The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1906-02-09
OF draw, and by drawing is mean,

bet. They are the same quantities that
govern all expressions in poetry, music
or painting-simplicity Cor clearness Of
intendon), proportion Tor the relation
in size of one object or mass to an
other object or mass), balance Tor the
relation in placement of an object or
mass to another object or mass), and
such other qualities in beauty of ex-
preston as the child can be taught by
comparison.
Of this the child knows much by in
stinct that it is taught later by rule and
precept. 1t expresses itself we'll and
clearly as the primitive races did, by
an instinct that makes the drawing of
the Zuni Indian and the child much
alike. They symbolic. That is the
natural method, and in the case of the
child it is capable of all the refinement
that centuries of art development have
given us. 1t is this instructive drawing
that should be bettered and made a
means of agreeGbl expression. 1t may
be brought to perfection where abili-
ty is apparent that makes the tedium
of practice a reasonable pains for the
end to be gained. Let the child draw
the man and tree, or his symbols of
them. in his own way, and then show
him that his man and tree may obey
such laws of beauty of expression that
they defy no canons of art and only
fail in the absence of realistic drawing.
One child will recognize that the SYM
h0l NIL ic ha
truth than his, and will improve upon
his own. The teacher can present a
symbol that will appeal to every child
as much nearer a man than his own ar
rangement-a square with a circle on
top supported by two parallelograms-
that stands for trunk, head and legs
This should be part of the teachers
training-to reduce figures, trees.
houses, fruits and other familiar forms
to characteristic symbols that will ap-
peal to the child in his limited knowl-
edge of expression. Let the most SIM.
plified forms stand for complicated OBJ
jects, and of these make pictures.
Tell the child to draw a house and
some apple trees on hillside, giving
such geometric forms as the symbols
or shapes shown in Cut /. They must
be so simple that anyone can draw
them.
Tell it the arrangement must be it's
own-therein is its individuality. Tell
it that the size of the objects may be
varied-this cultivates its invention and
application of form. Tell it to lay out
the parallelogram or box it's picture is
to occupy, and to keep to the space; in
this way proportions are better acquired
and criticised
Results will range from the first to
the last of the examples shown in Cut 2.
1t is apparent that while in each exam
pie the material symbols are the same,
one combination requiring no more
knowledge of drawing than the other,
the results are better where proportion
and arrangement have been considered.
1t was not question of drawing, it was
question of taste in the use of matefi-
ais.
Now, picture making or compost
ton is only the graceful telling of facts.
and the young savage in art will by
imitation garnish his first bald state
ment of three trees and house and hill
side, when he sees that his facts are none
the less existent, under pleasant pro-
portions and arrangements.
If the teacher or parent will look
around him he will find most objects
made up of combinations of spheres,
cubes cylinders, etc. Often much modi-
fed and sometimes complex, they are
most of them capable of being represent
ed by very simple geometric figures.
Objects Round or Square.
To see how many things are round
one has only to look about him at the
sun, moon, apples. oranges, apple trees,
bushes, the human head and so on. How
many things are nearly square or in
parallelograms, as he sees in houses,
doors, windows, walls, tree trunks, the
draped human figure. etc. Not abso-
lutely round or absolutely a box, but
by the omission of a few accidents of
outline possible of being expressed by
these simple figures. These rounds
VI 0duci CD III IhClnoClfC uOL COu-
vey any idea whatever, but their relation
in conjunction with other forms may
be perfectly ineligible. An isolated
circle might be moon, orange or soup
plate, but group Of circles, with
slight indentation in each beside half
circle of much larger dimensions, would
be easily recognized as some apples be-
side bowl
In the illustrations trees and other
objects are drawn to show how a SINH
lar study of familiar things may be
made. The accented and the unaccent-
ed form is given, as we'll as combina-
ton of the given forms. The forms are
nowhere more difficult to draw than the
letters w. o. r. D. The accents given
are not necessary; they only show how
accidental they are on the main form.
And by the main forms the pictures are
to be made. The child is given the SYM
bols without arrangement, and by draw
ing its own combination makes it's own
picture. 1t is given the circles as thew
are given in illustration No. 3, and told
they are oranges, the half circle and
told it is bowl, the thin parallelogram
and told it is shelf. This is giving
him words or symbols to tell his idea
OF oranges, bowl and shelf. Then he