Page:Drawing for Beginners.djvu/40

 thing, when we draw an object, to take it up and examine it, whether it be leaf, feather, footstool, chair, or toys.

If we draw our toys now, toy girl, toy horse, toy tree, later we shall be able to draw real girl, real horse, and real tree; confident because we have a little knowledge to help us on our way.

The toy tree is stiff and still, but has the look of a tree; Mr Noah is straight and long, but Mr Noah is a man and he has sheep, cows, pigs, and birds; though made of wood, these have a queer resemblance to their originals.

For a beginning let us take these little creatures and place them in procession along the table, the ark in front, and then, with our sketch-books on our knees (some stiff bit of board beneath it if it be a limp-covered book), sit on a low seat at the extreme right-hand side of our models, and with our eyes on a level with the table.

As in the preceding chapter we experimented with the different shapes of our models, so we will begin by noting that these little ark creatures vary in shape.

Having drawn them with pencil, we could then take up our paint-brush and paint them in gay colours, making a long narrow-shaped picture, a kind of frieze, or border.

What could be easier to draw than Mr Noah himself? He is just a straight angular shape in several sections. The first and top section makes a queer little hat. The second&mdash;an oval shape&mdash;a face. The third section slopes outward from his wooden neck to provide his body and then, slightly indenting at the waist, continues in a straight robe to his feet, where we have the fourth section&mdash;wider than the others&mdash;the stand upon which he is balanced.

After we have finished with Mr Noah we might proceed to draw the animals. A sheep has a long-shaped body perched on four straight little legs, a thick tail, and possibly two erectly pricked ears. The pig has a more drooping head, a thicker neck, shorter legs.

But I need not discuss the details of each one. The foregoing suggestions will enable you to apply the same principles to all.