102
[Transcribers Note: Plate XXI].)

[Illustration: Plate XXI.

STUDY IN RED CHALK

Illustrating a treatment of hair in line-work.]

To sum up, in the method of line drawing we are trying to explain (the
method employed for most of the drawings by the author in this book) the
lines of shading are made parallel in a direction that comes easy to the
hand, unless some quality in the form suggests their following other
directions. So that when you are in doubt as to what direction they
should follow, draw them on the parallel principle. This preserves a
unity in your work, and allows the lines drawn in other directions for
special reasons to tell expressively.

As has already been explained, it is not sufficient in drawing to
concentrate the attention on copying accurately the visual appearance of
anything, important as the faculty of accurate observation is. Form to
be expressed must first be appreciated. And here the science of teaching
fails. "You can take a horse to the fountain, but you cannot make him
drink," and in art you can take the student to the point of view from
which things are to be appreciated, but you cannot make him see. How,
then, is this appreciation of form to be developed? Simply by feeding.
Familiarise yourself with all the best examples of drawing you can find,
trying to see in nature the same qualities. Study the splendid drawing
by Puvis de Chavannes reproduced on page 104 [Transcribers Note: Plate
XXII]. Note the way the contours have been searched for expressive
qualities. Look how the expressive line of the back of the seated
figure has been "felt," the powerful expression of the upraised arm with
its right angle (see later page 155 [Transcribers Note: Diagram XII],
chapter on line rhythm). And then observe the different types of the two
standing figures; the practical vigour of the one and the soft grace of
the other, and how their contours have been studied to express this
feeling, &c. There is a mine of knowledge to be unearthed in this
drawing.

There never was an age when such an amount of artistic food was at the
disposal of students. Cheap means of reproduction have brought the
treasures of the world's galleries and collections to our very doors in
convenient forms for a few pence. The danger is not from starvation, but
indigestion. Students are so surfeited with good things that they often
fail to digest any of them; but rush on from one example to another,
taking but snapshot