The sketch in Fig. 60, which represents the stem, leaves, and flower of the yellow crowfoot, will be drawn in the same way as above.
The flower of the honeysuckle in Fig. 61 affords a good example for free pencil-sketching. The stem should be drawn first, then an outline made which will touch all the exterior parts of the sketch, as in Figs. 44 and 52; the distances of the leaves should next be drawn on this, and the details put in. The pupil should endeavor to copy this example correctly; it may appear very difficult, but, by a careful attention to the rules we have given, and a little determination to "try again," if perchance she should once or twice fail, the difficulty will soon vanish.
Fig. 62.
The sketch in Fig. 62, representing a human foot, may be put in by first drawing the general outline, thereafter finishing the details. Figs. 63, 64, and 65 will be drawn in the same manner.
DRESS—AS A FINE ART.
BY MRS. MERRIFIELD.
CONCLUSION.
WE look forward hopefully to a day when art-education will be extended to all ranks; when a knowledge of the beautiful will be added to that of the useful; when good taste, based upon real knowledge and common sense, will dictate our fashions in dress as in other things. We have schools of art to reform our taste in pottery, hardware, and textile fabrics, not to speak of the higher walks of art, painting, sculpture, and architecture. The handle of a jug, the stem of a wine-glass, the design for dress silks or lace veils, will form the subjects of lectures to the students of the various schools of design; disquisitions are written on the important question whether the ornamental designs should represent the real form of objects, or only give a conventional representation of them, while the study of the human figure, the masterpiece of creation, is totally neglected, except by painters and sculptors. We hope that the study of form will be more extended, that it will be universal, that it will, in fact, enter into the general scheme of education, and that we shall hereafter see as much pains bestowed in improving by appropriate costume the figure which nature has given us, as we do now in distorting it by tight stays, narrow and high-heeled shoes, and all the other deformities and eccentricities of that many-faced monster, fashion. The economy of the frame, and the means of preserving it in health and beauty, should form an integral part of education. There can be no true beauty without health, and how can we hope to secure health if we are ignorant of the means of promoting it, or if we violate its precepts by adopting absurd and pernicious fashions?