Page:Drawing for Beginners.djvu/111

 CHAPTER VIII

Drawing Inanimate Things

OUSES, hats, motor-cars, chairs, beds, and boats&mdash;all these and many other inanimate things are fruitful of much worry for the young and inexperienced artist.

"Why is it," we ask ourselves, "that the hat of the man in my drawing does not look as if it would fit on his head? How can I make it right?"

And the reply comes, "Measure&mdash;the size of the hat against the size of the man's head.

It may be that the hat is held in the man's hand, or that it rests against his chair, in which case measure the size of the hat with your pencil and put the measurement against the man's head. In all probability you have committed the very usual mistake of making the hat too small for the head.

Hats are not as easy to draw as some young artists seem to believe. The depth and width of the hat can be the most deceiving and perplexing problem.

Personally I never hesitate to measure hats more carefully against the heads of the owners.

Tall hats are more than usually difficult, and consequently more often than not wrongly depicted. The term 'tall' is, to begin with, a misnomer. In the old days of rough high beavers and curled brims the words 'tall' or 'high' were quite appropriate. But nowadays it is not so, as you can prove for yourself by placing a tall hat against another object, and checking its height; for instance, against the leg of a dining-room chair. You will find that the hat barely reaches the first rail of the front leg. Which brings under our consideration ordinary chairs, queer enough looking