Page:Drawing for Beginners.djvu/28

 a single blade of grass, inch by inch and tint by tint, the same? Look round and judge for yourself.

Only man makes things mathematically exact. He is forced to balance one side with the other side. The cup, the vase, the house, will not stand and support itself. Nature is bound by no such rules, and Nature is always an artist.

Would you like to know the most difficult thing of all to draw? Without question, a perfect circle.

Strangely enough there was one artist whose fortune was made through the drawing of a circle. It was Giotto, the shepherd-lad whose story we have just been discussing. When his name was beginning to be known the Pope sent to learn more about him. He wished to employ the cleverest artist to be found in all Italy to paint pictures on the walls of the great church of St Peter at Rome.

And how do you think Giotto convinced the envoys of his fitness for the work? He took a large sheet of paper, and, dipping his brush into red paint, he drew a circle with one sweep of his arm, perfect and exact.

"Take that to the Pope," he said.

And the Pope admitted that of all the paintings submitted by the artists not one equalled the perfection of Giottos's O; whence we have the proverb, "As round as Giotto's O," signifying perfection.

We are not, unfortunately, all Giottos. Straight lines, symmetrical sides, perfect circles&mdash;perhaps when we are older we shall be able to attack these problems without flinching, but now, away with them and away with all excuses&mdash;let us begin.

Take a sheet of paper, or open your sketch-book; pick up a pencil. Now what shall we draw?

Some children bubble with odd fancies; men, horses, fairies, dogs come tripping to their minds; but you and I are not so sure. We will choose something simple, something interesting.

What of a leaf, an ivy leaf?&mdash;for that we can easily find whether we live in city or country.