Ruskin, John: The elements of drawing: in three letters to beginners (London, 1857)

LETTER I.]

on first peactice.

5

Supposing then that you are ready to take a
certain amount of pains, and to bear a little irk-
someness and a few disappointments bravely, I can
promise you that an hour's practice a day for six
months, or an hour's practice every other day for
twelve months, or, disposed in whatever way you
find convenient, some hundred and fifty hours' prac-
tice, will give you sufficient power of drawing
faithfully whatever you want to draw, and a good
judgement, up to a certain point, of other people's
work: of which hours, if you have one to spare at
present, we may as well begin at once.

exercise i.

Everything- that you can see, in the world around
you, presents itself to your eyes only as an arrange-
ment of patches of different colours variously shaded.1

1 (N.B. This note is only for the satisfaction of incredulous
or curious readers. You may miss it if you are in a hurry, or
are willing to take the statement in the text on trust.)

The perception of solid Form is entirely a matter of expe-
rience. We sec nothing but flat colours; and it is only by a

B 3