on you
wish; not in any wise vaguely, as the india-rubber does it: and,
secondly, that all natural shadows are more or less mingled with gleams
of light. In the darkness of ground there is the light of the little
pebbles or dust; in the darkness of foliage, the glitter of the leaves;
in the darkness of flesh, transparency; in that of a stone, granulation:
in every case there is some mingling of light, which cannot be
represented by the leaden tone which you get by rubbing, or by an
instrument known to artists as the "stump." When you can manage the
point properly, you will indeed be able to do much also with this
instrument, or with your fingers; but then you will have to retouch the
flat tints afterwards, so as to put life and light into them, and that
can only be done with the point. Labor on, therefore, courageously, with
that only.

EXERCISE V.

[Illustration: FIG. 3.]

18. When you can manage to tint and gradate tenderly with the pencil
point, get a good large alphabet, and try to _tint_ the letters into
shape with the pencil point. Do not outline them first, but measure
their height and extreme breadth with the compasses, as _a b_, _a c_,
Fig. 3, and then scratch in their shapes gradually; the letter A,
inclosed within the lines, being in what Turner would have called a
"state of forwardness." Then, when you are satisfied with the shape of
the letter, draw pen-and-ink lines firmly round the tint, as at _d_, and
remove any touches outside the limit, first with the india-rubber, and
then with the penknife, so that all may look clear and right. If you rub
out any of the pencil inside the outline of the letter, retouch it,
closing it up to the inked line. The straight lines of the outline are
all to be ruled,[5] but the curved lines are to be drawn by the eye and
hand; and you will soon find what good practice there is in getting the
curved letters, such as Bs, Cs, etc., to stand quite straight, and come
into accurate form.

19. All these exercises are very irksome, and they are not to be
persisted in alone; neither is it necessary to acquire perfect power in
any of them. An entire master of the pencil or brush ought, indeed, to
be able to draw any form at once, as Giotto his circle; but such skill
as this is only to be expected of the consummate master, having pencil
in hand all his life, and all day long,--hence the force of Giotto's
proof of his skill; and it is quite possible to draw very beautifully,
with