Page:Drawing for Beginners.djvu/191

 efforts. The open air is one of the most exacting of conditions. The pure clear atmosphere reveals every blot and blemish. Your model challenges your poor attempts with its incomparable beauty.

Nevertheless, do not be discouraged, for you have this great encouragement, that if the painting or drawing looks at all passable out of doors it will look infinitely better within doors.

A clump of brilliantly coloured fungi is a delicious subject for pencil or brush, and one that is often found in the woodlands on a summer's day. What could be more simple in form than a toadstool, with its curved top and ridged surface beneath, and the bulbous-shaped stalk? Being a rounded surface, one part will be lighter than another. Try to place the shading correctly. The edge of the fungus may be broken, chipped, splotched, or stained. Do not neglect any of these happy accidents. Dame Nature springs the most extraordinary surprises upon those bent on discovering her secrets, and if we are lax in small matters we shall miss the beauties in larger objects later on.

A trailing spray of blackberry is a charming subject for brush and pencil alike. Sketch the direction of the spray, then the mass of each spray, then the direction of each leaf in the spray.

When the sun is high in the heavens and the colours are faint and sickly, use your pencil instead of a brush.

A bit of a fence overhanging a piece of rock or sandstone, or a fence topping a grassy bank, or a stile dividing two fields, are equally interesting subjects for a sketch.

And here I must repeat myself at the risk of appearing wearisome. In no case do I wish you to choose necessarily the subject that I have discussed. My examples are chosen first, because they are simple and direct; secondly, because they are within reach of the majority of young artists; and, thirdly, because they represent variations of themes found over a broad area.

Draw the nearest upright post, get the direction of the