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

LETTER I.]

ON FIRST PRACTICE.

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EXERCISE IV.

As soon as you find you can gradate tolerably with
the pen, take an H. or HH. pencil, using its point
to produce shade, from the darkest possible to the
palest, in exactly the same manner as the pen,
lightening, however, now with India-rubber instead
of the penknife. You will find that all pale tints of
shade are thus easily producible with great precision
and tenderness, but that you cannot get the same
dark power as with the pen and ink, and that the
surface of the shade is apt to become glossy and
metallic, or dirty-looking, or sandy. Persevere,
however, in trying to bring it to evenness with the
fine point, removing any single speck or line that
may be too black, with the point of the knife: you
must not scratch the whole with the knife as you
do the ink. If you find the texture very speckled-
looking, lighten it all over with India-rubber, and
recover it again with sharp, and excessively fine
touches of the pencil point, bringing the parts that

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