much the perfect regularity
of shape and balance in the features that charms us, not the things that
belong to an ideal type, but rather the subtle variations from this
type that are individual to the particular head we are admiring. A
perfect type of head, if such could exist, might excite our wonder, but
would leave us cold. But it can never exist in life; the slightest
movement of the features, which must always accompany life and
expression, will mar it. And the influence of these habitual movements
on the form of the features themselves will invariably mould them into
individual shapes away from the so-called perfect type, whatever may
have been nature's intention in the first instance.

If we call these variations from a common type in the features
imperfections, as it is usual to do, it would seem to be the
imperfections of perfection that charm and stir us; and that perfection
without these so-called imperfections is a cold, dead abstraction,
devoid of life: that unity without variety is lifeless and incapable of
touching us.

On the other hand, variety without unity to govern it is a riotous
exuberance of life, lacking all power and restraint and wasting itself
in a madness of excess.

So that in art a balance has to be struck between these two opposing
qualities. In good work unity is the dominating quality, all the variety
being done in conformity to some large idea of the whole, which is never
lost sight of, even in the smallest detail of the work. Good style in
art has been defined as "variety in unity," and Hogarth's definition of
composition as the art of "varying well" is similar. And I am not sure
that "contrasts in harmony" would not be a suggestive definition of good
colour.

Let us consider first variety and unity as they are related to line
drawing, and afterwards to mass drawing.

XI

RHYTHM: VARIETY OF LINE

Line rhythm or music depends on the shape of your lines, their relation
to each other and their relation to the boundaries of your panel. In all
good work this music of line is in harmony with the subject (the
artistic intention) of your picture or drawing.

The two lines with the least variation are a perfectly straight line and
a circle. A perfectly straight line has obviously no variety at all,
while a circle, by curving at exactly the same ratio all along, has no
variation of curvature, it is of all curves the one with the least
possible variety. These two lines are, th