The Magician's Own Book, or, the Whole Art of Conjuring / Being a complete hand-book of parlor magic, and containing over one thousand optical, chemical, mechanical, magnetical, and magical experiments, amusing transmutations, astonishing sleights and subtleties, celebrated card deceptions, ingenious tricks with numbers, curious and entertaining puzzles, together with all the most noted tricks of modern performers.

by George Arnold; Frank Cahill

50

They have, however, to be well considered in connection with our present subject; for as we said with the face, any great deviation from them leads to oddity, and is at the root of caricature drawing.

Trace out, or sketch out any size, the figures (Fig. 49 and 50), or any others for yourselves: or taking any well drawn figure in a print which may not be too costly to use so, draw with a black lead pencil upon the print similar lines to those in the figures, that is to say, divide its length into eight parts, first dropping a central line perpendicular to the ground.

You will thus test the accuracy of the rule, and familiarize yourself with the proportions of the figure. Then, for the purpose of comic drawing, you will vary these proportions. A face too long or too short, a body too large or too small for the legs, or legs otherwise disproportionate to the rest of the body, will yield the desired results. It will be seen by the Figs. 51 and 52 that their oddity has been arrived at simply by this rule, or by the deviation from the strict rule of proportion.

51

Fig. 53 is given in illustration of the remarks upon the second rule. The form is correct enough as regards height, and deviates in the matter of lateral proportion.

We now come to consider the third principle—that of the center of gravity.

Observe in the annexed figures how the first (Fig. 54) being at rest, commends itself to the reason like a mathematical demonstration. The next diagram shows a partial deviation from the center of gravity, is in a false position, and we begin either to pity or to laugh—poor diagram! The two following figures are other cases of the same sort—we feel instinctively for them—they are very far gone. Try this rule upon your slates or sketching blocks; and after that we will go on to the next subject. In the diagrams (Figs. 58, 59), the same principle is enforced. The first is at rest, because the line passing through the center of the figure is a vertical line. In the next figure, that line being out of the vertical, the balance is disturbed, and the figure topples; so with the next. This is so plain that argument is not needed to demonstrate it.