‘Let two persons go out for a walk; the one a good sketcher, the other having no taste of the kind. Let them go down a green lane. There will be a great difference in the scene as perceived by the two individuals. The one will see a lane and trees; he will perceive the trees to be green, though he will think nothing about it; he will see that the sun shines, and that it has a cheerful effect; and that’s all! But what will the sketcher see? His eye is accustomed to search into the cause of beauty, and penetrate the minutest parts of loveliness. He looks up, and observes how the showery and subdivided sunshine comes sprinkled down among the gleaming leaves overhead, till the air is filled with the emerald light. He will see here and there a bough emerging from the veil of leaves, he will see the jewel brightness of the emerald moss and the variegated and fantastic lichens, white and blue, purple and red, all mellowed and mingled into a single garment of beauty. Then come the cavernous trunks and the twisted roots that grasp with their snake-like coils at the steep bank, whose turfy slope is inlaid with flowers of a thousand dyes. Is not this worth seeing? Yet if you are not a sketcher you will pass along the green lane, and when you come home again, have nothing to say or to think about it, but that you went down such and such a lane.’
To read John Ruskin’s book on drawing — free online — see:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30325/30325-h/30325-h.htm
This is another line study drawing that we had to do when I was a student in graphic arts… we did alot of these as we had no computers in those days, and everything that we did was freehand — I miss those days of holding your breath so that the line stayed beautifully straight… or wavy… or curly… or scratchy. If not, you had to start over… and of course this exercise was an exercise with “no” straight lines, and you would think that it was a relief to do, but to continuously draw with jittery lines was a struggle for me!
Voici un autre dessin que j’ai fait quand j’étais étudiante en graphisme. Dans ces années-là, nous n’avions pas d’ordinateur, et tout devait être fait à la main. Soit que notre trait devait être totalement droit, et nous arrêtions de respirer pour le faire, sinon nous devions le refaire! Et pour cet exercice, le contraire était demandé… aucune ligne droite et croyez-le ou non, c’est énervant de dessiner sans avoir aucune ligne droite -)))
Painting to see : Peindre pour voir 