Richmond daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1905-1906, 1906-01-19
ART STUDY AND MANUAL TRAINING

(By Prof. w. S. Hiser.)

effort to render them, come late in
the history of art says Hamerton.
1.-THE complete knowledge of appear
ance is the sign of very late state
of civilization, implying most adj
vanced artistic culture, both in the
artist and the public to whom he adj
dresses himself. -
We can not expect the pupil to do
what the artist could not do half
century ago-namely, distinguish his
visual from his tactual perceptions.
We must be content to let him lag a
little behind the artists Of the time
and begin somewhat farther back,
learning how to represent the shape
Of thigs mechanical drawings) and
not worrying overmuch about their
appearance design and decorative
dra'wing.) A,
That the teaching of what goes to
make for beauty lin color and design
is a good thing, no one will deny, but
because it is a good thing is no rea-
son that it oshould constitute the
drawing course to the exclusion of
the immediate practical needs of the
pupil in his manual training work in
paper and string goods, wood and
iron. If we attempt to force the
student to render appearances, eff
fects, textures and qualities, before
he has got good grasp of structure,
his natural growth is arrested. He
is lost in the complexities of seeming
and has no clue to the mysteries. of
form. His work is blotchy and
vain This is the error that has crept
into the schools.
The individual student must reca-
pitulate the art history of the race
He comes into this technical tradi-
ton of the past, but he must make
it his own in definite order and Sc
quence, it seems to me. In supply
ing the mechanical drawings, artistic
design drawing and the decorative
drawings demanded by the needs in
manual training schools, the art his
tory of the race will be recapitulatad
in sequence indirectly (the most eff
fective wayJ naturally and easily.
The three kinds of drawing de-
manded in manual training are prop
erly correlated as to the amount and
quality of each. Mechanical and de-
sign drawing will predominant here,
as they do in all the products made
by man. Pupils enjoy these kind of
drawings now because they will use
them in making something. 1t was
dry when it was drawing eeometric
forms and solids from the box of
drawing models that were formerly
put in schools with drawing COURSES.
In an art course where the drawing
is made simply for drawing sake,
these two most important kinds OF
drawing are woefully neglected.
The young pupil can make a thing
more easily than he can draw it, This
is the case with many adults. For
this reason much of the early art
work in the school should come to the
pupil in concrete form-by his max
ing things in which the art he is to
experience is involved.
Drawing supervisors and manual
training supervisors must plan their
work together that each line Of work
works directly for the other. The
needs of one must be directly and
promptly supplied by the other.
Whether a drawing viii come out
right, whether a design is fit for the
kind Of material to be used; wheth-
er the artistic or simple decoration
suits the kind of model and its size
can be known only by working it out
in material, not simply making the
drawing on white paper. Manual
training-sewing, cooking, wood
work-furnishes this golden oppor-
tunity.
The teaching of drawing in many
schools stands in the need of sharp
revision. The hazy ideals of many art
teachers need recasting in simple
and concrete form. Our instructors
come to their work affected by the
atmosphere of the studio. They have
often studied with those who have
talked little of children and their
teachings but much of pictures and