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The Elements of Drawing by John Ruskin On First Practice Sketching from Nature On Color and Composition ON color AND COMPOSITION This discussion of the relative merits of transparent and opaque color has, however, led us a little beyond the point where we should have begun; we must go back to our palette, if you please. Get a cake of each of the hard colors named in the note below and try experiments on their simple combinations, by mixing each color with every other. This will give you some general notion of the characters of mixed tints of two colors only, and it is better in practice to confine yourself as much as possible to these, and to get more complicated colors, either by putting the third over the first blended tint, or by putting the third into its interstices. Nothing but watchful practice will teach you the effects that colors have on each other when thus put over, or beside, each other. * A more methodical, though under general circumstances uselessly prolix way, is to cut a square hole, some half an inch wide, in the sheet of cardboard, and a series of small circular holes in a slip of cardboard an inch wide. Pass the slip over the square opening, and match each color beside one of the circular openings. You will thus have no occasion to wash any of the colors away. But the first rough method is generally all you want, as, after a little practice, you only need to look at the hue through the opening in order to be able to transfer it to your drawing at once. When you have got a little used to the principal combinations, place yourself at a window which the sun does not shine in at,* commanding some simple piece of landscape outline this landscape roughly; then take a piece of white cardboard, cut out a hole in it about the size of a large pea; and supposing R is the room, a d the window, and you are sitting at a, Fig. 29, hold this cardboard a little outside of the window, upright, and in the direction b d, parallel to the side of the window, or a little turned, so as to catch more light, as at a d, never turned as at c d, or the paper will be dark. Then you will see the landscape, bit by bit, through the circular hole. Match the colors of each important bit as nearly as you can, mixing your tints with white, beside the aperture. When matched, put a touch of the same tint at the top of your paper, writing under it: "dark tree color," "hill color," "field color," as the case may be. Then wash the tint away from beside the opening, and the cardboard will be ready to match another piece of the landscape. When you have got the colors of the principal masses thus indicated, lay on a piece of each in your sketch in its right place, and then proceed to complete the sketch in harmony with them, by your eye. In the course of your early experiments, you will be much struck by two things: the first, the inimitable brilliancy of light in sky and in sun-lighted things; and the second, that among the tints which you can imitate, those which you thought the darkest will continually turn out to be in reality the lightest. Darkness of objects is estimated by us, under ordinary circumstances, much more by knowledge than by sight; thus, a cedar or Scotch fir, at 200 yards off, will be thought of darker green than an elm or oak near us; because we know by experience that the peculiar color they exhibit, at that distance, is the sign of darkness of foliage. But when we try them through the cardboard, the near oak will be found, indeed, rather dark green, and the distant cedar, perhaps, pale grey-purple.1 The quantity of purple and grey in Nature is, by the way, another somewhat surprising subject of discovery. Continue to Using Colors

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