ime of an
artist, does not permit him to make a perfect drawing,--that is to say,
one in which no lines shall be prominently visible,--and he is reduced
to show the black lines, either drawn by the pen, or on the wood, it is
better to make these lines help, as far as may be, the expression of
texture and form. You will thus find many textures, as of cloth or grass
or flesh, and many subtle effects of light, expressed by Leech with
zigzag or crossed or curiously broken lines; and you will see that
Alfred Rethel and Richter constantly express the direction and rounding
of surfaces by the direction of the lines which shade them. All these
various means of expression will be useful to you, as far as you can
learn them, provided you remember that they are merely a kind of
shorthand; telling certain facts, not in quite the _right_ way, but in
the only possible way under the conditions: and provided in any after
use of such means, you never try to show your own dexterity; but only to
get as much record of the object as you can in a given time; and that
you continually make efforts to go beyond shorthand, and draw portions
of the objects rightly.

And touching this question of _direction_ of lines as indicating that of
surface, observe these few points:

[Illustration: FIG. 10.]

If lines are to be distinctly shown, it is better that, so far as they
_can_ indicate any thing by their direction, they should explain rather
than oppose the general character of the object. Thus, in the piece of
woodcut from Titian, Fig. 10., the lines are serviceable by expressing,
not only the shade of the trunk, but partly also its roundness, and the
flow of its grain. And Albert Durer, whose work was chiefly engraving,
sets himself always thus to make his lines as _valuable_ as possible;
telling much by them, both of shade and direction of surface: and if you
were always to be limited to engraving on copper (and did not want to
express effects of mist or darkness, as well as delicate forms), Albert
Durer's way of work would be the best example for you. But, inasmuch as
the perfect way of drawing is by shade without lines, and the great
painters always conceive their subject as complete, even when they are
sketching it most rapidly, you will find that, when they are not
limited in means, they do not much trust to direction of line, but will
often scratch in the shade of a rounded surface with nearly straight
lines, that is to say, with the easi