DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18972#0106
78
THE ELEMENTS OF DRAWING. [letter i.
boughs of trees, now not in mere dark relief, but in
full rounding. Take the first bit of branch or stump
that comes to hand, with a fork in it; cut off the
ends of the forking branches, so as to leave the whole
only about a foot in length; get a piece of paper the
same size, fix your bit of branch in some place where
its position will not be altered, and draw it thoroughly,
in all its light and shade, full size; striving, above
all things, to get an accurate expression of its struc-
ture at the fork of the branch. When once you have
mastered the tree at its armpits, you will have little
more trouble with it.
Always draw whatever the background happens to
be, exactly as you see it. Wherever you have fas-
tened the bough, you must draw whatever is behind
it, ugly or not, else you will never know whether
the light and shade are right; they may appear quite
wrong to you, only for want of the background.
And this general law is to be observed in all your
studies: whatever you draw, draw completely and
unalteringly, else you never know if what you have
done is right, or whether you could have done it
THE ELEMENTS OF DRAWING. [letter i.
boughs of trees, now not in mere dark relief, but in
full rounding. Take the first bit of branch or stump
that comes to hand, with a fork in it; cut off the
ends of the forking branches, so as to leave the whole
only about a foot in length; get a piece of paper the
same size, fix your bit of branch in some place where
its position will not be altered, and draw it thoroughly,
in all its light and shade, full size; striving, above
all things, to get an accurate expression of its struc-
ture at the fork of the branch. When once you have
mastered the tree at its armpits, you will have little
more trouble with it.
Always draw whatever the background happens to
be, exactly as you see it. Wherever you have fas-
tened the bough, you must draw whatever is behind
it, ugly or not, else you will never know whether
the light and shade are right; they may appear quite
wrong to you, only for want of the background.
And this general law is to be observed in all your
studies: whatever you draw, draw completely and
unalteringly, else you never know if what you have
done is right, or whether you could have done it