Studio: international art (46.1909)

Pen Drawing

frankly commended as an achievement of real
importance and entirely worthy of serious con-
sideration.

But to reach this level of achievement the
draughtsman must be prepared to study closely
both the possibilities and the limitations of a
technical process which cannot be properly con-
trolled until the ways in which it can be applied
are fully understood. One of the chief lessons
that has to be learned is the advantage of simpli-
city ; and this is not only the first lesson to be
mastered, but the one upon which almost every-
thing else depends. In pen drawing laborious
elaboration and painstaking effort to arrive at
superficial completeness are entirely undesirable.
By toiling to produce tone effects which can be much
more convincingly represented with the brush than
with the pen, by attempting subtleties of light and
shade which can be better suggested by means of
a wash than by the
superimposing of
lines on lines, the
draughtsman is not
only wasting his
time but he is, to
a not inconsider-
able degree, de-
parting from the
true genius of this
branch of art
practice. He can
arrive at much
more credible re-
sults by suppress-
ing his desire for
realism and by
recognising the
nature of the tech-
nical convention
which he is bound
to observe.

For the purpose
of this convention
is to create a sort
of optical illusion
—the line drawing
of the best type is
not, and never can
be, an actual ren-
dering of nature,
but it can convey a
strong impression
of actuality if it is

treated with the pen drawing

right measure of suggestion. It deceives the eye,
in fact, into the belief that a comparatively brief
summary is a full statement of complex detail and
a correct representation of things as they are rather
than a purely arbitrary adaptation of realities; and
it is by the success of this deception that the extent
of the draughtsman’s ability can be estimated.

Obviously, the creation of a sufficiently convinc-
ing illusion is within the reach of only those artists
who know exactly what they want to suggest, and
how, with the means at their disposal, this sugges-
tion can be made intelligible. The line drawing
from which an impression of completeness is to be
obtained needs to be set down with absolute
confidence, with frank directness and freshness of
manner. It must not be laboured and it must
not concern itself with trivialities or unessentials,
or, indeed, with anything else that might tend
to obscure the clearness of its meaning. Any

ky “voyageur”

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