TYPOGRAPHICAL ORNAMENT. Designed by Eugene Grasset.
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.
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