there are none in Nature, and the lines are completely artificial. The skilled artist is he who can choose such typical and vital lines as will best represent any object he may desire to draw.

How to Begin.

SOME of our very best artists have never had any training in Technical Schools. Just as many people learn to play on the piano by ear, there are those who can draw by eye. Naturally, the greater the knowledge of drawing the better for the would-be draughtsman. But the most available and the best lessons are rarely taken advantage of; there is too much eagerness on the part of beginners to follow mechanical avenues, such as drawing in freehand and from the wooden model. Better results are frequently obtained by a less restricted system. A piece of pencil and paper, and the pupil is equipped. Even though he knows nothing whatever about the technical rules of art, he should attempt to draw everything he sees. At first he will make a fine mess of everything; but that is the experience of all. It will take him quite a long time indeed even to get up to the standard of the sketches shown in Examples 3 and 4, but the study of Nature is undoubtedly the best school. Through neglect on this score not a few of our best professional artists resort to apparatus, conveniences, and even dodges little suspected by the uninitiated public. Much of their skilled and published work, indeed, is but the merest "amateurism." The novice who is attracted by a pen-and-ink drawing must not deceive himself by the impression that it is all and always out of the artist's "own head," as it were. This is not often true.

The beginner with his pencil and paper making his attempts has some consolation, nevertheless, for his lack of

technical knowledge. He can always consult the work of competent pen-and-ink artists. Thus, suppose he was anxious to draw the interior of a room, he would be sadly muddled in trying to get his lines right. He can then turn to the interior of a room as drawn by a more capable delineator, study how he has managed it, and apply, so far as he can, the other's methods. Everybody, saving an exceptional genius, must commence by being a copyist. When some idea is obtained how a room-which is a very difficult study —is represented, the sky, animals, clouds, everything is open

Ex. 3.

to be experimented on. The unconscious information secured in this way is wonderful; every failure makes you the keener in perceiving how the practised draughtsman has succeeded.

For the purposes of consultation and correction there is a rich store of pen-and-ink work easily procurable. A number of drawings by foremost pen-and-ink artists appear in these pages; but they have been selected mainly with the object of simple guidance and instruction, not for display. [Some of them are reproduced from Pick-Me-Up, by kind permission of Mr. Henry Reichardt.] For a few pence or shillings any newsagent can furnish the illustrated periodicals, and

dealers in artist's materials always keep a stock of photographic reproductions of the best paintings. And just here it will be well to remind the beginner that artists cannot draw every object with equal facility. Some draughtsmen excel in landscape, others in figures, others in caricature, others in decorative work, and still others in architectural and industrial designs. An artist who is, perhaps, first in his line in drawing animals may make a sorry show in representing the human figure. A master in drawing animals and figures may be completely lost in landscape work or interiors. And so on. There is no need to bewail lack of capacity should the beginner find he is not equally skilful with all sorts and conditions of objects.

In following the plan here proposed, of studying direct from Nature with the aid of comparison, another warning may not come amiss. The delicacy and finish of most of the published drawings is not altogether due to the artistillustrator. If you take up a magazine and glance at any of the illustrations, remember that you are not looking at the original drawing exactly as it was when handed to the engraver. This engraved copy differs from the original drawing in this respect it is not the same size. The practice is to reduce the original by photography to about one-third of its size, and then engrave it at the reduced size. Thus the fine delicate lines which the beginner despairs of ever producing are three times as coarse in the original as they are in the engraving. Although drawings are reproduced now and again to exactly the same size, "to scale," as it is termed, the rule is to reduce them. Mechanism not unfrequently contributes considerable finish and fineness to the artist's work.

The old school of pen-and-ink artists drew on wood, and the drawing was engraved right away. This is how Sir

John Tenniel's cartoons in Punch are treated to this day. But the French and Americans, by extensively adopting "process," discovered the value of the new method, which, though its results be no better than wood-engraving, proves commercially less expensive. In Harpers', Scribners', and the Century magazines beautiful examples of this automatic engraving may be seen. The Flegiende Blätter of Munich, Le Courier Français, Black and White, The Ladies' Pictorial, Pick-Me-Up, New York Life, Puck of Philadelphia, The Strand Magazine, and many other publications contain firstclass pen-and-ink art engraved in the best "process manner. For study both in engraved results and excellence in drawing, no better work could engage the attention of

the beginner than that of the following draughtsmen :-In England, Charles Keene, Fred Walker, T. Wyllie, Barnard, Sandys, Phil May, Du Maurier, Joseph Pennell, L. RavenHill, Edgar Wilson, and some others; in Spain, Fortuny, Rico, Vierge, Madrazo and Pons; in Germany, Menzel, Dietz, Schlittgen, and Oberländer; in France, Lalaure, Caran D'Ache, Breville, De Neuville, Lunelle, Gerbault, and Doës; in America, Edwin Abbey, the best of all illustrators, Reinhardt, Gibson, and, for outrageous comicality, "Zim." From the point of view of quality, the Continental draughts