144 



short of twice. If the latter statement is preferred, we must 

 bear in mind the proportion left over. 



Do not use the scale side of a ruler or marks on the pencil or 

 object used in order to test the proportions. A scale or other 

 mechanical means should not be used in free-hand drawing. The 

 teacher should have a spool of black thread and should give a 

 piece about 2 ft. 6 inches long to each pupil. An eraser, a knife, 

 or some small article may be attached to one end of the thread. 

 By holding the weighted thread as a plumb-line in front of us, we 

 have an absolutely vertical line ; so by having it intersect a 

 desired point of our tree we may obtain the relative positions of 

 other points to the right and left of this intersected point. 



Blocking -in. We may conceive of the general shape of our 

 elm by looking at it with half-closed eyes. It appears in sil- 

 houtte. Now imagine lines joining its outermost points ; 

 this will give the general mass or shape of our tree. Now if 

 we represent these outermost points contained in these lines, by 

 sketching lightly these " blocking-in " lines, as they are called, 

 we obtain the general shape of the elm (Fig. 35). We must 

 emphasize the fact that these blocking-in lines be sketched in 

 lightly by holding the pencil near the blunt end, using a free-arm 

 motion. Now before going farther we again test these new- 

 points to see if they occupy their right positions in relation to 

 the height and width. Do not, however, transfer the measure- 

 ments from the pencil to the paper. This test is only to 

 obtain the proportion of one dimension to another. Having 

 tested these smaller dimensions we may draw lightly the main 

 branches. 



After having indicated their general direction and character of 

 growth, we may indicate some of the smaller branches and twigs 

 (Fig. 36). All this work should be carried out without erasing ; 

 all corrections should be made by slightly darker lines. 



Let us now sharpen our pencils to a good point and go over 

 the drawing with a fine dark line, carefully studying the charac- 

 ter and spirit of the tree. Now erase the lighter and superflu- 

 ous lines, as the dark lines remain distinct enough to indicate 

 our drawing. 



Lining-in. We may now take our pencil nearer the point and 



