Sketching and rendering in pencil
From introduction;
Any readers of pencil points have suggested to us the need for n group of books dealing in a thoroughly practical and helpful way with subjects of interest to architects, draftsmen and students a library embracing the varied interests that centre in the drafting room.
Some time ago we called upon the readers of pencil points to suc/f/esi subjects jor treatment in such a group of books, and we have carefully situated the targe number of replies received. Guided by these suggestions:: and by the indications of special interest on the pan of readers in certain articles which have appeared serially in pencil points, we have prepared a plan for the pencil points library, which is to be developed as time goes on.
The fundamental idea is to provide books to meet the definite needs of large numbers of men in this field and to do this at as moderate a price as is found consistent with the satisfactory presentation of the matter; not costly publications of limited appeal, but a practical working library. "Sketching and rendering in pencil," by Arthur L. Cuplill is the first book in the pencil points library.
An artistic conception is susceptible of translation into graphic expression through a variety of media, but by a certain universality of custom, or perhaps more accurately of convenience, the familiar lead pencil has achieved a significance derived from its immediate association with all forms of pictorial delineation. One may speak of it as a kind of staff upon which the artist or the draftsman leans most heavily. But this popular acceptance or recognition has, curiously enough, failed to carry with it an equivalent degree of appreciative comment or of authoritative instruction in the technique of its individual employees.
Therefore, an examination of the text and illustrations contained in this volume must be of special and compelling interest to any one of artistic profession or aspirations, for in his accomplished and excellent interpretation of the potentiality existent within the pencil, Mr Guptill is practically a pioneer. By far the greater acknowledgement must be given, however, to the very definite stimulus contained in this volume toward a really effective educational development among architectural draftsmen.
The atelier system which offers an inexpensive means of acquiring certain architectural training, based on the general principles of instruction at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, nevertheless, stops short of completeness from the lack of stress placed on the important element of free-hand drawing. Great emphasis is properly laid on the solution of the plan and its presentation but the adherence to the mechanical method more or less predicted in the drawing of the two-dimensioned plan has been carried with almost equal insistence into the study of the three-dimensioned elevation.
Out of this practice has grown a kind of formalized T-square and triangle "indication," much in vogue, and with scarcely more suggestive value than the working drawing produced with the other mechanical paraphernalia of ruling pens, compasses and dividers. Most draftsmen avoid the blunted pencil point as they would a plague. A large part of their time is spent sharpening the pencil to the length and sharpness of a needle.
With such an implement their horizon is narrowed down to the production of scale drawings and the conventionalized sectional hatchings indicative of various materials. Form expressed in the graceful, flowing suavity of the line becomes a remote possibility under such conditions. If I am dwelling with some insistence upon the value of free-hand drawing, it is not in disparagement of instrumental drawing, nor with any view to its neglect.
It is rather in the desire to build something more vital and engaging on this foundation of mechanical skill which will result in the draftsman becoming ever increasingly more of a draftsman that I most earnestly recommend this book. Mr Guptill has with every evidence of success endeavoured to assist the draftsman out of this automatic conventionalized indication into the realm of appreciation of the greater artistic possibilities lying within himself. To suggest to others a way of increasingly beautiful accomplishment is obviously no slight contribution.
This volume is a plea for better instruction in free-hand drawing and for the thorough perception of its value. The illustrations accompanying the text, by their variety and excellence of selection and their orderly arrangement, furnish in themselves a basis of suggestion to students which should awaken the most enthusiastic response.
The initial and almost certain discouragement which the making of a drawing from life connotes, inevitably becomes an emotion of compelling inter- est once a grasp of the elements of form and contour has been accomplished. I know of no way in which artistic capital, in the sense of facility and sureness of drawing, can be obtained better than by drawing from life and the transition from the plastic model to the rendering of the static architectural ornament enables the student to embody in his drawing the spirit of the design with a sureness and a refinement of detail not possible to one who has not passed through the former experience.
There is some distance to be travelled along the road of artistic endeavour before the student can ex-press his personality in the composed statement of the artist. Mr Guptill has, I think, in pointing out the road and contributing to its illumination, wisely kept away from the indication of style. His in- existence has been in the line of encouragement of a greater fluency of speech in the language of pencil technique and of the assistance that intelli- gent conventionalization can render in the presentation of form and of colour and of materials.
Contents;
Part I.
I. FIRST CONSIDERATIONS ..... ......
II. THE ESSENTIAL EQUIPMENT ..... ... 3
III. OBJECT DRAWING IN OUTLINE ........... 5
IV. OnjKCT DRAWING IN LIGHT AND SHADE ........ 17
V- FREE-HAND PERSPECTIVE ............ 24
VI- CAST DRAWING . ............ 34
VII- LIKE DRAWING . . . . 39
VIII. SKETCHING ANIMALS . . . . . . . . . . . . .57
Part II.
I. ARCHITECTURAL CONSIDERATIONS ..... ..... 61
II. STARTING THE WORK ............. 67
III. INDIVIDUAL STYLE . ..... . 76
IV. METHODS AND LIGHTING ....... 88
V. COMPOSITION AND DRAWING FROM PHOTOGRAPHS ... 94
VI. GRADED TONES ......... 103
VII. THE REPRESENTATION OF SMALL DRAWINGS . . . 109
VIII. THE REPRESENTATION OF DETAILS.
IX. INTERIORS AND FURNITURE. 111
X- OUTDOOR SKETCHING ....... 147
X I. ACCESSORIES.
XII. DECORATIVE TREATMENT
XIII- LARGE BUILDINGS . . . 171
XIV. CONCLUSION
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