Page:A Treatise on Painting.djvu/115

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PROPORTION.
9

Chap. XVIII.To draw Figures from Nature.

Accustom yourself to hold a plummet in your hand, that you may judge of the bearing of the parts.

Chap. XIX.Of drawing from Nature.

When you draw from Nature, you must be at the distance of three times the height of the object; and when you begin to draw, form in your own mind a certain principal line (suppose a perpendicular); observe well the bearing of the parts towards that line; whether they intersect it, are parallel to it, or oblique.

Chap. XX.Of drawing Academy Figures.

When you draw from a naked model, always sketch in the whole of the figure, suiting all the members well to each other; and though you finish only that part which appears the best, have a regard to the rest, that, whenever you make use of such studies, all the parts may hang together.

In composing your attitudes, take care not to turn the head on the same side as the breast, nor let the arm go in a line with the leg[1]. If the head turn towards the right shoulder, the parts must be lower on the left side than on the other; but if the chest come forward, and the head turn towards the left, the parts on the right side are to be the highest.

  1. See Chap. ci.
Chap.