Brownlow's Knoxville Whig. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1866-1869, 1869-01-13
Drawing and LearnIne to Draw.

learn 10 draw ana every ONO OuShy w i0"A
to draw, for the same reason that every on
ought to learn to write. In Germany every
school, down to the little country neighbor
hood ones, teaches all the children, girls a.
well as boys, this art and in France, too
the same practice of making schools the
means and the place for teaching art exists
to considerable extent. In those coun
tries it has come to be settled thing thai
no artizan-carpenter blacksmith, machin
list, millwright or tailor-is finished work
man, deserving full wages, until he can take
his pencil and sketch a decently good draw
ing of anything which it belongs to his
trade to make and it is to this training and
skill in industrial drawing and design which
has of late years brought the numerous
manufacturers of Germany and France to
such notable pitch of beauty and excel
lence.
The necessity for knowledge and skill in
industrial design is most urgent in our own
country and the lack of it is cruelty felt in
every shop, mill, factory, foundry and ma
chine works from Maine to Texas and from
st. Augustine to Puget Sound. Skilled
craftsmen are in great demand in almost
every town of ten thousand inhabitants
They are wanted to design dwellings and
buildings of all kinds, steam engines and
water wheels, and all sorts of machinery,
| furniture and whatever else belongs to the
cabinet-maker TO fabricate vases, and all
the other countless objects of the potter's
art; patterns for paper-hangings, curtains,
and all else that the upholsterer deals in J;
and finally all the curious and beautiful fig
ures that adorn the fabrics from the myr-
lads of looms which are weaving the mil
lions of yards of cottons, worsted, woolens,
linens and silks. The profession of indus
| trial design, in short, is the one most in de-
mand, and at the same time the most non
existent of any in the United States. What
is the result? The principal result is that
our manufactures are very badly lacking
in point of taste and beauty; in those re-
spects falling very far behind those of Ger
many and France. The second is, that so
far as our industrial establishments employ
designers, they are forced to employ for
eigners. Go into the drafting room of any
Of our great works, like the Novelty Works,
the Morgan Iron works, or the Cold Spring
Iron Works, in New York, or the numerous
locomotive building works in New Jersey
and Pennsylvania, and you will see at the
very first glance that nearly every one of
the numerous craftsmen busy there over
model and drawing board, is a German or
some other foreigner.
These various facts we bring forward for
the purpose of calling attention to an I'M
filled demand for kind of professional ex-
ertiOn which is at once delightful to those
who possess the necessary talent to excel in
its exercise. Women, in particular, ought
to take to industrial drawing as a means of
getting an income. But we'll as it is known
that good income can be earned by
skilled designer, there are exceedingly few
who are learning to be designers. Why ?
Mainly because there are but few schools |
and teachers of the art of design in our land, |
and because very few know how to go to |
work in teaching themselves. This now !
brings us to the real point of our discourse.
There ARE methods of self-training, and |
books which teach these methods.
1t is pretty clear that from the very out
set of the beginner, he should draw from
actual objects. Observe, here, we do not
say 'from nature, because that is phrase
used to signify drawing landscapes or fig
ures on a scale of complication clear out of
reach of the learners early efforts. What
we do mean is that he should practice, from
the very first, at delineating simple objects,
like a slate, door, window, box, a ia
bic, &c. The reasons for making this object
drawing principal part of the earliest
work we have not room for here 1t is
enough to say that there ARE reasons, and
valid ones, for the plan. The best hand
book of this method that has yet come I'M
der our notice is the little one called DrdaC-
ing from Objects, prepared by Professor John
of the State Normal School of
Michigan, and published by Ivison, Phin-
ney q Co, of New York. Professor Good
son has used the method with excellent sue
cess in the training of his large classes at
Ypsalanti. and no one can calculate the val
lie Of the results Of putting teachers pos
3essed Of this training into the free schools
Of the Peninsula State He begins by hang
ng up before his class q slate, making them
observe it infinitely and accurately as to the
relative lengths Of the sides and the char
Gcter of the four corners or angles for there
IAN be no drawing without accurate observ-
ng. The pupil then draws the outline of
he slate, making the proportions of the
ddes as correct as he can. These lines are
hen carefully criticised by the learner him
'elf, by the other members of the class, and
inally by the master. This training of the !
we and the hand goes on jointly from the
irst exercise. Having in the first lesson !
gained from the actual object the idea of a I
traight line and of right angle, the pupil ,
low is made to draw great number of ,
light lines and right angles, as practice. !
Observe that in this first lesson the slate 3
las been hung by the middle of its short !
ide, thereby making the lines all either
7ertical or horizontal. Next, hang the slate
" one corner-the angles, of course, remain {
light angles, bat the lines are now inclined 8
rom the vertical and horizontal Draw I.
he outline in this position, making the !
anne careful observation beforehand, as in I