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 CHAPTER XIII

How to Catch a Likeness

HE word 'portraiture' has an awe-inspiring sound.

Portraiture is something that we may possibly attain in the far-off days when we are grown up.

Granted that the art of portraiture may be too ambitious for our humble pencil, yet there is every reason why we should train our eye, hand, and brain in the devious ways of catching a likeness. It will be a big help to the portrait-painting of the future.

The gift of catching a likeness, of transposing a recognizable drawing of a face to paper, is a very wayward gift. It does not follow that because we are artistic we shall have a flair for portraiture.

There are some people&mdash;far from artistic&mdash;who can catch a likeness.

There are many amateurs (by which I mean those artists who do not take the artistic profession seriously) who have a wonderful facility for drawing a likeness; also there are very clever artists to whom the gift of portraiture is denied. All of which demonstrates that this peculiar gift lies apart from other branches of art.

Whether we have this gift, or whether we have merely a feeling that we should like 'to try our hand' at sketching a likeness, it is our plain duty to make a few efforts, for it stimulates three very valuable qualities: it promotes carefulness, accuracy, and reasoning.

Now we might consider a few methods by which we may become proficient in this very elusive art.

Possibly at some time of your life you have amused yourself with sketching the shadows of your friends. You placed