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    Sketching as a Hobby
    Sketching as a Hobby
    Sketching as a Hobby
    Ebook173 pages1 hour

    Sketching as a Hobby

    By Arthur L. Guptill

    4.5/5

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    Read preview
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDover Publications
    Release dateOct 17, 2018
    ISBN9780486835228
    Sketching as a Hobby

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      Book preview

      Sketching as a Hobby - Arthur L. Guptill

      1936

      Chapter 1

      DRAWING IS NATURAL

      EVERYONE with normal intelligence can learn to draw! You can learn! How well? It is not so easy to guess that. Not all of us have equal talent. You perhaps haven’t it in you to become a Rembrandt (how many have?), but you certainly can gain mastery enough to bring you a lot of fun, while at the same time producing some really commendable work.

      Why am I so sure? Because I have seen so many average individuals—folks with no marked aptitude—succeed at the thing you want to do. In my hobby classes, for instance, I have had debutantes and dentists, brokers and bricklayers, millionaires and manicurists, socialites and stevedores, and can honestly state that every individual who has stuck to the thing for a reasonable length of time has made worthwhile progress. A few, to be sure, have abandoned their attempts, with their confidence for some reason shaken, but their fault has usually been impatience rather than inability.

      But, you say, these students were in a class. Can you assure me like progress if I work without a teacher? A capable teacher is of great help, of course, yet one can advance quite a distance soundly and surely even if forced to proceed alone. He must learn to judge the merits and faults of his own work, however—suggestions are later offered along these lines—and will need to seize every opportunity for constructive criticism by others. And he is advised to form or join a club such as is discussed in Chapter 2.

      I have claimed that freehand drawing is not particularly difficult. And why should it be? In childhood it almost invariably proves a mode of expression almost as natural as the spoken or written word. See Figure 1. Rarely, indeed, do we find the youngster who does not draw with what, all things considered, could be called real skill. It is only as he grows older and becomes more self-conscious that he lessens or abandons his efforts at the employment of what has been so aptly termed a universal language. Often as he begins to compare his drawings seriously with those by more mature or more talented individuals he discovers in them what he thinks to be glaring faults or shortcomings, and so is discouraged from further attempts. Or, again, he sets up false and unattainable standards. Perhaps, for instance, he gets the erroneous idea that things must be expressed with almost photographic accuracy. Failing in this, he foolishly believes himself poor at drawing.

      FIG. 1. CHILDREN DRAW NATURALLY

      If your thought is to draw for fun, why set too high—or, at least, too professional—standards? At any rate, at first? You want to work on a sound basis, of course, but you can do that and still be free from any notion of trying to compete with the genius or the expert who has spent years in developing his skill. In other words, rid yourself for the present of the desire for professional attainment and set about sketching the things you want to sketch in just the way your capacity permits. You may desire to draw your cat or dog. All right, sail in! Draw father or mother, the canary or the goldfish, following one of the methods described in the coming chapters—whichever one seems natural to you. But don’t expect too much! It’s platitudinous but true to say that the development of skill in anything worth while demands effort. This despite the fact that draw the right line in the right place and success is assured. As your skill increases, you will automatically raise your standards. And please believe me when I tell you once more that, whatever your first results, you will ultimately get there if you persevere. I’ve seen the thing happen over and over again.

      Before you begin, try to free your mind of any thought that there is mystery to the phase of representative drawing which interests us. For there is not. There is a bit of magic of a sort (see Chapter 3) but this is far from incomprehensible. As was mentioned in the preface, the thing can be reduced to a few easily understood A B C’s which we shall investigate one at a time. Once we grasp these, the rest is mainly a matter of practice.

      Chapter 2

      FORMING A SKETCH CLUB

      THE hobbies that people enjoy the most are those they practice in groups. It’s when the stamp collectors go into a huddle, each anxious to show his recent acquisitions, that they are really happy. And the same is usually true of those who sketch.

      So you, Mister Beginner, no matter how sensitive and self-conscious you may be about your efforts, must not fall into the all-too-common mistake of working the whole time by yourself—at least not for long. For if you do, I fear you’ll soon lose your fine enthusiasm. If you are under a competent teacher, that is different, though even then a friend or two studying with you will prove a stimulating and steadying influence.

      Lacking a teacher, by all means get a few congenial spirits together and form a little club. Unless, of course, you can find a suitable one already established. Meet at least once a week. Do some sketches between times and when you meet put them on the wall for comparison. Discuss them unsparingly, every member expressing an opinion. Also bring in some experienced person now and then, if possible, to give you constructive criticism. And sketch at your meetings, too. Set up objects and work from them, later comparing sketches. Try sketching one another. Let your embryo portraitists pose one fellow so his silhouette is thrown on a screen, the others trying for a

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