xperiments I have made, met with a person who could not learn to
draw at all; and, in general, there is a satisfactory and available
power in every one to learn drawing if he wishes, just as nearly all
persons have the power of learning French, Latin, or arithmetic, in a
decent and useful degree, if their lot in life requires them to possess
such knowledge.

4. Supposing then that you are ready to take a certain amount of pains,
and to bear a little irksomeness and a few disappointments bravely, I
can promise you that an hour's practice a day for six months, or an
hour's practice every other day for twelve months, or, disposed in
whatever way you find convenient, some hundred and fifty hours'
practice, will give you sufficient power of drawing faithfully whatever
you want to draw, and a good judgment, up to a certain point, of other
people's work: of which hours if you have one to spare at present, we
may as well begin at once.

EXERCISE I.

5. Everything that you can see in the world around you, presents itself
to your eyes only as an arrangement of patches of different colors
variously shaded.[1] Some of these patches of color have an appearance
of lines or texture within them, as a piece of cloth or silk has of
threads, or an animal's skin shows texture of hairs: but whether this be
the case or not, the first broad aspect of the thing is that of a patch
of some definite color; and the first thing to be learned is, how to
produce extents of smooth color, without texture.

6. This can only be done properly with a brush; but a brush, being soft
at the point, causes so much uncertainty in the touch of an unpracticed
hand, that it is hardly possible to learn to draw first with it, and it
is better to take, in early practice, some instrument with a hard and
fine point, both that we may give some support to the hand, and that by
working over the subject with so delicate a point, the attention may be
properly directed to all the most minute parts of it. Even the best
artists need occasionally to study subjects with a pointed instrument,
in order thus to discipline their attention: and a beginner must be
content to do so for a considerable period.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.]

7. Also, observe that before we trouble ourselves about differences of
color, we must be able to lay on _one_ color properly, in whatever
gradations of depth and whatever shapes we want. We will try, therefore,
first to lay on tints or patches of g