Crayon

“ The Talk.
"I am going to place on the drawing paper today the picture of a young man of the type which we admire—a young fellow of upright life, good habits and Christian principles. We want him for our friend. [Draw Fig. 52, complete.]
"But there is another type of man whose character we can well illustrate by changing the lines in this first portrait. [With the broad side of your black crayon make the changes needed to produce Fig. 53. Shade the face with a light touch of the broad side of the crayon.] ”

“ The frontispiece was made from a free-hand crayon which was executed on Steinbach crayon paper with a magic lantern outline. This shows the stipple effect in the face and drapery, and a broken line effect in the background. The student will notice the difference between this illustration and that facing page 81, which was made from a bromide crayon. In the bromide crayon the shadows are dark and strong, while in this they are lighter and more transparent. ”

“ REPRESENTATION OF SURFACES WITH HINTS ON THE DELINEATION OF DISTANCES. LAND SLOPING FROM THE OBSERVER. LIGHT AND SHADE.
The most convenient length of crayon to use, is a piece about an inch and a half or two inches long, yet we may often profitably use the whole side or length of the crayon. If we wish to represent broad surfaces, we will naturally use the side of the crayon, as a child does. To show narrower widths of surface press more upon the end of the crayon, also use a long edge to represent the edges or the meeting of surface planes. ”

“ François made me understand that the study of form is accomplished quite as well with crayon as with clay or any other material. With crayon one makes a semblance of the form by light and shade; with clay is made a reality, a true relief. The end is the same — the study of form. It is the means only which differ.
After supper François often went to take a walk on the plain or in the forest. He was fond of watching the beautiful evening effects which are produced on the plain, and although he greatly admired the forest, his preference was for the plain. ”

“ This treatment cuts through the gelatin surface and prepares it for the stipple effect. Now stand the strainer on its edge and jar the pumice stone off, after which lay it down on the table, and with a piece of clean cotton lightly brush off the surface; then, having rubbed the finger ends in the crayon sauce, go over the entire surface of the enlargement, holding them flat, and you will produce a fine stipple effect.
If the shadows need to be darker, use a little more [Pg 83] crayon on the fingers; also put the cast shadow in the background, applying the crayon with the fingers. ”

“ Velour crayon is very black. It is only used to produce a velvet effect and whenever it is necessary to make a very strong dark—that is, a dark that is deeper than an ordinary shadow. [Pg 27]
The Peerless crayon sauce is the same as the crayon sauce made from No. 1 Conte crayon and the black Conte crayon sauce in foil. It is made and put up in bottles by F. W. Devoe & Co., and can be bought of any dealer in artist's materials. It will be found more convenient to get it in this form than to prepare it in the studio; it costs no more and saves the expense of a mortar and pestle. ”

“ Sometimes the enlargement is too dark in the shadows, and although you require to have them lighter you have already removed all the crayon from the surface, and it still remains too dark. The crayon pencil is many shades darker and blacker than the shadows, yet you can by its use make them lighter by putting in the stipple effect, as the dark touches of the pencil in their contrast with the shadow color under them cause them to appear lighter. ”

“ Another kind of crayon is also used by some artists in addition to the stick crayon. This is a fine, black, powdered crayon, called the “sauce crayon,” and comes put up in little tin cases. It is very useful when large masses of dark are necessary, and is rubbed on with a stump, while the stick crayons and charcoal sticks are sharpened to a point before using.
Stumps are made variously of leather, chamois-skin and paper. The most useful in charcoal and crayon drawing are the paper stumps, which will be found to answer every purpose. ”

“ In drawing a life-sized head the artist must not be too far from his subject, the easel being placed about four or five feet distant. It is well to get up and walk back occasionally, looking at the work from a distance so as to see the general effect.
There are several different kinds of paper used for crayon portraits, some artists preferring one make, some another. The ordinary “Lalanne” and “Michelet” papers used for charcoal and crayon studies are a little too rough in texture to please every body, and do not produce quite so fine a finish as is desirable. ”

“ The crayon point is always used in finishing up the drawing, which is carried on by degrees. The dark accents are put in the eyes, nose, mouth and ears, and the small stump is used to soften the marks of the crayon, but should not be rubbed too much.
If the head be rather dark in its general [Pg 46] effect, a very delicate gray tint should be put all over the light mass of the face. This is done with a clean stump which has been used for half tints, and the tone is put on in the same manner, the crayon point not being used here. ”

“ For crayon work the stones must be uniform and hard. They must either be new, or, if they have been used, they must be ground so thoroughly that all traces of fat are destroyed and removed absolutely to a degree where it is certain that they will not appear again and take color, even if the stone is etched only lightly. ”

“ The idea to be impressed is, that when we want to represent an object with crayon and that object is flat, we draw straight lines to represent its surface; and when the object is round or partly so, we draw curved lines, conforming them to the surface of the object. [Pg 58] Light and shade in nature have each their different qualities. Light expresses form while shade obscures it; consequently, in the light places of an object we will see its grain or texture, and that grain or texture will gradually become obscured as it enters the shadow until it is entirely lost in the deepest shadows. ”

“ The blackboard and chalk crayon exercise is valuable in imparting to the learner a natural and unstudied twist of the wrist, together with a whole arm movement that most assuredly must be at the command of the scroll workman. Only by such exercise can the quick, artistic hand be acquired along with an eye trained to correct proportions. ”

“ In Lemercier's lithographic crayons we have a drawing medium which gives as satisfactory results as the Conté or Hardmuth, and does not blur; it therefore saves the trouble of fixing. Being greasy, they should be used in a porte-crayon. They are made in three degrees as to hardness, the No. 1 being the hardest and best suited for drawing the limited amount of detail which is possible with crayons.
So long as the drawing is not too heavily worked upon, a surprising improvement is secured by reducing. A reduction of one-half is not too much. ”

“ As you are working in the dark you are apt to overlook some lines. If you have done so you can close the shutter again and make them. If it proves to be all right go over it with the crayon point No. 2. ”

“ Chemical or fatty crayon is a composition intended to be used on the stone plate in dry form like Spanish or Parisian chalk. The inks described previously have the property of soaking into the stone and making it greasy where applied. The same happens if they are applied dry, the degree of their penetration and adherence merely being less.
The mixtures that may be used to make crayons are countless. Wax and soaps, however, are better than resinous materials. Therefore it is likely that the compositions here named will be pretty nearly the best. [119]
The wax and soap are melted together. ”

“ Care should be exercised not to rub too hard, it being a common fault of the beginner to rub the paper too much, and produce a dirty effect. The lines should be merely rubbed until they are somewhat blurred and indistinct. Remember that the crayon portrait is made on the surface of the paper, and not rubbed into it. After it has thus been treated with the cotton, go over the shadows with the crayon point No. ”

“ When he presses the ring of the middle finger, the form will rise amidst the rolling of the internal wheel-work, step out into the chamber, and the wheel-work, which is running down, will stop with her at a wall whereon she indicates, by the crayon, a hidden compartment, in which lie a pocket-perspective glass and the waxen impression of a coffin-key. ”

“ There was some that they called crayons, which one of the daughters which was dead made her own self when she was only fifteen years old. They was different from any pictures I ever see before—blacker, mostly, than is common. ”

“ Nor should we be justified in regarding the cranial conformation as perhaps representing the most savage primitive type of the human race, since crania exist among living savages, which, though not exhibiting such a remarkable conformation of the forehead, which gives the skull somewhat the aspect of that of the large apes, still in other respects, as for instance in the greater depth of the temporal fossse, the crest-like, prominent temporal ridges, and a generally less capacious cranial cavity, exhibit an equally low stage of development. ”

“ For a shāhīn that has been buffeted by a crane and therefore turns tail, there is no medicine like a flight at a raven or a stone-plover. Don’t, my son, think that you will remake her by flying her at a heron; for on the contrary, you will, by so doing, mar her for crane. Often have I seen a crane-hawk so spoilt.
You may argue that a heron closely resembles a crane in colour and in shape, while a raven does not. Quite so—but a heron is, compared to a crane, a small and feeble [568] quarry, one that your hawk will easily take. [569] Flown at a heron she will say to herself, “Hallo! ”

“ The cranium was abnormally shaped, reaching a great elevation at the summit, then sinking suddenly, then spreading forward to an enormous development at the temple just visible as he was then standing, and at the same time forming unusual protuberances behind the large and pointed ears. No one who knew the man could mistake his head, when even the least portion of it could be seen. ”

“ The minute expansion at the anterior end of the nerve tube of Amphioxus cannot be called a brain, whilst the brain of all the Craniates is identical in morphological type and so complex that it must have behind it a long history of development. The embryonic Craniate brain appears as three dilatations of the neural tube, respectively the posterior or hind-brain, continuous with the spinal cord, the mid-brain and the fore-brain. From the hind-brain there arises the medulla oblongata or myelencephalon behind, and the metencephalon in front, the dorsal wall of which gives rise to the cerebellum. ”

“ We are convinced that even if the skull had been complete, it would not have been possible to pronounce, with certainty, upon a single specimen; for individual variations are so numerous in the crania of one and the same race, that one cannot, without laying oneself open to large chances of error, draw any inference from a single fragment of a cranium to the general form of the head to which it belonged. ”

“ Idiotcy is compatible with very various forms and capacities of the cranium, but I know of none which present the least resemblance to the Neanderthal skull; and, furthermore, I shall proceed to show that the latter manifests but an extreme degree of a stage of degradation exhibited, as a natural condition, by the crania of certain races of mankind.
"Mr. Busk drew my attention, some time ago, to the resemblance between some of the skulls taken from tumuli of the stone period at Borreby in Denmark, of which Mr. Busk possesses numerous accurate figures, and the Neanderthal cranium. ”

“ The cranium is large in proportion to the size of the body. The skull is in the form of a wide oval and is wider than it is long. The elements of the skull were ornamented with a coarse sculpturing which partakes of the nature of incomplete radiations on the squamosal region. The different elements of the cranium can not be distinguished, although I think the outlines of the parietal are indicated. The position of the nostrils is well forward and they are slightly elongate transversely. The pineal foramen can not be determined. ”

“ Besides, in animals the cranium is very prominent superiorly, and the face, more or less elongated, is sharply projected downwards and forwards; in man the cranial region occupies not only the superior, but also the posterior part; the face is short and of a compact form. The human head, in its general aspect, may be compared to a sphere, while the skull of the quadrupeds presents the aspect of a quadrangular pyramid, with the base turned upwards and the summit at the incisor teeth. ”

“ Thus normal human crania can have an inferior capacity of 1000 cubic centimeters, but then these are pigmy crania, and they come up again with respect to the general form because they contain a brain relatively voluminous with reference to the stature; they have no right, so to speak, to that enormous frontal visor which is, among all races, the lot of individuals with powerful skeleton and brain relatively small, or of averred microcephalous individuals whose development of skeleton approaches the medium. ”