DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18972#0109
LETTER I.]
ON FIRST PRACTICE.
81
In order to get clearly at the notion of the thing
to be done, take a single long leaf, hold it with its
point towards you, and as flat as you can, so as to
see nothing of it but its thinness, as if you wanted
to know how thin it was; outline it so. Then slope
it down gradually towards you, and watch it as it
lengthens out to its full length, held perpendicularly
down before you. Draw it in three or four different
positions between these extremes, with its ribs as
they appear in each position, and you will soon find
out how it must be.
Draw first only two or three of the leaves; then
larger clusters; and practise, in this way, more and
more complicated pieces of bough and leafage, till you
find you can master the most difficult arrangements,
not consisting of more than ten or twelve leaves. You
will find as you do this, if you have an opportunity of
visiting any gallery of pictures, that you take a much
more lively interest than before in the work of the
great masters; you will see that very often their best
backgrounds are composed of little more than a few
sprays of leafage, carefully studied, brought against
a
ON FIRST PRACTICE.
81
In order to get clearly at the notion of the thing
to be done, take a single long leaf, hold it with its
point towards you, and as flat as you can, so as to
see nothing of it but its thinness, as if you wanted
to know how thin it was; outline it so. Then slope
it down gradually towards you, and watch it as it
lengthens out to its full length, held perpendicularly
down before you. Draw it in three or four different
positions between these extremes, with its ribs as
they appear in each position, and you will soon find
out how it must be.
Draw first only two or three of the leaves; then
larger clusters; and practise, in this way, more and
more complicated pieces of bough and leafage, till you
find you can master the most difficult arrangements,
not consisting of more than ten or twelve leaves. You
will find as you do this, if you have an opportunity of
visiting any gallery of pictures, that you take a much
more lively interest than before in the work of the
great masters; you will see that very often their best
backgrounds are composed of little more than a few
sprays of leafage, carefully studied, brought against
a