DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18975#0180
140
THE ELEMENTS OF DRAWING
in points with a sixth: but whether yon have one, or ten,
or twenty processes to go through, you must go ^<32^/^
through them knowingly and foreseeingly all the way; and
if you get the thing once wrong, there is no hope for
you but in washing or scraping boldly down to the white
ground, and beginning again.
161. The drawing in body-colour will tend to teach you
all this, more than any other method, and above all it will
prevent you from falling into the pestilent habit of spong-
ing to get texture; a trick which has nearly ruined our
modern water-colour school of art. There are sometimes
places in which a skilful artist will roughen his paper a
little to get certain conditions of dusty colour with more
ease than he could otherwise; and sometimes a skilfully
rased piece of paper will, in the midst of transparent tints,
answer nearly the purpose of chalky body-colour in repre-
senting the surfaces of rocks or building. But artihces of
this kind are always treacherous in a tyro's hands, tempt-
ing him to trust in them: and you had better always work
on white or grey paper as smooth as silk ; ^ and never dis-
turb the surface of your colour or paper, except finally to
scratch out the very highest lights if you are using trans-
parent colours.
162. I have said above that body-colour drawing will
teach you the use of colour better than working with
merely transparent tints; but this is not because the pro-
cess is an easier one, but because it is a more complete one,
and also because it involves some working with transparent
tints in the best way. You are not to think that because
you use body-colour you may make any kind of mess that
you like, and yet get out of it. But you are to avail your-
self of the characters of your material, which enable you
* But not shiny or greasy. Bristol board, or hot-pressed imperial, or
grey paper that feels slightly adhesive to the hand, is best. Coarse, gritty,
and sandy papers are ht only for blotters and blunderers ; no good draughts-
man would lay a line on them. Turner worked much on a thin tough paper,
dead in surface ; rolling up his sketches in tight bundles that would go deep
into his pockets.
THE ELEMENTS OF DRAWING
in points with a sixth: but whether yon have one, or ten,
or twenty processes to go through, you must go ^<32^/^
through them knowingly and foreseeingly all the way; and
if you get the thing once wrong, there is no hope for
you but in washing or scraping boldly down to the white
ground, and beginning again.
161. The drawing in body-colour will tend to teach you
all this, more than any other method, and above all it will
prevent you from falling into the pestilent habit of spong-
ing to get texture; a trick which has nearly ruined our
modern water-colour school of art. There are sometimes
places in which a skilful artist will roughen his paper a
little to get certain conditions of dusty colour with more
ease than he could otherwise; and sometimes a skilfully
rased piece of paper will, in the midst of transparent tints,
answer nearly the purpose of chalky body-colour in repre-
senting the surfaces of rocks or building. But artihces of
this kind are always treacherous in a tyro's hands, tempt-
ing him to trust in them: and you had better always work
on white or grey paper as smooth as silk ; ^ and never dis-
turb the surface of your colour or paper, except finally to
scratch out the very highest lights if you are using trans-
parent colours.
162. I have said above that body-colour drawing will
teach you the use of colour better than working with
merely transparent tints; but this is not because the pro-
cess is an easier one, but because it is a more complete one,
and also because it involves some working with transparent
tints in the best way. You are not to think that because
you use body-colour you may make any kind of mess that
you like, and yet get out of it. But you are to avail your-
self of the characters of your material, which enable you
* But not shiny or greasy. Bristol board, or hot-pressed imperial, or
grey paper that feels slightly adhesive to the hand, is best. Coarse, gritty,
and sandy papers are ht only for blotters and blunderers ; no good draughts-
man would lay a line on them. Turner worked much on a thin tough paper,
dead in surface ; rolling up his sketches in tight bundles that would go deep
into his pockets.