Drawing for Printers. / A practical treatise on the art of designing and illustrating in connection with typography. Containing complete instruction, fully illustrated, concerning the art of drawing, for the beginner as well as the more advanced student.

by Ernest Knaufft

CHAPTER IX.

HEAD BY KNAUS ANALYZED — DRAWN IN THE MANNER OF THE DAGNAN-BOUVERET AND CONTAINING LINES LIKE THE WATTS — THE NASO-LABIAL LINE USED TO DELINEATE OLD AGE — THE SHADOW OF THE NOSTRIL — THE WING OF THE NOSE — THE NOSTRIL USUALLY THE DARKEST SHADOW LINE IN A FACE.

LET US RESUME the subject of Chapter VIII. We give a fine drawing of an old man’s head by Knaus, and we will ask you to look at it and see if you cannot realize two things about it—first, that no matter how many lines there may be upon the hat, which make it look battered and different in texture from a new silk hat, it was first drawn as was the Dagnan-Bouveret given in the last chapter; secondly, do you notice the oblique naso-labial line, which we spoke of in connection with the Gaillard and Watts? and do you realize one of two things from this also, that, either this line in the original drawing ran up to the wing of the nose but was lost in the several engravings, or else the artist wished to indicate that his model was not a very old man, and he did not make the line very strong in that place? If so, you have learned some important principles that will help you in drawing, for you will be able to sketch any hat you wish to draw by the same process that the best artists employ. Again, you will be able to use proper judgment in introducing the lines into a face. If, for example, you were copying, in pen-and-ink, chalk-plate or wood engraving, {83}

OLD MAN’S HEAD. Crayon Drawing by Ludwig Knaus.

{84} from some half-obliterated etching or from some faded daguerreotype, an old man’s head like the Knaus, you would have the knowledge back of you that would permit you to draw in the naso-labial with proper accentuation. If you knew the original was a centenarian you would most certainly continue the line up to the wing of the nose and draw it continuously without a break; or if he were but a sexagenarian of whom the biographical dictionaries said “he carried his years lightly,” you might purposely break this line as in the Knaus.

So far, so good. And now for some other lines in the face. At the base of the nose we have the shadow of the nostril, and the curved portion of the nose around it called the wing of the nose; these are nearly always introduced into drawings. In the Knaus they are very happily drawn. Revert to the illustrations of the last chapter, and see if you can find them. In the Marchand and Gaillard they are represented by modeling rather than lines, but they are outlined in the Dagnan-Bouveret and the Watts, the former being in pencil. We notice that one of these objects is grayer than the other; which is it? It is the naso-labial line, and the shadow of the nostril is much the darker. The same effect is got in the Watts by using a fine line for the naso-labial line and a thicker line, or a blot, for the nostril. If, therefore, you were drawing the Gaillard in line, can you not realize that you would approximate the effect of our half-tone by making the outline of the wing of the nose the lightest of your lines, the naso-labial line darker, and the shadow of the nostril the darkest of the three? This order can {85} usually be followed in drawing an old person, and in almost every case (young or old) the nostril shadow is the darker of the three lines mentioned. In regard to the nostril being sometimes a line and sometimes a blot, the difference lies in the character of the original; with some persons the nostril is very straight and little of the inside of the nose shows. This was evidently the case in the Knaus original, so the artist uses a line and nothing more for the nostril (you will, however, not fail to note the subtlety of the artist’s touch, which gives us a strongly marked line for the nostril, but a more delicate line for the wing of the nose). In the Dagnan-Bouveret, however, the nostril goes up at quite an angle, exposing much more of the inside of the nose than in the Knaus; therefore, were you rendering this drawing in pen-and-ink, you could use a blot in the nostril similar in heaviness to that in the Watts portrait on page [79].

We should advise you, by the way, in following these chapters, to make tracings of all our half-tone cuts and render them in pen-line like the Watts; this will help you immensely to understand an analyzation of them.