spaces. Using two values, paint one in a high key, and the other in a low
key. Make a little scale under each sketch, naming the values you have
used.
[Illustration: GORDON]
[Illustration: LOGAN OR MACLENNAN]
Scotch Plaids.
Long, long years ago, before the days of kings and queens, people lived
together in great families or tribes. In Scotland these tribes were
called clans, and the sign or badge of a clan was shown in the tartan
plaid. This was a heavy piece of woolen cloth worn over the shoulders, as
a protection from the weather. A sort of skirt, called a kilt, was made
from the same plaid, and this costume was worn by both men and women of
the clans in the Highlands of Scotland. The tartans were woven in bright
colors, forming designs like those at the top of this page. They were
often very beautiful in their arrangement of spaces and colors. Each
different design received a name from the clan that wore it. Those at the
top of this page are the Gordon and the Logan or MacLennan tartans.
Copy in colors some good plaid design, that you can find in ginghams, in
silk, or in woolen cloth.
[Illustration]
A Stained Glass Window.
Some stained glass windows are as beautiful to look at as fine paintings.
Their rich colors glow with light, and they show an interesting variety
and arrangement of shapes. They are usually made of colored glass, held
together by lead grooves. These are represented in the design on this
page by the heavy black lines.
You can make with water-colors an effect very much like stained glass.
With pencil, draw an oblong ten inches long and about seven inches wide.
Within this, draw another oblong, for the central piece of glass. The
size of this inner oblong you must determine for yourself. Remember that
its size fixes the width of the border. In the border space, draw some
simple straight line design. Paint the smaller oblong, by wetting its
surface evenly, and dropping in red, yellow, and blue. Let the colors
blend as they will, and use the brush to carry color to the edges of the
oblong. When this is dry, paint the shapes in the border in flat washes
of any two colors. Last of all, paint strong, black lead lines.
[Illustration]
The Stained Glass Window in Values.
The greater part of the illustrations which appear in books and magazines
is done in neutral grays. All sorts of color effects are represented by
grays in these different pictures, and this is done by people who
understand just what neutral value is needed to represent a certain
color, its tints, or its shades. You have often represented flowers,
landscapes, figures, and still life in gray washes, or with pencil or
charcoal. In Chart D you see that certain colors like yellow,
yellow-orange, orange, yellow-green and green are represented in their
full intensity by grays chosen from the upper end of the neutral value
scale, and that the darker colors like red, red-violet, blue,
blue-violet, and violet are represented in their full intensity by the
grays below middle gray.
Compare the colors you used in making your stained glass window design
with Chart D on page 77. Draw the same plan that you used for your
colored design. Cover the smaller oblong with a water wash and drop in
charcoal-gray, in values to suit the light and dark colors in your
stained glass window design. Fill the small oblongs in the border with
flat washes of gray. Try to determine just what grays would represent the
colors you used. Your lead lines should be of even thickness throughout.
Draw them when the rest of the work is thoroughly dry.
[Illustration: A]
[Illustration: B]
[Illustration: C]
[Illustration: D]
[Illustration: E]
[Illustration: F]
Several Ways of Decorating a Square Space.
On pages 69, 70, and 71 you learned how to draw and divide certain
shapes. You saw that by slightly changing the direction of construction
lines, decorative designs could be made. Construction lines are lines
used in drawing and dividing a shape. They may or may not be retained,
after the design is finished. In Sketch A on this page the four sides of
the square and the horizontal diameter may be taken as construction
lines. By following these lines with a narrow pathway and slightly
changing the direction of parts of them, designs can be made in great
variety.
In Sketch B diameters are drawn and in the center is a small square on
its diagonals. Little pathways lead from the sides of the square to the
center, resulting in a four-sided decoration. In Sketch C diagonals are
drawn and pathways sent along them to the center. Sketches D, E, and F
are like A, B, and C, except that curved lines have been used instead of
straight lines.
Draw six four-inch squares. Copy the construction lines and their
modifications as shown in the six sketches on this page. Finish each
design and strengthen the lines which will bring out the decoration.
[Illustration: A]
[Illustration: B]
[Illustration: C]
[Illustration: D]
Decorating an Oblong Shape.
The oblong is a favorite shape for book-covers, envelopes, card-cases,
portfolios, and other articles that can be made in the school-room.
Hundreds of objects about you in school and at home are also based, in
their proportions, on the oblong. Think of the books, boxes, rugs, doors,
and windows, that you constantly see. They are nearly always shaped like
an oblong. You will be interested to know some of the ways in which
decorations for these objects are planned. In a rug or a book-cover, for
instance, we often wish a design similar to that shown in Sketch A. In
planning for this, a smaller oblong was drawn within the larger one. The
lines of the smaller one were used as construction lines, and these were
modified in the same way as were the construction lines of the square on
page 87.
In Sketch D, the diameters of the oblong were drawn and the
semi-diameters bisected. Then these points were connected. In both Sketch
A and Sketch D, all construction lines not used in the design were
erased.
Draw two oblongs not less than eight inches high, and wide enough to make
a panel of pleasing proportions. Plan and draw designs similar to, but
not exactly like, those shown in Sketches A and D.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: A]
[Illustration: B]
[Illustration: C]
[Illustration: D]
[Illustration: E]
How to Use Shapes from Nature in Design.
If all our designs were like those which can be made by following the
construction lines of certain definite shapes, we would very likely grow
tired of seeing so much decoration of that kind. We may get many ideas of
beautiful lines and shapes from a plant or a flower, and we may use these
ideas in making designs, as the drawings on this page and the next will
show.
Look at the sketch of the marsh-marigold, and then at the small drawings
at the right. A is a petal, B is a stamen, C is a side view of the
flower, showing three petals and a stem, D is a leaf, and E a bud and
stem. In these sketches the lines are even, the shapes are regular, and
all "accidents of growth" are omitted. Sometimes the shapes were drawn
larger than their true size, and sometimes the parts were separated, as
in C and E. We need not copy just what we see, but we may modify shapes
or change their size and arrangement to suit the spaces which they are to
fill.
Study a wild flower in this way. See how many design ideas you can get
from one plant.
[Illustration: A]
[Illustration: B]
[Illustration: C]
Shapes from Nature in Borders and Other Decorations.
Nature has suggested some of the most beautiful decorations we have. In
the baptismal font on page 65, the carved decoration was evidently from
the growth of a vine. The vine is not represented exactly as it grew. A
decoration that showed the actual appearance of the plant would not have
been adapted to the space.
In the three oblongs on this page, the marsh-marigold shapes have been
used in three ways. In Sketch A, the petals of the flower were used in a
border design, and the size of the unit, or shape repeated, was carefully
planned. If the petal shapes had been drawn larger, the border would have
been too heavy for the size of the oblong.
In Sketch B, two leaves and an arrangement of petal shapes suggesting the
flower were used, and in Sketch C, the side view of the flower and a part
of the stem form a unit which is used to "spot" the oblong. These spots
are not crowded, but are placed with careful thought as to the best
appearance of the oblong. No matter how beautiful a unit, a border, or a
central group may be in itself, we must think of its effect upon the
object to be decorated.
Draw three oblongs four times the size of those on this page. Decorate
these with a border, a central group, and by spotting. Use the design
ideas you found in the lesson on page 89.
A Simple Design for a Portfolio.
[Illustration]
Good proportion and the right arrangement of light and dark values will
often make an object beautiful, without the addition of ornament. In the
chapter on still life, the objects you studied were not decorated, but
they were well designed in their beauty of proportions, their color, and
their contrast in values.
Many familiar objects such as envelopes, boxes, and book-covers, depend
for beauty on these simple elements. The sketch of the portfolio on this
page is beautiful because it has a fine proportion of parts, and because
the gray values of these parts are harmonious. If the dark band of the
back had been wider or narrower, if the space for the name had been
placed differently, or if the size of the corner-pieces had been changed,
the harmony of parts would have been disturbed, and the portfolio would
not have been beautiful. Or, if the dark gray trimming had been black,
there would have been too great a difference between the values used, and
that again would disturb the harmonious effect of the whole. You can tell
how large to make the parts, where to put them, and what arrangement of
values to use, only by trying several ways, and then selecting the most
beautiful.
This portfolio may be made by pasting tinted paper or book linen over
cardboards. The boards should be covered first with the material chosen
for the outside. Then the corners and back should be added, and a lining
of paper pasted across both boards on the inside. The space for a name on
the outside should be carefully planned. Within this space should be
drawn very carefully, the letters of any name you may wish to place on
the portfolio.
[Illustration]
Color Schemes from Nature.
In the world about you, every object that you see has color. From the
bright colors you can so easily see in flowers, leaves, grasses, and the
sunset sky, to the grayed colors of tree trunks, clouds, the ground, and
buildings, there is the greatest variety and range. Even in the
moonlight, objects though greatly changed in effect, still have color. If
it were not for this, we could not see them. It is only in the darkest
night, when we can see but a few feet ahead of us, that objects seem to
lose their color.
In our houses, too, everything has color--not the bright hues that we
find in flowers and landscapes, but softer, grayed color. We would not
like carpets and wall-paper of the bright color we find in poppies, for
instance. The colors we use in our furnishings should not be glaring and
intense, but quiet and restful. To find these color relations, and to
train the eye to know and enjoy fine color harmonies, we study what
artists have done, in paintings and other works of art. In nature, too,
we find color suggestions in endless variety. In autumn the world is
flooded with rich color. Even the common weed that is shown you on this
page shows a combination of colors that would be safe to use in any work
of our own. See how the colors in the plant have been arranged in a
little scale. Such an arrangement is called a color scheme.
Make a sketch in color from some plant or seedhead. Under the sketch,
arrange in little oblongs the colors you found in the plant.
Using one of Nature's Color Schemes.
[Illustration]
Nature's color schemes become most interesting to us when we use them in
some work of our own. The brush-broom holder on this page shows in its
coloring the scheme found in the plant growth on page 92.
In making a holder of this kind, choose materials that will be strong,
and that will look well together. Pasteboards should be cut in good
proportions, of a size and shape to fit a particular broom. These should
be covered on both sides in the same way that you covered the sides of
your portfolio on page 91. The material for this covering may be stout
paper, linen, plain gingham, or leather, colored to suit one of the
colors in the scheme you have chosen. A simple design may be placed on
the holder in another color chosen from your scheme. Then holes for
lacing are to be punched in the sides. The cord for lacing should
harmonize in quality and color with the rest of your design. The color of
the broom itself may be brought into harmony with the holder by painting
it with water-color, or by dipping it in a mixture of water-color that
matches one of the colors in your scheme. A few Indian beads of bright
color strung on the lacing strings will add greatly to the effect.
A Raffia Basket.
[Illustration]
Many of the baskets made by the American Indians are so beautiful that
they deserve to be classed as works of art. We wonder that a race of
people so savage in their tastes and so wandering in their habits could
have produced articles of so much beauty from the materials they found in
the wilderness of nature. Many of these materials it is impossible for us
to find or to use, but we can make with raffia and rattan, baskets that
are something like those made by the Indians.
The sketch on this page is from a "soft coil" basket, made entirely of
raffia. The amount of raffia used depends entirely on the size of the
basket. Before beginning the basket, make a sketch showing its height,
the width of the top and bottom, the shape of its sides, and a simple
decoration in color. The bottom of the basket is to be made first,
beginning the coil at the center. The coil should measure about a quarter
of an inch in diameter, and is to be made of a number of strands of
raffia, placed with the large ends together, forming a blunt point. Wind
the strands tightly together with a strand of raffia, one end of which is
threaded through a large needle. Work back from the end until you have a
firm coil about half an inch in length. Start the spiral with this end,
doubling it back, and sewing it firmly in place. Wind the raffia strands
with the strand carrying the needle, sewing the coil thus made to the
center. After the first time around, the stitches should be made about a
quarter of an inch apart, and should be fastened through the upper part
of the last coil. Strands of raffia must be added to the coil, to keep it
of uniform size.
When a new needleful is taken, the end of the winding and sewing strand
must be hidden in the coil. The stitch is the same throughout the basket.
The bottom is kept perfectly flat, and the sides shaped to suit the
design. Any decoration in color, such as is shown in the sketch, is wound
in with colored raffia. When finishing the basket, the coil is to be cut,
and the end tapered, wound, and sewed firmly down to the coil below.
[Illustration: A]
[Illustration: B]
[Illustration: C]
A Woven Cushion-Cover.
Raffia is an artistic material which lends itself to many uses. The
covers for the porch-pillow shown in the sketch on this page are woven
with raffia, on a strong loom. The size of the loom determines the size
of the woven cover. The cushion from which this sketch was made measured
eighteen inches square without the fringe, and about two and a half
pounds of raffia were used in the covers, the fringe, and the filling of
the cushion. Sketch C shows the wooden needle used in carrying the
strands of raffia over and under the warp.
Raffia is used both for the warp and the woof of the weaving. In
"stringing" the loom, fourteen to sixteen pieces of raffia should be used
as one strand or thread of the warp, and these strands should be tied
firmly to the ends of the loom. As many of these strands must be used as
can be tied on the loom without crowding. They may touch, but not
overlap. In weaving, the large needle is threaded with raffia to make a
strand equal in size to the strands of the warp, and this strand is woven
under and over the strands of the warp, making the familiar "basket
weave." The ends of the strands used in this way form the fringe, which
is trimmed to the desired length when the weaving is done.
Stripes, plaids, or simple figures may be woven in with colored raffia.
The two sides of the cushion may show different designs.
Color Schemes from Man's Handiwork.
[Illustration]
Leaves, plants, flowers, insects, butterflies, shells, feathers, clouds,
and countless other objects in nature can furnish us with many delightful
color schemes. We can also learn much from the artistic work of people.
In Indian pottery and weaving we often see fine combinations of color.
The Indians understood how to make beautiful dyes from roots, berries,
and other vegetable growths, and the colors obtained in this way have a
peculiar quality and beauty, not found in many of the dyes in common use
today. The picture on this page is from a fine specimen of Sikyatki
pottery. Sikyatki was an Indian village in New Mexico, and was the home
of a tribe of Pueblo Indians.
When the Indians wished to send a written message they made use of
picture-writing; that is, they made pictures so simple that they are
called signs or symbols. Their symbol of a tree, for instance, would look
much like the tree pictures made by very little children; three short
vertical marks sometimes meant three warriors; a zigzag line stood
sometimes for the lightning, sometimes for a serpent; and a wavy line
extending in a horizontal direction was the symbol of a brook, a river,
or the great ocean.
From a good Indian bowl or basket make an exact copy, and place
underneath it the scale of colors found in the object.
Using Color Schemes in Pottery.
[Illustration]
In planning a bowl or vase like the one shown you on this page, a sketch
of the front view should be made showing the diameter of the top and
bottom of the bowl, its height, its shape, the color scheme, and the
decoration. Such a drawing might be called a design for a bowl.
After drawing such a design, the next step is to make the bowl of clay.
For the bowl represented here, a lump of clay was rolled and patted into
a low, roughly shaped cylinder. The thumbs were then thrust into the
middle of the cylinder, and they, together with the fingers, pushed the
clay outward to form the bottom and part of the sides of the bowl. The
sides were finished by adding flat pieces of clay, their edges being
carefully worked until the pieces added seemed a part of the form. The
sides and bottom of the bowl were kept of uniform thickness. Then the
bowl was allowed to stand about a day, or until it became what is called
"leather hard." The border was then painted on with potter's colors, the
lower part of the bowl was colored, and the inside glazed. The bowl was
again allowed to dry, this time very thoroughly. It was then fired in a
potter's kiln.
Make a flower holder of clay. Use the color scheme you found in your
Indian bowl or basket. If possible, fire the bowl in a kiln.
[Illustration: 3
CANDLE STICK]
[Illustration: STOPPER FOR INK WELL]
[Illustration: 4
INK WELL]
[Illustration: 1
JEWEL BOX]
[Illustration: 2
MATCH SAFE]
[Illustration: 5
BUTTON BOX]