nction of Outline--Silhouette--Definition of
Boundaries by--Power of Characterization by--Formation of
Letters--Methods of Drawing in Line--The Progressive Method--The
Calligraphic Method--The Tentative Method--The Japanese Direct
Brush Method--The Oval Method--The Rectangular Method--Quality of
Line--Linear Expression of Movement--Textures--Emotion--Scale of
Linear Expression.

Outline, one might say, is the Alpha and Omega of Art. It is the
earliest mode of expression among primitive peoples, as it is with the
individual child, and it has been cultivated for its power of
characterization and expression, and as an ultimate test of
draughtsmanship, by the most accomplished artists of all time.

The old fanciful story of its origin in the work of a lover who traced
in charcoal the boundary of the shadow of the head of his sweetheart as
cast upon the wall by the sun, and thus obtained the first profile
portrait, is probably more true in substance than in fact, but it
certainly illustrates the _function_ of outline as the definition of the
boundaries of form.

[Silhouette]

As children we probably perceive forms in nature defined as flat shapes
of colour relieved upon other colours, or flat fields of light on dark,
as a white horse is defined upon the green grass of a field, or a black
figure upon a background of snow.

[Illustration (f003a): Silhouette]

[Illustration (f003b): Silhouette]

[Definition of Boundaries]

To define the boundaries of such forms becomes the main object in early
attempts at artistic expression. The attention is caught by the
edges--the shape of the silhouette which remains the paramount means of
distinction of form when details and secondary characteristics are
lost; as the outlines of mountains remain, or are even more clearly
seen, when distance subdues the details of their structure, and evening
mists throw them into flat planes one behind the other, and leave
nothing but the delicate lines of their edges to tell their character.
We feel the beauty and simplicity of such effects in nature. We feel
that the mind, through the eye resting upon these quiet planes and
delicate lines, receives a sense of repose and poetic suggestion which
is lost in the bright noontide, with all its wealth of glittering
detail, sharp cut in light and shade. There is no doubt