers induce the belief that painting in oils or water color can be achieved without first having to learn to draw. This is about as absurd as if one were to study electrical engineering without first knowing the difference between a volt and an ampere. Painting cannot be separated from drawing.

Painting is simply the art of drawing in color. Without understanding the elementary principles of drawing, color work will always show errors to the educated eye, if not to that of the untrained pupil. The study of color is a branch of drawing by itself and should not be considered separately.

Nature is a great teacher, but many of her rules are concealed and not readily found. To know some of her laws in advance will make instruction very much easier. Certain fixed rules, once memorized, will enable both teacher and pupil to see nature with eyes of intelligence. Few errors of an artistic nature are greater than those made by the ambitious, but untrained, student of art, who goes to nature direct to solve the mysteries of her color scheme. It requires more than superficial observation to enable one to grasp the problem of harmonious color combinations and contrasts. Color intuition and perception often is innate, but it must be cultivated before one can approach an imitation of the subtleties of the tints and gradations that nature’s pallette shows.

“If I only knew how to mix colors, I know I could paint,” wails the Tyro.

Yet mixing the colors is the easiest part after all. The great thing is the application. However, the “knowing how to mix them” should be learned first. Nature may inspire artistic feeling which is the impetus of true genius, but she cannot instill within the mind of the untutored that which is in itself a science almost separate and distinct. A knowledge of the rudiments of this science is needed even in the simplest work; without it, the time taken up in the exercise of painting is utterly lost.

The A, B, C of Color may be memorized readily, but it must be borne in mind that regular formulas for mixing pigments cannot be given as one would name the exact quantities in a medical prescription or the proportions in a recipe for making a salad. Only by practical operation of the brief instructions that are given in these pages will the student gain an understanding of the rules of color, contrast and harmony.

The Colors are divided into primaries (or elementaries), secondaries and tertiaries. In other words, first, second and third colors.

A primary color is one that cannot be produced by an admixture of others.

Yellow is a primary color, and stands first, for it is the
nearest approach in color to light.

Red comes next, and is the intermediary between yellow
and blue, which is the third and remaining primary color.

In theory, from these three colors alone, all other colors may be had.

Next to white, in color, we may class yellow, a primary intimately related to white as between light and color. Yellow, like white, is an advancing color, some form of it appears in nearly every palette.

From the primaries are formed the secondaries, orange (a mixture of yellow and red), green (a mixture of yellow and blue), and purple (a mixture of red and blue). The tertiary colors are:

- Citron, made of orange mixed with green.

- Russet (or brown), made of orange mixed with purple.

- Olive, made of purple mixed with green.

Beyond this extent innumerable combinations are obtained by mixing the various tints and colors of varying inherent qualities.

Working drawings take the place of lengthy explanation, either written or oral. It is by such means that the dimensions are shown, dimension being an extent in anyone direction, and are three in number, length, breadth and thickness. These dimensions apply only to solids and not to hollow objects, They apply regardless to position.

Lines, Etc., Used in Working Drawings

Working drawings show only the outlines of the object. The real shape is to be judged by the positions of the separate views and the lines connecting them. These lines tell us that certain angles, edges, and surfaces come in contact. By these means, we understand the form that will result.

The lines used arbitrarily define the things they represent. Besides the lines, certain characters are used as abbreviations, as for instance, in place of “feet” and “inches,” represents feet and represents inches. The diagram on below contains the lines used in industrial drawing.

Working Drawing of a Cube

The upper drawing shows how a drawing is laid out from which to construct a cube. In the lower drawing the result is shown. The heavy lines only are the outlines, the fine lines indicate where the cardboard or paper is to be bent, and the triangles are the’ parts to be pasted.

First draw the central horizontal line; then the four circles in a row. Then draw two horizontal lines above and below the circles. Next, draw the short center lines intersecting the horizontals, including the short lines beyond, above and below. Now draw the perpendicular lines that form the cube, and the oblique lines. To establish the extent of the latter, describe segments of circles with the same radius as the others at the points of contact of horizontal and perpendicular lines with the circles.

For exercise, make working drawings of a table, a chair, a music stand, etc.

Working drawings are those from which objects can be constructed. They are also, and properly, called mechanical drawings, industrial drawings and construction drawings. They are necessary to guide the workman in nearly every branch of industry.

A working drawing is made of two or more geometric views of the object. A geometric drawing shows an object in its simplest form; that is, having length or width, or showing but one face of the object. This can be represented on a flat surface by one drawing; then another must be made to represent the face, showing the thickness of the solid, and so on, until as many views have been made as there are dissimilar faces.

The Real Shape of the Surface cannot always be shown in these drawings, but simply the contour or outline when the surface is curved or oblique. The real shape, however, is readily understood by the position of the several views and the lines connecting them.

When we know that certain angles and edges come in contact, we are enabled to understand the form that will result. Certain conventional lines are used in working drawings, and the knowledge of their use is necessary.

List of the Lines and Explanations – Dotted lines connect different parts of different views that are in contact in the object.

Dot-and-dash lines are center lines, sometimes called construction lines. They are used when the object has a curved surface or is difficult to illustrate.

Dash lines represent invisible edges. Complete lines represent visible edges of surfaces.

In making working drawings the top view is usually placed directly over or under the front view, with corresponding points opposite. When more than two views are necessary, the side views are placed beside the front or upright, with the corresponding points exactly opposite.

Exercises in the Three Dimensions Dimensions of a Line, which is known by its length.

Show, in a drawing, the length of a line twelve inches long, drawn to the scale of three inches to the foot (J=I); that is to say, each actual foot to be represented by three inches on the drawing, and every actual inch by a quarter of an inch on the drawing.

Dimensions of a Surface, which are known by its length
and breadth.

Show, in a drawing, the length and breadth of a sheet of paper twelve inches long and six inches wide; i. e., 12″x6″. Scale, three inches to the foot; i. e., 3″=1′.

Dimensions of a Solid, the longest dimension being known by its length. the next longest by its breadth, while its shortest is known by its thickness.

Show, in a drawing, the length, breadth and thickness of a
board 12×6. Scale, 3″=1′.

Exercises in Working Drawings – Make working drawings of simple articles of furniture, like tables, chairs, bookshelves, etc. The measurements and views should be so plain that a workman would form a clear idea of the article and be able to construct one from the drawing.