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

152

THE ELEMENTS OP DRAWING. [letter ii.

one thing is seen through another. You will con-
stantly find a thin tree standing before your chosen
cottage, or between you and the turn of the river;
its near branches all entangled with the distance.
It is intensely difficult to represent this; and
though, when the tree is there, you must not
imaginarily cut it down, but do it as well as you
can, yet always look for subjects that fall into
definite masses, not into network; that is, rather
for a cottage with a dark tree beside it, than for
one with a thin tree in front of it; rather for a
mass of wood, soft, blue, and rounded, than for a
ragged copse, or confusion of intricate stems.

5. Avoid, as far as possible, country divided by
hedges. Perhaps nothing in the whole compass of
landscape is so utterly unpicturesque and unma-
nageable as the ordinary English patchwork of field
and hedge, with trees dotted over it in independent
spots, gnawed straight at the cattle line.

Still, do not be discouraged if you find you have
chosen ill, and that the subject overmasters you. It
is much better that it should, than that you should