In the figure studies we reproduce by Bonnat and Munkacsy, you can plainly see that the action of the figures is graphically portrayed without any attempt at detail, simply by “placing” the parts of the figure in the right place. A good beginning in the case of figure drawing should always show the action; that is to say, show that the man is stooping over, leaning back, standing upright or sitting down, long before the drawing shows that his coat is black or has four buttons on it, or that he has finger nails on his fingers.
It is nearly always the practice with artists to place objects in this way with a pencil line, even if the subsequent drawing is to be in pen or wash. Let your lines be light, and then you can erase them after your ink lines are put over them. Do not be afraid of feeling your way with lines; put down several until you get the right one. Do not expect to get your work right at first. If you get in a branch of a tree and think it is correct, leave it till the tree is complete; but if in the end you see it is too large for the rest of the tree, rub it out and make it smaller. Every artist has to do this many times if his subject is at all complicated.
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Example of French Art School studies from plates published under the direction of Bargue and Gérôme, showing the method of placing a figure before drawing the final outline or shading; also showing lines on the jaw, in the trunk and leg that are not contour lines.
CHAPTER VI.
VALUE OF A LINE — WHAT THE ARTIST SEES — LINES, NOT CONTOUR LINES, USED TO REPRESENT ORGANIC PARTS — “PLACING” ELEMENTS A MENTAL TRAINING — MORE IMPORTANT TO THE PRINTER-DRAFTSMAN THAN INTRICATE DETAIL — PLACING-LINES TO BE MADE CAREFULLY — SYNTHESIS OF THE HUMAN ARM REPRESENTED WITH A FEW LINES — THE DELIGHT OF AN ARTIST IN SYNTHETIC STUDIES — JAPANESE MASTERS OF SYNTHETIC DRAWING — GRASSET’S SILHOUETTE — THINK OF YOUR OBJECTS, WHEN PLACING THEM, AS SILHOUETTES — REDUCING CONTOUR LINES TO GEOMETRIC FIGURES — HERKOMER’S PINE TREES MAPPED OUT INTO POLYGONS — THIS METHOD NOT TO BE CARRIED TO EXCESS — CHARACTERISTICS OF OBJECTS TO BE LOOKED FOR — NATURE’S FORMS SOON RECOGNIZED IN SIMPLE POLYGONS.
IT IS difficult for the amateur to realize the value of a line as fully as the art student realizes it. We give an illustration of the first laying in or placing of a figure, as done in the Parisian art schools. The student who works for months and months in this manner sees a meaning in an artist’s lines that the casual observer misses. Here, for example, all the lines on the arm represent swellings which are not merely temporary but are organic, belonging to every arm. So also with the cross lines on the abdomen; they are not as one might expect, chance lines, but divide the trunk into organic parts. Any model taking this pose would show some such lines, or rather the body would divide itself into {58} some such parts which would produce the wrinkles which these lines represent; no matter whether he were older or younger, stouter or thinner, the markings would be in about the same place. When we come to the analyzation of the human face this fact of representing parts of the body by lines that are not outlines—i. e., not contour lines—will be still clearer to you. Now, the point we want to make is that the method of “placing” objects, recommended in the last chapter, is not a mere process of procedure in drawing, but is quite as important a mental training as the making of the most intricate outline—in fact, for the printer-draftsman it is more important than the latter. If you wish to make a poster design, it is better that you should know how to place “the elements” of a branch of oak or ivy than that you should draw the venation of the leaves or the delicate modeling of the stems, because if printed in flat tones it is the big characteristics—showing the difference between an ivy leaf and an oak leaf—that you need to secure. Therefore, in all your preliminary sketching do not work carelessly just because you are finally going to rub out your placing lines; but rather try to see how much likeness to the object you can get by the most economical means, in your very placing of the object. In the man’s arm, for example, even the inexperienced draftsman, who might not see the correctness of the drawing in the man’s trunk, can realize that we have here the swelling of the deltoid, the curve of the biceps, the extreme width at the elbow, and the inside lines which mark bones and muscles at the elbow; all of which represent the synthesis of the human arm, though perhaps not the similitude {59} of any one arm. Were you, with an artist companion, looking over a collection of drawings by the masters you would be surprised at his delight in many drawings that were carried little further than this study of an arm. The Japanese are celebrated for their synthetic drawing; they have the ability to make a spot of green that is not a lily leaf in all its intricate detail, but which has all the characteristics of a lily leaf which distinguish it from every other kind of leaf, stand for a perfect lily leaf.
If you will turn to the Grasset design on page [39] you will realize that his wisteria is by no means a complete floral drawing, but simply gives the characteristics of the wisteria in its silhouette. Here you see we revert to the subject of our second chapter, and recommend that in placing your objects you think of them as silhouettes. This wisteria design suggests another help for the beginner. The flower itself in its entirety takes the form in nature of a cone, which in silhouette is a triangle; the entire branch of the ornament on page [48] takes the form of a triangle; and since geometrical forms are more easily analyzed than natural forms, it might be well for you to train yourself to notice if an object takes the general form of a quadrangle or a rectangle, a triangle or a polygon. The branches of trees can frequently be mapped out into triangles or polygons with not more than five or six sides, that are very easy to recognize.
We have made a tracing of the pine trees by Mr. Herkomer, in which we have mapped out the branches into polygons, A, B and C (page [60]). The lines D E and F G are added to suggest how the tree trunks are {60}