line joining these two points, holding up a pencil or
knitting-needle against the model if need be.

[Illustration: Plate XVIII.

STUDY ILLUSTRATING METHOD OF DRAWING

Note the different stages. 1st. Centre line and transverse lines for
settling position of salient points. 2nd. Blocking in, as shown in
further leg. 3rd. Drawing in the forms and shading, as shown in front
leg. 4th. Rubbing with fingers (giving a faint middle tone over the
whole), and picking out high lights with bread, as shown on back and
arms.]

[Sidenote: The Drawing proper.]

A drawing being blocked out in such a state as the further leg and foot
of our demonstration drawing (page 90 [Transcribers Note: Plate
XVIII]), it is time to begin the drawing proper. So far you have only
been pegging out the ground it is going to occupy. This initial
scaffolding, so necessary to train the eye, should be done as accurately
as possible, but don't let it interfere with your freedom in expressing
the forms afterwards. The work up to this point has been mechanical, but
it is time to consider the subject with some feeling for form. Here
knowledge of the structure of bones and muscles that underlie the skin
will help you to seize on those things that are significant and express
the form of the figure. And the student cannot do better than study the
excellent book by Sir Alfred D. Fripp on this subject, entitled Human
Anatomy for Art Students. Notice particularly the swing of the action,
such things as the pull occasioned by the arm resting on the farther
thigh, and the prominence given to the forms by the straining of the
skin at the shoulder. Also the firm lines of the bent back and the
crumpled forms of the front of the body. Notice the overlapping of the
contours, and where they are accentuated and where more lost, &c.,
drawing with as much feeling and conviction as you are capable of. You
will have for some time to work tentatively, feeling for the true shapes
that you do not yet rightly see, but as soon as you feel any confidence,
remember it should be your aim to express yourself freely and swiftly.

There is a tendency in some quarters to discourage this blocking in of
the forms in straight lines, and certainly it has been harmful to the
freedom of expression in the work of some students. They not only begin
the drawing with this mechanical blocking in, but continue it in the
same mechanical fashion, cutting up almost all their curves into
flatnesses,