Pen Pictures and How to Draw Them

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. One great reason why numerous students fail to excel in art is because their training proceeds on a plan altogether too narrow. It is long after he learns to draw when the average art pupil discovers that the capacity to make an excellent copy of a model is not everything. When it is clearly understood what Art is, rules and principles are more easily grasped and appreciated. It is usual to say that Art is everything which is not Nature. This is extremely vague and insufficient. Besides its imitative functions, Art represents a craving in the mind such as anyone may feel when he sees a good picture or piece of sculpture, or when he perceives sounds and harmonies. It is the means by which the internal and spiritual is revealed to the sense. In connection with drawing the first function of Art is to gratify the eye. A mere mechanical draughtsman - a designer of architectural plans, for example, may gratify nothing else; such are masters of the little style. A master of the grand style - a Rubens - may probably rouse the soul within us. A perverted genius - a Dore, perhaps - may choose a theme that shocks us.