The Washington herald., 1911-08-27

as you laid on your first tint OF course only
covering the part you want TO darken. on
may require to repeat this process a half
dozen times, but the quicker your sky is put
in the better.
You have, of course, fixed your high light,
and if you have accidentally covered it with
charcoal, take it out with the knife at once,
and then soften down the lighter parts oil
your picture, if necessary, with bread. Hay
ing established your lights, the next thing Is
to get in your deepest shadows, so find out
what are the blackest parts OF your subject,
and then with a pointed piece Of charcoal
strike them bodily in, for they win be far
more effective done in this way than by re-
iterated strokes, though they may have to be
gone over more than once perhaps.
Still, if struck in sharply at first, they will
Withstand all subsequent rubbing in; for you
will have to go them, rubbing in your
other shadows first with charcoal, and then
with your hand or fingers, if the space is
too limited, perhaps many times. But having
got in your depths as well as your lights,
then lay any fat tones required, tighten
ing them afterwards with bread where neces-
sary, and deepening those parts that require
deepening with charcoal.
Bread, by the way, deserves paragraph to
itself, for it Is a very important factor in this
. art; as one charcoal artist used to put it,
you must draw with bread as much as with
charcoal"
Manipulate the bread well into little pellets
before using it, pointing them, if you want
with the bread, look upon that as your pen
Gil and the tint Of charcoal you are work
ing upon as your paper, SO that you are now
working with white on black, instead of black
on white.
Your lights, shades and middle tints being
now laid on, we will hope you have from
time to time recalled your fading outline, If
it was inclined to play truant; or perhaps
run away altogether.
You may now begin to draw with the char
coal in the ordinary way, except that you
must keep rubbing in with your fingers as you
draw; or more distant objects, leave the
drawing unde6ned-that is, after drawing a
DISTANT tree, for instance, rub it in and leave
IT, lt Will look misty, as very distant tree
would in Nature; but for nearer tree, draw
it and rub it in again and again, while for
one in the foreground you must draw and
, rub, draw and rub, and then finally pick out
the lights on the leaves with bread and leave
your last finishing touches of charcoal
At first you will regret rubbing--or smudg-
ing, as You will probably call it--your tree
you thought looked SO well; but, as you go
, on. you will see the form of the tree remains
and comes ont more distinctly after each
| process; and meanwhile the charcoal will have
. worked some magical effects for you that you
. would never have thought of yourself, and
could not have accomplished had you tried.
You must treat the whole drawing in this
way.drawing and rubbing in--whether il be
; buildings, trees, water, rocks or sea, thougl,
OF course buildings will require more actual
lines to be left than trees or water. Indeed,
} you can hardly rub in too much. Hard and
, fast lines are vice in charcoal. You must
: make them, but you must soften them down
, afterwards, though in fairgrounds and on the
most accentuated parts of the picture, when
it is nearly finished, you may leave some
bright, brilliant finishing touches in all their
pristine beauty. c.
Do not use white chalk for your lights-it
is vicious habit. And by making your
, drawing to consist in violent contrasts oI
black and white, you viii make it common
place. The artistic value and beauty Of char.
: coal drawing, as we said before, consists in
, its various almost infinite, gradations Of
value.
: The last process is to set the drawing, which
r is done as follows.
! Take it off the drawing board and get two
! persons to hold it at each of the corners fol
you; then, with a good-sized camel g. hair
. brush wash the back Of it well over with
I one OF the fixtures mentioned and pin it tc
some piece of furniture to dry
2 II properly set, it will now stand az well
as an ordinary chalk drawing. II can be
: used very effectively for panels to doors O,
wainscoting, and will last for years; or fol
!, folding screens; and for sketching from Ma
T ture 1t Is most useful, as it can be done &C
Z quickly and requires SO much less parapher
: nala than oil or water-colors
q but those who are not sufficiently advanced
E to sketch from Nature, need be at no loss fol
supJects TO copy, as engrayings, especially
! wood engravlngs, are easily obtained, and car
be copied with ease in charcoal.
). We strongly advise our readers, however
. as soon as they have mastered the art oi
drawing ITSELF to try sketching from Natur,
E in charcoal, and We are sure, with attention
\ to the above instructions, they win succeed
beyond even their own expectations
= 1t Is a modern French art, and no one ha.
n contributed much to its development a,
! Maxine Lalanne, with whose name il was 70,
q many years inseparable. In the beginning
r of HIS career this artist was divided betweef
8 historic painting and landscape, but having
! decided on landscape as his forte he adoptec
a charcoal as the means of representing it: and
h he it is who has brought the art to that pitcl
. of perfection which, as his DRAWINGS testify