We need not look far for suggestions. Truly “that is best which lieth nearest; shape from that thy work of art.”
At your very doorway the wonders of botany may be studied. Carefully inspect the tree blossoms in the early spring; the maple, willow, birch, any in fact which happen to be convenient, and you will find suggestions of rare designs.
Clover, plantain, pepper-grass, dandelions, vines and twigs, offer ideas which can be adapted to ornamental art.
A love of nature will quicken and stimulate the faculties; take the flowers and plants for instructors, and they will teach and guide you.
Though there cannot be found an exact duplicate of any blossom or leaf, still these may be conventionalized by arranging them in all sorts of symmetrical designs.
There is no mystery about the matter, for all the designs are conceived upon the most simple of geometric laws. We are now following in the steps of the old masters, and an unlimited field of new combinations opens before us.
When making designs for this chapter, the writer did not select the objects she thought would be most decorative, but anything which chanced to fall in the way; and what she has done you can do, provided, of course, that you have ordinary skill with the pencil.
The Peony Leaf.
Suppose you do not know how to draw at all! Even then you can design. Take the first thing you see, which in this case happens to be a peony leaf (Fig. 68). That is, assuming that you are seated by the side of the writer.
| Fig. 68. | Fig. 69. |