Hugo B. Froehlich

“ Is there a machine shop, a mill, or a quarry? Then you will find something to draw, as interesting as the factory in the artist's sketch. Does a railroad run through the place? There is the station, the switch tower, the engines and the freight cars. Or, perhaps there is a blacksmith shop or a trolley car. Keep your eyes open, and find the things in your town that show the life of the people. Tomorrow, bring a sketch showing some picture you have seen in the place where you live. ”

“ Select a plant in bloom, from which to make a wash-drawing. A tulip or a daffodil would make a good study. Study its growth, the shapes and sizes of its different parts, the values of its blossom, leaves, and stems, and of the jar in which it grows. Show how beautiful a picture of a plant and its bright flower may be made, without the use of color. ”

“ When you are out of doors or are looking through a window at some of nature's pictures, think how you would paint or draw in values the different things you see. Notice which objects appear darkest, which lightest, and which might be expressed by a "half-way" gray, or middle value. If you learn to see these light and dark effects in the world about you, pictures, photographs, and out-of-door scenes will become matters of great interest to you. ”

“ It is always a delight for us to see a beautiful bit of color. In studying the sketch, you can see how freely and simply the brush has done its work, showing the fresh, clear color of the bowl, the darker value of the inner lining, and the gray-violet shadow cast upon the table. ”

“ Good proportion and the right arrangement of light and dark values will often make an object beautiful, without the addition of ornament. In the chapter on still life, the objects you studied were not decorated, but they were well designed in their beauty of proportions, their color, and their contrast in values.
Many familiar objects such as envelopes, boxes, and book-covers, depend for beauty on these simple elements. The sketch of the portfolio on this page is beautiful because it has a fine proportion of parts, and because the gray values of these parts are harmonious. ”

“ It is only in the darkest night, when we can see but a few feet ahead of us, that objects seem to lose their color.
In our houses, too, everything has color—not the bright hues that we find in flowers and landscapes, but softer, grayed color. We would not like carpets and wall-paper of the bright color we find in poppies, for instance. The colors we use in our furnishings should not be glaring and intense, but quiet and restful. ”

“ Let us study the drawing on this page. We have found that a group of still life, a spray of plant growth, or a landscape should show variety in shapes, in sizes of shapes, and in light and dark, or values. Does the hyacinth show these contrasts? Notice the shape of the mass of bloom, as differing from the shapes of the long, slender leaves, the stem, and the flower-pot. You will also find large shapes and small in different parts of the sketch. The flower-pot and the mass of bloom are large in proportion to the leaves and stem. Contrast and variety in color you can easily see. ”

“ Any drawing looks much better if the space around it is carefully planned and adapted to the shapes shown in the drawing. This is the reason we use a finder on a sketch like that on page 55. Although the lantern on the right is well drawn and is a pleasing part of the whole sketch, it seems to have received added beauty in the left sketch on this page. It has been taken away from other interests, and placed within an enclosure which is well adapted to its shape, size, and color. The gray oblong at the bottom brings the eye to a part of the picture, not so important as the lantern. ”

“ Do you think that the landscape alone, or the most interesting of plants and flowers would be enough to make you happy? No matter how much you enjoyed these things, or how much you might love the beautiful country, nothing could take the place of companions and friends. No books or toys or fine houses could keep you from being lonely if you had no one to talk to or to play with. Our brothers and sisters and friends are worth all the books and toys and fine houses in the world. ”

“ How We See Things. The best thing that our lessons in drawing and painting can do for us is to teach us to see. To truly see a thing means that eyes and brains must work together. Our eyes must look and our brains must think; that is what gives us the power to see.
Interesting Things Out of Doors. When you were making a special study of landscape, you found that many things out of doors that you had not thought about before, became very interesting to you. You began to notice the colors of the sky and earth, the shapes of trees, the forms of clouds, the change from day to night. ”

“ Make a water-color painting of a simple piece of still life, choosing a color not too brilliant. Make the entire drawing with the brush, trying not to "work" your colors until the life and freshness are lost. ”

“ In furthering the work of the first group, the topics so familiar to the art teacher of our modern schools are treated—landscape, plants, life, and still life. In the second group are presented the principles of perspective, of industrial drawing, of color harmony, and most important of all, the principles of pure design. In the third group are placed creative exercises in composition, in decorative design, and in many forms of manual training. ”

“ In painting or drawing a picture, it is not enough to put down a number of shapes or lines without regard to their relation to each other. We must arrange or compose them, just as we arrange furniture in a room. We must study to place things where they will best satisfy our idea of beauty. ”

“ In the primary grades, the work is largely objective in its character. Children are taught to see and to do. In the intermediate grades, the children are introduced to the principles of arrangement, Balance, Rhythm, and Harmony, which have been adopted as the working basis of this series of books, and in the light of which the subjective and creative work of the upper grades is planned. As the work progresses through the different years, the subjective and creative sides are more and more emphasized, and the study of objects is felt to be merely a means necessary to an end. ”

“ There is real beauty in this picture of home and the common things of every-day use.
Finding and Expressing Beauty. In the houses we live in nowadays, there may be no kitchen fireplaces like this; but the thought that we get from the picture is that beauty may be found in those things for which we sometimes care the least. Let us study the common dishes we cook with, the vegetables that come from market or garden, the furniture we use every day. ”

“ Some of the best journals we know about have been kept by people who lived quiet lives. They wrote about the little things they saw and heard and did. It was the way in which they told these things that made their journals as interesting as storybooks.
An Artist's Journal. Artists and people who love to make pictures keep a kind of journal that they call a sketch-book. They are always on the lookout for material for pictures. They see much more than people do who are not trained to observe. ”

“ Hundreds of objects about you in school and at home are also based, in their proportions, on the oblong. Think of the books, boxes, rugs, doors, and windows, that you constantly see. They are nearly always shaped like an oblong. You will be interested to know some of the ways in which decorations for these objects are planned. In a rug or a book-cover, for instance, we often wish a design similar to that shown in Sketch A. In planning for this, a smaller oblong was drawn within the larger one. ”

“ The hepatica comes first, with its pale violet blossoms nearly hidden under a thick covering of the dead leaves of the forest. Its little buds seem to be protected from the cold by soft garments of fur. All winter long the spotted leaves of last autumn have stayed on the plant. They are beautiful now, in shape and in color.
The bloodroot has a large round leaf which folds close about the flower-bud until the snow-white blossoms open. Its root is a sort of underground stem, and has a bright orange or red juice, from which the plant is named. ”

“ In Chart D the scales are arranged to show the grays or neutral values that correspond to the different colors in their full intensity. In this chart yellow is as light as the gray wash called High Light (HL) . Yellow-orange and yellow-green are of the same value as Light (L) . Orange and green are of the same value as Low Light (LL) . Red-orange and blue-green are of the same value as Middle (M) . Red and blue equal the neutral value High Dark (HD) . Red-violet and blue-violet are equal to Dark (D) , and violet, the darkest color, is expressed by Low Dark (LD) . Low Dark is almost black. ”

“ You can see that in the leaves more yellow than is usual was used, because their color is decidedly yellow-green. Most of the berries are shown, still held in their orange-colored cases. Can you tell what two colors were used in painting the berries?
Sometimes yellow and green alone do not give you the green you may desire; if you add a little red it will soften, or make gray, a green that seems too bright.
Choose a bright spray of autumn leaves and place it against a background. Study the growth, the different shapes of leaves and berries, and the color. Paint in life size just what you see. ”

“ Some ellipses are more beautiful in their proportions than others. If the bowl had been placed in a position where the width of the ellipse looked twice as great from front to back as it is shown here, the sketch would be less pleasing. Generally, a narrow ellipse is more beautiful than a wide one, and in arranging objects like the bowl for studies, we should be careful to place them so that the ellipses do not appear too wide from front to back. The beauty of the proportions of an ellipse has much to do with the beauty of the whole drawing. ”

“ You can tint paper with water-color in much the same way that you put on landscape washes. Dampen a sheet of paper, and then apply a very little red, blue, and yellow, washing the three colors down the sheet. A little practice will teach you how to use the color to get a green-gray, a yellow-gray, or a blue-gray tint. Tint several sheets at one lesson.
Using a sheet of your tinted paper, make a brush drawing in color, from a growth of grass or sedge. Draw in large size, and make a "finder" picture from your sketch. ”

“ We can show with black crayons, with charcoal, or with brush and ink many pictures of out-of-doors that are rich in color. Even a sunset sky can be shown in grays, so that we will think of the lovely colors that the grays, or values, express. ”

“ Use paper large enough to show in life size the grass heads and part of the leaves and stems. Before beginning the study, practice drawing grass leaves with one stroke of the brush, without first outlining their shapes. Then draw from the arrangement before you, working freely with the brush. In studying the leaves, notice where the greatest width is seen. Observe the size and direction of the stems, and draw them so that they express the upright growth and the grace of the plant. Grass stems are not like the stems of flowering plants or vines. ”

“ It is not necessary to review the history of art education in public schools, nor to present argument for the introduction or retention of drawing as an important study. These questions have been exhaustively treated, and need no fresh discussion. The school that does not offer to its community some kind of systematic art instruction is today an exception. ”

“ The front of the building faces a large open space, which is surrounded on three sides by ancient palaces of marble. These old buildings, with their arches and towers, and the nooks and crannies of the cathedral, form fine nesting places for pigeons, and hundreds and thousands of them are found flying about the square. Years ago, the pigeons were fed at the city's expense, and any one who injured or killed one of them was fined or put in prison. The people thought that the pigeons brought peace and prosperity to their city, and kept it from being swallowed by the waves. ”

“ Have you ever heard any one read aloud in an even tone of voice, without changing the pitch or giving what is called expression to the story? You soon grow tired of listening to such reading even though the words are distinctly spoken. ”

“ The sketch on this page shows two different colors of the iris. If you cannot find flowers like them, choose a stalk of blue flag or early garden iris. Flowers of all kinds must be painted with fresh, clean colors, used directly from the box. Do not mix or stir color in the palette. Colors that are "handled" too much become muddy and dead. One color may be dropped in another, allowing them to blend on the paper. You have made stained glass effects in this way. Sometimes two colors may be taken in the brush at once. They will flow together as you draw. ”

“ Education along specific lines should conform to the philosophy which is accepted as fundamental in general educational work. The educational principles adhered to in these books are, therefore, in accord with the psychological laws of child development which are endorsed by the leading educators of the present time, and the effort has been made to work out in these books a series of lessons that shall be not only educationally sound and artistically correct, but at the same time adapted in the different stages to the child's ability to comprehend and his power to express. ”

“ If you stand in the middle of the street and look down its length you will notice that the lines of the sidewalk seem to run together, that the trees and houses decrease in height as they are seen farther away, and that people in the distance appear smaller than people near you. When you can see these effects for yourself, you will begin to understand what the study of perspective means. ”