The Practice and Science of Drawing

l inquiry into artistic phenomena on the part of the artist. Intuitions are shy things and apt to disappear if looked into too closely. And there is undoubtedly a dang

g his best work, of something, as Ruskin has said, "not in him but through him

reservedly to its influence, there can be little doubt as to its being the business of the artist to see to it that his talent be so developed, that he may prove a fit instrument for the expression of whateve

it. For although he must ever be a child before the influence that moves him, if it is not with the knowledge of the grown man that he takes off his coat and approaches the craft of painting or drawing, he will be poorly equipp

ore proceeding to our immediate subject something should be said as to the nature of art generally, not with the ambition of arriving at any final result in a

ist justifies some inquiry. The fo

xpressed through

cture? Or music? Th

pression of pl

pply to music and p

ch we distingui

to catch hold of

n, having experienced a feeling, in

e arts, but seems, from its omitting a

eing unaccompanied by some feeling. But there is this general division to be made, on one extreme of which is what we call pure intellect, and on the other pure feeling or emotion. The arts, I take it, are a means of giving expression to the emotional side of this mental activity, inti

ation in each of us. It seeks to create a point of view outside the human standpoint, one more stable and accurate, unaffected by the ever-changing current of huma

in registering facts, the facts with which art deals, being those of feeling, can only be record

he living consciousness-the sentient individual in each of us. The same fact accurately portrayed by a number of artistic intelligences

se perceptions connected with it. That is to say, there are some that only music can convey: those connected with sound; others t

such as there is in music, the sounds of which have no direct connection with anything in nature, but only with that

ese and Japanese is understood, our senses of harmony are found to be wonderfully in agreement. Despite the fact that their art has developed on lines widely differen

at primitive emotions common to all men. The religious group, the deep awe and reverence men feel when contemplating the great mystery of the Universe and their own littleness in the face of its vastness-the desire to correspond and develop relationship with the something outside

se deeper motives but with the things of sense through which the

Great pictures have been made of beautiful people in beautiful clothes and of squalid people in ugly clothes, of beautiful arch

consciousness of some correspondence with something the other side of visible things and dimly felt through them, a "still, small voice" which he is impel

truth, tr

limits of the commonplace, and to whom a cabbage is but a vulgar vegetable, are surprised if they see a beautiful picture painted of one, and say that the artist has idealised it, meaning that he has consciously altered i

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A VINCI FROM THE ROYA

photo, B

men

n of the invisible by

is this that gives to art its hi

in corresponding with some infinite source without. Like a mariner's compass, we are restless until we find repose in this one direction. In moments of beauty (for beauty is, strictly speaking, a state of mind rather than an attribute of certain objects, although certain things have the power of in

By finding and emphasising in his work those elements in visual appearances that express th

than form and colour of themselves are capable of arousing. And these things must be felt by the painter, and his picture painted under the influence of these feelings, if he is instinctively to select those elements of form and colour that convey them. Such deeper fe

more on the aesthetic side, in the feelings directly concerned with form and colour; or on the side of the mental associations connected with appearances, according to his temperament. But neither position can neglect the other without fatal loss. The picture of form and colour will never be able to escape the associations connected with visual things, neither will the picture all for subject be able to get away from its form and colour. And it is wrong to say "If he paints the mountain faithfully from the form and colour point of view it will suggest all those other associations to those who want t

are to be conveyed. If he cannot paint the commonplace aspect of our mountain, how can he expect to paint any expression of the deeper things in it? The fact is, both positions are incomplete. In all good art the matter expressed and the manner of its expression are so intimate as to have become one. The deeper associations connected with the m

t be ordered, rhythmic, or whatever word most fitly conveys the idea of those powers, conscious or unconscious, that select and arrange the sensuous material of art, so as to make the most telling impression, by bringing it into relation with our innate sense of harmony. If we can find a rough definition that will include all the arts, it will he

ndividuality the secret of which everyone carries in himself; the expression of that ego that perceives and is

ists behind consciousness and is the animating factor of our whole being, that it will hardly serve a useful purpose. So that, perhaps, for a rough, practical definition that will at least point away from the mechanical performances that so often pass for art, "the Rhythmic expression of Feeling" will do: for by Rhythm is meant that ordering of the materials of art (form and colour, in the case of painting) so as to bring them

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FOR

alk on to

tist, although he may be moved by life and feeling. But let this shouting be done on some ordered plan, to a rhythm expressive of joy and delight, a

pon his hearers and convey to them something of the feelings that are stirring in him, if he merely does this, he is not an artist, although the recital of such a terrible incident may be moving. But the moment he arranges his words so as to convey in a telling manner not

to consider his work with some feeling, and arranges the relative sizes of his walls and roof so that they answer to some sense he has for beautiful proportion, he has become an artist, and his hut has some architectural pretensions. Now if his hut is of wood, and he paints it

on the wall his idea of what it looked like, a sort of catalogue of its appearance in its details, he is not necessarily an artist. It is

moved by these things, and whether they are good or poor artists will d

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PER IN RED CHALK F

" "music is the type of art." The others are more artistic as they approach its conditions. Poetry, the most musical form of literature,

sentation convincing to reasonable people, no matter how sublime has been his artistic intention, he will probably have landed in the ridiculous. And yet, so great is the power of direction exercised by the emotions on the artist that it is seldom his work fails to convey something, when genuine

nature and of the powers of expression possessed by f

and expression is absolutely necessary if he is

teach people how to feel. All you can do is to surround them with the conditions calculated to stimulate any na

mselves by painting, and, if their intuitive ability is strong enough, it perhaps matters little whether they know or not. But to the larger number who are not so

the point of view from which the following pages are written, and if it also serves to disturb the "copying theor