CHAPTER IV.

POWER OF OUTLINE — SHADED DRAWINGS — TEXTURE — LOCAL COLOR AND VALUES — THROWN SHADOW AND MODELING SHADOW — MANNERISMS OF A CARICATURIST — BEGINNER ADVISED TO USE OUTLINE ONLY, BUT HE MAY PRACTICE IN SHADING.

IF I have been successful in mak­ing every point clear in my fore­going chap­ters the read­er now has such a know­ledge of the art of draw­ing as will en­able him to under­stand, (1) the power of an out­line, and (2) to realize that one may become a tolerable draftsman if he will train his eye to see the outline of an object as if marked upon a pane of glass—that is, reduced to one plane; and to realize, moreover, that (3) this learning to see things in one plane involves some knowledge of perspective, of which more anon; but for the present let us leave outline and take up another branch of the subject. In the Luque cartoon the helmet is represented {42} in a new form. The careful observer will see instantly that it differs materially from the helmet in the Don Chisciotte cartoon, shown upon page [37].

Let us make an analysis of this difference. I contemplated no pun when I wrote of a material difference. Yet that is the main point of contrast. We guess that the helmet of the major domo in the Don Chisciotte is metal, but we only guess it. We argue that the Romans wore metal helmets, hence we fancy this is one; but outline rarely indicates texture (we mean by texture the material of an object—wood, wool, stone, linen, etc.) or color. But in the Luque we are very sure that the helmet is of black leather. True, we surmise this only, because we know that modern helmets are apt to be either metal or black patent leather, and this one is too dark for metal, and the high light upon it is just like the white light on a black patent leather helmet. (When the light falls on a rounded object there is nearly always one place upon it where the light strikes, creating a white light—no matter what the color of the object—which artists call the high light. This is always more apparent upon highly polished objects than upon rough objects.)

Now, you see in the Luque we have a very different kind of drawing from a pure outline like the Don Chisciotte, or a silhouette like the Grasset. In such drawing the outline is only the framework; after it is put in, the labor is by no means over; to the contrary, every bit of surface has to be covered with an appropriate tint, and two different considerations decide how light or how heavy this tint shall be: first, the consideration of light and shade; secondly, local color. When the artist put a {43} dark mass under Crispi’s mustache he did not mean to suggest that Crispi had been eating blackberry jam, or that he had a negro’s lower lip, but he meant to represent the strong shadow that a thick mustache throws upon a lower lip when the light comes from above; in doing this he noted a “thrown shadow.” When, however, he made the dark line on the lower part of the chin he did not mean to suggest that the upper part of the chin threw a shadow on the lower part, but he represented the part of the chin that rounds under the jaw; this is called a “modeling shadow.” (A circle may represent a ring, or a disk—as in the medal inscribed Literis et Artibus in the Fallström (page [44])—or a sphere; but without shading it is said not to have modeling; and if it is intended for a sphere, it can only suggest a sphere; to make it fully represent one, we shade it; then it is positively not a ring, nor a disk, if the shading is properly done. This shading gives it rotundity, or bulk, and this effect we designate as modeling.) When Luque makes the part of the visor of the helmet to our right darker than the part to our left and leaves a light between, he also models—that is, represents modeling or rotundity; but when he makes both the shaded side and the lighter side dark, and also makes Crispi’s coat black, then he is said to represent local color.

Here you see we have a very advanced form of drawing, and a form I should not advise you to employ in your early efforts to do professional work; if you essay to make a cartoon for your paper, I should advise you to confine yourself to outline or silhouette. But in order that you may fully understand a drawing which at first appears to be outline, but which upon examination turns {44}

DANIEL FALLSTRÖM. A caricature by Albert Engström.

{45}

PENCIL SKETCH. By John Everett Millais. This is not a careful study, but shows an artist’s method of “placing” objects. The right-hand figure is evidently that of a minister, and the artist at first intended to have his coat fall over his left thigh but afterwards changed it. The gray lines which thus place the skirt of the coat are those referred to in Chapter V. In the left-hand figure the head was drawn first and the hat added. It is interesting to note how low upon the head the hat rests. The mistake of the beginner is usually to put a hat too high on the skull. (Or perhaps the artist’s first intention was to draw a derby hat, which was afterwards changed to a high hat.)

{46} out to be partly shaded, we have introduced in these first chapters this question of modeling and local color. We have pointed out (Chapter II) that Engström sometimes uses pure outline, sometimes outline and silhouette, and sometimes outline, silhouette and shading. His “Fallström,” given with this chapter, is without silhouette effect, but is in outline, shading and local color. The medal referred to is a piece of pure outline. Ordinarily, when an artist draws a thing of this kind—a button, a policeman’s badge, etc.—he makes the lower line a little heavier than the rest so as to suggest the shadow the object throws upon the coat; but Engström has omitted this. In the nose, however, we have not pure outline, but a distinct broadening of the line under the nose giving the same suggestion of its protruding and of its throwing a shadow as does Crispi’s mustache in Luque’s drawing. In the hat, moreover, we have both modeling—very good modeling, too,—and local color.

You should be reminded that Engström is a caricaturist, and takes liberties with the art of drawing as well as with his subjects. The example we gave in Chapter I, his own portrait, was a perfectly consistent drawing, all pure outline; so was the “Hedin” (Chapter II), because silhouette goes perfectly well with outline. But to model a hat as fully as in this “Fallström” drawing, so that under its rim is a shadow, and yet not have it throw a suggestion of a shadow upon the man’s head, is most inconsistent drawing—permitted the caricaturist only. If you were making such a study from nature you would surely see a thrown shadow on the head and you should put it in. {47}

While I say you should not employ shading and local color to any great extent in your early work, yet you may study the theory of it so as to use it sparingly, and that study is best pursued by putting on a table a group of objects of different colors and textures; put a white box beside a brown book, an ink bottle beside a glass, a teacup beside a brown stone jug, and draw each object in relation to the others. Make your ink bottle blacker than your brown jug, but note that both have distinct high-lights upon them. The white box will probably not have a high-light upon it, but one side of it may be all light, while the corresponding side of the brown book will be darkish, though lighter than its side in shadow. (We suppose that you place your table near a window so that the light from it falls on one side of the objects, the other side being in shadow; this is the best arrangement for objects studied for their light and shade. Do not have light come from other windows.) You, therefore, in your drawing, have white paper to represent the light side of the box, but you put on a slight tint to represent the light side of the brown book. The ink bottle you will treat very much like Luque’s helmet; black as it is there will be streaks of white upon it—sometimes high-lights, and sometimes reflection of the window as seen in a mirror. If the cover of the box, because it projects a little, throws a line of shadow upon the side of the box, you will instantly recognize that this is the same kind of a thrown shadow as that which Luque put under Crispi’s mustache and Engström put under Fallström’s nose. Some study of this sort will soon train your eye to see the reason of spots of light and dark in artists’ drawings. {48}

One of the points we admire in an expert’s drawing is the use he makes of black spots. The Japanese have rules of composition, governing this distribution of spots, which they follow, balancing a black here with another there in an admirable manner. In our chapter on wood engraving we shall give some specimens of well distributed blacks. In our tailpiece by Grasset you will notice how on the right-hand side five petals and two buds balance a tri-parted leaf on the opposite side. One of the problems for the designer of printers’ devices is to balance them properly. It is much easier to copy a spray from nature and fill it in with black ink than it is to make that spray balance so that when placed at the end of a chapter or used to divide paragraphs it will balance as perfectly as the letter V or A. It is needless to note that every printer realizes that paragraphs might be separated by the letter I or A or V, but not properly by the letter B or D or E.

TYPOGRAPHICAL ORNAMENT. Designed by Eugene Grasset.