that this
typical power of outline and the value of simplicity of mass were
perceived by the ancients, notably the Ancient Egyptians and the Greeks,
who both, in their own ways, in their art show a wonderful power of
characterization by means of line and mass, and a delicate sense of the
ornamental value and quality of line.

[Illustration (f004): Coast and Mountain Lines--Gulf of Nauplia]

[Formation of Letters]

Regarding line--the use of outline from the point of view of its value
as a means of definition of form and fact--its power is really only
limited by the power of draughtsmanship at the command of the artist.
From the archaic potters' primitive figures or the rudimentary attempts
of children at human or animal forms up to the most refined outlines of
a Greek vase-painter, or say the artist of the Dream of Poliphilus, the
difference is one of degree. The tyro with the pen, learning to write,
splotches and scratches, and painfully forms trembling, limping O's and
A's, till with practice and habitude, almost unconsciously, the power to
form firm letters is acquired.

Writing, after all, is but a simpler form of drawing, and we know that
the letters of our alphabet were originally pictures or symbols. The
main difference is that writing stops short with the acquisition of the
purely useful power of forming letters and words, and is seldom pursued
for the sake of its beauty or artistic qualities as formerly; while
drawing continually leads on to new difficulties to be conquered, to new
subtleties of line, and fresh fascinations in the pursuit of distinction
and style.

[Illustration (f005a): Proportions of Roman Capital Letters and Method
of Drawing Them (From Albert Durer's "Geometrica").]

[Illustration (f005b): Proportions of Lower-Case German Text and Method
of Drawing the Letters (From Albert Durer's "Geometrica").]

The practice of forming letters with the pen or brush, from good types,
Roman and Gothic, however, would afford very good preliminary practice
to a student of line and form. The hand would acquire directness of
stroke and touch, while the eye would grow accustomed to good lines of
composition and simple constructive forms. The progressive nature of
writing--the gradual building up of the forms of the letters--and the
necessity of dealing with recurring forms and lines, also, would bear
usefully upon after work in actual design. Albert Dure