either the painting must be so thin or the tones so fused together that no brush strokes show, or a dry flat brush must afterwards be drawn lightly across when the painting is done, to destroy the downward brush strokes and substitute others going across, great care being taken to drag only from light to dark, and to wipe the brush carefully after each touch; and also never to go over the same place twice, or the paint will lose vitality.  This is a method much employed by artists who delight in this particular quality.

But when a strong, tough look is desired, such as one sees when a muscle is in violent action, or in the tendon above the wrist or above the heel in the leg, or generally where a bone comes to the surface, in all these cases the brush work should follow down the forms.  It is not necessary and is often inadvisable for the brush work to show at all, in which case these principles will be of little account.  But when in vigorously painted work they do, I think it will generally be found to create the effects named.

Drawing on toned paper with white chalk or Chinese white and black or red chalk is another form of mass drawing.  And for studies it is intended to paint from, this is a quick and excellent manner.  The rapidity with which the facts of an appearance can be noted makes it above all others the method for drapery studies.  The lights are drawn with white, the toned paper being allowed to show through where a darker tone is needed, the white (either chalk or Chinese white) being put on thickly when a bright light is wanted and thinly where a quieter light is needed.  So with the shadows, the chalk is put on heavily in the darks and less heavily in the lighter shadows.  Since the days of the early Italians this has been a favourite method of drawing drapery studies (see illustrations, page 260 [Transcribers Note:  Plate LIV]).

Some artists have shaded their lights with gold and silver paint.  The late Sir Edward Burne-Jones was very fond of this, and drawings with much decorative charm have been done this way.  The principle is the same as in drawing with white chalk, the half tone being given by the paper.

Keep the lights separate from the shadows, let the half tone paper always come as a buffer state between them.  Get as much information into the drawing of your lights and shadows as possible; don’t be satisfied with a smudge effect.  Use the side of your white chalk when you want a mass, or work in parallel lines (hatching) on the principle described in the chapter on line drawing.

X

RHYTHM

The subject of Rhythm in what are called the Fine Arts is so vague, and has received so little attention, that some courage, or perhaps foolhardiness, is needed to attack it.  And in offering the following fragmentary ideas that have been stumbled on in my own limited practice, I want them to be accepted only for what they are worth, as I do not know of any proper authority for them.  But they may serve as a stimulus, and offer some lines on which the student can pursue the subject for himself.