DRAWING SIMPLY EXPLAINED
Free-hand Drawing
A picture made by the hand and eye and without the aid of a rule and
compass is called _free-hand drawing_.
To be able to do free-hand drawing is one of the nicest accomplishments
you can have for then you can sketch the things you see and want to
remember; and, further, sketches made with a pencil or pen and ink are,
to my way of thinking, just as interesting as photographs provided they
are well done.
=Talent versus Practice.=--Some fellows have a natural bent for
sketching and are what you might call born artists, while others seem
to be entirely minus this talent and the only way they can ever learn
to sketch is by following certain rules and then practicing.
Now the chances are you have a little talent but whether you have or
not if you will follow the simple instructions I have written down in
this chapter you will be surprised to find what really clever pictures
you can draw.
=Pictures for You to Draw.=--There are two kinds of free-hand sketches
for you to do and these are (1) of _life models_ and (2) of _still
life_, that is, fruit, flowers, furniture and inanimate objects of all
kinds.
I shall tell you first how to make simple drawings of living figures
including man and beast and by beginning where your savage ancestor
left off you will be able to at least represent anything your fancy
dictates.
=Simple Line Sketches.=--As you will see by looking at A and B in
Fig. 42, the sketches of the man and horse consist of merely straight
lines but you will also observe that A looks like a boxer because the
_action_ is there.
[Illustration: FIG. 42. A SIMPLE LINE DRAWING OF A MAN AND A HORSE]
This is because when I sketched it I was careful to note the exact
position of the boxer’s head, arms, legs and body as they appeared
at that given moment. The keynote in sketching a figure in action is
always to draw it, not as you wish or believe it to look but as it
actually is.
The line sketches A and B only look as like a man landing a right,
and a horse coming down the home stretch as they do because (a) all
the lines are properly _proportioned_, that is, of the right length
when compared with each other, and (b) they are set in the correct
positions. The way to become a good judge of proportion is always to
notice the _relative_ sizes of the things you draw.
=Sketching Simple Outline Figures.=--When you can sketch straight line
figures to show men and animals in action you can then draw outlines
around them and so make them much more realistic as shown at A and B in
Fig. 43.
[Illustration: FIG. 43. SIMPLE OUTLINE DRAWING OF A BOXER AND A RACE
HORSE]
To do this draw a straight line sketch first and then draw the outline
around it, when you can rub out the straight lines if you want to.
In these outline sketches you will see that only the lines that are
actually needed to give the picture the _contour_, that is, the shape
of the figure, or body, are used.
=The Proportions of the Human Figure.=--If you will remember when you
are drawing a picture of the human form that the whole figure from neck
to toe should be 7 times as long as the head; that the body proper, or
_torso_ as it is called, is 4 times as long as the head; that the arms
are as long as the body, and that the legs should be 4 times the length
of the head measured to the inside of the crotch, as you will see if
you will look at A in Fig. 44, you will have it in proportion.
[Illustration: FIG. 44A. THE PROPORTIONS OF THE HUMAN BODY]
=How to Draw Faces.=--You can easily draw fairly natural looking faces
if you will rule off a number of squares on a sheet of paper as shown
at B and C in Fig. 44.
The full view of the head of a human being is shaped like an egg
standing on its small end, and the _profile_ (pronounced pro´-feel)
view, that is the side view of the head, is more nearly square; if in
the latter case the square is divided into two triangles, the face will
be found to nearly fill one of them and the hair the other.
[Illustration: FIG. 44B. A FULL VIEW OF THE FACE]
Both of these figures show the right sizes to make the eyes, ears,
nose and mouth, that the eyes are on a line with the _helix_, or upper
border of the ears and that the top of the nose is on a line with the
_lobe_, or lower edge of the ear. It is mighty good practice to sketch
the faces of your friends in this fashion.
=Sketching Still Life Objects.=--It is always more or less hard to
sketch inanimate objects with anything like a true portrayal of them
from memory but it is quite easy to do so if you have the object itself
set up before you to pattern after and then draw it as you see it.
[Illustration: FIG. 44C. A PROFILE VIEW OF THE FACE]
If you can do a creditable drawing in this manner with your eye and
hand alone it is art, but if you use a rule or a pair of dividers
to measure off the proportions and then mark them on your paper, it
degenerates into a purely mechanical process; but you can take your
choice and do it whichever way you want to.
=Drawing in Perspective.=--The first thing to know about drawing in
perspective is what _perspective_ means. To do a drawing of an object
or a view on a sheet of paper as it appears to the eye you must draw it
in perspective.
As an illustration, when you look down a railroad track you will see
that the rails look very far apart at your feet, but in the distance
they seem to come to a point and then vanish; this is quite natural for
nearby objects always look larger than when they are at a distance.
So too, when you look at the top of a box the edge _a_ will seem
longer than the edge _b_, which is farther away from the eye, and the
lines _c_ and _d_ which form the other edges would meet if they were
projected as shown by the dotted lines at A in Fig. 45, and the same
thing is true for the front and the side of the box.
[Illustration: FIG. 45A. THE VANISHING POINTS OF A PERSPECTIVE DRAWING]
_The Vanishing Point._--So when you draw a box or any other object in
perspective the lines will meet if you draw them out far enough and
then vanish, and hence this is called the _vanishing point_.
To find the vanishing point of the surface of an object, such as the
top of a box, hold a pencil out in front of yourself at arm’s length
and shut one eye, as shown at B; then tilt the pencil until it follows
the side line that you are going to draw; now open your eye and you
will see that the line of the box that seemed at first to be straight
is really slanting.
Draw a line on your paper at this slant, or _angle_ as it is called,
and do the same with the other line and draw it, when the two lines
will meet and this is the vanishing point. You can draw in now the
front and back lines of the top.
[Illustration: FIG. 45B. HOW TO FIND THE VANISHING POINT]
Houses and all other objects should be drawn with vanishing points if
they are to conform to the first principles of art, but for certain
kinds of mechanical drawing art is sacrificed for the sake of showing
the sizes of the object and an abnormal picture results which is called
an _isometric perspective_.
But houses and all other large objects should be drawn with vanishing
points or they will not look real. A barn drawn in this way is shown at
C, and you will see that the roof looks perfectly natural since the
lines forming it run to vanishing points.
[Illustration: FIG. 45C. THE VANISHING POINTS PUT TO USE]
=How to Shade a Drawing.=--When you do a drawing from an object you
will see that the light falling on certain parts of it seems white, or
_high lights_, as they are called, and on other parts where it does not
fall it is dark.
To shade your drawing so that it will show the lights and shadows
exactly as the object does, you should study the latter, and put the
_shading_, as it is called, on the former just as nearly like it as
you can. But in shading a drawing there must be no sharp lines to show
where the light leaves off and the shadow begins, but you must make
them merge gradually one into the other, as shown at A in Fig. 45.
Working Drawings
And now we come to drawings of another kind and these are not intended
to please the eye but to work from, hence they are called _working
drawings_.
When most boys, and many men, want to make anything of wood or metal
they get busy with their tools forthwith and whack it out willy-nilly
and of course a punk job results.
Now the right way to make an article--unless you are going to crochet a
sweater--is to (1) see it in your mind’s eye, (2) then draw it out on
paper to _scale_, and (3) build it up from the _plan_ as the picture
is called. By working this way you will be able to figure out just how
much material you will need for it; see exactly how the various parts
fit together, and know that it will look just right when it is done.
=Drawing Tools You Should Have.=--Drawing instruments, or _drawing
tools_ as they are commonly called, consist for the most part of (1)
one or more pairs of _dividers_; (2) one or more pairs of _compasses_
with pen and pencil points, and (3) one or more _ruling pens_. One of
each of the above tools will be enough for you to begin with. A cheap
set is shown in Fig. 46.
[Illustration: FIG. 46. THE DRAWING TOOLS YOU NEED]
Then you will need (4) a rule, or _scale_ as it is called; (5)
a _protractor_; (6) a T _square_ 20 inches long; (7) a 30 degree
_triangle_ 5 inches long; (8) some _drawing paper_[36] not less than 10
× 12 inches; (9) a couple of medium hard (HHH) lead pencils,[37] (10)
a good _rubber eraser_;[38] (11) a bottle of Higgins’ _India ink_,[39]
(12) a few _thumb tacks_, and (13) a _drawing board_ about 12 × 17
inches. And now let’s see what these tools and other things are for and
how they are used.
[36] Get a 2-ply bristol board with a medium or smooth surface.
[37] _Koh-i-noor_ or _Venus_ pencils are good ones.
[38] Get Faber’s red rubber _Van Dyke_.
[39] This is a prepared India ink but you can make your own by
rubbing up _stick India ink_ with water.
A pair of dividers is a tool having hinged legs, the free ends of which
are pointed; they are used to take, mark off and subdivide distances.
The compasses are made like the dividers, but one end has a needle
point and the other is hollow so that either a pencil or a drawing pen
point can be slipped into it; this tool is used to draw curves and
circles, either with a pencil or in ink.
A ruling pen is formed of two bowed steel blades having a screw
adjustment so that they can be forced together or drawn apart and
so make lines of varying widths. Not only is a ruling pen different
from a writing pen but the ink that is used with it is thicker than
an ordinary writing ink. This pen is used to make straight lines by
running it along the edge of a rule or T square.
A protractor is a semi-circle of brass or of German silver and it is
divided into 180 _degrees_--since it is half of a circle and there are
360 degrees in a circle. You can buy one for a quarter.
By placing the edge of your rule in the center of the straight edge of
the protractor and laying it on any one of the lines--they are numbered
from 0 to 180--you will find the number of degrees the edge of the rule
is from the horizontal.
[Illustration: FIG. 47. THE T SQUARE AND TRIANGLE ON THE DRAWING BOARD]
The T square is laid with the _head_, that is the short thick piece,
against the left hand edge of the drawing board which brings the
_blade_, that is the long thin piece flat on and across the board. The
triangle is placed against the straight edge. The triangle is laid on
the board with one of its edges against the blade of the T square as
shown in Fig. 47.
=Simple Working Drawings.=--There are two kinds of working drawings
that will be of use to you and these are, (1) _plan drawings_, and (2)
_isometric_ (pronounced i-so-met´-ric) _drawings_ and you will find
both of these quite easy to do.
_Making Plan Drawings._--Suppose now you want to draw the plans of a
box which, let’s imagine, is to be 5 inches high, 6 inches wide and 8
inches long. The first thing to do is to draw out a view of the bottom,
which also serves as the top since they are alike, and you will have a
rectangle like that shown at A in Fig. 48, and mark the dimensions on
it, that is, the _width_ and the _length_ of the box. This you do by
running a couple of arrows in each direction and marking in the size.
[Illustration: FIG. 48A. THE PLAN DRAWINGS FOR A BOX]
Next draw one of the sides as shown at B and this will give you the
_height_ and the _length_ of the box and mark in the sizes, that is 5
and 8 inches accordingly. Finally draw the end and you will have the
_height_ and _width_ of the box as shown at C and again you mark in the
dimensions.
It is easy to see now that if you have all three dimensions, namely
_length_, _breadth_ and _thickness_, and that if you make a box in wood
or metal it will look like the picture shown at D which is in isometric
perspective.
[Illustration: FIG. 48D. THE BOX DRAWN IN ISOMETRIC PERSPECTIVE]
_Isometric Perspective Drawings._--The kind of perspective drawings I
told you how to do under the caption of _Drawing in Perspective_ is
true perspective but engineers do drawings which they call _isometric
perspective_, that is, while the object seems to stand out in relief
there are no vanishing points.
This kind of perspective is purely mechanical and not in the least
artistic but it is a great aid when you intend to make anything, for
you can still draw the lines to scale and see exactly how the finished
object will look.
To make a drawing of this kind draw a line on a sheet of paper near
the bottom and two 30 degree lines from the ends and a vertical line
through them where they meet as shown at A in Fig. 49.
Now there are four ways by which you can get the 30 degree lines on
paper and these are (1) to buy _isometric ruled paper_, that is paper
on which the lines are already ruled; you can buy this paper for 15
cents a quire of any dealer in drawing materials or of Keuffel and
Esser, 127 Fulton Street, New York City. This is the easiest and best
way.
[Illustration: FIG. 49A. HOW THE LINES FOR ISOMETRIC DRAWINGS ARE MADE]
(2) Take a sheet of white paper exactly 5¹⁄₈ inches wide and 10 inches
long and draw two diagonal lines from corner to corner so that they
will cross each other, then draw a vertical line through the middle and
a horizontal line near the bottom. The diagonal and horizontal lines
will be 30 degrees apart.
(3) By laying a 30 degree triangle on your T square and drawing a line
along the 30 degree side of it as shown in Fig. 47; and (4) by laying
off 30 degree lines with a protractor.
To do this tack a sheet of paper on your drawing board and draw a
horizontal line near the bottom of the paper with your T square; put
your protractor on the horizontal line near one end, lay the edge of
the rule on the center of the protractor and exactly on the 30 degree
scale mark and then draw a line.
[Illustration: FIG. 49B. A SHEET OF ISOMETRIC DRAWING PAPER]
Slide the protractor on the opposite side of the board, draw another
30 degree diagonal line so that it will cross the first one and draw a
vertical line down through the middle of the paper.
Having, now, your sheet of isometric ruled paper you are ready to do
the drawing. Whatever the picture is to be, all you need to do is to
follow the 30 degree lines and the vertical lines and you simply can’t
help getting it in perspective.
In drawing isometric perspective circles, such as wheels, disks and
the like, they are always shown as _ellipses_, that is, closed oblong
curves. To draw an _isometric ellipse_,[40] make it in the proportion
of ⁵⁄₈ to 1, that is, if it is ⁵⁄₈ inch wide, as we will call its
_minor axis_, then make it 1 inch long, as we will call its _major
axis_, as shown at C in Fig. 49, and you will have one that is near
enough the right shape for your purpose; thus if you want to show a
tube or a pipe, draw it as pictured at C. Now with these few principles
well in mind you can make a working drawing of nearly anything you
please.
[40] A more complete description of isometric ellipses will be found
in _Inventing for Boys_ by the present author and published by
Frederick A. Stokes Co., of New York.
[Illustration: FIG. 49C. THE PROPORTIONS OF AN ISOMETRIC ELLIPSE]
Some Simple Aids to Drawing
=How to Draw a Circle.=--Should you ever want to draw a circle and have
no compasses at hand or should you want to draw a larger circle than
you can with your compasses tie a bit of strong thread to a pin, make a
loop in the string at whatever length you want the _radius_--that is
half of the diameter of the circle--to be.
This done, drive the pin in at the point where you want the center of
the circle, put the point of a lead pencil in the loop and move it
around the pin, as shown at A in Fig. 50, keeping the thread taut and a
perfect circle, nearly, will result.
[Illustration: FIG. 50A. HOW TO DRAW A CIRCLE WITH A THREAD]
=How to Draw a Spiral.=--Make a loop in one end of a thread as before
and tie the other end tightly to a large pin; wind the thread around
the pin until all of it is on except the loop; push the pin through the
paper on which you want to draw the spiral and into the drawing board
as shown at B.
Next put the point of the pencil in the loop and move it around the pin
just as you did in making the circle and you will find that you have
drawn a very pretty geometrical spiral which is known as the _spiral
of Archimedes_. It is so called because Archimedes was the first to
explain that it was caused by a point moving with uniform angular speed
and receding from the center at a constant rate.
[Illustration: FIG. 50B. HOW TO DRAW A SPIRAL WITH A THREAD]
=How to Draw an Ellipse.=--An ellipse can be drawn in the same way as a
circle, that is, by means of a string; but instead of one pin you will
need two and each pin is driven in at the _foci_ of the ellipse you are
to draw as shown at C. Simply make a loop of the string, slip it over
the pins, put the pencil point in the loop and move it around the pins
when an ellipse will be formed.
=How to Make and Use a Pantagraph.=--A pantagraph is a simple
mechanical linkage for enlarging, copying or reducing the size of a
picture. It is shown in Fig. 51.
To make one of these instruments get four strips of wood about ¹⁄₈ inch
thick, ¹⁄₂ an inch wide, and 18 or 20 inches long. Now drill ¹⁄₁₆ inch
holes ¹⁄₄ inch apart in each stick the whole length of it. In the ends
of three of the sticks make a hole the size of a lead pencil.
[Illustration: FIG. 50C. HOW TO DRAW AN ELLIPSE WITH A THREAD]
[Illustration: FIG. 51. HOW A PANTAGRAPH IS MADE AND USED]
Make two tin tubes each ¹⁄₂ an inch long and fit them into the holes
in the ends of the sticks and push a bit of pencil through each tube;
screw a block of wood ¹⁄₂ an inch thick to your drawing board and
screw one end of another stick to the block and the sticks together
with screw eyes.
Now tack a sheet of paper under the pencil in the free end of the stick
and a picture under the pencil in the jointed ends of the sticks, then
trace the picture with the latter, and the other pencil will make an
enlargement of the picture. By changing the position of the sticks a
picture can be copied or reduced in the same way. A pantagraph can be
bought for as little as 25 cents or for as much as $125.00.[41]
[41] A pantagraph can be bought of any dealer in art supplies or
drawing materials.
[Illustration: FIG. 52. HOW A REFLECTING DRAWING BOARD IS MADE AND USED]
=How to Make a Reflecting Drawing Board.=--This is a very simple and
easily made optical apparatus for copying pictures and making drawings
of flat objects. Get a smooth board, or your drawing board will do;
make a wood frame and fit an 8 × 10 sheet of clear glass in it and
screw the frame to the middle of the board as shown in Fig. 52.
Now all you have to do is to lay a picture or a flat object, such as
a leaf or a butterfly, on one side of the glass and a sheet of paper
on the other side and look into the glass at a sharp slant, or _acute
angle_ would be the better term, and you will see the picture projected
plainly on the paper so that you can easily draw it in with a pencil.
=How to Make Tracings.=--A very easy and effective way to copy any
picture already drawn, or even a photograph, _in line_, is to use
_tracing paper_.
This kind of paper, which you can buy of any dealer in drawing
materials, is quite transparent and very tough. To make a tracing
lay the drawing you want to copy on your drawing board, then lay the
tracing paper on top of it, rough side up, and push a thumb tack into
each corner to hold them together.
Now trace the outline of the picture with a pencil and then draw in the
lines with _India ink_. If the paper does not take the ink readily rub
the surface of it with a little powdered chalk on a soft rag. You can
make as many duplicate copies as you want by using a _printing frame_
and _blue paper_ according to the directions given in the next chapter.
=To Make Lasting Impressions.=--Here is an easy way to make lasting
impressions of your own and your friends’ finger prints and hands.
Take a sheet of heavy glazed white paper, say 5 × 7 inches, and hold
it over a kerosene lamp with the chimney removed and the top of the
burner thrown back so that the flame will smoke like a locomotive. Keep
moving the paper about to make the soot, which is simply particles
of nearly pure carbon, cover the surface of the paper as evenly as
possible.
[Illustration: FIG. 53. A LASTING CARBON (SOOT) IMPRESSION OF YOUR
HAND]
Lay the smoked paper on a table and then press the palm of your hand
flat down on it; you must be careful not to press your fingers down too
hard or the sharpness of the fine lines will be destroyed. To get a
clear impression of the lines in the hollow of your hand press down on
the back of it with the fingers of your other hand.
After you have made the _print_, as the impression is called, pour on
some _flint varnish_, which is the kind that photographers use to cover
the films of glass negatives. You can buy it at any photo supply house.
Pour a teaspoonful on one corner of the paper and let it flow down and
across until the whole surface is evenly covered. As this is a genuine
carbon process the prints cannot fade and they will last as long as the
paper lasts. A print of this kind made by the author 18 years ago is
shown in Fig. 53.
=The Ancient and Honored Art of Cutting Silhouettes.=--Since you are of
the younger generation let me tell you just what a _silhouette_ is, and
why.
It is a profile, or side view, of the head of a person cut out of black
paper and mounted on a white card, or else cut out of white paper with
a piece of black silk back of it so that it looks like a shadow in
miniature of the sitter.
It was so called after M. de Silhouette, a French Minister of Finance
in 1759; his rigid economy in the conduct of his office caused his name
to be tacked on to everything cheap and as photography had not yet
been discovered and painted portraits were costly, the paper outlines
filled in with black were the cheapest substitute known and hence the
name.
But as the years rolled by silhouettes became a dignified and honored
art and so when our great grandfather and grandmother wanted to have
their pictures made--not taken--they went to a shears and paste artist
who cut out their silhouettes.
[Illustration: FIG. 54. SILHOUETTES OF YOUR GREAT-GRAND-PA AND
GREAT-GRAND-MA (WHEN THEY WERE YOUNG)]
While the art of cutting silhouettes is all but a lost one because
photography is so easy and shows all the details, still you can make
them with some black glazed paper and a pair of sharp shears with a
little practice.
Take a sheet of black glazed paper[42] about 2 inches wide and 3 inches
long and seat your sitter with the side of his or her face turned
toward you. Now with a pair of sharp shears begin to cut the paper,
starting at the chin and going on up the face to the hair, then around
to the back of the head and finally cutting out the collar and bust.
[42] Glazed paper can be bought at stationery stores or you can get
it from Dennison Mfg. Co., 5th Ave. and 26th St., N. Y. C.
All the time you are cutting you must keep your artistic eye on the
profile of your sitter and your mechanical eye on your shears and paper
and you will be truly surprised to find how little knack it takes to
get a reasonably faithful likeness. A pair of silhouettes are shown in
Fig. 54.
=Transfer Pictures, or Decalcomania.=--Of course you know what transfer
pictures are. There are very few boys indeed who have not bought and
used little 5 cent packages of jim-crow transfer pictures and you will
remember that usually only about half of the picture transferred came
off. But this was because they were made for fun and not for real work.
Now transfer pictures, or _decalcomania_ (pronounced
de-cal´-co-ma´-ni-a) or _decalcomanie_ as the French call it, from
the Latin _de_ which means down, plus _calquer_, which is Latin for
trace, plus _mania_ which is Greek for madness, are used by hundreds
of thousands by painters and decorators in every line of work. These
pictures are made with skill and care and when used properly will not
break or come off.
These transfer pictures can be bought in 10,000 different subjects
and cost from 1¹⁄₂ cents to a couple of dollars each. The pictures
include every subject imaginable from simple little flowers to birds
with wonderful plumage and from cupids in groups to world’s fair
buildings; then there are letters and monograms and beautiful crests
and coats-of-arms in gold and brilliant colors.
When you get ready to do decalcomanie write to Palm, Fechteler and
Company, 67 Fifth Avenue, New York, or to their western branch at 54
West Lake Street, Chicago, Ills., for a price-list and this will give
you a description, the height and length of each picture, the number of
pictures on a sheet and the price per sheet.
_How to Transfer the Pictures._--The regular pictures can be
transferred to wood, metal, painted surfaces, etc., but instead of
soaking them in water alone as you used to with the toy pictures you
give the face of them a very thin coat of a good, quick drying, rubbing
varnish which you can get at a paint store, or better, use a transfer
varnish which you can buy of the above company for 35 cents for a ¹⁄₂
pint can.
After you have applied the varnish to the face of the picture let it
dry until it is very _tacky_; now put the face of the transfer down on
the surface, wet it with water on a sponge and roll it down hard with a
felt roller.
In a couple of minutes wet the paper again thoroughly with water and
peel it off; roll it down at once with a wet felt roller and tap it off
with a piece of chamois skin. After the design or picture has dried for
20 minutes or so, the varnish around it can be removed by dampening it
with dilute turpentine, ammonia or, better, with a _detergent_ made of
equal parts of turpentine and crude oil and _immediately_ rubbing it
away lightly and quickly with a dry, soft rag.
After the picture has been transferred as above, it should be given one
or more protecting coats of varnish the next day.