723 



DRAWING. 



into negligent habits of drawing, which he cannot 

 afterwards shake off. All these drawings should be 

 made on a large scale, and be executed in a bold, 

 distinct, and wliat painters call a broad style. Thus, 

 all the separate features of the face should be drawn 

 the full sie of life ; for, next to drawing from bad 

 examples, nothing is more injurious to proficiency 

 than the making of small and miniature drawings. 



When the pupil has made a few copies of drawings 

 of busts, stulm-s, \c. . he should nextcommence draw- 

 ing from a model. Under this term is comprehended 

 any object presented for imitation, whether a bust, 

 statue, living human body, or a tree, flower, &c. The 

 antique busts of tile Antinous, Niobe, Apollo Bel- 

 videre, and Laocoon, are the best to draw from. 



In making these drawings, it is of importance to 

 cnoose good materials, and the best of these is black, 

 white, and red chalks. Chalk drawings are generally 

 executed on a coloured paper, for the purpose of pro- 

 ducing a middle tint, so that a drawing on blue or 

 gray paper will have three degrees or tones of colour, 

 two from the chalks and one from the paper. In this 

 way, charcoal is used to sketch in the outline, which 

 is then made more correct by Italian or hard black 

 chalk, and the shadows are laid in freely and broadly 

 with soft black French chalk ; and then softened and 

 blended together with what is called a stump, which 

 is a cylinder made of soft chamois leather, rolled up 

 tight, and cut to a point at each end. Chalk draw- 

 ings have many advantages over those made with 

 black lead ; for they will embrace subjects of a larger 

 size, by which a greater freedom of hand is acquired. 

 The beauty of chalk drawings consists in the firmness 

 of the stroke, the regularity of shadowing, and the 

 taste of laying and suiting the lines to the several sub- 

 stances, whether of flesh, drapery, or back ground. 



In making drawings of landscapes, the following 

 is the best process: the paper being stretched on a 

 drawing frame or mounting board, and the outlines 

 lightly sketched with a black lead pencil, the sky 

 and distance are to be washed over with pure water 

 laid on with a broad camel hair brush. When the 

 gloss occasioned by the damping disappears, the 

 smaller masses of character on the clouds and dis- 

 tant -hills are to be laid in with a mixture of indigo 

 and lake, or indigo and Venetian red, forming a pur- 

 ple, according to the nature of the subject under 

 treatment. This process of going over it with purple, 

 is to be carried forward till it is lost in the middle 

 distance of the picture, and then repeated till the 

 larger masses of clouds and distant hills are brought 

 pretty near the desired effect as to depth of tone. 

 The larger masses of the foreground and nearer trees 

 are now to be gone over with warm colours, such as 

 Venetian red, burnt sienna, raw sienna, and the 

 'like, nearly pure or slightly mixed with indigo, accord 

 ing to the nature of the substance desired to be re 

 presented, carrying the warm colours through the 

 smaller masses, and losing them in the purple of the 

 middle distance. Then return to the sky and lay ii 

 the azure with indigo or Prussian blue, according tt 

 the intensity required. The character and broac 

 touches of the foreground are next to be put in with 

 Indian red and indigo, burnt sienna and indigo, or 

 other strong colours, gradually covering the bright- 

 ness of the warm colours formerly laid on, and get 

 ting the picture into tone. If the clouds and distan 

 hills are warm and sunny, they may be covered with 

 a wash of yellow ochre, or yellow ochre and light red 

 bringing it forward to the nearer parts, and thereby 

 brightening them up. At this stage the figures 

 (which have been carried forward with the rest o 

 the drawing) ought to be finished, or as nearly so as 

 circumstances will permit, which at once will give 

 the drawing much additional character and effect 



.'he minute details of the foliage and buildings of the 

 >reground are now to be put in with care, and the 

 ull toned shadows strengthened, warmed or cooled, 

 .ccording to the desired effect, the crisp edges of 

 iright trees and small details of buildings may be 

 >rought out by wiping; this is done by touching the 

 >;irts with a small hair pencil and water, allowing it 

 o dry for a few moments, then wiping the parts 

 martly with a handkerchief, which will bring off the 

 colour clean; or it may be only half wiped off, and 

 modified by some other colour, if desired. Before 

 attempting to make sketches of landscapes from 

 nature, the pupil ought to be pretty well acquainted 

 with the general rules of perspective. He may then 

 >roceed to the fields and sketch whatever pleases 

 lim, commencing with the foreground and near- 

 st objects, and from them comparing the size 

 and relative positions of the more distant ; for 

 nstance if a wall or building come into the fore- 

 ground of the sketch, from it he may find the posi- 

 ion of a more distant object, such as a church, by 

 comparing horizontally what part of the wall the 

 church is opposite, and so on, for the retiring distance 

 in the plane of the picture. The relative positions of 

 objects on the same plane, may be determined in the 

 same way by comparing them perpendicularly with 

 the objects in the foreground over which they are 

 seen ; these sketches he may afterwards wash slightly 

 in with bistre, or a weak infusion of tobacco leaves. 

 But in making studies, or finished sketches of single 

 groups of rocks, trees, buildings, &c., it is best to em- 

 ploy black and white chalk and coloured gray paper. 



In drawing the human figure from the model, it is 

 necessary to have some previous knowledge of 

 anatomy, and the proportions of the human form. The 

 ancients allowedeight heads to the length of their adult 

 figures, though some of their statues have only seven. 

 They divided the head thus: from the crown of the 

 head to the forehead, one part of the four into which 

 the head is divided ; the forehead to the top of the 

 nose another, then to the bottom of the nose another, 

 and thence to the bottom of the chin the fourth. From 

 the chin to the collar-hone, two lengths of a nose ; 

 from the depression between the collar-bones to the 

 bottom of the breast, one face ; from the bottom of 

 breast, to the navel, one face ; from the navel, the 

 next measure of a face to the centre of the figure ; 

 from the centre to the upper part of the knee, two 

 faces. The knee contains half a face; from the 

 lower part of the knee to the ancle, two faces ; from 

 the ancle to the sole of the foot, half a face. A man, 

 when his arms are stretched out, is, from the longest 

 finger of his right, to the longest finger of his left 

 hand, as broad as he is long ; from one side of the 

 breast to the other, two faces ; the bone of the arm, 

 from the shoulder to the elbow, is two faces ; from 

 thence to the root of the little finger, with part of 

 the hand, two faces ; the sole of the foot is the sixth 

 part of the figure ; the hand is the length of the face; 

 the thumb the length of the nose ; the largest toe the 

 length of the nose. As to the breadth of the limbs, 

 no precise measure can be given, because the mea- 

 sures themselves are liable to change, according to 

 the size of the muscles and their movement. See 

 Plates XXIV.,XXV., and XXVI., for illustrations of 

 drawing the human face and figure. 



As a mechanical aid towards drawing, it is usual 

 to draw perpendicular and horizontal lines across a 

 drawing, and, in this way it is easy to increase or re- 

 duce the size of any picture, by dividing the copy into 

 a similar number of squares of greater or less extent. 



DRAWING SLATE, sometimes called black chalk, 

 is a fine-grained, soft stone, pretty nearly allied to 

 clay slate or argillite, a rock along with which it al- 

 ways occurs. It adheres slightly to the tongue, and 



