Generations of teachers and their public school pupils learned from Dow's orientalism and adopted basic postimpressionist principles without even knowing the term.
The reappearance of Dow's practical, well-illustrated guide, enhanced by Joseph Masheck's discussion of its historical ramifications, is an important event for all concerned with the visual arts and the intellectual antecedents of American modernism.
Arthur Wesley Dow was a painter, printmaker, and writer. Books Journals. About the Book First published in , Arthur Wesley Dow's Composition has probably influenced more Americans than any other text to think of visual form and composition in relation to artistic modernity. Web icon An illustration of a computer application window Wayback Machine Texts icon An illustration of an open book.
Books Video icon An illustration of two cells of a film strip. Video Audio icon An illustration of an audio speaker. Audio Software icon An illustration of a 3. Software Images icon An illustration of two photographs. Images Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape Donate Ellipses icon An illustration of text ellipses. Technique is best acquired by the practice of object and figure drawing.
The first is a purely scientific process, a gathering up of data, with no thought of harmony or originality ; hence drawing with such an end in view is not strictly art-work. Nor does the artist need to lumber up his mind ; nature is his store- house of facts. The second point has more reason, but when the aim is for mere accuracy, only a limited amount of skill is acquired and that often hardly more than nice workmanship not art-skill.
The powerful drawing of the masters is largely derived from other masters, not from copying nature. It is an inter- pretation with the purpose of attaining a high standard. Such drawing aims to express character and quality in an indi- vidual way a thing quite different from fact-statement. Nature-drawing, wrongly placed and misunderstood, has become a fetich in our modern teaching. These stock-phrases are a part of that tradition of the elders that eight- eenth century academism still lingering.
Representation has but a small place in the art of the world. This is roughly shown in the two lists below :. Modelling, mouldings and pattern. Metal work. Inlay, mosaic, etc. Geometric design, including Egyptian, Peruvian and Savage. Ginghams, plaids and much textile pattern. The nature-imitators hold that accurate representation is a virtue of highest or- der and to be attained in the beginning.
It is undeniably serviceable, but to start with it is to begin at the wrong end. It is not the province of the landscape paint- er, for example, to represent so much to- pography, but to express an emotion; and this he must do by art. His art will be manifest in his composition; in his placing of his trees, hills and houses in synthetic relations to each other and to the space-boundary. Here is the strength of George Inness; to this he gave his chief effort.
He omits detail, and rarely does more than indicate forms. This relation among the parts of a com- position is what we call Beauty, and it begins to exist with the first few lines drawn. Even the student may express a little of it as he feels it, and the attempt to embody it in lines on paper will surely lead to a desire to know more fully the character and shapes of things, to seek a knowledge of drawing with enthusi- asm and pleasure.
These things are said, not against nature- drawing I should advise more rather than less but against putting it in the wrong place. The main difference between Academic and Structural Analytic and Synthetic is not in the things done, but in the rea- son for doing them, and the time for them. All processes are good in their proper places. The relation of representative drawing to a synthetic scheme is this : One uses the facts of nature to express an idea or.
Another reason for drawing is found in the use of the shapes or hues in design. Desire to express an idea awakens inter- est in the means. Observation is keen, close application is an easy task, every sense is alert to accomplish the under- taking. This is quite different from draw- ing anything and everything for practice only. Mere accuracy has no art-value what- ever. Some of the most pathetic things in the world are the pictures or statues whose only virtue is accuracy.
The bare truth may be a deadly commonplace. Pupils should look for character; that includes all truth and all beauty. It leads one to seek for the best handling and to value power in expression above success in drawing. Composition is the greatest aid to repre- sentation because it cultivates judgment as to relations of space and mass. As long as the lines of a design are kept of uniform width, the beauty is limited to propor- tion of areas and quality of touch, but widen some of the lines, and at once ap- pears a new grace, Dark-and-Light.
The textile designers who are restricted to straight lines, have recourse to this principle. They widen lines, vary their depth of tone, glorify them with color, and show that what seems a narrow field is really one of wide range. Choose some of the previous geometric line patterns, and widen certain of the lines, as illustrated in the plate.
Incident- ally this will give good brush practice, as the lines are to be drawn at one stroke. Try a large number of arrangements, set them up in a row and pick out the best.
In choosing and criticising, remember that every part of a work of art has some- thing to say. If one part is made so prominent that the others have no rea- son for being there, the art is gone. So in this case ; if one line asserts itself to the detriment of the others, there is discord. There may be many or few lines, but each must have its part in the whole. In a word, wholeness is essential to beau- ty ; it distinguishes Music from Noise. When forming part of an artistic composition, in books, posters, manuscripts, illuminations, etc.
Obviously the spacing of masses of let- ters has first consideration, and is usu- ally a simple problem in rectangular com- position. The effect is a tone or group of tones more or less complicated according to sizes of letters, thickness of their lines and width of spaces between and around them.
Having suggested that Lettering, including Printing, as an art, is a prob- lem in composition of line and notan, it seems hardly worth while to introduce special exercises here. Compare fine printing, old and new, Japanese, Chinese and Arabic writ- ing, and ancient manuscripts and in- scriptions Egyptian, Greek, and Me- diaeval.
Worse than that, it tends to cut him off from the appreciation of one whole class of great works of art. As in the case of Line, so again in this is manifest the narrowness and weakness of the scheme of nature-imitating as a foundation for art education. The Realistic standard always tends to the decay of art.
The student in an academic school, feel- ing the necessity for a knowledge of. Direct study of tone-intervals begins with composition in two values the simplest form of Notan. There may be several starting- points; one might begin by blotting ink or charcoal upon paper, by copying the darks and lights from photographs of masterpieces, or by making scales. Ex- perience has shown that the straight-line design and the flat black ink wash are most satisfactory for earlier exercises in two values.
Instead of black and white, or black and gray, one might use two grays of different values, or two values of one color say light blue and dark blue according to need. The aim being to understand Notan as something by which harmony may be created, it is best to avoid Representa- tion at first.
Notan must not be con- founded with Light and Shade, Model-. Dark-and-Light when he begins to make linger anything that refers to imitation original compositions, has usually but of natural objects. His difficulties may be overcome i by seeing that Notan is an element distinct from Line or Color ; 2 by attempting its mastery in progres- sive stages leading to appreciation. The beginner may imagine that not much can be done with flat black against flat white, but let him examine the decorative design of the world.
He will find the black and white check and patterns derived from it, in old velvets of Japan, in the woven and printed textiles of all nations, in marble floors, inlaid boxes and archi-. The use of these two simple tones is as universal as Art itself.
They appear in the black vine on the white marble floor of the Church of the Miracoli at Venice ; on the wall of the Arabian Mosque, and the frieze of the Chinese temple. They have come into favor on book covers and page borders. Aubrey Beardsley went scarcely beyond them. Pupils should be warned against mis- taking mere inventive action for art.
The teacher must guide the young mind to perceive the difference between creating beautiful patterns, and mere fantastic play. Those gifted with little aesthetic percep- tion may go far astray in following the two-tone idea. It is very easy and some- what fascinating to darken parts of de- signs with black ink. The late poster. These facts will show the beginner that craze showed to what depth of vulgarity no terms are too simple for artistic this can be carried. The pupil must be genius to use.
Moreover a limited field often stimulates to greater inventive. His only guides. It is apparent that we cannot reduce Dark-and-Light to sim- pler terms than these two values. The principle of Variation comes into this exercise with special force, for each line-design admits of several Notan ar- rangements. The student should be given at first a subject with few lines.
Flowers, having great variety of line and proportion, are valuable, as well as convenient subjects for elementary composition. Their forms and colors have furnished themes for painters and sculptors since the beginning of Art, and the treatment has ranged from abstrac- tions to extreme realism; from refine- ments of lotus-derived friezes to poppy and rose wall papers of the present time.
The flower may be rendered realistically, as. A small spray in the middle of a big oblong, or disconnected groups of flowers, cannot be called compositions; all the lines and areas must be related one to another by connections and plac- ings, so as to form a beautiful whole. Not a picture of a flower is sought, that can be left to the botanist but rather an irregular pattern of lines and spaces, something far beyond the mere drawing of a flower from nature, and laying an oblong over it, or vice versa.
The instructor chooses one of the best flower compositions done under Line, or draws a flower in large firm outlines on the blackboard, avoiding confusing de- tail, and giving the character as simply as possible. The pupil first copies the. He makes several trial arrangements roughly, with pencil or charcoal. Having chosen the best of these, he improves and refines them, first.
It is essential that the space should be on his trial paper, and later by tracing cut by the main lines. Subordination, with brush and ink on thin Japanese. Effort must be concentrated on the arrangement, not on botanical cor- rectness.
Many line compositions can be derived from one flower subject, but each of these can in turn be made the source of a great variety of designs by carrying the exer- cise farther, into the field of Dark-and- Light.
Paint certain of the areas black, and at once a whole new series sug- gests itself, from a single line design. To the beauty of the line is added the beauty of opposing and intermingling masses of black and white ; see below and p.
Hence the flowers and leaves and stems, or parts of them, may be black or white, according to the feeling of the student. Let him choose out of his several draw- ings those which he considers best. The instructor can then criticise, pointing out the best and the worst, and explaining why they are so. A mere aimless or mechanical blackening of paper, without effort to arrange, will result in nothing of importance. The examples show the variety of effects produced by flowers of different shapes, and the beauty resulting from schemes of Dark-and- Light in two values.
A line-scheme underlies every notan composition, and a notan-scheme under- lies every color composition. The three elements have the closest relation one to another.
For purposes of study, how- ever, it is necessary to isolate each ele- ment, and even the separate principles of each. In the present instance, Notan can be separated from Line by taking a line- design of acknowledged excellence and making many Notan variations of it; being sure of beauty of line, the only problem is to create beauty of tone.
As this brings in historic art, let me note that the works of the past are best used, in teaching, as illustrations of com- position, p. The first essential is to appreciate the quality of historic examples, hence the student should work from the objects themselves, from photographic copies, from tracings, or from casts.
The com- monplace lithographic plates and rude wood cuts in some books of design are useless for our purpose. They give no hint of the original. If the actual paint- ing on an Egyptian mummy case is com- pared with a page of one of these books, the poor quality of the latter is instantly apparent. The facsimile copies of Greek vases usu- ally belong in this same category. Choose a textile of the best period, say Italian of the XVth or XVIth century ; copy or trace the line and play upon this several notan-schemes of two values.
You will at once discover how superb the spacing is in these designs, but your main thought is the creation of new dark- and-light ideas upon the fine old pattern ; p. The Oriental rug affords an excellent line-scheme for practice in notan. As composition it is a combination of two principles Subordination and Repetition. Copying a part or the whole of some good rug in line and color is the best way to become aquainted with the spac- ing, motives and quality. Then design a rug with border and centre, the shapes to be pure inventions or symbols.
Bor- der and centre must differ, and there are many ways of doing this even in two values, for instance : Border : Black figures on white ground. Centre :White figures on black ground. Border : White figures on black ground. Centre : Black figures on white ground. Border: Small figures. Centre : One large figure.
The illustrations, pp. The exercise points to one good way of using museum collections and art books. EIDSCAPE is a good subject for still life tends to put attention upon facts notan-composition, to be treated rather than upon experience in struct- at first as a design, afterward as a ure.
It does not help one to appreciate picture. Its irregular spacings contrast tone-values in pictures. Such drawing well with the symmetries of pattern, and is worth while as pure representation when tones are played over them the ef- and the discipline of it contributes to fects are new and strange, stimulating mastery of technique, but it is absurd to to further research into the mysteries of prescribe this or life drawing as a train- tone.
Such an exercise leads to the ap- ing for the landscape painter. Its influ- preciation of landscape pictures, and is ence is only indirect, for modeling is of an introduction to pencil and charcoal secondary importance in Painting, the sketching from nature, to monotypes and art of two dimensions, etching. When a painter works for roundness and Notan in landscape, a harmony of tone- solidity he enters the province of his relations, must not be mistaken for light- brother the sculptor.
He finds In a mural painting extreme roundness later that accurate record is good and is a fatal defect, as illustrated in the right in studies or sketches but may be Pantheon at Paris, where Puvis de Cha- wrong in a picture or illustration. No vannes and his contemporaries have put accidents enter into pictures, but every pictorial designs upon the walls. Puvis line, light, and dark must be part of a created a mosaic of colored spaces in- deliberate design. From these you turn away unsatisfied I am not arguing for the entire omission of shadows and modelling they have their place but am insisting that flat of different proportions; then vary each relations of tone and color are of first im- of these in two values.
Strive for harmony rather than number, variety or strangeness. Compare your set and se- lect the best. Compose the landscape into borders. To begin with rounding up forms in light and shade, especially in land- scape, is to reverse the natural order, ignore structure, and confuse the mind.
Lines, tones and colors may be used to decorate something, but they may be simply beautiful in themselves, in which case they are no more decora- tive than music. This word should be dropped from the art vocabulary. The illustrations, No. The student may use the examples given here, then sketch his own subjects from nature.
One good way to accomplish this is to sketch in the mass- ing, in two values. Choose a number of masterpieces, ancient and modern, and blot in the darks in broad flat tones. This will reveal the general notan-scheme of each picture pp. Sketching from nature with brush and ink is a means of interpreting sub- jects in a very broad way, obliging one to select and reject, to keep only the essentials.
It cultivates apprecia- tion of texture and character and brings out the power of doing much with little, of making a few vigorous strokes convey impressions of form and com- plexity. It leads to oil painting where. It is almost the only method for painting on pottery, as the absorbent glaze admits of no gradation, emendation or erasure ; the touch must be decisive and characterful.
Examples of brush- sketching from nature are given in No. The range of tone is narrow and the field seems lim- ited, but the masters have shown that the creative imagination knows no bounds. They have expressed every emotion- divine calm, serenity, excitement, fury, horror ; and effects of light, atmosphere, distance. The pediment and metopes of the Greek temple owed as much to notan as to line ; we can infer from the restorations what the original scheme was.
Greek archi- tecture, however, did not admit of exten- sive enrichment with sculpture; there were few spaces to fill, and those not ad- vantageous as to position, shape or light- ing.
As the temple evolved into the Christian church, the new forms of build- ing and the new story to tell called for sculpture. Through Byzantine and Ro- manesque it took a fresh start, pushing upward and outward until it flowered abundantly in Gothic. Although the church selected the themes, the sculptor might interpret form and facial expres- sion as his imagination directed, and compose his groups as he chose.
Old conventions were abandoned ; the artist. The result of this liberation of individual creative power was great art. The Gothic designer used notan with dramatic invention and magical strangeness. The French cathedrals of the best period XI to XIV century not- ably Paris, Chartres, Amiens and Reims, show how sculptural traditions were boldly broken and the most daring ef- fects accomplished without forgetting the character of stone or the architectural requirements.
The stone-cutter was an artist as long as his restraint was self- imposed as long as he held to unity of the whole composition and kept de- tails in their own place as long as he carved harmonies, not mere stories ; pp.
The masterpieces of Gothic sculpture may be studied from photographs and from reproductions published by the Mu- see de Sculpture Comparee, Paris.
Sketch in the masses with brush and ink in two values. As in pre-Renaissance times. If time had preserved for us the sketches in Europe, the education of the Japanese of Pheidias, of the architect of St. In later days when paper was subjects, not to imitate. Some have been to him themes for art to be translated into published and are fairly within reach, terms of line or dark-and-light or color, though often in costly editions. But Jap- They are so much material out of which anese art comes to the aid of the student of composition with abundant material sketch books, design books, drawings and color prints.
The learner should seek for genuine works of the best peri- student of composition are those with col- ods, avoiding modern bad reproductions, lections of designs for lacquer, wood, imitations, carelessly re-cut blocks, crude metal and pottery, the Ukiyo-ye books colors, and all the hasty and common- of figures, birds, flowers and landscape, place stuff prepared by dealers for the and the books by Kano artists, with brush- foreign market.
The Japanese knew no division into Rep- It was a common practice with the Jap- resentative and Decorative; they thought anese to divide a page into sections of of painting as the art of two dimensions, equal size and place a different design in the art of rhythm and harmony, in which each section, p.
This is of great im-. I have reproduced examples from the three classes of books mentioned above, selected in this case for their brilliancy of notan. Let the student copy them. Florets, seals, initial letters, page ornaments, illustrations, posters, end papers, drawn in black, gray or one color. Good reproductions of many Japanese design books can now be obtained at low prices. They are very stimulating, for they point to the best way of studying nature and of translating her beauty into the language of art ; pp.
The Structural method of art study places principle before application. Much ap- preciation of notan could be gained from any one of the subjects just considered, for example, textiles, but the tenden- cy would be to think of tone as belonging specially to textiles. The same can be said of Line as it appears in casts, the human form, or historic ornament.
At- tention is centred upon the particular case, and the larger view is lost. It is bet- ter to gain a knowledge of line, mass and color as the material out of which to create ; and to become acquainted with principles of harmony-building, before undertaking definite applications. Applications of two values are number- less ; I will mention a few of them to give.
One color on a ground of different value, as blue and white, No. Perforated sheet metal ; metal for corners, fixtures, etc. Fret saw work, inlay ; pp. It is a desirable wash ; this requires dexterity and much quality of Representation, and often be- practice. Paper must be stretched or comes a kind of deception most agreeable thumb-tacked perfectly smooth; ink- to the mind unappreciative of art. When dry, paint in the black Whistler protested against this, holding spaces. The intervals can be tested by painting the spaces of a simple scale.
This need not have an outline, as three brush-strokes will suffice. Apply these tones to a design ; make several arrangements, for the effect, and to discover the possibilities in three values. The subjects might be the same as in notan of two values, pages 63 The examples below illustrate the method and re-.
See scale, p. In addition to original composition, the student should copy from masterpieces of design and pictorial art, translating them into three values. For three-value studies one may use ink, charcoal or oil paint.
The two latter are particularly suitable for landscape designs and illustrative work. Char- coal should be used lightly and very freely.
It gives effects of vibration, at- mosphere, envelope and light, but the handling requires special study and much practice. The first few exercises in charcoal land- scape may be in flat tones see No. Cover the paper with a very sketchy tone of soft charcoal ; pass over it lightly with a paper stump or piece of cotton cloth.
Be careful not to grind the black into the paper, making an opaque smoky tone. Charcoal paper is made rough, to let the. When a luminous middle-gray is ob- tained, sketch in the darks with soft char- coal and take out the lights with bread or rubber ; this effect is like a mezzotint, Nos. After the principle of three values has been demonstrated, and the student can appreciate definite intervals of tone, the instructor should allow great freedom in execution, not even limiting to three notes but adding one or two others if necessary to good expression.
For oil painting, mix the three tones in quantity sufficient to paint several stud- ies. Ivory Black and Burnt Sienna will give a good neutral gray. Opin- ions differ as to the use of diluting medi- ums, and sizes of brushes, for oil painting. I should advise thinning the color with linseed oil and turpentine half and half , and using large flat bristle brushes.
Can- vas should be fairly rough in texture. If the surface to be painted on is smooth, either wood, pasteboard, or canvas, prepare a ground with thick paint, leav- ing brush-marks. There is one application, among others, that should be made by the student at this point composition of a book-page. The usual illustrated page is an arrange- ment in three tones, white paper, gray type, dark picture. The value to the pub- lisher depends quite as much upon the picturesque effect of the illustration as upon its drawing.
Size and placing, dis- position of type, amount of margin, are matters of Line Composition ; but choice of type, and the tone of the illustration belong to Notan Composition. Hence the student will gain much from design- ing pages, in ink, charcoal or oil, using as pictures the copies from masters, or orig- inal studies. Picture, title, initial letter, and body of type must be so composed that the result will be effective and har- monious, No.
Reference should be made to examples of early printing, to the works of William Morris, and to the best modern printing. Like speech, this three-fold language may voice noble emotions in poetic style, or may subserve the vulgar and the humdrum.
Art-language must be in art-form ; a number of facts, or an incident, accurately described in paint and color may have no more connec- tion with art than a similar set of written statements just plain prose. There is no art unless the statements are bound together in certain subtle re- lations which we call beauty. At this point construct a scale introducing more delicate relations of tone, and involving finer judgment as to intervals.
A scale of white, black and three grays a will be best for beginning, to be followed by a scale of seven values b. See page These may be made with Japanese ink, water color, charcoal or oil ; but not with pencil as it has not depth enough. The values here are only approximate ; perfect accuracy cannot be pbtained by the half-tone process. The object is gether in a unit. If the notes are mixed and difficult interrelations. If the picture has figures and landscape, the lines of each run in such directions, intersect and interweave in such ways as to form a musical movement.
The tones and col- ors are arranged to enrich one another. A noble subject requires noble pictorial of dark-and-light does not depend upon style. Remember that the scale-work is only an exercise to help toward clarity of tone, and to encourage invention.
After some experience in handling five or seven tones, the student can undertake original composition. For a beginning pure landscape may be best, taking some of the subjects previously used.
Follow this with landscape and figures ; groups of figures with landscape back- ground ; figures in interiors ; and portrait sketches. Compose for a book-page, using one light gray value to represent the effect of type, as in No. Paint very freely, without too much thought of scales and intervals.
Let gra- dations enter where needed for finer ef- fect. Study the work of the best illustra- tors, noting the tone-scheme and the placing upon the page. Etching, pen drawing and pencil sketch- ing are line-arts.
The tool always gives character to work, and the best results are obtained when the pos- sibilities of tools and materials are fully appreciated. If a sharp point is used in drawing, it will produce pure line, whose quality may reach any degree of excel- lence. Whistler, in his etchings, worked for the highest type of line-beauty ; shad- ows and tones were felt, but not ex- pressed.
On the other hand the artist is not subject. Admitting the value of all the arguments for restricting the use of the needle to line only, the artist observes that clustering of lines inevita- bly produces tone and suggests massing notan of line, page 54 that this effect is developed in rich gradations by wip- ing the etching-plate in the process of printing. Etchers are thus tempted to use tone, and many masters, from Rem- brandt down, have worked in tone more often than in line.
It need not be as inartistic as it usually appears; observation of pen work will show that, aside from faults in composi- tion, failure in interest lies largely in the handling.
Perhaps one pen only is used, and all textures treated alike, whereas every texture should have its own char- acteristic handling; cross hatching or any uniform system of shading with the pen is deadly.
Study the rendering ; suggest surface-quality rather than imitate or elaborate ; use a variety of pens. Johns- ton has shown with what art the reed pen may be employed in lettering and illuminating. In comparison with the Japanese brush, the ordinary pen is a clumsy tool, but nevertheless it is capable of much more than is usually gotten with.
The brush may be used as a pen, values and massing being obtained by blots and clustering of lines. Two examples are given below; see also pp. Much that has been said of etching and pen drawing is equally true of the hard lead pencil; but the soft pencil has many of the qualities of charcoal.
It may even be made to resemble the ink wash. The most successful pencil work is that in which line is the main thing,. If shading is attempted, the tones, wheth- er gray or dark, are made by laying lines side by side, not by cross-hatching or going over twice. A pencil sketch must be off-hand, premier coup, brilliant and characterful.
Two examples are given as hints for handling, No. It is not possible here to discuss pencil, pen or etching, at length; they are only touched upon in their relation to composition of line and notan. Supreme excellence in the use of ink was Passion, and the joys of heaven, attained by the Chinese and Japanese Some of these priest-artists of the Zen, masters.
Impressionism is by no means Mokkei, Kakei, Bayen in China; Shubun, a modern art except as to color-vibra- Sesshu in Japan, rank with the great tions for suggestiveness was highly painters of all time. They, and such prized in China a thousand years ago. To them we look for the tones; just enough to cause form, texture truly artistic interpretation of nature; for and effect to be felt. Every brush-touch dramatic, mysterious, elusive tone-har- must be full-charged with meaning, and mony; for supreme skill in brush-work, useless detail eliminated.
Put together all the good points in such a method, and you have the qualities of the highest art; for what more do we require of the mas- ter than simplicity, unity, powerful hand- ling, and that mysterious force that lays hold upon the imagination. Why the Buddhist priests of the Zen sect became painters, and why they chose monochrome are questions involving a knowledge of the doctrines of Buddhism and of the Zen philosophy.
It is suffi- cient to say here that contemplation of the powers and existences of external nature, with a spiritual interpretation of them, was the main occupation of Zen thought. Religious emotion was the spring of art-power in the East, as it was in the West. Landscape painting as religious art, has its parallel in Greek. Ink-painting is both an art and a craft; it has refinements and possibilities that can be realized only by working with a Japanese artist. He starts with a paper of low tone it may be its natural state,.
Into this atmospheric under- tone he plays gradations, sharp-edged strokes, drops of black, and vibrating washes, only touching upon forms, but clearly marking planes of aerial perspec- tive.
It is not possible for us to attain perfect mastery of Japanese materials and meth- ods, but the study will train in appre- ciation of tone -composition, and in bet- ter handling of our own water color and oil. Good photogravures may now be obtained; in some cases the stu- dent may copy from originals in our museums. If this is not within reach, a good sub- stitute may be made by sizing manila paper with a thin solution of alum. Jap- anese paper should be wet, and pasted, by the edges, upon a board.
Manila pa- per, after wetting, may be tacked upon a stretcher. Japanese ink and ink -stone, Chapter II round and flat brushes, soft charcoal, and a set of white dishes will be needed. Sketch in the subject lightly with the charcoal, dust it off and draw the main lines with pale thin vermilion water color. Wash in the broad masses, relying upon strengthening by many overtones.
Put in the darks last, being very careful that they are not too sharp- edged. COLOR, with its infinity of rela- tions, is baffling ; its finer harmo- nies, like those of music, can be grasped by the appreciations only, not by reasoning or analysis. Color, in art, is a subject not well understood as yet, and there are violent differences of opin- ion among artists, teachers and critics, as to what constitutes good color-instruc- tion.
The most that I can do here is to outline a simple method of study. Contact with these, even looking at them if the pupil is taught what to look for , will strengthen the powers of color perception. In schools where the art periods are short and few, this may be the only method pos- sible. See p. For those who intend to use color in cre-.
The Well-ordered thought is as necessary in artist is not teaching successfully unless art as in any other field. Theory is a he points the way to appreciation, how- help to clear thinking and gives direction ever hard or long it may be. A systematic study of line and tone is Color, however complicated, may be re- very profitable, as we have seen ; I be- duced to three simple elements :.
Those who have but little time for work. Color harmony depends upon adjust- ments in this three-fold nature. If a col-. This simple clas- sification reduces the perplexities that beset the student, by showing him where to look for the cause of failure.
Munsell has invented a photometer to measure values of light and color, and has prepared scales, spheres, charts and pigments for school use. My own experiments in making circles of hues and scales of notan and inten-. To judge of the effect of one hue upon another, arrange the whole five, Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, in a circle making them equal in value and.
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