Brushwork

To learn Brushwork is to learn to draw with a brush instead of a pencil—in mass instead of in outline. It has been found that children like this method, and find it easy: proportions are more readily grasped, faults are more easily seen in the filled surface, while even the work of a beginner often shows the grace and the spirit of the model. In its first stages Brushwork aims (1) at mastery of the brush; (2) at the use of the brush to draw with. In its later stages it teaches the expression of solid form by means of light and shade, and simple colouring—the beginnings of water-colour painting. Its chief object is to teach bold, simple work; it deals with general effect rather than detail; it is suggestive rather than exact. Much must be left out in using this method, but a wise "leaving out" is one of the secrets of an artist. The pupil is taught to look for the broad effects that mark the modelling, disregarding, for the time, small changes of surface and colour. When the power of doing this has been obtained, a great step has been made, and the pupil will be ready to attack more serious work.