Page:Drawing for Beginners.djvu/154

 Hold your pencil at arm's length and mark the depth with your thumb. Swivel your wrist, keeping your thumb in the same position on the pencil, and place it in mid-air on the outside edge of the basket, measuring the width and counting: "once," then shifting, "twice," again shifting, "thrice" (probably not quite three times).

Drop your arm and look at your drawing.

Measure the depth of the basket itself with your finger and thumb on your pencil and place the measurement against the width.

In that manner you can prove for yourself whether the proportions of your drawing are right or wrong.

The reason why we close one eye and extend the arm is this. By closing one eye we concentrate our vision. We see one object, minus all its distracting surroundings. When the elbow is straight the arm is extended at its greatest length. Without taking this precaution we might cheat ourselves and unconsciously alter the position of the hand, and confuse measurements.

By straightening the elbow we keep the hand at the same distance for all measurements.

Do not make a fetish of measuring. Use it merely as a check, as a corrective. Draw first, measure afterward. The obnoxious habit of measuring first, and ticking off the measurement on the paper, is a trick unworthy of an artist. Moreover, it is a trap. The more we measure the less we prove. It is quite possible to measure until we stupefy ourselves.

If you are in doubt&mdash;measure.

Ask yourself, "Have I made the nose too short?" Take a measurement of the nose and compare it with the length of the face. "Have I drawn the house too tall in comparison with the poplar-tree, or the fence too high for the barn?" Measure the house against the tree, or the height of the fence against the height of the barn.

Possibly the proportions of the house, tree, fence, or barn are fairly satisfactory, but you are not quite satisfied with