Free Hand Drawing Lesson Plan

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Gratuitous Book for Learning Freehand Art

FREE-HAND Drawing

A Manual FOR TEACHERS AND STUDENTS

By ANSON K. Cross

Instructor in the Massachusetts Normal Fine art School, and in the School of Drawing and Painting, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Author of Gratis-Hand Drawing, Light and Shade, and Free-Hand Perspective," and a Series of Text and Cartoon Books for the Public Schools.

PREFACE

THIS book is intended for public schoolhouse teachers, and for fine art teachers and students of unproblematic cartoon. Its object is the presentation of artistic methods of studying free-manus drawing.
In order that this volume may exist inexpensive, and may meet the needs of the large number of teachers whose teaching includes outline drawing but, light and shade, which is of interest to many teachers, is made the field of study of another book
An outline drawing is the most conventional of all pictorial methods of expression. It must frequently be incomplete, unsatisfactory, and scientific, if not mechanical. At that place can exist but one correct representation of a cube at any given distance level and angle, and an artistic outline drawing of a geometric model is often difficult if not impossible to produce.
In that location are, however, artistic and inartistic ways of making an outline drawing of a cube, and if such a drawing cannot be creative, one drawing may be less mechanical than another, and may gear up the pupil to make artistic drawings of bailiwick which are easier to care for in this way than the verbal drawing model. Many teachers think information technology impossible to give lessons it drawing without the use of mechanical methods, such as copying and dictating ; only in some places public school instruction is artistic. It has been shown that it is easy to first correctly in the lower grades, and non impossible for the pupils of advanced grades to alter from mechanical to creative methods.
In order that this modify may be made, it is not necessary that the teachers become artists, but that they give to the subject the time required to enable them to draw simple subjects correctly.
The methods presented take been tested in elementary and advanced schools, and, if followed, will give ability to depict correctly from nature in an artistic style.
To secure satisfactory results information technology is necessary that those giving the most uncomplicated instruction empathise the requirements of more advanced work. For this reason the chapter on composition has been given, and no try has been fabricated to arrange the book then that teachers may study simply the directions for their special grades.
ANSON Thousand. CROSS.

INTRODUCTION.

A Drawing is the expression of an idea : art must come from within, and not from without. This fact has led some to assert that the written report of nature is not essential to the student, and that careful training in the report of the representation of the bodily appearance is mechanical and harmful. Such persons forget that all fine art ideas and sentiments must be based upon natural objects, and that a person who cannot represent truly what he sees will be entirely unable to limited the simplest ideal conceptions so that others may appreciate them. Study of nature is, then, of the first and greatest importance to the art student.
A drawing may exist made in outline, in light and shade, or in colour. The value of the drawing artistically, does non depend upon the medium used, but upon the individuality of the draughtsman making it. The simplest pencil sketch may have much more merit than an elaborate colored cartoon fabricated past one who is unable to represent truly the facts of nature, or who sees, instead of the dazzler and poetry, the ugliness and the imperfections of the subject field.
The value depends equally little upon the way the medium is used as upon the medium chosen, providing of course that the technique is non unduly prominent or offensive. Those who assert that they have found the only medium fit to be used or the just satisfactory mode of handling the medium, thus evidence their ignorance of the subject which they try to teach.
The commencement question for the teacher is " Shall the pupil piece of work in color, in low-cal and shade, or in outline ? " Colour is, for the public schools at least, out of the question. Not simply is it expensive, but impossible to teach. Until the students have been educated to encounter the actual colors of the spectrum, even the strongest creative person, equally teacher, would not be able to obtain satisfactory results, and for the public school teacher to attempt to teach form, light and shade, and color at starting time and at one time is entirely across reason.
Choice of the drawing to be made lies between a light and shade and an outline drawing. For students exterior the public schools, light and shade should exist taken up as early on equally possible. Later a few lessons in outline, a few in calorie-free and shade tin can be given, and the ii lines of study may then be carried on together. In the public schools the study of calorie-free and shade at start or in the lower grades is unwise, and generally impossible to pursue with advantage to the pupils, for the reason that in the classroom information technology is about incommunicable to get good light and shade upon objects placed and so that they may be seen by the pupils. In the public schools the first instruction must then be in outline, and in the upper grades or the high schools, or whenever all the conditions are favorable, the study of calorie-free and shade may exist begun.

CONTENTS.

Chapter I.

OUTLINE Drawing
GENERAL DIRECTIONS
Drawing FROM Single OBJECTS
Cartoon FROM GROUPS

Chapter Ii.

OBJECTS FOR Written report

CHAPTER Iii.

THE Glass SLATE

Chapter IV. SPECIAL DIRECTIONS FOR TEACHERS.

Cartoon ON THE SLATE
FORESHORTENING
Drawing ON PAPER
BLACKBOARD Cartoon

CHAPTER V. TESTS

CHAPTER VI. Costless-HAND PERSPECTIVE OR MODEL DRAWING

LESSON I.FORESHORTENED PLANES AND LINES
LESSON II. PARALLEL AND EQUAL LINES Non FORESHORTENED.
VERTICAL LINES
LESSON III. THE HORIZONTAL CIRCLE
LESSON Iv. PARALLEL LINES
LESSON V.PARALLEL RETREATING HORIZONTAL LINES
LESSON Half dozen. THE Foursquare
LESSON 7. THE Appearance OF EQUAL SPACES ON Any LINE
LESSON Viii. THE TRIANGLE
LESSON Nine. THE PRISM
LESSON X. THE CYLINDER
LESSON 11. THE CONE
LESSON XII. THE REGULAR HEXAGON
LESSON XIII. THE CENTRE OF THE ELLIPSE DOES NOT REPRESENT

THE Centre OF THE Circumvolve

LESSON Xiv. CONCENTRIC CIRCLES
LESSON Xv. VASE FORMS
LESSON XVI. FRAMES
DRAWINGS ILLUSTRATING THE RULES

CHAPTER VII. SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVE AND MODEL Cartoon

CHAPTER VIII. COMPOSITION

DEFINITIONS

FREE-Hand Drawing.

CHAPTER I.

OUTLINE Cartoon.

AN Outline Drawing may be made in many different ways. It may be drawn with the castor, charcoal, crayon, pen and ink, or pencil. The drawing is commonly fabricated upon paper, although it may exist made on other substances. The question for the teacher is " Which is the best medium for beginners to use? " The best medium is that which requires the to the lowest degree idea to handle and the to the lowest degree fourth dimension to prepare and care for ; it is that which allows the educatee to give all his attention to the comparing of his drawing with the object, and which admits most readily of changes. Information technology is axiomatic that the selection lies between charcoal and pencil, for the just value of the work is in the training and noesis given by it. A charcoal drawing can be readily changed, just to provide this textile for classes in the public schools would be very expensive, and the crusade of very unclean schoolrooms. Crayon and colored chalk accept no advantage over pencil : on the contrary they are more expensive, and a drawing made with them cannot be inverse except with great difficulty. The pencil is non just cheaper and neater, but it requires less time to sharpen, and when rightly used the right lines can be obtained without whatsoever erasing; then that this simple means is really the best for educational purposes.
When the crayon, red chalk, pen and ink, or the brush is used in the lower grades, the probabilities are that the aim of the instruction given is for something to exhibit, instead of for the best education.
The pencil will brand a cartoon with an corporeality of finish and effect, ranging from an outline of the simplest nature to a rendering of all the values of a complicated subject ; and when it is understood that the only worth of the drawing lies in the truthfulness with which it represents nature, nosotros shall find childish attempts to handle difficult mediums less frequent than at nowadays.
It is ofttimes said that there are no outlines in nature. In a way this is true, simply it cannot be understood to hateful that course is unnecessary or that it may be slighted. The student cannot learn to pigment or to make pictures in any medium, without drawing the forms of the objects. The defining of the lights and shades and the various bits of color which are seen in nature is necessary to give solidity and graphic symbol to a picture, and information technology is useless to think that anything can be accomplished with color or light and shade if guess representations of form cannot be fabricated.
Every object has definite form and size, and though information technology may not be outlined, it has boundaries. Although the representation of objects in outline is at best a conventional and imperfect ways of expression, so far often as even course is concerned, the student tin be taught to observe effects, and may oftentimes succeed in conveying a off-white impression of the grapheme of the object, and of varieties of surface and texture. He will discover that the written report of appearances, and their representation as fully every bit possible, even in and so uncomplicated a style as outline cartoon, will in a bang-up mensurate gear up the way for work in light and shade and color. The whole question is simply one of seeing, and the student should non trouble himself over technique, as his only aim should be a true representation of nature, and information technology is of no upshot that such drawings by different people may be produced in unlike ways.
The most of import points in free-manus drawing are freedom, directness, and accurateness. Information technology is hard to requite directions which will produce these results, as individuality volition forbid all from working in a compatible way. Information technology is necessary, however, to give general directions for the work, and specially to advise the student not to follow the directions given in many books, written by those who are non artists or draughtsmen.
Chapter I. presents the general information required by art students and all teachers, fifty-fifty those of the most unproblematic piece of work. Special directions are given in following chapters in order that the nearly important facts may be presented outset.

Full general DIRECTIONS.

Start, the surface on which the drawing is fabricated must be held and so that it is at right angles to the direction in which information technology is seen. If the book or newspaper is placed upon the desk-bound, and the educatee looks down obliquely at it, the drawing upon it must be foreshortened so that it is impossible for the student to meet what he is doing.
If the cartoon is upon a block or upon paper placed upon a board, information technology may exist held at the proper bending by the left hand. If the drawing is made in a cartoon book, the book must be fastened to a strong piece of cardboard or a thin drawing board, and so that it may exist properly held.
2d, the paper or book should exist held as far as possible from the eyes. The student should sit back in the chair, and holding the pencil very lightly, should suggest or betoken the position of the cartoon upon the paper past light lines, fatigued quickly with a movement of the entire arm from the shoulder. Before beginning to draw, the pupil should practice this gratuitous arm motion by drawing horizontal, vertical, and oblique lines. These lines, should be fatigued and redrawn, the arm passing quickly along the newspaper, and the pencil point tracing line later on line as near the first one as possible.
After the straight line movement, circular and elliptical movements should be expert in the same way. These exercises should exist repeated by the students whenever they accept a moment non occupied, until they can sweep in an gauge ellipse, or circle, or draw a straight line with 1 lite, quick stroke of the arm.
The pencil should be long, of medium grade, and should be held by the pollex and beginning two fingers, with its unsharpened finish directed toward the palm of the hand. Information technology should be held in this style for all the first work upon any cartoon, but in finishing or accenting a drawing whose lines have been thus sketched, more pressure volition be required, and the pencil may be held nearer the point.
If the drawing is made upon a canvas of paper, it should be secured to the board by tacks, so that its edges are parallel to those of the board ; if the edges are not quite straight, a horizontal line may exist fatigued most the lower edge, so that directions may be referred
to this line.

If the drawing is made in a volume, the directions, vertical and horizontal, will be obtained by comparison with the edges of the volume.

Cartoon FROM SINGLE OBJECTS.

We will suppose that the subject of our lesson is the box, Fig. 1.

First, nearly close the eyes and try to see the box not every bit a solid, only every bit a silhouette. The pupils will understand what is desired if an object is held in front of a window, for they volition then see the object as a mass of dark, whose outlines are very distinct, while the lines within the contour are nigh, if non quite, invisible. Practice will enable one to look at all objects so every bit to think simply of the directions of their outer lines.
To realize the directions which the important lines appear to
accept, the pencil point may be moved bad( and forth in the air so that it appears to cover the edges. In other words, the lines may be drawn in the air. While doing this care should be taken to continue the pencil point where information technology would be if information technology were held upon a pane of glass placed in front of the student, and at correct angles to the direction in which the object is seen, and not to movement the pencil away from the eyes, that is, in the bodily direction of the edges. This exam is the nigh valuable of all, because it is the simplest and easiest to employ. Information technology is really the same every bit the use of the thread, explained on page 47, and virtually all other means of testing will at terminal be discarded in favor of this first and simplest.
Afterward careful written report of the mass, its outline may exist lightly sketched, no measurements of proportion having been made. The aim is to train the middle to see correctly. In order to do this, the student must depend upon his eye, and put down its showtime impression, rather than the results of mechanical tests of proportions. He must outset draw, and so test by measuring.
The suggesting of the mass of the drawing by light, quick lines, serves to identify the drawing to the best advantage on the paper, and to introduce the draughtsman to the problem earlier him and to the means by which it is to be worked out. These lines are called blocking-in lines, and from such illustrations as Fig. 4, which is suggested by the cuts of a book on drawing, pupils are often led to think that a cracking bargain of time must exist spent on the lines, that they must be nicely fatigued, and that every petty indentation or change of grade in the outline of the mass must be advisedly given. Such ideas are productive of much harm. These lines should be put in lightly and freely, and should exercise no more than than give the proportions of the drawing and its position upon the paper.
When the outline of the mass has been suggested, the inner lines may be indicated, and the result advisedly studied to see that information technology agrees with the appearance. When no more tin can be done by center alone, the cartoon may exist tested by measuring the proportions equally explained in Chapter 5. If the sketch does not agree with these tests, it must be changed. All changes should be made, not by erasing, but past drawing new lines, and the drawing should be carried on in
this way, until the correct lines are obtained.
The first lines must be very light. Equally changes are made, the forcefulness may be increased to distinguish them, until the right line is secured. The drawing having been changed to agree with the measurements of the whole height and width, and tested by moving the pencil point to cover the edges, it will be well to test it past means of vertical and horizontal lines taken through the different angles of the box. Thus, drop the pencil point vertically from point r, and see where information technology cuts the lower edge; acquit the signal horizontally from point ii, and annotation its intersection with the front edge. The pencil may at present be made to continue the apparent directions of the edges A, B, C, etc., until the points where the continued lines appear to intersect the contrary outlines are noted. Such tests may as well be practical by the pencil used as a straight edge, held horizontally, vertically, and to appear to coincide with the lines. These tests should be depended upon, and if carefully fabricated, will produce a drawing which is practically right. The first measurements of peak and width should be very carefully taken. Distances which are nearly equal, every bit EF and FG, may also be compared ; simply as a rule, few measurements of proportion should be made, equally brusk distances, or short with long distances, cannot be compared with sufficient accuracy to be of any value.
Instead of the pencil the thread may exist used for testing, as explained on page 47. The thread appears a fine line, whose intersections with the edges may be easily placed, then that until the eye can be depended upon, the thread is preferable to the pencil.

It is most of import that all changes be fabricated not by erasing, just past drawing new lines. Erasing and keeping but ane line from first to last volition generally produce a hard and inaccurate drawing ; and although information technology may finally be made to agree with all the tests, it volition exist defective in spirit. It is difficult at first for nearly students to describe lightly plenty to secure the right lines without also great heaviness, but information technology is amend, rather than to erase, to throw the drawing away and offset anew, until the result can be secured without having lines so black that they cannot easily be erased.
The reason for working in this way is that we wish the student to depend, as far as possible, on his eyes. If he erases and has but one line from the start, unnecessary time is given to the drawing, and he will hesitate to alter his lines. If light lines are drawn and not erased, but others drawn as shortly equally there is incertitude about the first being rightly placed, the student is much more than free to change as each suggestion occurs, and toward the last he has his pick of the diverse lines already drawn and tin can experiment freely.
This is by far the quickest and most accurate way, and prepares for rapid and truthful sketching. Information technology is difficult at first for the student who has been taught the mechanical way of cartoon one line at a time, but he will not have to draw very long in this way earlier he will be able to produce truthful sketches without drawing many unnecessary lines.
The educatee has only to study the sketches and drawings made by the old masters, and besides those by the artists and illustrators of the present day, to perceive that this is the way in which artists depict, and to come across that with them, the first low-cal touches generally remain and go part of the finished drawing.
Some artists are able to describe at starting time bear upon and then as to give exact proportions to everything, but this power is due to long study resulting in thorough knowledge and ability to meet correctly. This knowledge is easiest and best attained past the process of considering the subject area equally a whole, by suggesting all the parts at once, and and so of bringing them into their proper relations every bit described.
In making an outline drawing pupils must erase all the first lines ; and if they are not able to obtain the right lines without getting the newspaper so blackness that it cannot be readily cleaned, in that location is no reason why a hard pencil should not exist used for the sketching. This outline work is simply educational, and certainly at get-go is not artistic. If a hard pencil is used very lightly, its marks may be removed without smooching, and the lines may be shifted a groovy many times without whatever injury to the paper. When the pupils depict more correctly, they will exist able to describe the outset suggestive lines with the soft pencil, which should be used in accenting the drawings.
When the right outline has been constitute, it is necessary for the pupils to erase all unnecessary lines. The easiest way to practice this and still retain the correct lines is to brand them stronger than the others so that they will show faintly when the eraser has been passed over the paper, removing all but an indication of the desired consequence.
The drawing may so be accented. A soft pencil should be used, held more firmly and nearer the point. The lines should be drawn of their proper strength at one touch on, and no endeavor should be fabricated to get them absolutely uniform. Much time is often wasted in such attempts, and the trend is for also much importance to exist put upon the grapheme of the line, and likewise little upon the course expressed by the line. In the first work it is not necessary to call up of the line, every bit the objects are geometric, and at that place is little run a risk for artistic effects. If the lines are put in at i bear upon, they will be much more satisfactory artistically than if the students are immune to labor over them for any event any.
Especially to be avoided is the polish, fifty-fifty line which has the outcome of having been drawn with the ruler. These lines are and so inartistic that nosotros ofttimes observe labored attempts to avoid the mechanical effects due to their use. The " broad gray line," which ought from its name to be much meliorate than the fine fifty-fifty line, is often more than unsatisfactory, for certain valuable training results from the making of fine regular lines. No knowledge of drawing is necessary to make the " broad gray line " ; all the same some seem to retrieve this quality of line the only attribute of a expert drawing, and so important that information technology must be obtained even at the expense of drawing two lines and carefully filling in the space between them.
The width and character of the lines are unimportant as long every bit they are freely draWn and express the advent of the object.

When pupils are able to draw correctly, it will be necessary only to ask them to work as merely and directly every bit possible, and to make drawings which are stiff and constructive at a distance. To do this, they must use a soft pencil when accenting, and accent at one touch.
If the lines are put in at one bear upon, they will be slightly irregular and varied, and will give a satisfactory result ; for in a free-hand drawing representing even the geometric solids that have smashing, precipitous edges, lines which are ruled, or which are drawn gratis-manus to await like ruled lines, are very unsatisfactory : they produce a mechanical cartoon. An artistic cartoon must have variety, and must fifty-fifty stand for abrupt straight lines by lines which are not perfectly smooth and regular. This is according to the way nosotros see these lines in Nature, for the influence of the temper, which is ever vibrating, causes the lines to announced non quite straight. Vibration is seen in the glittering lines of the railway track, which in summer through the hot rays of the noon-day sun seem to quiver and dance about. This and like effects will often be seen by the educatee of Nature.
The student is frequently told to finish his cartoon in lines which are strong for the parts well-nigh the eye, and lines which are light for the parts farther abroad. Such accenting is a mechanical awarding of a principle which is true and necessary in good work, merely when applied without judgment to any bailiwick, information technology produces the near difficult and mechanical results, and students should never be immune to accent by this or any other rule. To make an outline drawing which is artistic in its effect is a very difficult problem. It cannot be solved past the young pupil, and for the first work it is ameliorate to use lines of uniform force and to say zero about accenting, than it is to give a rule, or to attempt what is across the students' power to see and feel.
When the pupils are able to correspond simple geometric forms correctly and readily, these may exist bundled in groups.

Drawing FROM GROUPS.

The student who has not had the best instruction will probably try to describe the objects one at a fourth dimension, taking offset the prism A,
Fig. half-dozen, side by side the vase B, then the cylinder C, and last:the frame D.
The objection to this mode of proceeding is that equally the objects are drawn one at a time, until the last is completed, the proportion of the whole group-- that is, its greatest meridian in comparison with its greatest width --cannot exist seen. Indeed, this is often not even considered, the pupil taking it for granted that, since he measured and tested each object every bit it was drawn, the single objects are correct, and therefore the group. But each object is probable to be a little out of proportion ; indeed, nosotros may say is certain to be then. This being the case, the errors are multiplied ; and if the whole elevation and width are compared, the proportion is institute to be far from correct.

The whole should be presented before its parts, and drawing the different objects of the group i at a time, until finally the patchwork is complete, is an uneducational way of proceeding. Practically it is as well most unsatisfactory, as with each object the difficulties increase, and at7 terminal it be Dimes incommunicable to identify the drawings where they belong. The only logical manner is to depict the group all at once, first considering it equally a mass and blocking in its proportions past lines passing from the principal points, as in Fig. 7. When these lines have been fatigued and considered, they may exist tested by measuring the whole height and width, and the directions tested by employ of the thread or pencil ; simply these lines must not follow at all closely the short lines upon the contour of the group. Their but legitimate purpose is to place the drawing properly upon the newspaper, and to give the extreme points of the drawing.

A good plan is, as soon equally the proportions take been thus determined, to depict horizontal and vertical lines to point the upper, lower, correct and left points of the drawing, and to be careful that the cartoon is kept within these lines. The proportions of the whole group being thus determined as well-nigh every bit measurements tin can determine, the objects may now be sketched by eye, the about of import lines being drawn start. These are the lines whose positions and directions are virtually easily seen. They are the longest lines, lines of i object which are almost continuations of those of some other object, and lines which are brought out distinctly by shadow. It is axiomatic that in this fashion the drawings of the dissimilar objects are proceeding at the same time, and, the shorter and less prominent lines beingness drawn final, the group may be said to be drawn all at once, or every bit if it were a single object having many parts.
While drawing, the student must retrieve of the tests applied past the thread, of horizontal and vertical lines, and of connected lines ; and drawing in the air, by moving the pencil signal to hide the edges to be represented, volition also help greatly. The object should be studied in this way and changed as often equally plant incorrect, until the eye can practise no more than. Information technology is now fourth dimension to apply systematically the tests explained past the drawings of the box, Fig. ane.

The kickoff examination is to compare the height and width of each object of the group, and also to compare these dimensions with those of the whole group. This test is the most important and should be very advisedly taken. Slight inaccuracy can hardly be avoided, but the longest measurements can be compared more than accurately than any others, particularly in the instance of those which are nearly equal, and the best that can be done is to make the drawing hold with these measurements. By this time the student should be able to measure as accurately as drawings of this nature require.
These tests volition generally change the drawing throughout. The changes should be made, not past erasing, just by adding lines, until without other measurements the centre can see no more to be washed. The thread may so be used, get-go for the tests of horizontal and vertical lines, 2nd for the continuing of all the edges, and third for covering points in the grouping reverse one another, that the intersections of these lines with the edges may be noted. The thread used thus will discover every discrepancy except the slight deviations which only the authentic middle can detect. The preparation which is given by making drawings entirely by middle and and then applying tests volition before long produce power to draw correctly without the utilize of tests.
When the right lines have been found, the others are to be erased, every bit explained on page viii, and the drawing is to be absolute. But now the educatee will practice well to think of effect, and to encounter if more interest and expression cannot be given to the cartoon than is given by uniform lines. The student has possibly been taught that the nearest objects are seen virtually strongly, and that the strength diminishes with the distance. This of course is true in a general style. Information technology is the effect of aerial perspective, or the changing of color past intervening temper. Thus, of a row of lite objects the nearest will announced the lightest and brightest, and of a number of dark objects the nearest will appear the darkest. The light object in the altitude appears darker[1], and the night ane lighter, and in a sketch representing considerable distance this principle will exist of assistance ; only it must exist stated so as non to convey the idea that there tin exist nothing in the distance as strong or stronger than the unimportant features of the foreground, for we exercise not come across objects more or less distinctly co-ordinate to their distance, -- in fact, distance has practically nothing to do with information technology. We distinguish objects as masses of color, lighter or darker than the colors against which they are seen. This existence so, it is evident that a calorie-free object in the groundwork, as a white house seen confronting nighttime foliage, must be much more than prominent than a near object, seen confronting another of the same colour.

* 1. Very lite objects may change only little.

In general, when there is niggling or no contrast of color, objects are difficult to run into without regard to their altitude. Identify a square of white cardboard in front end of a larger square of the same, the latter coming in front of the blackboard. The smaller can be seen very faintly. In comparison with the distinctness with which the larger is seen against the blackboard, the smaller is practically invisible. This experiment proves that we distinguish objects through contrasts of color, and nosotros have to consider what tin can exist done in mere outline to render the effect of Nature. Tin can no more be done than to represent the form past lines of compatible strength ?
The opinion seems to exist full general that more tin can be done. Nosotros find that pedagogy is oftentimes given to stand for the nearer edges by potent lines, the farther ones by light lines ; in fact, to proportion the forcefulness of the line to the altitude of the role it represents. Apply this dominion to the representation of the two pieces of paper-thin, and the nearer is accented past heavy lines, the farther by light lines. This is a direct contradiction of what we run across, for the outline of the nearer is barely visible, while the farther is distinct confronting the blackboard.
In color nosotros certainly should not think of representing the nearer every bit darker than the farther, or in any other manner than every bit information technology appears, and the same is true of light and shade. Why should we not practice the same when possible, with outline ? No reason to the contrary can exist given, for the divergence in clearness with which the diverse lines are seen is the result, non of distance, but of contrasts of color, and light and shade. Of course we shall await to find the strongest lines amongst the nearest ones, but farther than this we cannot go, and if we adopt any conventional accenting, nosotros are working by rule and non by observation, and the effect will be the product of hard, mechanical drawings.
Grapheme appears in outlines. An object, equally a cast, having a smoothen, difficult surface, shows these qualities in its outlines, which will be represented past relatively smoothen lines. A cube with smooth faces has sharp, direct edges, which will be represented past direct lines. A box made of crude boards has cleaved edges, whose graphic symbol may be given by cartoon the irregular outline in which one surface breaks into the other. A drawing from the effigy can express the variations in the appearance of the outline, parts of which are sharp, other parts blurred past light or a growth of hair.
Calorie-free affects the appearance of the outlines strongly, in some places making them distinct, in other places indistinct. An even line for everything disregards all these variations of effect ; and so also does any conventional variation of strength. If the educatee is allowed to disregard effects in outline work, he volition have swell difficulty in seeing them in later work. There is no more labor involved in representing effects than in disregarding them, for one line is equally easy to make as another, observation only being required. The educatee who tin see, can in fourth dimension represent what he sees, and equally long as whatever differences can be found between his drawing and Nature, he can learn to right the errors.
The conventional accenting taught in many public schools produces the well-nigh mechanical, difficult, and unnatural sketches when the student works from Nature, indoors or out. Undirected he would never produce such childish and ridiculous effects, but after educational activity in drawing, which has specified that lines must exist represented with a caste of strength corresponding to their altitude, he naturally does non call up of observing and drawing what he sees, but just mechanically grades the force of line equally he has been taught. He makes the heaviest lines of the drawing where in that location should be the faintest indications of lines, and oft where no lines at all would be ameliorate than faint ones.
Information technology is well-nigh incommunicable to get a educatee from most public schools to make sketches in which the unimportant item, which is no part of the effect, is not brought out with heavy black lines. This is not surprising, for he sees this detail and it is near him, therefore, according to his education, it must be strongly accented.

In outline, as in other mediums, we should do the best we can to express what is before us. The effect of the subject field should be considered too every bit its form. In that location is no reason why the educatee should not be taught to find the effect, and if once started rightly he volition advance rapidly and will make drawings which, since they are representations of Nature, will have diverseness of consequence, will exist truthful and artistic. No rule for accenting can be given other than to study and represent what is seen, as far as possible, as information technology appears.

In outline, without whatever low-cal and shade, it is impossible always to accent the lines just equally they appear. For case, some edges of the object may be so lost in the shadow every bit to be wholly invisible, but without them the drawing might exist incomplete and unsatisfactory. A right impression of the facts must exist conveyed, and no important line of a visible surface can exist omitted even if not seen. Thus, in a brick or other building, when the light comes from directly backside the spectator, and the walls of the building are foreshortened every bit, the forepart border of the edifice will be invisible, unless it is brought out by different material or color. In an outline sketch of the building it would be necessary to represent this invisible edge, and it might be necessary to correspond it past a very strong line, since the edge is the nearest line of the building. Thus the judgment and practiced sense of the draughtsman must decide what volition give the all-time impression of the facts that the medium is capable of rendering.
In drawings of the geometric solids, where in that location are few lines, it will often be incommunicable to emphasis the lines as they appear ; for some of the about important ones may exist invisible, or seen so faintly that to represent them as they appear would make the drawing requite a false impression. Ofttimes when the objects are strongly lighted and bundled as in Fig. viii, their outlines on the lite side of the grouping intersect ane another, and then that the outline of the mass is equanimous of parts of those of several objects. This outline is very prominent, while the edges inside the outline are almost lost in the mass of light. Information technology is evident that in this case we cannot accent equally we come across. Nosotros must accent every bit nosotros feel the grouping, and when accenting the lines equally they are seen is unsatisfactory, we must use our judgment and make the accenting limited the facts. In Fig. eight, for example, nosotros must show that the prism A is in front end of the cube B, and that the cone C is a solid and comes in front of the back faces of the cube.
When drawing from furniture or from any subject field having many lines, the event volition oft be satisfactory when the lines are absolute equally they are seen. Hither there are so many lines and then many changes in direction that the parts which are not seen may not be missed, and the educatee tin represent more virtually what he sees. But it must be understood that it is wholly a matter of feeling for which no rule tin can be given, and often, in such a example as that illustrated in Fig. 10, if the lines are accented as they appear, a very fake thought of the facts will be conveyed, and instead of outlining the forms of the different parts going to make up the object, the outlines of the different spaces or bits of background seen between the diverse parts of the object volition exist given.
In drawing, these spaces should be considered, and their proportions will help to show the piece of work; but in accenting they are unimportant. It is of import to give the class and position of the unlike pieces forming the object, and this must be washed by the accenting in heavy lines of the important features. In such accenting, the student must recollect that the heaviest emphasis or line will strike the center first, and should thus be given to the nearest and nearly important parts, as in Fig. I I.

At first most students will have difficulty in seeing any divergence in the way in which the diverse edges appear. This is due to the fact that merely a single betoken tin be seen clearly at whatever once. The eye glances rapidly over the whole of an object, observing all its parts. We are unconscious of this motion. All parts of the object are seen distinctly, and the variety of upshot is not realized. All the parts will go on to give the impression of equal strength until the power to see the whole of an object at in one case has been caused. The student must do until he tin can thus see earlier he thinks of success in whatever medium, for all demand as a report of the comparative strength of detail.

It is about impossible for students to realize furnishings and masses. The best assist in this direction is given by the apply of an ordinary magnifying glass of almost 12" or xv" focus. If the pupil hold this as far from him as he tin and notwithstanding come across in it the blurred forms of the group he is studying, he volition see, if his optics are focussed on the glass and not on the group, the masses of low-cal and night and colour which form the effect, and which he must represent if his drawing is to be true. This glass is a blur-glass, because it
blurs away the item which the student exaggerates and so much every bit to spoil his cartoon. If this glass is used in light and shade and in color piece of work, it will prove the best instructor the pupil can have. In outline work, it will enable pupils to see the difference in the effect of the dissimilar lines. After using this glass for a brusque fourth dimension, the pupils will larn to see the whole of the grouping at one time by looking at information technology with the eyes out of focus, and they will not crave the blur-drinking glass
to realize the furnishings they ought to represent.

It is not possible to see simply, to realize furnishings and masses, without the blurred vision, which gives an impression of the whole subject at once. No injury to the eyes results from proper blurring of vision by a blur-glass, only if pupils endeavour to wait through it instead of at it, they hurt the sight and fail to come across the masses.

Although no rule for accenting can be given, the effect is found to conform to the principle that whatever detail which comes in either the mass of the light or that of the shadow is unimportant. Thus an edge defining a light surface against another surface besides light is not prominent, and an edge separating a surface in the shadow from another shade surface is seen faintly. The of import features are those which come between the light and the shadow. Merely from what has been said it will be realized that an outline drawing is most conventional, and that the representation of what is really seen of outline volition often be most unsatisfactory. The contour of an object is absolute, and an outline will give what the eye sees ; merely to express in outline artistically the educatee must learn to feel, and this cannot be expected at first. All that 1 can say to the educatee is observe the object, and practise what is seen when this does not contradict the facts.
The following suggestions may assist pupils to accent satisfactorily :

- The divergence in distance of the different objects or the different parts of the same object, should exist expressed by varied accenting, in which the potent lines stand for important lines of the subject.
- The strongest accents should represent the nearest important lines of the subject.
- The lines of the groundwork or whatever unimportant detail should exist represented by light lines.
- The forms of the different objects and their unlike parts, instead of those of the background seen backside the objects or betwixt its different parts, must be brought out by the accenting.

The student will frequently, of his own accord, break away from outline pure and simple, and introduce lite and shade features. This should be allowed and recommended in the public schools every bit soon as the pupils are able to brand adequately correct outline drawings, and to run across the shadows which may serve as accents. In the drawing of the geometric objects, unless the entire light and shade effects are given, information technology volition not be easy to improve the drawing in this fashion ; only in the report of common objects, or flowers and foliage, and of piece of furniture, there volition be many pocket-size cast shadows which can exist seen and represented past the pupils. Even in an outline drawing these cast shadows can be expressed by a thickening of the line, and the earlier the students represent all important features that they tin see, the easier it volition be for them to make artistic drawings. The drawings of the shoe and stool illustrate work of this nature, which is principally outline, and in which the cast shadows are given or suggested, and serve as accents.
The adjacent step after the improver of small cast shadows is the rendering of the masses of light and dark : this introduces " Light and Shade," the subject of some other book.

From National Cartoon Book

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