Of the Expression of Relief in Line-drawing--Graphic Aim and
Ornamental Aim--Superficial Appearance and Constructive
Reality--Accidents and Essentials--Representation and Suggestion
of Natural Form in Design--The Outward Vision and the Inner
Vision.
I have already said that when we add lines or tints of shadow, local
colour or surface, to an outline drawing, we are seeking to express form
in a more complete way than can be done in outline alone. These added
lines or tints give what we call relief. That is their purpose and
function, whether by that added relief we wish to produce an ornamental
effect or simply to approach nearer to the full relief of nature, for of
course the degrees of relief are many.
[Relief in Line-Drawing]
What may be called the natural principle of relief--that system of light
and shade by which a figure or any solid object is perceived as such by
the eye--consists in each part of the form being thrown into more or
less contrast by appearing as dark on light upon its background, more
especially at its edges. A figure wholly dark, say in black drapery,
appearing against a light ground, might be supposed to be flat if no
cast shadow was seen; the same with the reverse--a light figure upon a
dark ground--except that in this latter case, unless the light was very
level and flat, a certain concentration of light upon the highest parts,
or indicating a modulation of shadow in interstices, might betray its
solidity (see p. 206[f111a]).
[Illustration (f111a): The Two Principles of Contrast in Black and
White.]
But if we place a figure so that the light falls from one side, we
perceive that it at once stands out in bold relief in broad planes of
light and shade, further emphasized by cast shadows (p. 207[f111b]).
[Illustration (f111b): Treatment of the Same Figure in Light and Shade.]
It would be possible to represent or to express a figure or object so
lighted by means of laying in the modulations and planes of shadow only,
or by means of adding the light only on a toned ground. In sketching in
black and white, it is a good plan to accustom oneself to complete as
one goes along, as far as may be, putting in outline and shadow
together; but this needs a power of direct drawing and a correctness of
eye only to be gained by continual practice. A slight preliminary basis
of light lines to indicate the position and proportions, and yet not
strong enough to need rubbing out, is also a good method for those who
do not feel certain enough for the absolutely direct method of drawing.
[Illustration (f112): Expression of Form by Light and Shade: (1) Light
and Shade Without Outline; (2) Light and Shade Enforced by Outline.]
Now in drawing, as I think I have pointed out before, no less than in
all art, there are two main governing principles of working which may be
distinguished.
I. The graphic aim.
II. The ornamental or decorative aim.
[The Graphic Aim]
The graphic aim--the endeavour to represent a form exactly as it
appears--a power always valuable to acquire whatever may be our ultimate
purpose, leaves the draughtsman great freedom in the choice and use
of line, or other means of obtaining relief, local tint, and tone.
In line-work the broad relief of the flat tones of shadow may be
expressed in lines approaching the straight, diagonally sloping from
right to left, or from left to right, as seems most natural to the
action of the hand.
The quality of our lines will depend upon the quality we are seeking to
express. We shall be led to vary them in seeking to express other
characteristics, such as textures and surfaces.
In drawing fur or feathers, for instance, we should naturally vary the
quality and direction of line, using broken lines and dots for the
former, and flowing smooth fine lines for the latter, while extra force
and relief would be gained by throwing them up upon solid black grounds.
Solid black, also, to represent local colour, or material such as
velvet, is often valuable as a contrast in black and white line-drawing,
giving a richness of effect not to be obtained in any other way (see No.
2, p. 213[f114]). Its value was appreciated by the early German and
Italian book-illustrators, and in our own time has been used almost to
excess by some of our younger designers, who have been largely
influenced by Hokusai and other Japanese artists, who are always skilful
in the use of solid blacks.
[Illustration (f113): Linear Expression of Features, Feathers and Fur:
Notes from Nature.]
In line-drawing a very useful principle to observe, to give solidity to
figures and objects, is to let one's lines--say of drapery or
shadow--run into solid blacks in the deepest interstices of the forms,
as when folds of drapery are wrapped about a figure, or in the deeper
folds themselves (No. 1, p. 213[f114]).
[Illustration (f114): Sketches to Illustrate (1) The Graphic and (2) The
Decorative Treatment of Draped Figures.]
[The Ornamental Aim]
I have spoken of the graphic and the ornamental aims as distinct, and so
they may for practical purposes be regarded; although in some cases it
is possible to combine a considerable amount of graphic force with
decorative effect, and even in purely graphic art there should always be
the controlling influence of the sense of composition which must be felt
throughout all forms of art.
For the simplest ornamental function, however, very little graphic
drawing is needed, over and above the very essential power of definition
by pure outline, and feeling for silhouette; but a sense for the relief
of masses upon a ground or field, and of the proportions and relations
of lines and masses or distribution of quantities, is essential. Now an
ornamental effect may be produced by the simple repetition of some form
defined in outline arranged so as to fall into a rhythmic series of
lines.
A series of birds upon a plan of this kind, for instance, would form a
frieze on simple bordering in abstract line alone, and might be quite
sufficient for some purposes. The same thing would be capable of more
elaborate treatment and different effect by relieving the birds upon a
darker ground, by defining the details of their forms more, or by
alternating them in black or white, or by adopting the simple principle
of counterchange (see p. 215[f115]).
[Illustration (f115): Decorative Treatment of Birds.]
Flowers or figures would be capable of the same simple and abstract
treatment; and almost any form in nature, reduced to its simplest
elements of recurring line and mass, and rhythmically disposed, would
give us distinct decorative motives.
[The Ornamental Aim]
It is quite open to the designer to select his lines and forms straight
from nature, and, bearing in mind the necessity for selection of the
best ornamental elements, for a certain simplification, and the
rhythmical treatment before mentioned, it is good to do so, as the work
is more likely to have a certain freshness than if some of the
well-known historic forms of ornament are used again. We may, however,
learn much from the ornamental use of these forms, and use similar forms
as the boundaries of the shape of our pattern units and masses.
It is good practice to take a typical shape such as the Persian
radiating flower or pine-apple, and use it as the plan for quite a
different structure in detail, taking some familiar English flower as
our motive. The same with the Indian and Persian palmette type. It is
also desirable, as before pointed out, to draw sprays within formal
boundaries for ornamental use. By such methods we may not only learn to
appreciate the ornamental value of such forms, but by such adaptation
and re-combination produce new varieties of ornament (see p. 217[f116]).
[Illustration (f116): Floral Designs Upon Typical Inclosing Shapes of
Indian and Persian Ornament.]
We may perceive how distinct are the two aims as between simple graphic
drawing, or delineation, and what we call design, or conscious
arrangements of line or form. While planes of relief, varied form and
surface, values of light and shade, and accidental characteristics are
rather the object with the graphic draughtsman, typical form and
structure, and recurring line and mass, are sought for by the
ornamentist. Both series of facts, or qualities, or characteristics, are
in nature.
[Selection]
Judicious selection, however, is the test of artistic treatment;
selection, that is, with a view to the aim and scope of the work. The
truth of superficial appearance or accidental aspect is _one_ sort of
truth: the truth of the actual constructive characteristics--be they of
figure, flower, or landscape--is _another_. Both belong to the thing we
see--to the object we are drawing; but we shall dwell upon one truth or
set of truths rather than the other, in accordance with our particular
artistic aim, though, whatever this may be, and in whatever direction it
may lead us, we shall find that selection of some sort will be
necessary.
In making studies, however pure and simple, the object of which is to
discover facts and to learn mastery of form, our aim should be to get as
much truth as we can, truth of structure as well as of aspect. But these
(as far as we can make them) exhaustive studies should be accompanied or
followed by analytical studies made from different points of view and
for different purposes.
Studies, for instance, made with a view to arrangements of _line_
only--to get the characteristic and beautiful lines of a figure, a
momentary attitude, the lines of a flower, or a landscape: studies with
a view, solely, to the understanding of structure and form, or again,
with the object of seizing the broad relations of light and shade, or
tone and colour--all are necessary to a complete artistic education of
the eye.
[Accidents and Essentials]
If we are drawn as students rather towards the picturesque and graphic
side of art, we shall probably look for accidents of line and form
more than what I should call the essentials, or _typical_ line and form,
which are the most valuable to the decorative designer.
In both directions some compact or compromise with nature is necessary
in any really artistic re-presentation.
The painter and the sculptor often seek as _complete representation_ as
possible, and what may be called complete representation is within the
range of their resources. Yet unless some individual choice or feeling
impresses the work of either kind it is not a _re-presentation_, but
becomes an _imitation_, and therefore inartistic.
The decorative designer and ornamentist seek to _suggest_ rather than to
_re-present_, though the decorator's suggestion of natural form, taking
only enough to suit or express the particular ornamental purpose, must
be considered also as a re-presentation. How much, or how little, he
will take of actual nature must depend largely upon his resources, his
object, and the limitations of his material--the conditions of his work
in short; but his range may be as wide as from the flat silhouetted
forms of stencils or simple inlays to the highly-wrought mural painting.
Design motive, individual conception and sentiment, apart from material,
must, of course, always affect the question of the choice and degree of
representation of nature. The painter will sometimes feel that he only
wants to suggest forms, such as figures or buildings, half veiled in
light and atmosphere, colours and forms in twilight, or half lost in
luminous depths of shadow.
[Illustration (f117a): Dancing Figure with the Governing Lines of the
Movement.]
[Illustration (f117b): Lines of Floral Growth and Structure: Lily and
Rose.]
[The Outward Vision and Inner Vision]
The decorative designer will sometimes want to emphasize forms with the
utmost force and realism at his command, as in some crisp bit of carving
or emphatic pattern, to give point and relief in his scheme of
quantities.
There is no hard-and-fast rule in art, only general principles,
constantly varied in practice, from which all principles spring, and
into which, if vital, they ought to be capable of being again resolved.
But a design once started upon some principle--some particular motive of
line or form--then, in following this out, it will seem to develop
almost a life or law of growth of its own, which as a matter of logical
necessity will demand a particular treatment--a certain natural
consistency or harmony--from its main features down to the smallest
detail as a necessity of its existence.
We might further differentiate art as, on the one hand, the image of the
_outward vision_, and, on the other, as the outcome or image of the
_inner vision_.
The first kind would include all portraiture, by which I mean faithful
portrayal or transcript whether of animate or inanimate nature; while
the second would include all imaginative conceptions, decorative
designs, and pattern inventions.
The outward vision obviously relies upon what the eye perceives in
nature. Its virtue consists in the faithfulness and truth of its graphic
record, in the penetrating force of observation of fact, and the
representative power by which they are reproduced on paper or canvas,
clay or marble.
[Illustration (f118a): 1 and 2, Mountain and Crag Sculpture: Coast
Lines, Gulf of Nauplia.]
[Illustration (f118b): Lines of Movement in Water: Shallow Stream Over
Sand.]
The image of the inner vision is also a record, but of a different order
of fact. It may be often of unconscious impressions and memories which
are retained and recur with all or more than the vividness of
actuality--the tangible forms of external nature calling up answering,
but not identical, images in the mind, like reflections in a mirror or
in still water, which are similar but never the same as the objects they
reflect.
But the inner vision is not bound by the appearances of the particular
moment. It is the record of the sum of many moments, and retains the
typical impress of multitudinous and successive impressions--like the
composite photograph, where faces may be printed one over another until
the result is a more typical image than any individual one taken
separately.
The inner vision sees the results of time rather than the impressions of
the moment. It sees _space_ rather than landscape: race rather than men:
spirits rather than mortals: types rather than individuals.
The inner vision hangs the mind's house with a mysterious tapestry of
figurative thoughts, a rich and fantastic imagery, a world where the
elements are personified, where every tree has its dryad, and where the
wings of the winds actually brush the cheek.
The inner vision re-creates rather than represents, and its virtue
consists in the vividness and beauty with which, in the language of
line, form, and colour, these visions of the mind are recorded and
presented to the outward eye.
There is often fusion here again between two different tendencies,
habits of mind, or ways of regarding things. In all art the mind must
work through the eye, whether its force appears in closeness of
observation or in vivid imaginings. The very vividness of realization
even of the most faithful portraiture is a testimony to mental powers.
The difference lies really in the _focus_ of the mental force; and, in
any case, the language of line and form we use will neither be forcible
or convincing, neither faithful to natural fact nor true to the
imagination, without close and constant study of external form and of
its structure as well as its aspect.