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WHAT TO DRAW and HOW TO DRAW IT

by E.G. LUTZ

DODD, MEAD & COMPANY

Fourth Avenue and 30th Street

Publishers

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In drawing from this book, copy the last diagram, or finished picture, of the particular series before you.

The other diagrams—beginning with number one, then number two, and so on—show how to go on with your drawing. They give the order in which to make the various strokes of the pencil that together form the completed picture. The dotted lines indicate where light lines are drawn that help in construction—that is; getting proportions correctly, outlining the general form, or marking details in their proper places. Do not press hard on the pencil in making these construction lines, then they can be erased afterwards.

Use pencil compasses for the circles, or mark them off with buttons or disks.

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To Draw a Five-Pointed Star

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Take note, first of all, of the difference between an ellipse and an oval.

The large plate explains the construction of an ellipse. It shows how to find the points where the three pins are placed that determine the size of the looped string. Be sure and make measurements accurately. Use a string that will not give, cotton thread is good for small ellipses, silk is too elastic. A suggestion to amateur gardeners: make elliptical flower beds this way.

The caution in regard to accuracy also applies to the making of the oval.

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Here is a good list of colors for practical work. The first eight are enough for every purpose; but add, if you wish, purple and orange. Moist colors in pans are best. There are many different kinds of red, green, blue and brown paints; and as you may be puzzled and not know what to get, the names of the best hues of these particular colors are also given. The most useful paints in this list are yellow ochre, light red, Vandyke brown and Payne’s gray. Learn to work with them, use them often and see the beautiful effects they produce. Delicate tints are made with thin washes of yellow ochre and light red. Vandyke brown makes a variety of pleasing tints.

Use the bright colors sparingly.

You do not need a black paint. Payne’s gray with either brown, blue, crimson or green gives rich dark tones. Payne’s gray is also useful in shadows and shading other colors. For the different kinds of greens, mix yellow ochre, blue or brown with Hooker’s green. Use thin washes of light red and blue for the gray of distances and clouds.

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This is really a remarkable book in which line is made a good reason for form. The youngest child may grasp the magic progress of this way of working and he will draw the picture naturally and well.

INSTRUCTIONS are very brief, for the key lines of each object tell their own story and the child is entranced by the results soon gained. There is no stupid tracing in this book, for tracing accomplishes at most only a little muscular control.

The book provides a step-by-step system that fixes the object in memory and develops naturally as a physical skill and a mental knowledge of proportion and form.

Foreshortening and perspective, often bugbears to young artists, are overcome by the simplest progressive examples.

REMEMBERING THE KEY LINE opens the way to the completed object. There are hundreds of pictures to draw and all those most fascinating to the child, who is thrilled by the “magic” that makes drawing easy and delightfully interesting.

“Just remember the KEY LINE, that’s all.”