ural state, if you get a good piece. It
is sold by the ounce, and it is advisable to try the pieces as they vary
very much, some being hard and gritty and some more soft and smooth. It
is also made by Messrs. Conte of Paris in sticks artificially prepared.
These work well and are never gritty, but are not so hard as the natural
chalk, and consequently wear away quickly and do not make fine lines as
well.

Red chalk when rubbed with the finger or a rag spreads evenly on paper,
and produces a middle tone on which lights can be drawn with rubber or
bread. Sticks of hard, pointed rubber are everywhere sold, which, cut in
a chisel shape, work beautifully on red chalk drawings. Bread is also
excellent when a softer light is wanted. You can continually correct and
redraw in this medium by rubbing it with the finger or a rag, thus
destroying the lights and shadows to a large extent, and enabling you to
draw them again more carefully. For this reason red chalk is greatly to
be recommended for making drawings for a picture where much fumbling may
be necessary before you find what you want. Unlike charcoal, it hardly
needs fixing, and much more intimate study of the forms can be got into
it.

Most of the drawings by the author reproduced in this book are done in
this medium. For drawings intended to have a separate existence it is
one of the prettiest mediums. In fact, this is the danger to the student
while studying: your drawing looks so much at its best that you are apt
to be satisfied too soon. But for portrait drawings there is no medium
to equal it.

Additional quality of dark is occasionally got by mixing a little of
this red chalk in a powdered state with water and a very little
gum-arabic. This can be applied with a sable brush as in water-colour
painting, and makes a rich velvety dark.

It is necessary to select your paper with some care. The ordinary paper
has too much size on it. This is picked up by the chalk, and will
prevent its marking. A paper with little size is best, or old paper
where the size has perished. I find an O.W. paper, made for printing
etchings, as good as any for ordinary work. It is not perfect, but works
very well. What one wants is the smoothest paper without a faced and
hot-pressed surface, and it is difficult to find.

Occasionally black chalk is used with the red to add strength to it. And
some draughtsmen use it with the red in such a manner as to produce
almost a full colour effect.