DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19934#0005
Introduction to the Art of Drawing.
THOUGH Drawing has by some bedn treated as an accomplishment rather orna-
mental than useful, yet an art, so amusing and so easily acquired, affording at once an elegant
and agreeable relaxation from severer studies; in a general course of polite education, should by no
means be neglected ; and the more particularly where genius evinces a natural talent for the Arts,
which is frequently discoverable in youth ot both sexes at a very early period. But the Art
of Drawing; can by no means be considered as merely ornamental, since a knowledge of its princi-
ples is essentially requisite to the practice of various occupations; as Architecture, Painting, Sta-
tuarv, Cabinet-making, Engraving, Embroidery; to Botany, and, in short, to every study con-
nected with Natural History : while it is no less essential to Engineers, and other branches of our
naval and military service; as well as to Travellers who may visit foreign countries through a de-
sire to acquire knowledge or gratify curiosity. How agreeable and useful must it prove to those
who are enabled to sketch, on the spot, the luxuriant landscape—to delineate an elegant pile of
building—to pourlray with accuracy any curious specimen of human ingenuity, or uncommon
appearance of Nature—to preserve the records of former excellencies in the arts—or, what is perhaps
still more gratifying, to display, almost to reality, the forms and features of relatives and friends,
endeared to us by the strongest ties of social life—to depict those deeds of valour or virtue, of
horror or depravity, which mark the fleeting hour! — scenes which, thus placed before the eye,
become as so many moral lessons, teaching us by example to avoid the bad, but emulate the good !
To enlarge further on what is therefore so evidently useful as well as engaging as an art, were su-
perfluous; it therefore remains necessary only to guide the young pupil to the mode by which
this interesting and fashionable study is most easily attainable, and to which object the succeeding
pages are devoted.
--
I>E BRUN, a draughtsman of the French school, and the designer of the celebrated work en-
titled ' The Passions,' may be considered as having given the easiest and surest method for a young
artist to arrive at perfection in the art of Drawing. His principles are founded on an easy and na-
tural progression, with the immutable basis'of truth for its foundation. He has, happily, divided
the human frame into divisions and sub-divisions, so that perfection is to be attained separately,
by a continuation of study of each particular object at a time : his first lesson may be considered
PROPORTION.
To exemplify this position, as it relates to the face, an oval should be drawn to resemble an egg;
and perhaps, as a beginning, it were as well to form it to that size; through this draw a perpen-
dicular line, as represented in plate 6, the third head, and another across the center of the oval;
this is termed the diameter, and is a certain guide to proportion: on these all the features of the
face are to be drawn.
The perpendicular line is to be divided into four equal distances ; the first part to reach from the
crown of the head to the termination of the hair on the forehead; the second part, from the top
of the forehead to the eye-brows, or the commencement of the nose; the third proportion gives
the length of the nose, and the fourth and last part—from the end of the nose to the bottom of
the chin. These are invariable rules in a well-proportioned face, and must be implicitly attended
to ; but nature does not always present a perfect symetry, nevertheless the beginner must be guid-
ed by precepts, which lead to perfection.
You will now divide the diameter line into five parts : the face, when fronting you, being sup-
posed to be the breadth of five eyes; the space between the eyes is the breadth of one eye, and the
distance from the extremity of either eye to each side of the face is also to be of one eye in
breadth.
Begin your drawing at the nose, and then sketch in the eyes ; follow with the eye-brows : ob-
serve the proportion of the ears, the tons of which are to be parallel with the eye-brows; the
breadth of the nose is not to extend beyond the commencement of either eye; the nostrils never to
be too much distended ; the center of the mouth to be exactly on the perpendicular line.
As the head alters its position, a curveting of the perpendicular line will occur: provided it
keeps a parallel movement no alteration will appear in the proportional lines that pass diametrical-
ly; for an elucidation of this position see face the second in plate 6: on the contrary, should the
face incline downwards, as those faces represented in plate 5, then the lines passing diametrically
should take the semi-circular appearance there shown; and, vice versa, if the head is thrown
backward, those proportional lines will traverse in an opposite direction upwards, as illustrated in,
the same plate, head the 5th.
THOUGH Drawing has by some bedn treated as an accomplishment rather orna-
mental than useful, yet an art, so amusing and so easily acquired, affording at once an elegant
and agreeable relaxation from severer studies; in a general course of polite education, should by no
means be neglected ; and the more particularly where genius evinces a natural talent for the Arts,
which is frequently discoverable in youth ot both sexes at a very early period. But the Art
of Drawing; can by no means be considered as merely ornamental, since a knowledge of its princi-
ples is essentially requisite to the practice of various occupations; as Architecture, Painting, Sta-
tuarv, Cabinet-making, Engraving, Embroidery; to Botany, and, in short, to every study con-
nected with Natural History : while it is no less essential to Engineers, and other branches of our
naval and military service; as well as to Travellers who may visit foreign countries through a de-
sire to acquire knowledge or gratify curiosity. How agreeable and useful must it prove to those
who are enabled to sketch, on the spot, the luxuriant landscape—to delineate an elegant pile of
building—to pourlray with accuracy any curious specimen of human ingenuity, or uncommon
appearance of Nature—to preserve the records of former excellencies in the arts—or, what is perhaps
still more gratifying, to display, almost to reality, the forms and features of relatives and friends,
endeared to us by the strongest ties of social life—to depict those deeds of valour or virtue, of
horror or depravity, which mark the fleeting hour! — scenes which, thus placed before the eye,
become as so many moral lessons, teaching us by example to avoid the bad, but emulate the good !
To enlarge further on what is therefore so evidently useful as well as engaging as an art, were su-
perfluous; it therefore remains necessary only to guide the young pupil to the mode by which
this interesting and fashionable study is most easily attainable, and to which object the succeeding
pages are devoted.
--
I>E BRUN, a draughtsman of the French school, and the designer of the celebrated work en-
titled ' The Passions,' may be considered as having given the easiest and surest method for a young
artist to arrive at perfection in the art of Drawing. His principles are founded on an easy and na-
tural progression, with the immutable basis'of truth for its foundation. He has, happily, divided
the human frame into divisions and sub-divisions, so that perfection is to be attained separately,
by a continuation of study of each particular object at a time : his first lesson may be considered
PROPORTION.
To exemplify this position, as it relates to the face, an oval should be drawn to resemble an egg;
and perhaps, as a beginning, it were as well to form it to that size; through this draw a perpen-
dicular line, as represented in plate 6, the third head, and another across the center of the oval;
this is termed the diameter, and is a certain guide to proportion: on these all the features of the
face are to be drawn.
The perpendicular line is to be divided into four equal distances ; the first part to reach from the
crown of the head to the termination of the hair on the forehead; the second part, from the top
of the forehead to the eye-brows, or the commencement of the nose; the third proportion gives
the length of the nose, and the fourth and last part—from the end of the nose to the bottom of
the chin. These are invariable rules in a well-proportioned face, and must be implicitly attended
to ; but nature does not always present a perfect symetry, nevertheless the beginner must be guid-
ed by precepts, which lead to perfection.
You will now divide the diameter line into five parts : the face, when fronting you, being sup-
posed to be the breadth of five eyes; the space between the eyes is the breadth of one eye, and the
distance from the extremity of either eye to each side of the face is also to be of one eye in
breadth.
Begin your drawing at the nose, and then sketch in the eyes ; follow with the eye-brows : ob-
serve the proportion of the ears, the tons of which are to be parallel with the eye-brows; the
breadth of the nose is not to extend beyond the commencement of either eye; the nostrils never to
be too much distended ; the center of the mouth to be exactly on the perpendicular line.
As the head alters its position, a curveting of the perpendicular line will occur: provided it
keeps a parallel movement no alteration will appear in the proportional lines that pass diametrical-
ly; for an elucidation of this position see face the second in plate 6: on the contrary, should the
face incline downwards, as those faces represented in plate 5, then the lines passing diametrically
should take the semi-circular appearance there shown; and, vice versa, if the head is thrown
backward, those proportional lines will traverse in an opposite direction upwards, as illustrated in,
the same plate, head the 5th.