DRAWING THE FIGURE. 389 



paper, or upon middle-tint paper ; and in that case, 

 white chalk may be used for laying on the lights. 

 Black lead is only used upon white paper. A 

 piece of soft charcoal may be made use of for first 

 slightly sketching in the general form, which must 

 afterwards be gone over and corrected with the 

 black chalk. The false lines of the black lead may 

 be removed by the Indian rubber ; but we would 

 recommend to be as sparing as possible of this, as it 

 is more improving to endeavour to draw every 

 thing correct and decided at once, and not trust 

 to the being able to erase the lines which are 

 wrong. 



The shadows may be laid on by drawing parallel 

 curve lines, according to the situation of the part, 

 crossing them occasionally, and softening them in 

 with more delicate lines, where necessar}^ 



All the parts of a human figure are composed of 

 curved surfaces : no straight lines are ever admis- 

 sible ; but every line should have a graceful turn ; 

 and it is this circumstance particularly that occa- 

 sions the study of the figure to give so much 

 freedom in drawing. 



Care should be taken, that no lines ever cross 

 each other at right angles, which gives a disagree- 

 able net-like appearance ; neither should the cross- 

 ings be too oblique, as then they are confused : a 

 proper medium will be acquired by the study of 

 good drawings or prints j in general, however, 

 crossing should be avoided as much as possible. 



Sometimes the shadows are rubbed in, or their 

 edges are softened with a stump, which is a very 

 expeditious way, and produces a fine effect ; but it 

 should be used with discretion, as it is better to 

 execute the shadows in a clear and regular manner 

 by soft lines. 



c c 3 



