DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18975#0143
II. SKETCHING FROM NATURE
105
your pen and mark the outline characters vigorously, in
the manner of the Liber Studiorum. This kind of study
is very convenient for carrying away pieces of effect which
depend not so much on refinement as on complexity, strange
shapes of involved shadows, sudden effects of sky, etc.; and
it is most useful as a safeguard against any too servile or
slow habits which the minute copying may induce in you;
for although the endeavour to obtain velocity merely for
velocity's sake, and dash for display's sake, is as baneful as
it is despicable ; there a velocity and a dash which not
only are compatible with perfect drawing, but obtain certain
results which cannot be had otherwise. And it is perfectly
safe for you to study occasionally for speed and decision,
while your continual course of practice is such as to ensure
your retaining an accurate judgment and a tender touch.
Speed, under such circumstances, is rather fatiguing than
tempting; and you will find yourself always beguiled rather
into elaboration than negligence.
117. Fourthly. You will find it of great use, whatever
kind of landscape scenery you are passing through, to get
into the habit of making memoranda of the shapes of
shadows. You will find that many objects of no essential
interest in themselves, and neither deserving a finished study,
nor a Dureresque one, may yet become of singular value
in consequence of the fantastic shapes of their shadows; for
it happens often, in distant effect, that the shadow is by
much a more important element than the substance. Thus,
in the Alpine bridge, Fig. 21, seen within a few yards of
it, as in the figure, the arrangement of timbers to which
the shadows are owing is perceptible; but at half a mile's
distance, in bright sunlight, the timbers would not be seen ;
and a good painter's expression of the bridge would be
merely the large spot, and the crossed bars, of pure grey;
wholly without indication of their cause, as in Fig. 22 %;
and if we saw it at still greater distances, it would appear
as in Fig. 22 5 and c, diminishing at last to a strange, un-
intelligible, spider-like spot of grey on the light hillside.
105
your pen and mark the outline characters vigorously, in
the manner of the Liber Studiorum. This kind of study
is very convenient for carrying away pieces of effect which
depend not so much on refinement as on complexity, strange
shapes of involved shadows, sudden effects of sky, etc.; and
it is most useful as a safeguard against any too servile or
slow habits which the minute copying may induce in you;
for although the endeavour to obtain velocity merely for
velocity's sake, and dash for display's sake, is as baneful as
it is despicable ; there a velocity and a dash which not
only are compatible with perfect drawing, but obtain certain
results which cannot be had otherwise. And it is perfectly
safe for you to study occasionally for speed and decision,
while your continual course of practice is such as to ensure
your retaining an accurate judgment and a tender touch.
Speed, under such circumstances, is rather fatiguing than
tempting; and you will find yourself always beguiled rather
into elaboration than negligence.
117. Fourthly. You will find it of great use, whatever
kind of landscape scenery you are passing through, to get
into the habit of making memoranda of the shapes of
shadows. You will find that many objects of no essential
interest in themselves, and neither deserving a finished study,
nor a Dureresque one, may yet become of singular value
in consequence of the fantastic shapes of their shadows; for
it happens often, in distant effect, that the shadow is by
much a more important element than the substance. Thus,
in the Alpine bridge, Fig. 21, seen within a few yards of
it, as in the figure, the arrangement of timbers to which
the shadows are owing is perceptible; but at half a mile's
distance, in bright sunlight, the timbers would not be seen ;
and a good painter's expression of the bridge would be
merely the large spot, and the crossed bars, of pure grey;
wholly without indication of their cause, as in Fig. 22 %;
and if we saw it at still greater distances, it would appear
as in Fig. 22 5 and c, diminishing at last to a strange, un-
intelligible, spider-like spot of grey on the light hillside.