Page:Drawing for Beginners.djvu/238

 CHAPTER XV

Light and Shade

HAT constitutes light and shade?" is a question more easily asked than answered.

Briefly, all objects on which light falls present light and shade.

Twist a piece of paper into a cone and look at it with half-closed eyes. What do you see? One side is light, one side is dark, where light and shade mingle there is half light and half tone.

In Nature all tones and tints are gradated. Light blends into half light, half light into half tone, half tone into shade, dividing and subdividing indefinitely.

There are no outlines in Nature. 'Outlines,' or 'edges,' are merely names for the particular parts thrown into prominence by light and shade. Certain parts present sharply defined shapes; but shadows dissolve into light, and light dissolves into shadow.

An outline drawing is a drawing that represents the outside or extreme edge of a person or object, as the contour line in a map is the extreme outline of a country. There is no visible outline to a leaf, vase, or hand.

Outline drawing merely represents a shape without shading.

Therefore when we speak of 'drawing light and shade' we mean drawing broad masses of light and shade, giving the right balance&mdash;neither too much nor too little value to each light, each shadow, each east shadow. Drawing objects in light and shade with a pencil point is a tedious business. It is best to adopt some means by which we can cover the ground quickly.

There are many methods of tackling this very interesting