Lucid Arrangement
In geometric and working drawings when plans and sections are incidental to lucid explanation, these latter should appear relatively; that is, the plan should be in alignment with the elevation, etc. Statements and directions as to procedure are often necessary, and these, placed with judgment and in good lettering, are valuable in balancing the drawing. Not that this has any effect on the work, but because it has a good influence on the designer.
Possibly the story of Giotto and the circle that figured in the early school primers is responsible for the very general impression that the use of mechanical instruments is inartistic. Another characteristic of the young beginner is a total disregard for anything in the nature of exact dimension.
No useful purpose is served, and much valuable time is wasted, in attempts to accomplish freehand, forms that may be perfectly achieved by proper implements. Familiarity with the use of these will be found of great assistance in all design in which geometric construction, apparent or not, plays so large a part.
Of this the average beginner has little conception, and though Geometry has been a subject of their early training, they seldom have any clear idea as to its employment in design. Except in few instances, they are unpractised in the use of geometrical instruments, and at times oblivious that these serve any practical purpose.