Sweet is the air with the buddini< haws, 

 the valley stretching for miles below 



Is white with blussominU cherry trees, as 

 just covered with lightest snow. 



things he sees around him, the simple objects connected with his home 

 life. He can learn so much from this. There is no better practice 

 possible, for he is training his eyes to see for themselves, without merely 

 following the lines of a set copy in a mechanical way. It does not 

 greatly matter what subject is chosen — -a flower, leaf, jug, or watering- 

 pot — -there is a lesson in one and all. 



Many an older and more advanced student would find much to learn 

 if he would only practise making carefully considered drawings of any 

 of the commonest objects surrounding him in his daily life. But, alas ! 

 he is far too often fired with the ambition to " make pictures " at once, 

 and, seeing a pretty and brightly coloured lithographed " copy " in the 

 window of a colourman's shop, he promptly steps in to hire or bu\- it, 

 and starts to work on an elaborate reproduction of it. What a la/.}' 

 method of learning Art, and what a pitiable waste of precious time ! 



Now suppose, instead of this futile dabbling, we make up our minds 

 to have some regular and earnest study from flowers and plants ; 

 their endless variety gives us a very wide field for learning both 

 beauty of form and colour, and surely they are far more interesting 

 and delightful to work from than the complicated examples of 

 the free-hand copybooks. 



The First Essentials. 



Although colour - work is so tempting and 

 fascinating, 1 would advise a beginner not to yield 

 to its seductions too often ; rather to give his whole 

 attention, for a time at least, to proportion and form. 

 No amount of colour, however beautifullj- and subtly 

 blended, will cover the glaring defects of bad and 

 weak drawing. As he advances with careful 

 practice, and his touch becomes more sure and 

 true, he will, I am certain, begin to think a simple 

 blacklead pencil is a most delightful possession, 

 for he will find how very much can be expressed 

 by tills primitive medium alone. 



If }ou have ever been fortunate enough to 

 see the sketches by Holbein of the celebrities of 

 the Court of Henry VIII. in tiic Royal Library 

 at Windsor, \-()u will understand exactly what I 

 mean. To me this masterly precision and sim- 

 plicity of line is far more wonderful and more 

 inspiring than even the most famous of the 

 master's oil paintings. Such delicacy of execu- 

 tion, and perfection of form could only be the 

 outcome of long and patient years of study of 

 line alone. 



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96 



