I have invariably found that what presents the chief difficulty to the student of pen and ink is the management of the Outline.  When it is realized that, by mere outline, one may express the texture of a coat or a tree or a wall without any rendering whatever, it will be seen that nothing in pen drawing is really of so much importance.  Notice, for example, the wonderful drawing of the dog in Fig. 34.  Again, if a connected line had been used to define the corners of Railton’s buttresses in Fig. 7 all the texture, would have been destroyed.  Instead of this he has used a broken outline, sometimes omitting it altogether for a considerable space.  On the ledges, too, the lines are broken.  In Rico’s drawing, Fig. 11, all the outlines may be observed to have a break here and there.  This broken line is particularly effective in out-door subjects, as it helps to suggest sunlit atmosphere as well as texture.

[Illustration:  FIG. 17 DRAWING FROM A PHOTOGRAPH]

Architectural outlines, however, are not particularly subtle; it is when we come to render anything with vague boundaries, such as foliage or clouds for example, that the chief difficulties are encountered.  Foliage is an important element of landscape drawing and deserves more than passing consideration.  To make a successful rendering of a tree in pen and ink the tree must be first well drawn in pencil.  It is absolutely impossible to obtain such a charming effect of foliage as that shown in Mr. Pennell’s sketch, Fig. 18, without the most painstaking preparation in pencil.  The success of this result is not attributable merely to the difference in textures, nor to the direction or character of the line; it is first of all a matter of good drawing.  The outline should be free and subtle so as to suggest the edges of leafage, and the holes near the edges should be accented, otherwise they will be lost and the tree will look solid and characterless.  Observe, in the same drawing, how Mr. Pennell suggests the structure of the leafage by the irregular outlines which he gives to the different series of lines, and which he emphasizes by bringing the lines to an abrupt stop.  Observe also how the stronger texture of the tree in Fig. 19 is obtained by making the lines with greater abruptness.  Compare both of these Figures with the foreground trees by the same artist in Fig. 20.  The last is a brilliant example of foliage drawing in pen and ink.

[Illustration:  FIG. 18 JOSEPH PENNELL]

[Illustration:  FIG. 19 JOSEPH PENNELL]

[Illustration:  FIG. 20 JOSEPH PENNELL]

[Illustration:  FIG. 21 E. DANTAN]

[Side note:  Textures]