The Draughtsman's Handbook of Plan and Map Drawing / Including instructions for the preparation of engineering, architectural, and mechanical drawings.

by George G. André

Cultivated land is represented by alternate broken and dotted lines, suggesting furrows, as shown in [Fig. 50]. For the sake of variety, these lines are put in in sets, and in different directions, one set being usually parallel to one side of the enclosure. The lines are first ruled in continuously with the pencil, and the broken and dotted lines afterwards drawn in over them by hand. The portions of the broken lines must in this case be short, and the breaks still shorter. The dots must be fine and close together; they are made by touching the paper with the point of the pen, and immediately lifting it off without dragging it over the paper. All round dots must be made in this way.

The Wavy Line.

—The wavy line is very important in topographical drawings, as it is employed to represent running water, and frequently large bodies of standing water to which motion is communicated by the wind, as lakes and the sea. These rippled lines are intended to represent the ripples in the water, a purpose which they fulfil in a very pleasing manner. They must, however, be well executed, or the pleasing effect will not be produced. The operation of drawing these lines is usually regarded by the draughtsman as a tedious and an uninteresting one. But such ought not to be the case, for there is ample scope in it for the exercise of the taste and the judgment, and in proportion to the taste displayed and the judgment exercised, will be the effect of the work when executed.

Fig. 51.

[Fig. 51] shows the manner of employing these lines. In representing water by this means, the lines should be drawn from the shores towards the middle of the stream or lake, and never from the middle outwards, for if the latter mode of proceeding be adopted, the proper graduation of the spaces between the lines becomes impossible. The shore line, or outline of the water, should be a moderately thick line, and of uniform thickness throughout. The first shading line may be of nearly the same thickness as the shore line, and it must be drawn as near to it as possible. Also this shade line, as well as all subsequent ones, must follow exactly all the windings of the shore line; this is essential to a correct expression. To effect this with accuracy, care should be taken to make the space between the shore and the shade line a fine white line. The second shade line must be drawn a little finer than the first, and at a slightly increased distance from it. This gradual diminution of the thickness of the lines, and increase of the spaces, must be continued to the middle of the current. The last line in the middle of a piece of water must always return to itself. When the shading lines meet the margin of the drawing, they should terminate in it, that is, they should be drawn out to the margin as though they had been continued beyond and cut off.

These lines require to be drawn clean, and to do this the hand must be kept steady. This steadiness may be obtained by taking a very short hold of the pen, and resting the middle finger upon the paper. The lines, as we have already said, should be drawn towards the body, the drawing being turned about as required to facilitate this, and the last line drawn must be always kept on the left of the one being drawn. By this means the last line and the point of the pen are kept constantly in sight. It is also important that the lines should be completed successively, rather than that several should be carried on at once, because if the latter mode of working be adopted, the eye is apt to become confused by the different intervals, and an uneven distribution of the lines is the result. A principle to be attended to is that every line shall return to itself, spirals being altogether inadmissible. The distance of the lines apart and their thickness are expressive of the character of the object; thus, in a small pond, for example, they will be fine and close together; in a large pond or a lake they will be thicker and more widely spaced; and in the open sea they will be made to present a bold appearance by increasing still more their thickness and the distance between them.

Fig. 52.