tic of architectural pictures. Certainly, it
is only too evident that the people usually seen in such pictures
are utterly incapable of taking the slightest interest whatever in
architecture, or in anything else; and not infrequently they seem
to be even more immovable objects than the buildings themselves,
so fixed and inflexible are they. Such figures as these only detract
from the interest of the drawing, instead of adding to it, and the
draughtsman who has no special aptitude is wise in either omitting
them altogether, or in using very few, and is perhaps still wiser
if he entrusts the drawing of these to one of his associates more
accomplished in this special direction.

The first thing to decide in the matter of figures is their arrangement
and grouping, and when this has been determined they should be
sketched in lightly in pencil. In this connection a few words by
way of suggestion may be found useful. Be careful to avoid anything
like an equal spacing of the figures. Group the people interestingly.
I have seen as many as thirty individuals in a drawing, no two of
whom seemed to be acquainted,--a very unhappy condition of affairs
even from a purely pictorial point of view. Do not over-emphasize the
base of a building by stringing all the figures along the sidewalks.
The lines of the curbs would thus confine and frame them in
unpleasantly. Break the continuity of the street lines with figures
or carriages in the roadway, as in Fig. 55. After the figures have
been satisfactorily arranged, they ought to be carefully drawn as
to outline. In doing so, take pains to vary the postures, giving
them action, and avoiding the stiff wooden, fashion-plate type of
person so common to architectural drawings. When the time comes
to render these accessories with the pen (and this ought, by the
way, to be the last thing done) do not lose the freedom and breadth
of the drawing by dwelling too long on them. Rise superior to such
details as the patterns of neckties.

We will now consider the application to architectural subjects
of the remarks on technique and color contained in the previous
chapters.

[Side note: _Architectural Textures_]

To learn to render the different textures of the materials used in
architecture, the student would do well to examine and study the
methods of prominent illustrators, and then proceed to forget them,
developing meanwhile a method of his own. It will be instructive for
him, however, as showi