The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1906-02-09

Inc aDllAtY5 10 Reproduce an object or
copy with accuracy. These. qualities
can be expressed by anyone who can
ear to form the letters of the. alpha
bet. They are the same qualities that
govern all expressions in poetry. music
or paintiag-simplicity Tor clearness Of
ln~tention), proportion Tor the relation
in size of one object or mass to all
other object or mass), balance (or 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. It 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 agreeable expression. 1t may
be brought to a 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 W way, and then show
MIN 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 81 NJ
boil employed by another is nearer the
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
t~raining-: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 a hillside, giving
such geometric forms as the symbols
or shapes shown in Cut l. They must
be so simple that anyone can draw
them.
Tell 1t the arrangement must be it's
own-therein is it's individuality. Tell
it that the size of the objects may De
varied-this c%ultivates it's invention and
application of form. Tell it to lay OUT
the pa~rallelogram or box it's picture is
to occupy, and to keep to the space: il
this way proportions are better acquired
and criticised.
Results will range from the first 10
the last of the examples shown in Cut 2.
1t is apparent that while in each exam
pie the material symbols are the same.
II combination requiring no more
knowledge of drawing than the other.
the results are better where proportion
II arrangement have been considered.
1t was not a question Of drawing. it was
a question of taste in the use of materi-
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. ;
II 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-
ted and sometimes complex, they are
most OF them capable of being represent
ed by very simple geometric figures.
Objects Round or Square.
10 see how many things are roun!
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
or squares in themselves might not con-
vey any idea whatever. but their relation
in conjunction with other forms may
be perfectly ineligible. An isolated
circle might be noon. orange or soup
plate, but a group of circles. with a
slight indentation in each beside a hall
circle OF much larger dimensions, would
lie easily recognized as some APPLES be-
side a bowl.
In the illustrations trees and other
objects are drawn to show how a sim;-
lar, study of familiar things may be
made. The accented and the unaccenf-
ed form is given, as we'll as a 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 no 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
1ngsits own combination makes it's own