[Illustration: FIG. 3.]
18. When you can manage to tint and gradate tenderly with the pencil
point, get a good large alphabet, and try to _tint_ the letters into
shape with the pencil point. Do not outline them first, but measure
their height and extreme breadth with the compasses, as _a b_, _a c_,
Fig. 3, and then scratch in their shapes gradually; the letter A,
inclosed within the lines, being in what Turner would have called a
"state of forwardness." Then, when you are satisfied with the shape of
the letter, draw pen-and-ink lines firmly round the tint, as at _d_, and
remove any touches outside the limit, first with the india-rubber, and
then with the penknife, so that all may look clear and right. If you rub
out any of the pencil inside the outline of the letter, retouch it,
closing it up to the inked line. The straight lines of the outline are
all to be ruled,[5] but the curved lines are to be drawn by the eye and
hand; and you will soon find what good practice there is in getting the
curved letters, such as Bs, Cs, etc., to stand quite straight, and come
into accurate form.
19. All these exercises are very irksome, and they are not to be
persisted in alone; neither is it necessary to acquire perfect power in
any of them. An entire master of the pencil or brush ought, indeed, to
be able to draw any form at once, as Giotto his circle; but such skill
as this is only to be expected of the consummate master, having pencil
in hand all his life, and all day long,--hence the force of Giotto's
proof of his skill; and it is quite possible to draw very beautifully,
without attaining even an approximation to such a power; the main point
being, not that every line should be precisely what we intend or wish,
but that the line which we intended or wished to draw should be right.
If we always see rightly and mean rightly, we shall get on, though the
hand may stagger a little; but if we mean wrongly, or mean nothing, it
does not matter how firm the hand is. Do not therefore torment yourself
because you cannot do as well as you would like; but work patiently,
sure that every square and letter will give you a certain increase of
power; and as soon as you can draw your letters pretty well, here is a
more amusing exercise for you.