The Plant in Values.
It is often well to paint in grays a study that you have painted in color. On [page 9] is a picture in values of the sunset scene on page 8. While we cannot express the actual color of objects with anything but color, we can show the light and dark effect of color with a gray medium, such as pencil or charcoal, ink or charcoal-gray water-color.
In using a gray medium, we must try to keep our contrasts as well marked as though we were using the actual color itself. Suppose in this wash-drawing of the hyacinth, the flower, the leaves, and the flower-pot had all been of the same value. Can you not imagine how much such a picture would lose in interest? The difference in values, in the picture on this page, suggests to us the difference in color seen in the plant. If you look again at the drawing of the hyacinth on [page 52], you will see that the darkest colors in it are the red-violet of the blossom and the red-gray of the flower-pot. These are represented in the wash-drawing by dark gray. The gray-green of the leaves is shown in a lighter gray value.
In washing in the flower-pot, the flange, together with the ellipse for the top, should be drawn first. Then the base can be added, in a value which is deepened a little directly under the flange.
Select a plant in bloom, from which to make a wash-drawing. A tulip or a daffodil would make a good study. Study its growth, the shapes and sizes of its different parts, the values of its blossom, leaves, and stems, and of the jar in which it grows. Show how beautiful a picture of a plant and its bright flower may be made, without the use of color.
The Accented Line.
Have you ever heard any one read aloud in an even tone of voice, without changing the pitch or giving what is called expression to the story? You soon grow tired of listening to such reading even though the words are distinctly spoken. The same thing read with the right accent and inflection will hold your attention. You will enjoy and remember what is well read, because more truth and beauty are brought out by beautiful expression.
It is so in our drawing. We can make pictures of objects in a way that will give the facts of their forms and proportions, and still will not show the real beauty and character of those objects. Compare the two sketches of the barrel at the top of this page. Sketch B gives the facts of the barrel as well as Sketch A. But who would care for a picture that expressed so little of real interest? In Sketch A you feel the roundness or width of the barrel from back to front, and the quality of its rough and splintered surface. The line that is used to express all this is called an accented line. Such a line is varied in strength, being deepened in some places to express certain accents of form or color, and lightened in others. Sometimes it is broken off altogether, the eye seeming to continue the outline. It differs from the even, uniform line used in Sketch B just as the even, monotonous voice in reading differs from the voice that is full of expression and feeling.