Pictures in Your Own Town. Where are the interesting places in the town in which you live? Is the town near the water? Then there are boats and bridges. Is there a machine shop, a mill, or a quarry? Then you will find something to draw, as interesting as the factory in the artist's sketch. Does a railroad run through the place? There is the station, the switch tower, the engines and the freight cars. Or, perhaps there is a blacksmith shop or a trolley car. Keep your eyes open, and find the things in your town that show the life of the people. Tomorrow, bring a sketch showing some picture you have seen in the place where you live.
The Colors of Springtime.
One of the earliest shrubs that blossoms in the springtime is the forsythia. Its blossoms cover the whole bush before the leaves come, making a mass of yellow in the midst of the green grass. Yellow and green are favorite colors of springtime.
Choose some flowering tree or shrub to paint in a picture. In painting a landscape like the one on this page, one good way is first to draw with a brush line and very light violet color, the shapes that must be carefully placed. Then add the sky and foreground washes and drop on the damp paper the colors you see in the bush or tree. Draw the trunk of the tree, or the branches of the shrub, in dark gray-violet. A path or road may be wiped out of the foreground with the nearly dry brush, and a little red and yellow added to give the color of sandy ground.
Paint a spring landscape, not like the one in the book.