Page:Drawing for Beginners.djvu/231

Rh less! But give some reason for this particular picture&mdash;the flowing of a scarf, the widening of the design at the base, an uplifted arm holding a basket, clouds floating behind her head, and sloping banks on either side. Then the eye is caught first by the central figure, next by the shawl, arm, clouds, and led at last to the banks and trees. Possibly you might object to that particular pose. You want something quieter and more restrained; in fact, you wish to keep to the original pose of the slim upright figure. Very well; but would it not be wise to place your figure in an upright space, and introduce either a misty effect with delicate lines, or else something that will help your figure?

I have seen it stated that arranging 'pictures' is a very different affair from arranging simple studies of 'ordinary' subjects; that one could not possibly apply the same ideas to both.

But this is a false notion, and precisely where many people go wrong.

After all is said and done, your so-called 'ordinary' subjects, your pots and pans, your flowers and books, may be the subjects in which you excel. For everything to which we direct our attention should result in a picture, must result in a picture. It may be a bad picture if we do not take the laws of Nature into consideration, but a picture nevertheless of a medium size.

We will take the subject of three pots, one large and two of a medium size.

These we place in a row, the large pot in the centre and the two smaller pots on either side of (Fig. 100).

You can see for yourself that this is an unsatisfactory 177