Fig. 1.—Easel for lightning cartoons.
The next requisite is a large drawing-board. Half-a-dozen large sheets of cheap cartridge paper should also be procured. These latter may be fixed to the drawing-board by nails driven firmly into the top right- and left-hand corners in such a manner that each sheet can easily be removed after it has been drawn upon. The media employed for plain black-and-white drawings are thick sticks of charcoal or soft crayon.
It should be borne in mind that as lightning sketching permits of no erasures, each subject must be thoroughly committed to memory before a public demonstration on the paper is attempted.
The best subjects for a beginner to attempt in black chalk or crayon are caricatures of celebrities, those selected all possessing some particularly marked or prominent feature, e.g. the late Mr. Gladstone, with his remarkable forehead, striking nose, and the characteristic high collar.
Idiosyncrasies of well-known people should also be seized upon; for instance, the eyeglass and orchid so universally associated with Mr. Joseph Chamberlain. It will be found that if these peculiarities are properly portrayed and accentuated, but very few strokes of the crayon will suffice to produce an unmistakable likeness. The budding cartoonist should also bear in mind that boldness of execution is essential, the strokes being put to paper with free and large sweeps of the hand.
The subjects intended to be drawn must be selected beforehand, the order of their appearance also being prearranged.
To obtain the correct mental picture of each character or subject, it is at first recommended to attempt only heads. Let the young cartoonist first procure a pronouncedly good photograph, in profile preferably, and copy this in detail, gradually omitting half tones or shadings until the likeness is apparent when only the minimum of strokes is used. As soon as the ability to do this has been thoroughly acquired, the outlines should be drawn again and again until the hand has become so accustomed to the correct presentation of the portrait that it can draw it off in a second or two. The lightning cartoonist must live up to his reputation for speed.
Fig. 2.—Method of drawing in leading characteristics.