ange of tone at first,
but keep the darks rather lighter and the lights darker than nature.
Attempt the full scale of tone only when you have acquired sufficient
experience with the simpler range, and gradually add more colours as you
learn to master a few. But restraints are not so fashionable just now
as unbridled licence. Art students start in with a palette full of the
most amazing colours, producing results that it were better not to
discuss. It is a wise man who can discover his limitations and select a
medium the capacities of which just tally with his own. To discover
this, it is advisable to try many, and below is a short description of
the chief ones used by the draughtsman. But very little can be said
about them, and very little idea of their capacities given in a written
description; they must be handled by the student, and are no doubt
capable of many more qualities than have yet been got out of them.

[Sidenote: Lead Pencil]

This well-known medium is one of the most beautiful for pure line work,
and its use is an excellent training to the eye and hand in precision of
observation. Perhaps this is why it has not been so popular in our art
schools lately, when the charms of severe discipline are not so much in
favour as they should be. It is the first medium we are given to draw
with, and as the handiest and most convenient is unrivalled for
sketch-book use.

It is made in a large variety of degrees, from the hardest and greyest
to the softest and blackest, and is too well known to need much
description. It does not need fixing.

For pure line drawing nothing equals it, except silver point, and great
draughtsmen, like Ingres, have always loved it. It does not lend itself
so readily to any form of mass drawing. Although it is sometimes used
for this purpose, the offensive shine that occurs if dark masses are
introduced is against its use in any but very lightly shaded work.

[Illustration: Plate LV.

FROM A SILVER-POINT DRAWING]

Its charm is the extreme delicacy of its grey-black lines.

[Sidenote: Silver and Gold Point.]

Similar to lead pencil, and of even greater delicacy, is silver-point
drawing. A more ancient method, it consists in drawing with a silver
point on paper the surface of which has been treated with a faint wash
of Chinese white. Without this wash the point will not make a mark.

For extreme delicacy and purity of line no medium can surpass this
method. And for the expression of