contact us | about us | privacy | how to draw blog

The Elements of Drawing by John Ruskin On First Practice Sketching from Nature On Color and Composition ON color AND COMPOSITION I have only one thing more to advise you, namely, never to colour petulantly or hurriedly. You will not, indeed, be able, if you attend properly to your colouring, to get anything like the quantity of form you could in a chiaroscuro sketch; nevertheless, if you do not dash or rush at your work, nor do it lazily, you may always get enough form to be satisfactory. An extra quarter of an hour, distributed in quietness over the course of the whole study, may just make the difference between a quite intelligible drawing, and a slovenly and obscure one. If you determine well beforehand what outline each piece of colour is to have, and, when it is on Pig. so the paper, guide it without nervousness, as far as you can, into the form required; and then, after it is dry, consider thoroughly what touches are needed to complete it, before laying one of them on; you will be surprised to find how masterly the work will soon look, as compared with a hurried or ill-considered sketch. In no process that I know of-least of all in sketching-can time be really gained by precipitation. It is gained only by caution; and gained in all sorts of ways; for not only truth of form, but force of light, is always added by an intelligent and shapely laying of the shadow colours. You may often make a simple fiat tint, rightly gradated and edged, express a complicated piece of subject without a single retouch. The two Swiss cottages, for instance, with their balconies, and glittering windows, and general character of shingly eaves, are expressed in Fig. 30 with one tint of grey, and a few dispersed spots and lines of it; all of which you ought to be able to lay on without more than thrice dipping your brush, and without a single touch after the tint is dry. Here, then, for I cannot without coloured illustrations tell you more, I must leave you to follow out the subject for yourself, with such help as you may receive from the water-colour drawings accessible to you; or from any of the little treatises on their art which have been published lately 1 by our water-colour painters. * But do not trust much to works of this kind. You may get valuable hints from them as to mixture of colours; and here and there you will find a useful artifice or process eXplained; but nearly all such books are written only to help idle amateurs to a meretricious skill, and they are full of precepts and principles which may, for the most part, be interpreted by their precise negatives, and then acted upon with advantage. Most of them praise boldness, when the only safe attendant spirit of a beginner is caution. I don't advise velocity, when the first condition of success is deliberation. I am against generalisation, when all the foundations of power must be laid in knowledge of speciality. And now, in the last place, I have a few things to tell you respecting that dangerous nobleness of consummate art, composition. For though it is quite unnecessary for you yet awhile to attempt it, and it may be inexpedient for you to attempt it at all, you ought to know what it means, and to look for and enjoy it in the art of others. Composition means, literally and simply, putting several things together, so as to make one thing out of them; the nature and goodness of which they all have a share in producing. Thus a musician composes an air, by putting notes together in certain relations; a poet composes a poem, by putting thoughts and words in pleasant order; and a painter a picture, by putting thoughts, forms, and colours in pleasant order. In all these cases, observe, an intended unity must be the result of composition. A paviour cannot be said to compose the heap of stones which he empties from his cart, nor the sower the handful of seed which he scatters from his hand. It is the essence of composition that everything should be in a determined place, perform an intended part, and act, in that part, advantageously for everything that is connected with it. Composition, understood in this pure sense, is the type, in the arts of mankind, of the Providential govel'nment of the world. '*' It is an exhibition, in the order given to notes, or colours, or forms, of the advantage of perfect fellowship, discipline, and contentment. In a wellcomposed air, no note, however short or low, can he spal'ed, but the least is as necessary as the greatest: no note, however prolonged, is tedious; but the others prepare for, and are benefited by, its duration: no note, however high, is tyrannous; the others prepare for, and are benefited by, its exaltation: no note, however low, is overpowered; the others prepare for, and sympathise with, its humility: and the result is, that each and every note has a value in the position assigned to it, which, by itself, it never possessed, and of which, by separation from the others, it would instantly be deprived. Similarly, in a good poem, each word and thought enhances the value of those which precede and follow it; and every syllable has a loveliness which depends not so much on its abstract sound as on its position. Look at the same word in a dictionary, and you will hardly recognise it. Much more in a great picture; every line and colour is so arranged as to advantage the rest. None are inessential, however slight; and none are independent, however forcible. Continue to Composition

Get all the animals listed on this site in an easily printable format. Also learn how to draw mice, monkeys, butterflies and a phoenix. Instant download. $7. Learn to draw a new animal every week. Enter your email address below and we'll send you a free drawing lesson every week. Email: The Elements of Drawing by John Ruskin On First Practice Exercise One: Shading Exercise Two: Outlines Exercise Three: Gradation Exercise Four: Pencil Drawing Exercise Five: Drawing Letters Exercise Six: Drawing Trees Exercise Seven: Watercolor Practice Exercise Eight: Drawing Stones Exercise Nine: More Watercolor Practice Exercise Ten: Sketching from Nature Sketching Trees Sketching Trees 2 First Sketches Painting Practice Drawing from Photographs How to Draw Quickly Drawing Shadows What To Draw How to Draw Plants How to Draw Plants 2 Three Laws of Drawing Light and Shade Drawing Water Drawing Clouds Color Materials Using the Right Color 24 Essential Colors Mixing Colors Using Colors Color Techniques Color Gradation Watercolor Tints Using Black and White Compound Colors Warm and Cool Colors Draw with Care Composition The Law of Principality Law of Repetition Law of Continuity The Law of Curvature Law of Radiation The Law of Contrast The Law of Interchange The Law of Consistency The Law of Harmony