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

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THE ELEMENTS OF DRAWING. [letter i.

will suppose is about the size of a in Fig. 5. (it had
better not be much larger), on a piece of not very
white paper, on the table in front of you. Sit so
that the light may come from your left, else the
shadow of the pencil point interferes with your
sight of your work. You must not let the sun fall
on the stone, but only ordinary light: therefore
choose a window which the sun does not come in
at. If you can shut the shutters of the other
windows in the room it will be all the better; but
this is not of much consequence.

Now, if you can draw that stone, you can draw
anything : I mean, anything that is drawable. Many
things (sea foam, for instance) cannot be drawn at all,
only the idea of them more or less suggested; but
if you can draw the stone rightly, everything within
reach of art is also within yours.

For all drawing depends, primarily, on your power
of representing Roundness. If you can once do that,
all the rest is easy and straightforward; if you cannot
do that, nothing else that you may be able to do will
be of any use. For Nature is all made up of round-