ral System_]

It is a common fault of students to dive into the picture unthinkingly,
beginning anywhere, without the vaguest plan of a general effect,
whereas it is of the utmost importance that every stroke of the
pen be made with intelligent regard to the ultimate result. The
following general method will be found valuable.

Pencil the outline of the entire subject before beginning the pen
work. It will not do to start on the rendering as soon as the building
alone is pencilled out, leaving the accessories to be put in as
one goes along. The adjacent buildings, the foliage, and even the
figures must be drawn--carefully drawn--before the pen is taken up.
The whole subject from the very beginning should be under control,
and to that end it becomes necessary to have all the elements of
it pre-arranged.

[Side note: _Arrangement of the Values_]

Next scheme out the values. This is the time to do the thinking. Do
not start out rashly as soon as everything is outlined in pencil,
confident in the belief that all windows, for instance, are dark,
and that you may as well make them so at once and be done with
them. This will be only to court disaster. Besides, all windows
are not dark; they may be very light indeed. The color value of
nothing is absolute. A shadow may seem almost black till a figure
passes into it, when it may become quite gray by comparison. So a
window with the sun shining full upon it, or even one in shade, on
which a reflected light is cast, may be brilliantly light until the
next instant a cloud shadow is reflected in it, making it densely
black. Arrange the values, therefore, with reference to one general
effect, deciding first of all on the direction of the light. Should
this be such as to throw large areas of shadow, these masses of
gray will be important elements in the color-scheme. An excellent
way to study values is to make a tracing-paper copy of the line
drawing and to experiment on this for the color with charcoal,
making several sketches if necessary. After having determined on
a satisfactory scheme, put fixatif on the rough sketch and keep
it in sight. Otherwise, one is liable, especially if the subject
is an intricate one, to be led astray by little opportunities for
interesting effects here and there, only to discover, when too
late, that these effects do not hang together and that the drawing
has lost its breadth. The rough sketch is to the draughts man what
manuscript notes are to th