^. @ i^ ^ i^\v$ ^^\v^ ^^""^^i^f ^*2r^^5 ^^ ^^AHvaanv^ '^^Aavaan-^' '<<^qnvsoi'^ %a3AiNfl-3Wv^ '^^om UBRARYQ^ -5>?IUBRARYa^ ^5!i\E-UNIVER% o ^^UBRARYQC;^ -5,^^-UBRARYQ^ )jnYD-JO^ ^OjnVD-jO^ "^JTUONVSm^ "^/^a^AINIl-JVf^ '^- C3 ^lOSANCEUr^ JDHVSOl^ "%saaA]Nn-3«i^ UNIV!R% e3 ^lOSANCn^ ^tUBRARYOc. ^tUBRARYQc^ ^OFCAUFO/?^ ^OFCALIFO% iDwstn^ %a3AiNn-3tfv* v^Aavaani;^ ^^AHvaani^ «^5MEUNIVER% ^ - — ' ^ •CAllFOff^ ^OFCAlIFOff^ ^vaan-^"^ '^^AavMn#' <53aEUNIVER5/,^ ^lOSANCEUr^ o -j^tUBRARYOc^ § 1 I/-' ^ -5>?XIIBRARYQ^ %UONVS01^ "^/SaaAINdJWV^ ^^OJITVJJO^ 5^5.WEUNIVE%. C3 ^lOSMEier^ '^i7i3!)Nv<;m^ ^OFCAIIFO^^I^ DC ^.OF-CAIIFO% "^AaaAiNn-JWv ^(?Aavjj8n# ^, i^UBRAIIYaj^ ^mimOf: ^5J\HIINIVB!% ^lOSANKltfe S M^id %jnvD-jo'»^ &Aavaan-^^^ 4>^llIBRARYQc .t^mUNIVERS/A ^lOSANCEl£r^ '^.i/OJnVD-JO'^ ' man, painter, and writer. Incidentally, it suggests other qual- c^ ifications of this many-sided personality. It presents its subject from the view-points of architect and draftsman, and harmonizes them. It solves a host of difficult problems and answers many trying questions. It is the architectural draftsman who will be the greatest beneficiary, who will find his work has been made easier and his output improved by the acquisition of this new and engaging text book and authority. The architect will bene- ^ fit in that his work will be better presented, and possibly he may, '^ himself, be better able to appreciate what architectural pre- /^ sentation means. Posterity will come in for a great acquisi- ; tion in that through this work there will be recorded what other- oJ wise might one day join the "lost arts," for architectural render- \.f^ '^^S is to-day at its zenith, indisputably an art in itself, and a J) great one. I foresee for this book a widespread and lasting in- fluence for the betterment of artistic appreciation, architectural draftsmanship, and last, but not least, architecture itself; and I commend it to all whose interests embrace these subjects, and to that great group of discerning men and women, the public — on whom by the very nature of things — the future of all art must depend. ^ Thos. R. Kimball, F. A. I. A. Omaha, Nebraska. vii CONTENTS CHAPTBB SAGE I. The Preliminary Steps 3 11. Rendering 31 III. Quarter-, Half-, or Three-Quarter-Color . . 83 IV. Rendering Sections 93 V. Rendering Detail Drawing 94 VI. Rendering Plans 100 VII. The Properties OF Pigments 116 VIII. Free Color and Free Sketching 133 Index 145 ILLUSTRATIONS The Library of Columbia University, Drawn by Jules Guerin Frontispiece 1 Rendered by Otto R. Eggers 2 Rendered by the Author — Diagram of Building Assumed to be Rendered, Drawn by Oliver Reagan 3 Rendered by Birch Burdette Long 4 " " the Author — Diagram of Typical Cornice Shadow, Drawn by Oliver Reagan 5 Rendered by the Author 6 " " the Author 7 " " Bellows, Ripley, Clapp and Faelten . 8 " *' the Author 9 " " the Author 10 " " Paul Philippe Cret 11 " *' the Author 12 *' " G. Redon 13 " *' Paul Philippe Cret 14 " " G. Ancelet 15 " *' Leon Chifflot 16 " " Frank Hazell 17 *' " Hubert G. Ripley . . ,. 18 " *' Jules Guerin 19 " " Hubert G. Ripley 20 " " the Author 21 " *' Otto R. Eggers 22 " " Ernest Peixotto PAGB 12 22 34 42 66 68 70 80 82 84 88 94 96 98 100 104 1 12 120 130 134 136 138 140 142 FOREWORD Genius has been defined as the capacity for taking infinite pains. It takes infinite pains to make a beautiful rendered draw- ing. The conclusion is irresistible — one has but to make a beautiful rendered drawing and behold! A genius. Or, one need but take infinite pains and the genius and the drawing are pro- duced by one and the same process. This modest manual is a guide to the process. With the information given here, the addition of some brains, a little temperament, a vast deal of pa- tience (or ardor under restraint), a modicum of vision and as much imagination as obtainable from the ancestral tree, any one may arrive. This book is devoted principally to the rendering of geomet- rical drawings — elevations, sections, plans and details — what may be called formal or academic rendering. It is not a gen- eral treatise upon painting in water color, although there is an indefinite middle ground between the formal and the free into which we must make an occasional excursion and a con- siderable body of information upon rendering in full color and sketching will be found here. But it is with the aristocrat of architectural rendering, formal rendering in India Ink, we shall deal principally, for several reasons, chief among them being that academic rendering may be reduced to a method and a formula. A definite recipe may be given, a program laid out. Without a definite method, a carefully thought-out series of steps to take, an academic rendering in India Ink is fore- xiv FOREWORD doomed to failure. But in free work in water color, rapid sketch- ing on white or toned paper and architectural rendering in full color, while there must, of course, be method, much depends upon the temperament of the individual, the personal tricks of handling which stamp his work with his style, the way of see- ing and the method of attack; and since every one has different systems it is an impossibility to crystallize them into formula — as well as being a crime. The most that can be done for free work is to give a few hints and let it go at that. For art may be learned, or apprehended, but it cannot be taught. The most one can do or should do is to say, ''I do it in this way. But you must do it your way — when you know how!" Before a man's skill and knowledge have developed he must follow some man or some method or lose himself in a maze of mistakes. Later he may blaze a trail for himself. It is a great temptation to a novice to use all the colors there are, in any sort of rendering and on one drawing. He likes to use color and forgets that this is not the last drawing he will make in the course of his life and that it is hardly fair to the future ones to use up the rainbow so early in the day. It is the same as in design — he forgets that if his luck holds he will de- sign many a building and that it isn't necessary, it is even quite distinctly undesirable, to put everything he knows about into one design. A decent reticence is to be observed in this as in other things in life — one doesn't go about telling all one knows, all at once. Every student seems to want to render geometrical draw- ings in full color whether the work has to be done at night or not, or whether the author of the given outrage knows how to handle even one color, let alone the full rainbow. This is a FOREWORD XV great pity. For the most distinguished architectural drawing is always the monotone drawing. The method of representing a building in elevation rather than in perspective is a convention, and the more closely one adheres to a convention in its rendition the more harmonious the relation between the fact and its pres- entation. The moment the third dimension appears in a draw- ing, as it does in a perspective, the convention need no longer be respected and the aim changes and becomes an approxima- tion of reality. The truth is that the average student-rendering in full color is intended to make a noise which will cover up some shortcoming or kill its neighbors. If a value is wrong, it may be blamed upon night work in artificial light. But in a mono- tone drawing there is not a chance. If a value is wrong it is wrong. I therefore urge students in or out of school to practise rendering in India Ink before going on to the use of color. It is one of the few forms of self-denial with a tangible reward. Another reason for treating principally of formal rendering is that the average American student of Architecture is al- together too fond of short cuts, is apt to be superficial and is im- patient of the solid things that lie at the foundation of his art. Among these solid things is a kind and method of study and presentation of architectural design which really trains his eye. The French, trained for generations in the effort to teach art, know this; and the Grand Prix men in their first year at the Villa Medici — do what? Make careful studies of the orders in India Ink as a preparation for the work of the years to follow and as a sort of purge and corrective of the kind of work they have been doing at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. Large French- men with beards do this, quite unashamed. And some of those who, at the School, indulged in the most untamed vagaries of xvi FOREWORD design, pace soberly and with apparent willingness in the re- straining bonds of academic rendering. The rigid discipline it enforces in the judgment of values and tones, the training the eye gets in discerning the difference, let us say, between two whites in which there is scarcely a breath of difference near by but which at a distance count with a totally different force, the exercise the hand gets in perfect- ing a technique, are all of inestimable value. Why so much emphasis upon draughtsmanship, upon presentation? Because by means of drawings the eye is trained to appreciate values in the distribution of light and shade and color — and it is with light and shade and color the architect deals all his life. And how is he to effect the distribution of his light and shade and color without making drawings which accurately express it, first? How can he make drawings which accurately express it without learning how to do so with his own hands? How is he to train his own eye by the use of some one's else hands? Formal rendering may be considered as the foundation of all rendering and its principles may be applied with the proper intelligent modifications to freer work. The danger to avoid in doing too much formal rendering is the acquisition of a habit of too great precision. Therefore one must keep loosened up by plenty of rapid sketching. Let no lazy man think he can succeed in this any more than he can in anything else. Formal rendering is not for the lazy man. After due consideration I have determined to assume that the reader is a beginner and knows little or nothing about ren- dering but wants to find out. This will give the novice what he needs — and the more experienced may find useful and help- ful suggestions. ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING IN WASH Will all you who have helped me make this book, by loan of drawings, by advice and criticism, by reading proof, and above all by friendly encourage- ment, accept my warmest thanks? H. Van Buren Magoniglb. 1921. ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING IN WASH I THE PRELIMINARY STEPS A successful rendering begins 'way back with the bare draw- ing board. The careful man will choose the best board he can find. He will test the edges to see if they be true, free from bulges and hollows which would throw the T-square up or down, for accuracy is essential to complete success; friezes, or the narrow whites of cornices or flights of steps must be the same width throughout. He will clean the board carefully, remove old edges of former mounts and old paste. Then he will sand- paper it with fine sandpaper and if there are any humps in the surface, hammer them down carefully. Bad hollows and old thumb-tack holes may be filled up with a mixture of very thin glue (or very thick glue-water) and whiting, sandpapered smooth after drying. Now why on earth these precautions? Because lumps and hummocks under the paper to be mounted on this board cause dirt and graphite to collect on the paper over the lumps, and such collections are very difficult to erase. Also, with a singu- lar perversity, they always come in the worst possible places on the drawing. Also, old paste when dampened again by the wet paper sticks to the underside of it and the only way to part 4 ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING IN WASH them is to whittle a chip out of the board and pare it ofif of the paper. Paper. All this labor may be delegated by those main- taining trusty slaves, but the work of the most trustworthy may be inspected and reviewed to advantage. The next step, how- ever, is for the operator himself. It concerns the selection and mounting of the paper. Of all the papers in the world the best for rendering is Whatman's cold-pressed. Hot-pressed What- man is merely the same paper run through hot rollers which crush down the surface and make it very smooth. When wet up the grain rises again somewhat. But, while admirable for certain classes of line drawings, it is not, in my opinion, a good surface to render upon in wash. It won't stand sponging very well, the smooth surface is easily abraded by the rubber and dirt collects upon it like magic. Whatman's cold-pressed comes in various sized sheets, the largest, called "Antiquarian," being 31 X52 inches. This size sheet is just right for weight which can be obtained in the smaller sizes when ordered "Extra Heavy." The smaller sheets are called "Double Elephant," 27 X 40 inches, and Imperial 22 x 30 inches. Thin, light-weight paper should be avoided even for very small drawings. It lacks quality of surface somehow, and will buckle and bulge when wet up with a wash because it has no body. For very large draw- ings it is sometimes necessary to use roll papers. Most of them are to be avoided. Whatman makes a good roll paper which lacks the quality of the hand-made sheet paper but has a fairly good surface. Eggshell paper was the best roll paper; it had texture, would stand hard usage and come up smiling to take a wash beautifully. Steinbach is not fit to use. It gets brittle with age and splits if stretched very tight — but its great defect THE PRELIMINARY STEPS 5 is a deceptive air of receptiveness to a wash. It looks as though it would be great — but it is so non-absorbent that the washes won't dry and you get run-backs and fans. This is true of most roll papers — the surface is too hard. The grain of the paper greatly affects the quality and liveliness of the wash. The identi- cal mixture laid in the identical manner on different kinds of paper looks entirely different when dry. Joining Sheets. It is worth making a great many sacri- fices to use Whatman's — changing the scale of the drawing if necessary and possible, to get it on a single large sheet. When the drawing has to be larger than a single Antiquarian sheet I would rather paste two or more together than use any roll paper now obtainable. This joining should be done by an expert, but when an expert is not at hand one may make shift for one's self. The two edges to be joined should have the rough deckle edge trimmed off square and then beveled down to a feather edge with fine emery paper, the edges retrimmed and then pasted together very carefully with Higgins's Drawing Board Paste, as it comes from the jar, spread on with a knife blade and the joint thumbtacked down at the extreme ends until dry, when any paste that has squeezed out of the joint must be carefully sponged off with a damp, not a wet, sponge. The best thing now is to paste it solid (or "float" it, as some say) on a mount made up of three or more thicknesses of cardboard glued or pasted together. To such a mount, which is in itself larger than most drawing boards, lighter and more wieldly, may be clamped a straight edge on which to work the T-square — and for a big drawing the straight edge may be shifted around for greater convenience. It is perhaps unnecessary to say that the joint (or joints) in the paper will be arranged to come where 6 ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING IN WASH it will be least conspicuous in the drawing, that it will be par- allel to the edge of the sheet, the mount and the horizontals or verticals of the drawing, and that if the joint is horizontal, the top half of the sheet will lap over the bottom half — the reason, of course, being that since most washes are run from the top of the drawing down, the wash slips over the edge of the joint. If it were the other way, the color would gather in a streak and perhaps cause a run-back. There will inevitably be a slight ridge along the lap and this will get very black and dirty unless great care is used as indicated later. Cloth-backed Papers. Some prefer to work entirely on paper mounted solid. And in this connection there is a warn- ing to sound: Be careful that the paste is not worked up into the paper. If it is, stop right there. The drawing will be a botch. Also, cloth-backed papers are dangerous to use because they are made by the yard by running them through pressure rollers which make a fine job of the pasting, but squeeze the paste right through. I prefer to mount the paper by the edges on a drawing board, because then I know there is no paste in the pa- per and because one is left freer in the matter of mounting the drawing afterward — for one may ink in a cutting line and run the washes out over it regardless, trim the drawing to the line, mount it solid on a white mount which will give, when the outer paper border is pasted on, a white band of any desired width next to the drawing — which is very valuable to have — and which white band may be modified in tone by drawing lines or wash- ing-in bands upon it. I advocate mounting joined sheets solid to work upon, be- cause the tensions in a joined sheet are so queer that it is very hard to mount by the edges only on a board (if you can get a THE PRELIMINARY STEPS 7 board big enough) and then, when the drawing is cut off, the shrinkages of the two or more pieces differ so owing to the dis- parity in the number of washes passed over the various parts, that it is harder to mount than before the drawing is made on it and to which original difficulty is added the fact that a valuable drawing is now on one side of it. Selecting the Paper. Let us assume that we can use a single sheet of Whatman's of any size you like under 31 x 52" but Extra Heavy. The first thing to do is to select the sheet carefully from among a goodly number. Every sheet of What- man is dated in the marginal water mark. Hold it to the light The older the paper the better dried out and seasoned it is. Some thoughtful persons lay down a few sheets a year as our forebears laid down wine to ripen and mellow. And althoug^j Whatman's is a singularly agreeable white and holds its color wonderfully (which, by the way, eggshell did not), it does take on a slightly creamier tone with age. Hold it to the light again and examine it carefully for defects. Sometimes in the process of manufacture, a drop of water falls on the soft pulp and makes a thin spot which resembles a little crater; sometimes the film of pulp is thinner in places; and nearly always there are specially thick places and little lumps and sometimes dark or black spots. These are defects inseparable from a hand-made paper. Fre- quently lumps which seem to be a part of the fabric may be picked off with a careful finger nail. When the thin spots are pretty bad or numerous, return the paper to the dealer. One can nearly always find a perfect or practically perfect sheet or avoid trouble by choosing one in which the defect will occur in a part of the drawing where it will do the least harm. Mounting. Having selected a good sheet we mount it on 8 ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING IN WASH the board. The best way to mount a sheet of paper is always one's own way. Nevertheless the following has its advantages and has, besides, the cachet of Professor William R. Ware's recommendation; I caught it from a pupil of his when very young and am incurably addicted to it. Lay the paper on the board with the water mark right side up and turn up the edges carefully all around making a soft crease so that they will stand up and form a shallow pan (one-half or three-quarters of an inch wide; it is not necessary to trim off the deckle edges). At this point Professor Ware would have us turn the sheet over and wet it on the other side, the side next to the drawing board when mounted, the theory being not to sponge the working face more than can be helped. (But Whatman likes to be sponged and prospers under it if it isn't actually scrubbed while wet. Another part of the theory was that in this way the edges did not get wet and dilute the paste or soften up so that when you rubbed them down to make the paste stick they would tear. My experience is, first, that the water on the back leaks out under the edges when they are turned down again and causes just these troubles; second, that the wet surface clings to the board and makes it harder to stretch; and third, that the paper wets the board, sometimes causing the grain of the wood to rise and frequently discoloring the paper.) I therefore diverge at this point and wet the paper on the working face, but in the Ware manner, viz., with a clean sponge full of clean water make the British Union Jack — or those of anti-British predilections may run the sponge from corner to corner and on the two main axes of the sheet; the result will be the same. Do it slowly and pass the sponge over the wet bands several times. Then let the water soak in for a minute or two and sponge the whole sheet THE PRELIMINARY STEPS 9 all over, Union Jack and all. The theory is that from corner to corner and from side to side there will be a strip of paper about twice as wet as the rest, which therefore dries out last and in its final shrinking helps to strain the sheet to the corners and outer edges. Anyway it seems to work perfectly. The sheet being wet all over, squeeze spongefuls of water on it so as to cover it with a thin film of water. The sheet will buckle and form puddles. Keep the puddles moving with the sponge and keep the outer turned-up edges dry. When the paper is thoroughly soaked and limp, sop up the surplus water with the squeezed-out sponge until no more actual puddles form. Have a towel handy and keep your hands clean. While the paper is soaking, if you forgot it before, ^et out the Higgins's Drawing Board Paste. Use it practically as it comes in the jar. Dampen your paste brush and rub it around in the jar. Adjust the paper square with the edges of the board, and pin the center of one long edge to the board with two thumb- tacks a couple of inches apart. Put paste along the opposite turned-up edge for eight inches or a foot. Take hold of it, lift the paper slightly and pull gently but strongly, put the gummed edge down on the board, and hold it firmly w4th one hand while you put in a couple of thumbtacks to hold it. Seize a piece of clean paper, put it over the gummed edge and with some smooth object like a knife handle, rub gently at first and then more strongly. As soon as the paper adheres enough, take out the thumbtacks on this side and rub down where they were. Turn the board around, take out the two thumbtacks from that edge, pull gently but strongly again, and paste it just as you did the other, including use of thumbtacks. Do the same at the cen- ter of the two ends. Work quickly. Watch the paper, Water 10 ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING IN WASH will, if you have wet it properly, gather in the hollows. Sop it up with the sponge. Go back to the sides and paste down enough of each edge at each side of the center to leave four to six inches unpasted at the corners. Do the same on the ends, always pulling the paper gently but strongly before laying the edge down and rubbing it till it adheres. Some false prophets will tell you the paper should merely be laid down and never pulled and that the water shrinkage is enough. Don't listen to them. They don't know what they are talking about. Try it some time. Make a careful drawing on a big sheet, float the first big wash and give me the news. It will buckle and form puddles. Even a damp day will make it buckle. After this disgression we will paste down the corners, putting the paste on both corner edges and pulling as the appearance of the paper indicates, straight to the corner or more on one or the other side as required to take out fullness. If properly done, the sheet should now be fairly flat all over without puckers anywhere along the edges, and should show no dirty finger prints nor be bedaubed with paste. If paste has gotten on sponge it off gently with a damp, not wet, sponge. The sheet may still be wet enough for faint puddles to collect. If not removed they will dry out leaving yellowish or shiny rings. Sop them up with a sponge, not blotting paper as the thoughtless operator does. Blotting paper is apt to deposit a fuzz on the paper and the pressure required often makes creases in the damp and buckled paper of which just enough remain to spoil a sky or background wash later. Either let it dry naturally (lying down flat so that the moisture won't run to one side), or set an electric fan going at low speed, far enough THE PRELIMINARY STEPS ii away so that the cone of moving air will play over the whole sur- face. Don't point the fan directly down at it; let it blow over it. Inspect it every once in a while till it is dry. Some parts of the paper may have quite dried up before the rest. Dampen them till they are like the rest of the sheet. If puckers show near the edge dampen them thoroughly and if not too bad they will shrink out. Again it may be asked, Why such care? And why not let a mere worm like the office boy do it? Sometimes he must but whenever there is time, do it yourself. I count my own time worth something — but when I have an important drawing to make, I mount the paper myself. Then I know what I have. I know it is equally stretched, I know it is well pulled, I know the paste is not two or three inches wide on the edges or drops of it here and there under the paper, I know the damp paper has not been scarified by careless handling. To be sure, if something goes wrong there is no one else to blame and that I confess is a drawback. No one detests drudgery more than the writer but this is craftsmanship and part of t"he job of making a perfect rendered drawing. Cleanliness. While the paper is drying is a good time to clean the T-square and triangles and scale. If of wood, use gasoline to avoid warping, and wipe off thoroughly to remove any possible greasy residue. Celluloid triangles may be washed in soap and water. Don't overlook the edges. Absolute clean- liness from start to finish is essential to success. T-squares and triangles covered with months' or years' deposit of graphite and grease no real draughtsman will tolerate. The hands should be washed frequently enough to keep them really clean. Once 12 ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING IN WASH grease gets in the paper, you may bid success good-by; lines will crumble and crawl when you ink in and washes won't take. Transferring Studies to Final Paper. The final paper on which you are making the rendering is no place to study the design. Accurate and careful studies should be made before you start the rendered drawing, so that you have only to copy or at the most make the last delicate adjustments of whites and grays — and these you make on tick-strips. Some people use a scale and some use dividers. I don't like a drawing pricked full of holes, so I use both scale and tick-strip. For the accurate trans- fer of vertical and horizontal subdivisions, take a strip of paper (ticker tape is good or a strip of tracing paper folded with a sharp true edge) long enough to go entirely across the draw- ing whether lengthwise or sidewise. Thumbtack it at the ends over the study and, using T-square or triangle as the case may be, with a hard sharp pencil draw the lines you want to transfer on the edge of the tick-strip. If they are to be changed slightly on the final drawing, here is the place to do it. Mark the lines or groups of lines so as to identify them, not forgetting to put on the position of the working line. Then pin this strip over your final paper top-and-bottom or side-and-side, with the working line coinciding with that of which you have already established the position on the final paper, and reproduce on your final paper the lines on the tick-strip. Whites in Pitches of Platforms, Foregrounds, etc. When landings occur in flights of steps, it is advisable to express the fact that there is a break in their continuity by introducing a space between the bottom of the riser at the far side of the land- ing and the top of the riser at the near side, which will be wider in the drawing than the actual pitch would be in execution. This PLATE I RKXDERFD RV UTIO K. lit.GEKS Messrs. York & Sawyer's Competition Elrcation of the Federal Reserve Bank A l)eaiitifiil example of Mr. Eggers' rendering and one he considers representative. The line draw- ing was made by R. A. Tissington, who prepared it for rendering by shade-lining it very carefully. THE PRELIMINARY STEPS 13 space to express and indicate the landings is, when rendered, made much lighter than the steps themselves. A similar conven- tion is observed in the pitch of the sidewalks or of roadbeds running parallel with the face of the building or of foregrounds or similar spaces. These must be carefully studied in advance and decided upon before the final drawing is penciled in. It is necessary to make quite a number of small adjustments in order to effect the desired result without misrepresenting the facts. In a flight of steps, for example, it may be managed by omitting one or two of the risers in elevation, adding their height to the normal or true amount of the pitch of the landing, thus securing a wider white than any in the whole flight of steps without alter- ing the total height. The width of the treads which belong to these two omitted risers will have to be redistributed among the other spaces or thrown into the width of the landings. It is well also to make the top fillets of cornices and the like much wider than they would be in execution in order to give a bril- liant light along the top of the cornice. Studies at Larger Scale. Of course, I have here assumed that the final drawing, an elevation, is being made at the same scale as the study. But often the study is at a larger scale. My own practice is always to make a study of a portion at a larger scale. If the final drawing is sixteen feet to the inch, I usually make an eighth scale study and often certain parts at quarter scale. There is a certain amount of translation and simplifica- tion to do in reducing it, certain eliminations of members and detail, but nothing makes a small scale drawing look so real or gives it so much scale as to reduce it from a larger scale study. The experienced man will simply reduce the principal elements, getting the accurate relations of greys to whites — as 14 ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING IN WASH in the main divisions of architrave, frieze and cornice and their subdivisions — in short get the character. The principal in- dividual members will then fall into place. But this work should be done on a separate piece of paper and then ticked off on a tick-strip as indicated above. It is just as easy to get too many as too few lines in a drawing. When it is rendered a drawing simplifies materially and if there is too little draw- ing it looks thin and meager. But too many lines in too small a space will make it look clogged and lifeless especially in places where there should be a brilliant reflected light as in the bed moldings of a cornice. Experience is the only teacher here, in the absence of competent personal counsel. Preserving the Surface of the Paper. The surface of the paper must be preserved in perfect condition. Dirt and grease and the friction of T-square and triangle and scale and elbows and instruments will wear ofif the slight calendering the paper has received and make it so pulpy that both lines and washes will spread as though on blotting paper. For this reason the paper must be protected in any of several ways, such as by pinning strips of tracing paper across the parts you are not working upon and shifting them as required, or cutting open- ings with flaps in a shield of detail paper big enough to cover the whole board. Any way that is most convenient and that you like best provided it keeps the drawing clean. Erasures should be just as few as possible, and be lightly and carefully made and the rubber dust brushed off with a soft desk brush or flapped off with a fresh handkerchief — I like the handker- chief best. Penciling In. This is not a manual of line draughtsman- ship and it is assumed that the man who is about to render knows THE PRELIMINARY STEPS 15 how to draw. And yet I have seen men highly rated as draughts- men who had not the faintest realization of the importance of careful cleanly methods in the preparation of a drawing that is to receive washes. Pencils are made of graphite and graphite is used to lubricate automobile chains. If you get too much graphite on your drawing you will so lubricate it that when you come to ink in the ink won't take and you'll wonder per- haps why you can't get a good clean line with vigor and char- acter and delicacy in it. That is one reason why. Use a 3H, 4H or 5H pencil depending upon the weather. On damp days the paper absorbs the moisture in the air and the softer grade is hard enough ; on hot dry days a 3H often seems soft and crumbly. Draw with a light hand. Make as faint a drawing as you can read clearly enough to ink in accurately. Perfect accuracy, to assure the uniform width of spacings, windows, flutes of columns and the like, is assumed. And get into the habit, until it be- comes unconscious and instinctive, of lifting your T-square and triangle from line to line; you will thus avoid wearing down and blurring a light drawing and spreading graphite all over the paper. A rubbing strip of detail paper doubled over and pinned down top and bottom at both ends of the T-square helps to keep it from rubbing the paper. Keep your drawing all covered up when you are not work- ing on it. If you don't, dirt will settle upon it. It is a good plan to lift your protecting shield or strips from time to time and brush off underneath. Even with the utmost care the opening is soon seen to be defined on the white paper as a light grey patch. Rubbing On. The practise of "rubbing on" ("frothing" * * Apparently a corruption of the French jr otter, to rub. i6 ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING IN WASH so-called) or transferring a pencil study made on tracing paper is not worthy of consideration in the kind of drawing we are here discussing. It does very well for the average drawing made en charrette} It also does well enough for many draw- ings made in the run of office work. By this method, penciling- in on final paper is almost entirely eliminated. The final study is made on tracing paper (with everything reversed if the de- sign is not symmetrical), turned over face down on the final paper, and rubbed on the back with the edge of a key top, or of a smooth coin or something of the sort until the pencil rubs off; the human thumb-nail is probably the best instrument. Damp- ening the paper slightly will assist the process of transfer and holds the line — but of course buckles and expands the study somewhat. A piece of tracing cloth should be interposed be- tween the rubbing instrument and the study. The rubbing damages the surface of the paper and frequently causes ridges or hollows which will never come out. Transfer Paper. Another way is to slip a sheet or a num- ber of sheets of carbon paper under the study and with a very hard sharp pencil go over every line of the latter. This gets a lot of carbon on the paper. The French have a very attrac- tive reddish-brown transfer paper of about the color of sanguine which is far better than black for this sort of thing. A rapid, crisp transfer made in this way with this paper, a few light ^ For the benefit of the uninitiated I will explain this term so often heard and so wonderfully mispronounced. The drawings made in the various ateliers or studios re- lated to the Ecole des Beaux Arts are taken to the latter in a little hand-cart or charrette which waits down in the courtyard while the drawings are being finished. Drawings sometimes actually receive their last touches while on the cart on its way through the streets. Hence the expression "en charrette" as applied to something done in a tearing hurry. I THE PRELIMINARY STEPS 17 shadows, a little "piquagel' ^ a suggestive sketchy background and you have a very attractive sketch — but not a perfect rendered drawing. Lightening Up. The drawing completed in pencil, it may be lightened and made fainter if necessary by dabbing it softly with a soft rubber or the so-called "art" gum and carefully and lightly dusted oflf to leave no particles to be taken up by the rul- ing- or freehand-pen and spoil a line. Toning the Ink. The next step is to prepare the ink. Hig- gins's Waterproof Ink is perfectly satisfactory. It has a very good tone in itself, but I prefer to tone it to suit conditions. We will assume for the purpose of exposition that the drawing is an elevation, at sixteenth scale, of a light stone building with a central motif with some columns in antis projecting strongly from the general mass, with two wings at each side pierced with windows, and that some distance back of the face of these wings another portion of the building, say an auditorium wall, rises higher than the central motif. (See Diagram B, facing p. 34.) At every step we take in the drawing we are making it ready to receive the washes which will bring out the values of the planes, model the building, give it three dimensions. You will work uphill and under a handicap and your drawing will not be so fine if you do not give the planes their values while it is still in pure line. You will, of course, dilute the ink from the pure black of the bottle, dilute it 'way down. For the plane furthest back the ink should be lighter and colder; the planes in advance of this should be successively darker and warmer. If the re- * This is a French expression derived from the verb piquer (pronounced Pee-kay). I know no single word in English which expresses just what this means; approximately, to pick out accents. The process of piquage (pronounced Pee-kazh) will be found de- scribed on pp. 76-78-89. i8 ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING IN WASH moter planes are far enough back to warrant it, as at the back of a deep court formed by a U-shaped building, the Higgins's Ink may be cooled by the addition of a little blue — Cobalt or Ultramarine — never Prussian or any of the green blues. There is nothing so unpleasant as a greenish black line or wash. The ink for the first plane may be warmed by the addition of Burnt Sienna and a touch of Carmine. Burnt Sienna, while warm in itself, gives the ink, when the two happen to be in certain pro- portions, a slightly greenish cast which the Carmine corrects. Test out the color of the toned ink by drawing lines of various widths on the margin of the sheet (or another piece of What- man) drawing the lines at the speed you will use when you begin to ink in. The Line and Its Quality. Determine the width of the line you intend to use. There is a good deal of buncombe cur- rent about the use of a thick line. Men coming back from Paris,' accustomed to seeing merely effective drawings, which wouldn't bear inspection, made under charrette conditions, went about^ prating wisely of strong lines in atelier French. Anything less than a sixteenth of an inch wide these little masters called "wiry.j If they had had the wit to examine the best drawings in tl world — the envois made by the Grand Prix men and of whi( reproductions are now available to us in D'Espouy, and thosi by Viollet-le-Duc in the Musee du Trocadero, they would have seen "wiry" lines by the thousand. It doesn't matter how thin a line is so long as it has quality and beauty. Some men never learn to draw a line that has either. It is something in the angle at which the pen is held, something in the touch, the amount of pressure exerted, the slight crisp lift at the end of the line to avoid a dark dot. Some men bite a line hard into the paper. THE PRELIMINARY STEPS 19 Even a thick line is wiry under that treatment. A firm even pres- sure is required which carries the ink down into all the little hollows of the surface; which does not skip along the high spots and give the line an inexpressibly mean and crumbly appear- ance. While you are not setting out to make a line drawing, you want to make a beautiful drawing — and that means one of which all the elements are beautiful. The line, in quality and value, is one of the elements. In a wash drawing the light and shade are what should count. In a quick and hasty render- ing such as one must make sometimes, when one has to cast a few shadows and pass a tone or two in summary fashion, the line has to count and count strongly, to give the drawing vigor, the shadows on such a drawing always being made pretty light by the knowing man. But in the serious drawing such as we are discussing, when we have plenty of time, the line should not be obvious. It should be just firm enough to keep the draw- ing from being woolly. Planes versus Lines. Look carefully at a real building. The cornice is not composed of lines but of a series of bands of light and shade and shadow. These may have sharp edges — but neither Nature nor the builder has ruled a dark line along every edge. One surface lighted in a certain way meets another surface lighted in a different way and there is no line properly so called — certainly not a line of another value — at the junc- tion. I have tried thick very pale lines and thin pale lines and thick and thin dark ones and I'm for a thin pale line. I think it is easier to follow with a wash. When the line is thick and light your wash runs over on to the line in places and looks slovenly. The wash in this case should, of course, "consume the line," that is, be carried to the far side of it, but it is very 20 ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING IN WASH difficult to do, just as hard as to follow the near edge. As for value, I like it just dark enough to be both firm and delicate after it is sponged down ready for rendering. Fashions in drawings change with the years, but the draw- ings reproduced in D'Espouy have stood the test of the years with their changing fashions — and the line in the best of them is delicate and does not count as line. The Ruling Pen. But the width of the line is a matter of taste and of temperament and of the scale of the drawing. I merely express my belief that coarse lines in small-scale ele- vations and sections kill the scale of the design. On the other hand, in small scale plans, wide soft lines in certain places and used in certain ways are wholly desirable. This matter will be found treated of under the rendering of plans. The tool itself has something to do with the line. It must be sharp but not too sharp. It must have a thick stifif back- or under-nib so that the pressure against the T-square won't open and close the pen as the pressure varies from end to end of the line. The Alteneder (an American-made) ruling pen is made like this. If too sharp the pen will actually cut the paper. Free-hand Pens. The best pens for the freehand portions of the drawing are, I think, Gillott's, especially the crow-quill pens which come, a dozen on a card, with a holder. They are adapted to the most delicate work or that of a coarser nature. A freehand pen of rather soft steel soon dulls, or sometimes is not even when new quite sharp enough to make a line fine enough for the occasion. It may be very simply sharpened by whetting the sides of the nibs back and forth a couple of times on the bare edge of the drawing board. And by whetting it the other way, it may be coarsened materially — the width of the point of each nib is THE PRELIMINARY STEPS 21 reduced in the one case and widened in the latter. It is well to pass the point of any freehand pen once or twice through the flame of a match not merely to remove the film of oil there is on every new pen but also to take out the temper a bit and give it less excuse to sputter. In rendering plans it is frequently ad- visable to use a very much coarser nib, even as coarse as a ball- pointed pen. Shade-Line Drawings. It is a very beautiful device to make a shade-line drawing for rendering; not carried to the limit as though it were to be left in line, but with certain lines strengthened so as to assist the modeling, particularly lines rep- resenting projections too slight to make it advisable to cast and render their shadows, such as the shadow side of rustica- tion or small moldings here or there. A shade-line along the corona of a cornice helps to bring it forward. But all this is very easy to exaggerate and must be done with the utmost taste and judgment. Joint Lines. Joint lines should be thinner and paler than the main architectural lines and be in relative value to the planes in which they occur, stronger for the nearer planes, lighter for those farther off. In a very quick rendering the joints may be made a good deal of and help to "furnish" the drawing. But in a good drawing the joints should have no more value than they have in Nature. Chifflot is as responsible as any one, I think, for the fashion of making the joints count for almost as much as the architecture — just as he made fashionable for a while very narrow stone courses which gave immense apparent scale to the design. But no one should care to make his building look as though it were built of that lovely invention, rock-faced brick. If it is a stone building, it should look stony of course. Study 22 ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING IN WASH Nature and be guided. If the building is brick we will dis- cuss the joints when we come to talk about actual rendering. Silhouettes. After the drawing is all inked in it is usually the fashion to silhouette the various parts of the building such as projecting pavilions, the general outline and so on, with a darker line. This is a practise of which I approve in line draw- ings and one I have followed for years in rendered drawings also — but I have come to believe it a mistake in a really serious rendered drawing. It is a heresy that has crept in on the in- fernal charrette — when will we ever be rid of its malign influ- ence? In the hasty rendering in the schools (and they are always hasty for some or another bad reason) the silhouette is indis- pensable to help bring out the values of planes there is no time or skill to express properly. I believe it makes a more beau- tiful, a more real, a more convincing, drawing to let the roof meet the sky as in Nature, plane be relieved against plane as in Nature, by the accurate value of the tones. Nature sometimes softens an edge but no one ever caught her drawing silhouettes around things. Cleaning Off. The inking in completed, the pencil lines must be rubbed out where they show and the drawing "dry- cleaned" before sponging off. The cleaning off should be done just as carefully as any other part of the process. "Art gum" is an excellent thing to clean with, used very lightly; a fresh Ruby rubber will take off the pencil lines which do not yield to it — a green rubber is a bit too hard. Go over every inch of surface, and examine the drawing in different lights to make sure it is clean. Then you are ready to sponge off unless you have de- cided to do what is very rarely done and ink in the outlines of the cast shadows; we will come to that matter presently. PLATE 2 15V Till'; AITIIOK Formal riMi(lerint,r is not iisiiall\- assoriati'd with ( lothic suhitrts and this (h'awing of an angle of the Ducal Palace in \'enice is therefore given as an examjile. All the shadows, except the window shadows which are toned with blue, were toned with vermilion, and after a lapse of twenty-five years are as fresh and warm as at first. THE PRELIMINARY STEPS 23 Sponging Off. Tilt the board at an angle of ten or fifteen degrees. Take a good-sized bowl, or a large shallow casserole with a handle (which is the best thing I know of to hold the water for mounting, for sponging off, for use in rendering, and for washing the brush in), fill it with water and with a soft sponge — a face sponge — just as full as it will hold, run it along the top of the drawing and then, keeping the sponge always full, float the water down over the drawing very gently. Some lines and places where there is a good deal of detail will run slightly. Unless the paper is positively flooded with a film of water of an appreciable depth over it, such lines and places will merely smear and the ink get into the paper where it is almost impossible to get it out. Parts of the drawing where a great many lines make a dark patch may be materially reduced in value by carefully sponging them down — and of course any line or group of lines. Wet the paper all over, right out to the edge. When you are sure no more superfluous ink will float ofif the lines, squeeze out your sponge and begin to sop up the water gently. The board should not have been tilted so that the wa- ter would run off at the bottom in streams. Don't rub the draw- ing with the sponge. Just sop and squeeze until it is all off and then watch it to remove the puddles which will form in the same way as in mounting the paper. Then lay it flat, under a slow fan if you like, till dry. The object in sponging off is to remove any possible grease, to remove superfluous ink which would otherwise run when you pass a wash over it, and to give the paper an additional shrink- ing so that it will be sure to lie flat and not form hollows for puddles to gather in when the big washes go on. Alum. It is an excellent thing to dissolve about a table- 24 ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING IN WASH spoonful of powdered alum in about a quart of water to sponge off with — especially if the paper has shown any tendency to be soft or pulpy. It seems to re-calender the paper and make the washes run well and crisply. There must not be enough to show in shiny crystals in a cross-light. If this happens sponge off again lightly with pure water. Casting Shadows. Clean your T-square and triangle again while the drawing is drying — for they must be clean for the next job, which is casting the shadows when the paper is bone dry. It is not necessary at all to ink them in although it is oc- casionally done. But I think it hardly pays. With a very hard pencil, 5H or 6H, a crisp enough outline may be made. If you decide for inking them do it before you clean and sponge off. But where complicated shadows fall on broken surfaces or over ornament, the difference in color between the pencil lines and the ink lines makes it easier to run the wash because the differ- ence guides you and mistakes are not so easily made. Complicated shadows should be worked out on tracing paper and transferred to the drawing by carefully retracing the lines on the back of the tracing paper with a pencil about F in grade; use a 3H, 4H, or 5H to transfer them with; go over them again and bite them into the paper, and blow off the loose particles of graphite. Keep your pencil like a needle. The outlines of shadows must be sharp and clean cut, not fuzzy and indecisive. By biting the line in with a very hard pencil a clean outline is secured and what is more, a little groove is made in the paper at which a wash will very obligingly stop. Certain construction lines have to be drawn, such as the diagonals from modillions to the place where they cast a shadow on the frieze — but not through their whole length over the whole THE PRELIMINARY STEPS 25 cornice and frieze. Find out where the shadow of the edge of the cornice strikes the frieze and draw a light guide line straight across. This will give you a point at which to start these diag- onals which should be drawn with a hand like a feather. This hint is applicable to practically the whole process of shadow casting. I have assumed that the man about to render knows pretty well how to draw and construct his shadows. Henry McGoodwin's "Architectural Shades and Shadows" is an ad- mirable book for the beginner and as reference for the adept. It is by no means necessary to cast all of the shadows at once especially on a drawing of large area. The principal ones will do at first, such as the main cornice and the shadows of projecting portions upon the receding portions. Of course, additional care is necessary later not to soil the drawing in the process of casting the other shadows, for a soiled shadow wash can't be cleaned. But while the shape and extent of a shadow and how it breaks over projections is still fresh in the mind from having just drawn it, it is easier to wash in. Also in some cases, as in windows, if the shadow of the jamb on the glass is drawn at first and before the value of the window wash has been estab- lished, the outline of the shadow becomes so indistinct as to be difficult to follow if the window wash has a very dark value. It is better to draw the line of the edge of the shadow after the window value is arrived at. The main shadows cast, all you will need at the beginning, the drawing is ready to render. Before that there must be a clear understanding of the materials and brushes you will use, and the kind of rendering you will attempt to produce. Brushes. First as to brushes. For all except the sky or background washes, a No. 5 Red Sable Winsor and Newton is 26 ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING IN WASH admirable. It holds water enough and is fine enough to get into the smallest corners if properly selected. For large washes there is nothing better than the camel's hair brushes which the French make in quills into which a wooden handle is thrust. The larger brushes of the same sort are bound to the handle with wire. They hold an enormous quantity of wash and come to a wonderful point. They haven't enough spring for general use in rendering, and, carrying as much moisture as they do, it is very hard to control the gradation of a small wash with them. We will refer to this point later. Selecting a Brush. It pays to spend some time and trouble in the selection of a brush, for brushes of the same size vary enormously in quality and characteristics. Some are gen- erous and let the water flow out of them freely. Others suck up a lot but won't give it up easily. Others again won't hold much and let it come out in blobs. Some will come to a fine point, and others won't point up at all. And these characteristics effect other combinations for the confusion of man. To select a brush, pick it out of a dozen or a hundred. Put it in a tumbler of water and wabble it around to get the air out of it and thoroughly soak the hairs. Take it out and hold it with the point of the brush upright. The point should be perfect and the brush smooth and symmetrical. Go through a lot of them in the same way, lay- ing aside those that won't point up well. Then proceed to eliminate from the best ones until you find a perfect one which will carry plenty of water, give it up easily and keep a sharp and symmetrical point under all conditions. Try it also on paper, laying a wash of water, and see how it acts, and also how it acts when you wipe it ofif on the edge of the glass. Nothing but a perfect brush is worth having. THE PRELIMINARY STEPS 27 Some of the Chinese bristle brushes are excellent for skies and big washes if you can get a good one. They come with a gluey dressing in them which has to be washed out. If neither French nor Chinese are available, then a big Red Sable brush is, of course, fine, provided it stands the tests indicated above. But the really large ones are quite expensive. Care of the Brush. Take the best of care of your brushes. When not in use keep them in a box with camphor or moth balls in it. Don't let them kick around in a drawer or stand around where moths can get at them. When you are using a brush, get into the habit until it becomes mechanical of washing it out every time you pick it up to use or lay it down when you stop for a moment. Otherwise India Ink will soon dry among the hairs and some day when you are laying a delicate tone dried particles will float out. And never under any circumstances leave it standing on i ; hairs in a glass of water. A really good brush is hard to make, ha. r(\ to find, and such treatment deforms it. India Ink. Then as to j^d^^ called India Ink because, one may suppose, it is made chietry [^ China and Ja^an. Chinese ink is believed to be the b^st. Xt varies greatly in quality and quite a bit in color. The soft er, poorer grade stick? are usually warmer in color than the mo re expensive If you can find a hard, high grade stick of a v /arm tone, 'lide it. It is worth keeping for yourself. The t- rouble with buy\ng ink is that von can't try it out betore^^iu-rcnabe, for it is beautifully gilded all over and there is no way to know. But get as expensive a stick as you feel you can afford. Better a small good one than a large fat cheap one. And as to the tone, it doesn't much matter after all because you will tone it anyway; the warmer the original 28 ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING IN WASH tone, however, the less water color pigment we need to warm it up and that is an advantage in transparency. Rubbing up the Ink. To prepare the ink for use, take a shallow saucer made of slate, which is obtainable at any dealer in architects' supplies, put a tablespoonful of clean water in it and rub the ink around until the water seems black. Dip a brush in it and try it on a piece of white paper. It should dry out a very dark grey, practically black, to be right. Pour this off into a tumbler and cover it over. Grind four or five table- spoonfuls, which should be enough to last through a large draw- ing. Take another perfectly clean and freshly rinsed tumbler and spread o^'er the mouth a piece of muslin — a small piece of tracing cloth thoroughly washed out is excellent — depress the muslin a bit to form a shalL'^w cup and wet the center of it to facilitate capillary action. Then pour in the ground ink slowly and let it drip through. When it is all through gather up the edges of the rag and wash the rag out thoroughly in running water. Also theirst tumbler. Put &'^ ^^S over the empty tum- bler as you di ' befcie and strain th ^ strained ink again. Repeat four, five or six or iriore times a ^ ^^Y ^^ necessary until, as you tip the tumbler, there are n.> pa/^t\cles visible in the thin film of fluid on the Side of the glass. ^ Then it is fit to use. Don't forget tc wipe off the sti ck carefully ifter grinding and dry it with a rag is thoroughly as possible, elst your costly stick Will ciacK. iiito srr.UJx'^L/iio. Keeping Ink. India Ink evaporates very quickly. To keep it from doing so, put two or three pieces of blotting paper sop- ping wet over the top of the glass and put a weight upon it, such as a color saucer. Re-wet the blotters the last thing at night and in the morning and through the day if necessary — as it will be in THE PRELIMINARY STEPS 29 warm weather. Always keep it covered up, and you will have a perfect, clean, limpid fluid to work with. Blotters and Their Uses. Provide yourself with half a dozen large white blotters and a package of small white ones. It is much more convenient when running a large wash to have your water bowl and godets (pronounced "goday" and meaning a color saucer) nearer to it than they would be if off your board on the table. A couple of these large blotters may be placed upon the drawing, and the water bowl and godets upon them, and danger of splashes and spots will be thus avoided. The small blotters are useful in several ways. First and foremost to keep always under one's hand while working so that grease from the skin does not get into the paper, to help in mending and patching bad places in the wash, and to take up surplus wash from the brush; by this I mean that when a brush is recharged with wash even after it has been wiped on the edge of the godet or vessel containing it, you may find, when you come to apply it to the paper that there is just a little too much fluid in it; this is specially to be observed in grading a wash; exactly the right amount of water is essential, because if there is too much, the new part of the wash will run back into the old part, creat- ing a fan or run-back. By touching the brush to the blotter you can satisfactorily control the wetness. Always be sure that the blotter is absolutely clean on the side which touches the drawing. Cleanliness Again. Be sure to dust off your table and board and all your surroundings frequently, and keep them clean. Wet brushes, laid down on dirty, dusty surfaces, pick up the dirt and transfer it to the drawing. Pigments as Toning Agents. In a later chapter will be found a discussion of the properties of pigments. Of all the 30 ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING IN WASH colors examined there are only a few we need as toning agents for our ink washes in formal rendering. These are, in my practise, Carmine Raw Sienna Cobalt Blue Burnt Sienna French Blue and very occasionally Viridian and Chinese White. It is to be assumed that before a man begins a serious piece of rendering he will have tried out his colors in various ways and learned something of what they will do. But this sort of prac- tise is, of course, very like mashie and putting practise at golf. It takes the stern fiber of a Walter Travis to go out and just practise for hours and hours. The average man prefers to play a game and learn as he goes. And most men learn to render, not by practising laying washes but by making bad drawing after drawing until somehow or other they learn to make a good one. II RENDERING Values. The ^Value" of a tone has been defined by Denman Ross as the quantity of light in it and the ''color" of a tone as the quality of light in it. Formal, academic rendering in monotone is a study in values. Values and nothing else. The relative value of plane to plane, with no adventitious aids. The archi- tecture to be rendered by such a method has to be pretty good, pretty carefully studied. Accurately and honestly cast shadows reveal defects and bring out beauties impartially. The princi- pal use to which this type of rendering should be applied is of course the serious study of a piece of architecture for one's own behoof — not merely for the swell presentation of competition drawings or for the amazement of a client. (The kind of lies the drawings are often made to tell in the latter instances would be precisely like cheating at solitaire in the first.) Therefore the whole process of rendering, from white paper to the finish, is the building up of values. Pure Monotone. I shall treat of rendering an elevation at sixteenth scale in pure India Ink, merely toned, first, before dealing with the modification of this method in which a con- siderable amount of color is used. Monotone and Monochrome. Curiously, there is consider- able confusion of mind in many quarters, a confusion not by any means confined to those of tender years, as to the difiference be- tween monotone and monochrome. Mono-chrome means one 31 32 ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING IN WASH color. Mono-tone means one tone. If we substitute "pigment" for "color" it will make things clearer. If you render a draw- ing entirely in Burnt Sienna you make both a monotone and a monochrome. If you use a mixture of Burnt Sienna and French Blue you make a monotone drawing but not a monochrome be- cause you have used more than one color or pigment to produce a certain tone. A drawing in pure India Ink as it comes from the stick is in monochrome and in monotone — one tone, one pig- ment. If you add pigment to the ink to change its tone you are no longer working in monochrome but in monotone. India Ink. When we last heard of the India Ink we had ground, it was all strained and covered up ready to use. It must be remembered that India Ink dries out many shades lighter than it appears to be when wet. It takes much practise to train the judgment to a point where one can strike exactly the right value at once. Of course, when washes are built up by running one pale wash over another, this is discounted to a cer- tain extent, but there are some parts of the process in which this knowledge of exactly how dark to make a wash is absolutely essential. This applies particularly to the last process a draw- ing undergoes which is "Piquage." A beginner is easily deceived also by the fact that a wash run over another so freshens up the latter that it seems either too dark or dark enough. Pure water will have a similar effect. The Mother Wash. We take a godet of which we have a nest of half a dozen ready, and fill it partly full of clean water. With a perfectly clean brush we take out a partial brushful of the ink, put it in the water and mix it up thoroughly. Then we try it on a piece of Whatman paper, grade it out to very pale and let it dry. When dry we decide whether it needs warming RENDERING 33 and how much — or for those who like cold drawings, how much it needs cooling. If it is to be warmed, put a little Burnt Sienna and a touch of Carmine in the glass of India Ink and mix thor- oughly. The darker you have ground the ink the more pigment it will take to modify the color. Until you have enough experi- ence to know just about how much to put in first whack, it is better to build up gradually to the tone you want or you may spoil an hour's worth of ground ink. When it is to your liking as shown by the last little test wash you have laid, it is ready to use. If the ink is to be cooled, merely add either Cobalt or French Blue until it suits you; these are both heavy colors and very little is required to cool ink not so very warm at the best. This glassful of toned ink is the "Mother Wash" for use throughout the drawing and will keep the drawing in tone. Planning Out and Division of Washes. The beginner will waste a lot of color and ink at first and until he learns by experience how much wash to mix up for the different parts of the drawing. And it will be perhaps a commonplace of his early experience to find himself three-quarters through a big wash and his godet empty. If he is canny though, he will see his finish when he is half way through, take measures accordingly and begin to add water to his wash. If he stops in a panic and begins madly to mix up some more tone his finish merely comes right away. A man has to keep his head all the time and keep it at work thinking. Experience will soon tell how much wash to mix — when in doubt mix too much. Experience will teach how to plan ahead when you have a lot of separate tones of the same value or color to be graded in just the same way — such as win- dow washes or the wall behind a colonnade. For such, mix up enough for the lot and take out into a separate godet what you 34 ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING IN WASH need for the first one, add water to it to grade it out until you are through with that one, then throw out what is left, dry out the godet, and repeat the process. Sometimes a wash for one reason or another has to be divided up into two or three parts and set aside until each is used in turn, each with exactly the same amount of color in it. -When using heavy colors especially it may be difficult to hit the absolute shade a second time. A good way therefore is to stir up the wash thoroughly and then divide it by brushfuls, so many to each of the godets which are to hold the subdivided wash. Then as you grade, put in one brushful of clear water the first time you recharge your brush, two the next time and so on. You may then be pretty sure that your gradation is as nearly uniform as possible. Don't be afraid of this word, uniform, nor what is represents. Human tendency is all away from uniformity and so far as my observation goes in the use of water color by the young, the tendency is all toward sloppiness — which is not to be confused with freedom. Beginning to Render. The wash is all ready to use and you think you are about to begin to render. Not at all! You are ready to begin to do some real thinking. And as an aid to thought it is an excellent idea to make preliminary studies of your rendering in carbon pencil, pretty carefully done, as a guide during the steps which follow. We have assumed that the building is a simple one "of light stone with a central motif with some columns in antis, pro- jecting strongly from the general mass, the two wings each side pierced with windows, and that some distance back of the face of these wings another portion of the building, say an auditorium RENDERING 35 wall, rises, higher than the central motif." (See Diagram B, facing page 34.) We have therefore, in the building itself, three planes — that of the central motif, next furthest back the plane of the wings and the mass of the auditorium beyond these. Outside the building and well out in front, let us assume steps in the middle leading up to a terrace and at each side of them a balustrade with pedes- tals surmounted with sculpture. Sky Tones. Behind the building we may assume a sil- houette of the distant buildings of a city or merely some trees which show at each side, low down, 'way back. Beyond and over all of these planes is the sky — the sky from which the light comes, which is full of air, which is not a flat vertical backdrop as in stage scenery, which arches over all objects on earth, and which is usually represented in modern architectural renderings as nearly like midnight as possible, either built up wash after wash with a brush or blown on by air brush or atomizer and producing the effect of an opaque, black, flat curtain hung up behind a sheet of cardboard on which a drawing of a building is made. The mere fact that draughtsmen are in the habit of saying "background" when they mean "sky" indicates the com- mon misconception. The labor of building up shadows and the local color of planes to a value which will hold with one of these coal scuttle skies is colossal. And men are driven to this kind of forced, airless, artificial, black type of rendering in self- defense — for it kills anything in its vicinity and makes a draw- ing in a reasonably light key look pale and sickly. And that is a bad thing to have happen to one's presentation in a competition or an exhibition. It is a convention in academic rendering to assume that a building is brilliantly illuminated by the sun, from 36 ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING IN WASH the left, the light falling at an angle of 45° with the plane of the building. You will be entirely within your artistic right if you assume that although the sun is shining brightly over your left shoulder and casting shadows on your building, a typhoon or tor- nado is coming up behind it and that the sky in that quarter is black as night or lurid with impending storm. It is for you to decide whether you want a sky in your rendering with air in it, overarching the distance, middle distance and foreground and lighting your building, or a pot-black flat curtain hung up behind it. For the moment we will choose the sky. All water color work is built up from light to dark. That is, the lightest tones are put on first, the darkest last. The surest way to begin any water color rendering, whether in ink or full color, is to put on a sky first, then the most distant objects (which are always colder and lighter than the nearer planes) and then the other planes as we come forward. This is a general prin- cipal subject to modifications which will be discussed further on. In this way you get, first the value of the sky which is to light the picture, than the value of the next most distant plane or ob- ject in relation to the sky, then the next plane — for which you have now two measures of value, the sky and the extreme distance, — and so on, the measures for comparison of value constantly in- creasing in number. Now look out of the window at some building which has the sun upon it, some very light building. Study its value in relation to the sky. Under normal weather conditions, however light the building may be, the lower part of the sky toward the horizon, against which the building is seen, is lighter. If this is so then the sky will be the lightest part of the drawing-to-be. Laying the Sky. Let us put on this sky, under which all the RENDERING 37 objects we subsequently render are to be seen. There are several ways of doing this. We may spray it on with an airbrush or atomizer or we may do it with a brush. Of the blown sky later ; we are working just now with a brush. We may grade from dark to light or light to dark. In Nature a cloudless sky is lighter toward the horizon; the wash which represents it will be darkest at the top of the drawing and to get it we may either start at the top with dark ink and add water as we go down to grade it out to light, or we may start at the bottom with pale ink and add ink in as we go toward the top of the sky. The latter method is by all odds the best and safest. We therefore turn the board around, block up the far edge so as to make the board tilt a little, say ten or fifteen degrees, take out a half teaspoonful or so of the Mother Wash and put it in one china saucer or godet and fill another godet about two-thirds full of clean water. It is a very good idea to dampen the drawing by passing a very wet sponge over it very lightly immediately before begin- ning to lay the first w^ash and letting it dry till it is just faintly perceptibly damp to the backs of the fingers. Take the brush you intend to lay the sky with, which should be one that will hold a lot of wash, and first wetting it thoroughly in your big bowl of water and then squeezing out all you can on the edge of the bowl (or slatting it on the floor, which is the best and quickest and most untidy way), put a very little of the ink from the godet into the one with the clean water — just enough to stain it a bit, barely cloud it. (The reason for taking some ink out and putting it in a godet is that the latter being shallow you can take ink up in your brush easily and see what you are doing and how much you are taking; and, there being always 46849 38 ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING IN WASH some lighter color in your brush in the course of the work we are now about to describe, it would run out into the Mother Wash every time you put your brush back into it and make it undergo a constant process of dilution so that when you want some really dark ink later on you haven't it and have to grind some more and tone it.) Work your brush around in it until what water was in it is all mingled with that in the godet and you are sure there is not a little reservoir of clear water some- where up in it to run out in a minute or so and make a light spot in the wash. Load your brush pretty full, not so full that there is danger of spilling the load, and run it along the line which represents, let us say, the ground level at the sides of the building. Following a Line. Be sure the icash exactly touches the line and neither falls short of it, leaving a little light streak, nor overruns it, making it look fuzzy. This is absolutely essential to a perfect result, and / wish I might repeat this warning on every page for every wash. Also: Keep the wash evenly wet. The brush may be run from left to right, which a right- handed person would call "pushing" the wash, or from right to left which would be "pulling" it. Whichever is the most natural and easiest. When you are sure the wash touches the line throughout its length, widen it either by strokes from side to side or by moving the brush toward you. Keep the wash evenly wet. When it is an inch or two wide, do the same on the opposite side of the drawing, and while laying this second wash, break off occasionally and freshen up the edge of the first wash to prevent its drying or making a streak where the ink or pigment in it may settle. Go back to the first wash and widen it another inch or so, and then bring the second wash to the same level. Add a RENDERING 39 little ink from the godet to the wash you have been using, and widen the washes at right and left alternately as before. Keep darkening the working wash in the godet by putting the same quantity of Mother Wash from the other godet into it every two, three or four inches depending on the size of the building and the height of the drawing. It is entirely unnecessary to give one's self the trouble of following not only the outline of the building with its projecting moldings but a border line also. Far better to run over an inked in cutting line and trim the drawing later to that line. Work quickly, but at the same time with a certain delibera- tion, not hastily and nervously but with swift, not sudden, move- ments. Keep your mind alert and develop the faculty of watch- ing all parts of your wash while working. The end you begin on is the one which will dry first if you have made your wash evenly wet. Float these big washes just wet enough to keep wet till you have finished them. It is a great mistake to run them too wet. Also, train your hand to be as light as a feather so that your brush doesn't touch the paper hut only the edge of the thin film of wash. This is of the utmost importance in the use of heavy deposing pigments. The tiny particles of color are settling down evenly on the paper and the brush disarranges them and makes the wash look muddy. The reason why it is a mistake to run an India Ink wash very wet is very simple. When the wash is run too wet the little particles of ink are floated off to the edges of the wash and dry in a little hard black line; it is also much harder to control the degree of wetness throughout the wash; it is also harder to gauge the amount of water to be taken up in the brush when you have to renew the supply in it; also it is very difficult to follow a line with a wash so wet that it forms. 40 ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING IN WASH by capillary action, a little bank all along its edges and which the least incaution will spill over the line. Mending Edges. If properly done, your wash when dry will show a perfect gradation from very light, almost white, to a darker tone at the top of the drawing. Give it time to dry to a point, where, when the backs of the fingers are touched to it it is barely perceptibly damp. Now examine the edges of the wash against the building and ground lines; if they fall short of or run over the line, take a small brush, No. 4 or No. 5 (an old one is best) , and wet it a little with clean water, and gently dampen the edges of the wash in these places, blotting them with a fresh clean white blotter until all traces of an overrun and until the little sharp edge of the wash where it falls short are absolutely removed. The reason for going over the edges and mending the bad places at once is because they are much easier to fix up as you go along while the washes are pale and therefore makes a better job. When a wash just touches a line, the line and the edge of the wash are one clean cut line. When it falls short or overlaps and dries, there is, as described, a little sharp dark edge. If this is not removed before the next wash goes on, this little dark edge simply gets darker until it can't be gotten rid of and instead of value meeting value as in Nature, a messy, ragged slovenly edge prevents the values from meeting, destroys the illusion of light and space and air and you are conscious merely of paint and paper and bad workmanship. Subsequent Sky Washes. Lay another wash exactly as you did the first, throwing away the wash you last used, and starting again with fresh water faintly toned. Repeat all this process in- cluding fixing up the wash against the building until the sky is the value you have decided upon. If it has a perfect grade with- RENDERING 41 out streaks, thank your stars. If it hasn't, it must be made per- fect before you go any further. Carbonaceous Washes. But before fixing it up the reason for laying this sky wash or any wash in this seemingly laborious way must be explained. Every time you try a short cut you get dead, carbonaceous, non-luminous tones. Assume you have a dark shadow or any dark value in your drawing. If you try to reach it in one, two or four dark washes when you should build it up with eight or twelve or more pale ones, the odds are the result will be dead. A dark wash is infinitely harder to grade than a pale one, and run-backs, streaks and fans are common incidents in its history. A value built up patiently with many pale washes is transparent and luminous and beautiful. It is also a safe method — and there is little common sense in letting a moment's impatience ruin hours of previous effort. But the principal reason is transparency and luminosity. Imperfectly strained ink is another cause of a carbonaceous quality. Repairing Defects. Suppose this sky wash or any wash is imperfect, perhaps with streaks in it or darker or lighter areas in it. If it is very bad, the best thing to do before attempting any other remedy is to take a big, soft sponge, tip the board to about 30° with the horizontal and beginning at the light part of the wash, carefully and softly sponge it down, getting as much color off the paper as possible. It is not only not necessary to wait until the whole wash is built up to final value to do this, but it is highly desirable to do it the moment it begins to show defects. When the paper has gone back flat again and dried out until it feels barely damp to the backs of the fingers, set it up in a strong light and examine it critically from a distance 42 ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING IN WASH and from nearby. If the dark streaks still remain and are pretty bad, the spaces between the streaks must be darkened so that the streaks won't show, or if that is impracticable, the streaks may be turned into the semblance of long thin clouds. This latter ex- pedient is dangerous to resort to, because you are engaged in the presentation of a definite composition which, if sensitively bal- anced, may be thrown out by such extraneous adjuncts. There is to be sure no excuse for very bad streaks if you are building up a value with pale washes. But faint streaks are frequent and occasionally, by some accident, a greasy spot where a finger tip or whatever has touched the paper makes a light area. These may be equalized by stippling or hatching. Stippling and Hatching. Take an old brush which has had the point worn blunt if you stipple, and a sharp pointed No. 4 or No. 5 if you cross-hatch, mix up a little very pale wash in a godet, wet the brush in it and soak out almost all of it by touching it to a blotter for an instant, and, with this almost dry brush, dab or hatch, as the case may be, carefully all over the spot. Be particularly careful as you approach the edge of the streak or spot not to lap over on to the dark which you would be merely making darker if you went over it. Let the place dry (or go on to another place if there is one) and then go over it again and again with the same wash and gradually your patience will be rewarded by seeing the bad places entirely disappear and the wash assume an even gradation. If then the whole wash needs to be darkened to bring it up to value, float more washes as originally. Air-brush or atomizer skies are harder to mend but a combination of cross-hatching or stippling, with a careful application of the air-brush or atomizer to give the speckle, will remove practically every trace of trouble. o ^ u, •— — H I- ;; a ^ = a o « 05 '^ C in u Pi 4> rt o ~ W O « "^ " h ■^ a t« OJ ^ ^ o o b/) rt _c o o 3 rt H > o ^ ^ - - C 2 5 c o >> .^^ u. •-^ «^ ,£ >. "; L- T L« ^ ;< ji; > RENDERING 43 When there is time, I believe in laying two or three washes as carefully as possible and then sponging off, laying a couple more and sponging off again. The effect is to soften the tones immensely; they seem to be in the paper, not upon it, and to be light and air rather than washes of India Ink. This sponging- off method is especially applicable to detail renderings and will be treated of under that category also. A wonderful sky may be produced by laying a couple of washes as originally described, sponging off, and laying a couple more, and responging. Then with the old blunt brush nearly dry, and light ink, begin stippling with dabs, not stabs, straight across the top of the sky in a band one to three inches wide; add water to the ink to effect the gradation as you come down, a couple of inches at a time. If it isn't dark enough, go back and do it again but stipple out uneven places first. If well done, this gives a sky with vibration in it, an effect of air and space which is extraordinary. An Alternate Method of Laying a Sky. For those who find it difficult to keep two washes going at once, there is another method of laying a sky wash which may be noted. It is appli- cable chiefly, however, to drawings which are divided in the middle for a considerable part of their height by a dome or tower or the like and in which the sky is assumed to be darkest at the horizon. Mix a good quantity of your wash of the depth of tone you want, pour an equal quantity into two godets of the same size, one of which you set aside. Turn the board around, and, beginning at the ground line, run a wash on one side of the drawing only, grading out from dark to light as you go by adding water at definite intervals, until you reach the top of the dome or tower at the middle, by which time the wash must be diluted 44 ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING IN WASH to a very pale tone. Thereafter, instead of continuing up the center, carry the wash out in a long diagonal over the top part of the sky in the other half of the drawing. Then blot ofi the edge of this long triangle softly, or sop it up with a pad of absorbent cotton. Duplicate this process on the other half of the drawing and repeat as necessary until the value you want is established. The laps, if properly executed, are impossible to detect. Preserving the Brilliancy of the Drawing. It may occur to you to wonder why, if the sky is lighter than the building, we do not run the sky wash over building and all and save a lot of trouble. This may frequently be done, particularly in small drawings where the area to be covered by the wash is therefore quickly covered and you may get back at the building with a blotter before the wash dries and blot it up to practically white again — or, in comparatively unimportant drawings where you are willing to sacrifice brilliancy and perfection to expediency. But although in Nature the tone of a light building is darker than the sky, this is its general tone. It has many spots or bands in it of a much lighter value and to render these truthfully and successfully, it is of the utmost importance to save the paper white until you come to these things in their course and then you can make them the value they should be. Again, frequently for the sake of brilliancy it is necessary to leave some parts of the building, some detail perhaps, entirely white, the pure white of the paper being the highest and most brilliant light we have at our command. Just here it may be observed that we often must make our lights lighter and our shadows darker to attain brilliancy in a black and white or monotone drawing than we would in free work or in full color, because we are denied re- RENDERING 45 sources in monotone upon which we may draw in full color. A pale violet shadow on a comparatively pale yellowish or orange wall may be made, by just the right choice of tones, to fairly sing and yet be light. It is this brilliancy we have to translate into black and white, and which we get by dark darks and light lights — in short, by strong contrasts. Dark Horizons. Of course, under certain conditions of weather the sky appears darker near the horizon; also in cities where there is smoke in the air. This is an effect we may leg- itimately reckon with. Some men like the sky wash to be darker at the bottom to throw the general value of the building up as seen against it — make the building lighter than the sky in other words. Distances. If there is a background of trees or buildings, it is well to pass several washes over them before putting on the sky washes so that they will be seen softly through the latter. A very good way indeed is to float a wash on these distant forms, let it dry, and float a sky wash, put another wash on them and then another sky wash and so on until you have reached the relative value you wish each to have. The reason here is that whenever you pass a wash over the edge of another wash you slightly soften that edge by washing off some of the particles forming the sharp, crisp edge in which an India Ink wash dries on dry paper. Combined Gradations. A combination of the dark horizon wash graded up and the sky wash graded down is very often effective. The dark horizon wash would represent a murky, smoky distance beyond which the great dome of the sky goes down. There may be objects like trees or buildings in the dis- tance or this wash itself may form the background. Objects give more interest to the drawing. In this case either put in 46 ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING IN WASH the objects first and build up the dark horizon wash over them or build the two up together. But to get the effect we are dis- cussing you will grade the dark horizon wash very swiftly out to clear water in the space of a very few inches; or, it is safer to start with clear water at the point at which the murkiness is to disappear into the sky and add the murk as you come down to the horizon. Then turn the board around and run your sky washes as before. You may also stipple the dark horizon wash on. Convention versus Realism. Just here is a good place to sound a warning against attempting too much realism in an India Ink drawing of an elevation. You are presenting a design in a conventional way, not painting a landscape. You only need to suggest a background in order to locate the building at some point in space and avoid the appearance of its being suspended somewhere in the air or built on the edge of the world with nothing nearer than Jupiter behind it. A compromise drawing is never a true success. I have tried realistic backgrounds time and again with geometrical drawings, sometimes in monotone, sometimes with a good deal of color, sometimes in practically full color; but somehow the geometrical quality of the elevation was always inharmonious with the attempted realism of the rest. I have come to believe that the simpler and more conventional the accessory backgrounds which appear at the sides of the building, the better. Attention is then concentrated on the building which is the occasion of your rendering the drawing. The same is true of foregrounds. The simpler the better. Some men put the foreground slightly in perspective and indicate objects in perspective at the sides of the building. But unless it be done to RENDERING 47 express some special relation of the building to the site, it is better, I think, to dispense with perspective. Sprayed Skies. Since the introduction of the air-brush, sprayed skies have become very popular. They are undeniably beautiful when well done by an expert. They usually err on the side of airlessness and unreality. As a rule they are merely dark curtains hung up behind the building. The atomizer sky is not nearly so successful. The spray is not so fine nor it is uni- form, some of the drops of color being much larger than others and falling on the paper in little splashes. Templates. To spray on a wash, make an accurate trac- ing of the outlines of the building which should include those of any object or portion you do not wish covered by the spray. This tracing may be used as the template itself or the outline may be transferred to a piece of detail paper. Some use one, some another. This outline should then be carefully cut out with a sharp knife or scissors, or both, and laid over the drawing so that it accurately coincides everywhere. Then with some very fine needles, pin this template you have made at frequent intervals along its edge. Be very careful to hold down all cor- ners thoroughly, both exterior and interior. Then put some weights on the template here and there and spray on the sky. There are certain parts of a drawing, such as a plan of grounds at small scale and the like, for which it is impossible to cut tem- plates. It is the custom in Mr. Goodhue's office to paint such places with rubber cement. This is quite thick and should be diluted with benzine. It is painted on with a brush and after the necessity for covering that part of the surface is past, the cement may be carefully peeled off, leaving the original tone. 48 ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING IN WASH I have never tried this but it sounds interesting and entirely feasible. Air Brushes. Directions come with the air-brush apparatus, of which there are two principal varieties — those run by com- pressed air supplied in heavy metal cylinders, and those in which you compress the air in a reservoir with a foot treadle as you work. Atomizers. If you use an atomizer, it is best to get one with a metal nozzle. Those made for spraying the nose and throat are the best. It is amazing how fast the liquid as it passes through the orifice under the pressure of air behind it will wear the hole larger in a hard rubber nozzle. And when that hap- pens, it coughs and splutters and the color comes out in large gobbets. Fill the glass reservoir with water and work the bulb until the nozzle is perfectly clean. Then put your ink or color in the reservoir, filling it about two-thirds full, tilt the nozzle up, point it away from the drawing, from which you stand well away, and squeeze the bulb not too hard but quickly so as to establish an air pressure in the reservoir. When you do this, the spray comes out in a continuous veil, not a series of jets. As soon as the continuous veil is established swing the nozzle back so that the spray falls on the drawing. You stand well away from the drawing so that the larger and heavier drops of water which will fall more quickly than the lighter spray, will fall on the template and not on the uncovered portions, while the fine mist goes on and falls gently on the latter. It should fall as nearly vertical as possible which is the reason for tilting up the nozzle. When the spray is driven against the paper from an angle, it forms, not tiny round dots, but long splashes like exclamation points. Use light ink and build up your value I RENDERING 49 gradually, also the gradation of the wash, which is controlled by blowing more on where you want it. It is well to spray for a while and then let dry, spray again and dry again; otherwise the tiny drops get together and form bigger drops and these in turn small puddles. Impatience in rendering is the surest road to failure. The use of alcohol for thinning the spray wash is said to make a finer spray which dries quickly and avoids some of those troubles. But it is harder to get off than a water spray. You will find it necessary to watch your template all the time. The color may collect along its edge or run under it on to the drawing. It is sure to buckle with the spray bath it gets. And where the edges lift between the needles, the little hump in the template protects the drawing just enough to prevent the spray from fully covering it. Even the needles will make light streaks if the spray is not falling pretty vertically. To avoid some of these pitfalls, change your position frequently and shoot the spray from different angles. And place thin heavy weights along the edge of the template to hold it down. I prefer detail paper templates. Tracing paper becomes sopping wet in no time — and if you are called away in the midst of the job, by the time you get back it has dried and shrunken away from the edge. With the best of care, when you take off the template you will probably find places where the template was either short or full or had shifted and either the background does not come up to the building or the building has gotten a dose of spray. Mend the background by stippling, or, if you have the courage and the confidence, cut a long slit in a piece of paper the exact shape and size of the place and blow on some more spray. This takes great skill and judgment. The spray on the building is very difficult to get off. Even the slight force of the impact of the tiny drops 50 ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING IN WASH on the paper seems to drive the ink into it. But off it must come. Soften it up by moving a brush quite full of w^ater over it, blot off the water after the place has had a chance to soak, and with a damp brush and a blotter work at it until it comes out. If it is very stubborn, let it dry thoroughly, and then go at it with a Ruby rubber very gently. Of course, the rubber, and frequently the washing with a brush, will take out some of the lines of the drawing which must be patched up again. Run-backs. In grading a wash, if, when you recharge your brush, you take up too much fluid, whether pure water or wash, so that the new portion of the wash is wetter than the portion laid just before recharging, you will almost invariably get a run-back or fan; that is to say, the new fluid will spread back into the old part of the wash. This is very apt to happen in very small washes, as when you are grading the washes in windows, which should start dark and be graded out very rapidly to light. It merely takes practise and experience to determine exactly how dry or how wet your brush must be at all times. This is one rea- son for tilting the board. The angle at which the board is tilted by different men is usually an indication of their preference for very wet or quite dry washes. The wetter the wash, the more the board has to be tilted to avoid run-backs. Don't let the last of a big wash collect in a long puddle at the foot of the drawing as it will by mere force of gravity. Dry it up by running a dry brush along it outside the drawing proper, squeezing it out, and when the puddle is almost gone dry it up thoroughly with blotting paper and watch it so that it won't collect again. Damp Weather. When you are rendering a big drawing. RENDERING 51 pray for rainy weather. Washes run well on damp days ; on hot dry days they dry too fast for comfort. Removing Blots. Accidents will happen to the most care- ful man, and sometimes a large drop of color will spatter or fall on a part of the drawing already rendered. When this happens, blot it up instantly but carefully so as not to spread the area of the blot, and then be patient and wait until the spot is abso- lutely bone dry. Take an elderly brush with a blunt point, wet it somewhat with clean water and pass it very lightly over the blot a number of times, blotting off every few seconds. Don't keep this up too long or you will make the surface of the paper fuzzy. Let the blot dry out again and renew the operation. If it is not very bad, it will usually yield to two or three treatments. If it is a really bad one, get it as pale as you can with the brush, water and blotter and let it dry out absolutely. Then take a Ruby rubber and very, very gently erase the spot, especially around the outer edge so that it will be easier to blend the place into the surrounding wash. It is not always necessary to go clear down to white paper, merely till it shows as a light spot in the wash instead of a dark one and this you then patch as described on page 42. The Hopeless Stage. At a certain stage, any water color drawing, whether in India Ink or full color, looks to the begin- ner absolutely hopeless. This is merely because the experience is lacking which enables him to look beyond the moment to the finished result. One of these moments in an India Ink drawing comes when the general tones are established on the building, and the washes are laid in the windows and the principal open- ings and before any shadows are put on. It looks hopelessly flat and thoroughly discouraging. In free work in water color 52 ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING IN WASH it comes just before one begins to put in the various little accents and shadows which model the objects and give life. These are moments for the exercise of not merely courage but cool-headed- ness. It is at times like these that the beginner is apt to lose his head and begin to be foolish and instead of following out the definite set of steps he had planned, become confused and do the wrong thing first, and very soon the drawing is in ripe con- dition to sponge out and start all over again. The experienced renderer always sees the final result toward which he is working and holds it firmly in his mind, so firmly that he is frequently surprised when kind visitors draw his attention to something he had not yet reached, as being out of value "or not just right." Subconsciously the renderer knows it is not just right but it doesn't bother him ; he sees beyond it. He would be quick to see it in another man's drawing — but not in his own until he is ready to see it. Plane Values. Our sky wash is successfully completed and the building is in pure white against it. The sky looks darker than you thought it would and wanted it to be. Don't worry! It will look lighter when you get something else on the paper. The next process is to establish the relation of the planes of the building to the sky and to each other. Here again let us have recourse to Nature. Looking out of doors we see that on build- ings far ofif the shadows are much lighter and softer than those on buildings nearer at hand. More than that, the relative contrast between the shadows and the color of the distant buildings (their "local color") is not the same as on those across the street — it is not so great. At this point there are two programs we may adopt. We may either make the local color of the distant buildings light RENDERING 53 (and when I say distant buildings I mean distant planes; in ren- dering we think in terms of planes) and their shadows corres- pondingly light and make the other planes, as we come forward, darker and their shadows correspondingly dark. Or we may make the more distant planes the dark ones and as we come for- ward make the nearer successively lighter. In the latter case we keep the distant shadows softer and lighter and the nearer shadows successively darker; this gives the utmost brilliancy on the nearer planes because we have here the greatest con- trasts between light and shade. This latter of these two systems makes, I think, the more sunny and brilliant drawing. Let us assume that we have decided upon the latter method. This will make the auditorium wall the darkest of the planes of the build- ing, the two side wings next darkest and the central motif the lightest because farthest forward. So much for the building. But how about the balustrade out in front? Here we encounter one of the conventions of rendering in monotone in which effects of relief and of distance are obtained by contrasts. We want to concentrate the interest in the central motif. To do that it must exhibit the greatest brilliancy, therefore the greatest degree of contrast, the highest lights and the darkest relative darks. We can hardly then make the balustrade lighter than the central motif even if it is nearer to us. We therefore bid Nature au revoir at this point and embrace a convention by making the balustrade the darkest plane we have. An entirely justifiable departure, inconsistent though it seem. The other seeming inconsistency in making the more distant planes the darker ones is explained by this same matter of bril- liancy of contrast. We may bring objects forward by flooding them with light (which is what we have decided to do here) 54 ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING IN WASH and we throw a veil of atmosphere between ourselves and the. planes further off, or rather a series of veils as the planes recede, by passing tones over them shutting off more and more light. If we had adopted the convention first stated, with the most distant planes the lightest, and the principal plane the darkest, then, in order to make the balustrade stand forward we would make it lighter than the principal plane behind it. Passing the First Plane Wash. We mix up a very, very pale wash and pass it over the entire building. If the building is long and low it will be better to start at one end and go straight across from top to bottom in one band rather than attempt to lay such a long wash from end to end of the building. This wash (and this principle applies to every wash you lay, no matter how large) should still be perceptibly damp when you have finished it. Carrying the Wash Out to the End. Most beginners, and indeed some others, do not seem to realize the importance of carrying all washes out to the very end, even though they are so light at last that they seem to be clear water. No matter how large or how small a wash may be, nor how quickly it grades from dark out to nothing, keep on carrying the wash over the whole area to be covered. For instance, you may be building up a graded wash on the wall back of a colonnade. This may grade from very dark at the top to very light at the bottom or vice versa. I have seen men, as soon as the wash was graded out to almost clear water, dry off their brush and give a few dabs along the edge to fade it out, sometimes even blot it up with the heel of the hand or a handkerchief or a blotter. This is bad workmanship and if done a number of times in the same area, results in build- ing up all sorts of little streaks under the wash which give an (•Z6 "d 03c^) -Xpms oiqissod 5S3SO[0 oi() Xi?cIoj ip.w ij -SuiAMUi) sii]} III saoBid Aut?iii ui posii SI o^iAop siqx "(osiTA puc pjjsopod r)i|i |() ]\n\] in si;) A\()piH|s i; ui Ajjiiop puoj siiuoj o>ji?iu oi jo .-)ui?|d joqjouc )suit?3R ji OAOi[.u (l[.>i| ()) iiijoj V. JO .>Jil>'lii\' .iJiii.).iiiijjj]\p siuJiu'Svuj s/no4f:^,(J tuiuf pjjnpojcfJU Xai3D\V O AH tr HiV'Id RENDERING 55 indescribably dry and mean and mealy appearance. Remember this about India Ink: That one drop in a pint of water will stain that water just enough to modify the color of white paper and by passing a wash of this stained water many times over the same spot, you will build up a surprisingly dark value. It is for this reason that washes must be carried out to the very end and even when they seem, by that time, to be composed of clean water. The Relative Illumination of Planes. The accompanying diagrams illustrate a matter which must now be considered — the relative illumination of planes. SECTION ELEVATION DIAGRAM A Referring to Diagram A it is evident, with the established geometrical convention that the rays of light are falling at an angle of 45°, that Plane A will be the most brilliantly illuminated because it receives the full power of the light rays L, L, L. They strike Plane B and Plane B ^ a glancing blow, as it were, and if we 56 ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING IN WASH could see Plane D we would find it illuminated in the same de- gree as B and B\ each of which being parallel and close to each other we may assume to receive the same amount of light. Plane C is not illuminated at all and is therefore in ''shade" — not in shadow. That portion of B^ coresponding to the projection of the lower edge of C beyond the face of B^ is in shadow — the shadow cast by Projection P. Besides the direct light falling on the object there is another kind of light from other directions — reflected light. But this we will take up in its place. We are now merely studying the planes preliminary to establishing their values with washes and so preparing them to receive shadows. It is evident then that vertical planes are by no means the most brilliantly lighted. The pitches on the tops of cor- nices, string- and base-courses, steps and platforms and the like correspond in their degree to Plane A. (Also, if we turn the diagram around and look at it as a plan instead of a section we see that if we had a polygonal form such as a tower, the left hand face A would be brightest, B and B^ which directly face us would be next, and C would be in shade.) These pitches must therefore be left lighter than any other part of the building — each of course in relative value to those planes of the building on which they occur. That on the cornice of the auditorium wall which is furthest back will be in relation to the value established for that wall — which is Plane B modified in brilliancy by distance, the efifect of distance being produced by lowering the brilliancy of the white paper by passing washes over it. Therefore it is self-evident that the pitches on the central motif will be the most brilliant of all — the pitches, and the high lights on the columns which correspond to Plane A as a plan, as we have seen. RENDERING 57 Building up the Plane Values. Float ^ second wash over the whole drawing leaving out the Planes A in the central motif. Then a third over the whole of the side wings and auditorium walls. A fourth over the side wings and auditorium leaving out the Planes A in the wings. A fifth over the whole auditorium wall and a sixth leaving out Planes A on this latter. (Page 34.) By so doing you have established all of these planes in relative values and the values of all ''A" surfaces to all "B" surfaces in all of the three planes of the building. This does not neces- sarily mean that the plane of the wings now seems to be enough back from the central motif, nor that the auditorium wall is in its correct relation to either. You have merely established a value. You get the true values, which will express the truth of your building in plan, by merely extending this principle and multiplying washes until the values are right. This is the rendering of plane values in a nutshell. It is applicable to all rendering and all planes. Whenever you are puzzled, recall the principle and everything becomes clear. Curved Surfaces. Curved surfaces may be considered as merely polygons with an infinite number of sides instead of the semi-octagon given in the diagram. You have but to apply the principle and you will see how any curved surface is lighted, whether cylindrical like a column, spherical as in a dome, or compound as in an ogee. Suppose you have a surface, a section through which cannot be struck with a compass but is perhaps a parabola. Merely divide the surface into a large number of small planes and compare the figure with the simple semi-octagon and you will see at once which are the lightest, which the inter- mediate, and which the darkest. Once master this principle and nothing can stump you. 58 ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING IN WASH Intermediate Subordinate Planes. We have assumed "some columns" with the central motif. We have assumed further that they are in antis and that the entrance door is in a wall a few feet behind the columns. This wall will give us a plane inter- mediate between the principal plane and the face of the side wings of the building. Upon this plane we pass washes sufficient L, ii"**- ' B + C ^i^'^iSiiin^kaMik .•.GROJUND.V, SECTION DIAGRAM ELEVATION in number to establish its relation to the other planes. For the time being we leave the balustrade as it is. In fact, since it is to be so dark anyway, we have included it in the washes passed over the side wings and it is at present of their value. Before we proceed to lay shadow washes we must understand the principle of reflected lights and shadows. Reflected Light. Here in Diagram C is our octagonal ar- rangement of planes again, with a ground plane and some addi- RENDERING 59 tional light rays, from which it will be seen that we must reckon with more than one source of light — the brilliant light of the sun coming down from the left and striking some plane like the ground plane and rebounding against the object with a some- what diminished brilliancy — diminished because part is lost by absorption. Examine the course of the Ray X which strikes the ground, rebounds, hits the underside of P and bounces off on to Plane B* in that portion of it covered by S which is the shadow cast by the Projection P. Assume Ray X to be merely the central SECTION ILLVATIOK DIAGRAM D ray of a group. It is evident that these rays as they are reflected from plane to plane will materially modify the value of the Shadow S. Also that the brilliancy of the reflected light dimin- ishes in proportion to the distance of the reflecting plane from the plane which receives the reflection. To make this clearer we will enlarge the *T" and "S" part of our diagram. Ray X strikes nearest the outer edge of P and therefore when reflected from P strikes nearest the lower edge of the Shadow S (the angle of reflection being always the same as the angle of incidence) . X^ strikes as shown. X^P to X^S is a much shorter 6o ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING IN WASH distance than X-P to X-S and the intermediate rays are also shorter and longer in their proportion. Therefore the reflected light is stronger in the neighborhood of X^P and X^S than in that of X-P and X-S. Hence the upper part of the Shadow S near- est to P is lighter than the lower part. We also observe that Ray Y and its group strike Plane C, the efifect of which is to lighten it. If the ground plane or reflecting surface were as- sumed to be at a very great distance, there would be so little reflected light as to be negligible. SECTION BLEVATl ON DIAGRAM E Now let us modify the diagram a trifle by tilting P somewhat so that we may see it in elevation. Rays X^ and X^ are part of the same group of rays which we have observed as being reflected up into the triangle formed by P and S and a line joining their extremities. This group and an infinite company of others we do not show, strike Plane B^ both inside and outside of the Shadow Area S and are re- flected up against P so that instead of being very dark and flat it becomes luminous and has a luminous gradation, the outer RENDERING 6i portion near C being darkest and that nearest B^ the lightest, for the same reason that has been given for the gradation of S. In rendering, all shadows (and indeed all planes) should be graded — and these diagrams furnish the explanation. Be- fore taking up reflected shadows, let us go a little further with reflected light while we are about it, with special reference to two aspects of it — reflected lights in vertical shadows and the grading of planes. (See Diagram F.) Reflected light is as- J REFLKTED- LIGHT RAYS LLEVATI ON DIAGRAM F sumed to come from the Right, so that the reflected-light rays, acting as we have previously seen, would make the portion of the vertical shadow nearest P the lightest and there would be an even gradation from the right-hand side of this shadow to the corner at the junction of P and S in plan. Besides this gradation there is another, from the top of S in elevation to the bottom at the ground line, caused by the reflected light rays from the ground striking into the Shadow S most strongly at the bottom and of course with diminishing 62 ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING IN WASH force the further from the ground they have to travel. So that such shadows are lightest in their lower part. All this may be very beautifully seen on the southerly front of the Sub- Treasury Building at the head of Broad Street in New York on a sunny day. If the intensity of shadows is modified and lightened by reflected light as they approach the ground or any plane ap- proximately parallel thereto, by the same token so are the values of planes. For the sake of simplification at that moment I did not refer to any gradation of the washes on the planes of our building. But they will have been graded washes. Some men like to grade their planes from the bottom up- wards (a convention I may say which really means the as- sumption of a darker local color on the lower portion of a build- ing such as the greater accumulation of dirt near the ground) and others down. By the first method, the contrasts at the cornice line are very brilliant — dark shadows on a light surface. Some men grade their planes downward so as to simulate the re- flected light from the ground, strengthen their cornice shadows proportionately to get brilliancy against the darker upper sur- face — and handle the gradation of their reflected shadows and their piquage so as to restore apparent balance and stability to the structure. For if a drawing of a building is lightest next to the ground the building seems to have no satisfactory base and to float. But we are anticipating, as the old-fashioned novelists used to say. {^tt Piquage, pages 78 and 79.) Either of these methods is sound. One is applicable to cer- tain circumstances and the other to other cases. I think, how- ever, that if our planes are darkest near the ground, we should, to establish a balance in the drawing, reverse the gradation in RENDERING 63 such planes as the wall back of our colonnade in antis in our central motif. The same principle of reversal for balance ap- plies to the other system. If our main planes are lightest near the ground, a plane such as just referred to should be darkest near the ground. For when there is such a recessed plane, we may assume that the reflected light from the ground outside is strong enough to neutralize the light which is reflected from the plane forming the floor of the recess and actually to cast 5 EC TI ON DIAGRAM G the faint reflected shadow of this floor plane which fades out as it goes up. In the diagram (G) the group of rays typified by R* may be assumed to be neutralized by the more powerful rays of reflected light thrown up from the ground, which by a con- vention we regard as a white reflecting surface for our purpose instead of a dark absorbent tone. Reflected or "Back" Shadows. Reflected shadows (which are colloquially termed ''back shadows") are easily understood once the principle of reflected lights is mastered. If a strong 64 ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING IN WASH reflected light is being thrown back upon a plane in shade or in shadow and there should be a projection in that plane, there will be a back-shadow cast by that projection, sometimes fainter than a direct shadow, sometimes quite as sharp, depending upon the relative distance of the shadow-casting object and the light-reflecting plane. (See Diagram H.) By a convention, into the scientific basis of which it is un- necessary to enter here, reflected shadows or back shadows, SECTION ELEVATION DIAGRAM H are assumed to be cast from some source of light below and to the right, direct shadows being cast from above and the left. Back shadows if large enough to show their gradation in a drawing are darkest nearest the object which throws them and fade out as they go up and to the left. Reflected shadows are of course constructed in the same manner as direct shadows. It seems superfluous to enlarge further on the subject of back shadows. The student is advised to examine the illustra- tions in this book and above all in D'Espouy's Fragments d'Architecture. I believe the principles of plane values and RENDERING 65 their gradation, of the illumination of surfaces and of reflected lights and shadows have been stated with sufficient fullness to make their application easy. It would be tedious to attempt to cover every case. In discussing the rendering of detail draw- ings we will develop some points unnecessary to touch upon now. Shades and Shadows. Our plane values established we are ready to put in our shadows. And the first thing we en- counter is the problem of plane values again — the minor planes this time. Godef roy, who was rated as a very skilful renderer in Paris a good many years ago, used to start a drawing by laying the cornice shadow first, on pure white paper; not the whole cornice shadow but that portion of the shadow which falls on the frieze (our "S"), and this he made almost black for a large drawing. I assume his theory was that he had then established two values at the extreme ends of the scale — the white paper and this in- tensely black and brilliant portion of the shadow of the main cornice — and he worked his half tones and quarter and eighth tones in between these extremes. This is not meat for babes. I advise that the beginner lay the sky or background wash first and follow that with washes which establish the local color of the several planes and their relations to each other and to the sky tone. This gets rid of vast areas of white paper and the judgment of values becomes much easier as well as surer. It used to be my practise to lay the principal cornice shadow next after the sky wash, on the Godef roy theory that I was establish- ing the principal dark, and I usually rendered this main cornice shadow complete before doing anything else. Accumulated ex- perience, however, leads me to believe that this is not so success- 66 ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING IN WASH ful as to establish all the big tones first, all the plane values, and all the local color. Cornice Shadows. After these are estabished it is now my practise to pass a tone over the whole shadow of the main cornice (whether the main cornice is in one plane or is broken by pavilions or by a central motif) and over the shadows cast by projecting portions, and then work up the full value of the main cornice on the principal plane so as to establish a measure of value to work to. This first wash defines the general model- ing enough for one to be able to look ahead and visualize the future steps. Let us pass it. It will go over everything which is in shadow. If modillions occur in the cornice which have sufficient projection to catch the light, of course we leave out the modillions. It is best to start at the right-hand end of the build- ing because, where the central motif projects and casts a shadow, this shadow wash you are running has to be carried down over this shadow area without a stop or a break and be graded as it goes. It does not have to be graded on the running stretch of cornice — this gradation is built up as will be presently described. Therefore carry it flat until it meets the sharp diagonal edge of the shadow cast by the central motif and along and down this diagonal for a bit; then take water and grade it out somewhat toward the central motif and down the edge of the diagonal, grading as you go left and down. For you have two things to accomplish — gradation to the left, to express the reflected light from our old friend. Projection P, and a gradation of the whole shadow down, to express the reflected light from the ground. (See Plate No. 4.) As soon as the edge of the shadow where it touches the central motif is dry, carry the rest of the main cor- nice shadow wash along to the left-hand end of the drawing. RENDERING 67 Work wet but not too wet. Follow the lines absolutely. Do not let the value of the wash vary by taking too much up in your brush when you recharge it; if you do your shadow will look like a piece of watered silk ribbon and will seem to ripple or undulate. Then go back to the central motif and count the planes in the cornice shadow. Suppose it is as shown in Diagram I. We have ten planes of which five are vertical and five are so inclined that they will receive reflected light. (At i-i6th scale unless the size of parts is tremendous we are not concerned with the actual profile of planes 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10. They are merely inclined planes.) Plane 2 will be lightest, 4 next lightest, 6 next after 4. Plane i will be darkest and 3 and 5 successively lighter. Plane 7 and Plane 9 will be brilliant lights of the same value at this small scale. But as for the shadow on 7, to get brilliancy and sparkle and make it stand forward of 5, we make it darker even than i. It is nearer than i is to the shadow casting form, which is the lower edge of 9, and is therefore crisper and darker because a lot of reflected light rays have a chance to get in between the edge of 9 and Plane i and lighten up the shadow. So is 5 nearer to the shadow-casting form, vertically. But it is also nearer to the surface P from which a strong reflected light is thrown on its face. We make 8 darker than 6, main- taining the relation between 5 and 7 and for the same reason. We have already passed a wash over all these members except 7, the lighted portion of the modillions. At a larger scale we would have at least seven and usually many more washes to run. But we may simplify and make 3 and 5 alike and 4 and 6 alike, 68 ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING IN WASH the difference between their projections beyond Plane i not be- ing very great. The shadow is to be graded from light at the top to dark at the bottom. By applying what we know of reflected lights and of the relative value of planes, it is evident that 6 will be the lightest plane in the shadow and we have decided to simplify and make 4 like it. We have already passed one light tone over the whole shadow. Let this tone as it is then stand for 6 and 4. We pass two more washes over 5, the value of which for purposes of demonstration we assume now to be definitely es- tablished, and this same depth of wash twice over i and 3. 3 is then established at the same value as 5 having had the same number of washes passed over it. We pass another wash over I and 2 and two more washes over i, or we may pass two first over I only and the third wash over i and 2 which will soften the junction between them. Whenever we have approached the projection of the central motif we have lightened these washes to express reflected light, particularly Plane i. When we have done all this according to the formula given above I do not mean to say that the relative values of all these planes will be correct. I am merely indicating a method by which you may arrive at the values you yourself want — and the depth of the wash you have been using has a lot to do with the result. An expert can establish these values pretty closely at six- teenth scale with fewer washes and still attain transparency. For a very brilliant and sunny shadow I advise having Plane I a lot darker than the formula would make it. I like a sharp ^ '/) a t> > _^ o _^ ^ X u. .'x "g "I .:i- ± = a .5 ^ H i« == ~ s -^ u -^ y ■C — I- 1- y. C t '^ "?. ■SI 2- '-" "5 X "ii RENDERING 69 gradation between 6 and i especially at a small scale where crispness and brilliancy count for more than subtleties of nuance. Sometimes it is a good idea if the shadow of the modillions is quite long to pass a special wash over the modillion part of the shadow only, fairly dark, and then pass the successive washes for Plane i over modillion shadow and all, which will soften the upper edge of the special modillion wash and build the modillion wash up to a darker value than that of Plane i by the same operation. The result will be, at a little distance, that Plane i will seem to be graded in itself from the lower edge of the modillion shadow up to 2, although you have used perfectly flat tones. I say "at a little distance." And here let me set up a sign- post of warning. Don't work with your nose to the paper all the time. Keep setting your board up and comparing values and seeing how well what you are doing carries at a distance. Stand away from it. Use a diminishing glass constantly; it flatters in some respects but it condenses areas and values and shows you your defects as well. And as the drawing approaches comple- tion, put it, not in the best light you can find to test its carrying power or beauty, but in the worst light — for in an exhibition or when hung for judgment in a competition it may be hung in a poor light and if you have fooled yourself your labor is lost. This principle of building up shadows is applicable to all cases. Vertical shadows of course are graded; the gradation is not built up in flat washes. The shadows on planes further back are laid on the same principle but lighter as they go back. Drawing Back Shadows. We have still to put in the back shadows of the modillions, for which we have prepared by draw- ing the edges of them with a 5H or 6H pencil very crisply. 70 ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING IN WASH This would better be done in two washes, the first to go over both 5 and 6 and the second over 5 only. The values of these little washes for back shadows and the like are almost in the category of piquage and their strength has to be a matter of experience or judgment. Such washes are of course many shades darker than the first wash you laid in the cornice shadow and which now shows only on 6 and 4. Colonnade Shadows. Having our whole main cornice shadow rendered, including the central motif and side wings, we may bring the shadows on the wall back of the columns into value. Here we have two options: To grade these shadows from the top down from dark to light, or dark at the bottom and light at the top. If you try the latter, I think you will be pleased with the result, because, when you come to render the capitals of the columns, with crisp, very brilliant little darks, these sharp accents will come against a light background and the greater contrast will give greater brilliancy. Also, the shaded side of the columns will grade from dark at the top to light at the base and the bases will also be quite light, so that you will have the light column bases against the dark part of the shadow, and the shaded side of the column will first show darker against lighter and then lighter against darker as it comes down. Steps. If there are steps leading up to the central motif, as there probably would be, we may make them recede as they rise, in two ways, first, by passing a tone over the bottom step, then when dry the same tone over the first and second, then over the first, second and third and so on to the top (a variant being to grade them in pairs — one wash on the first two, same wash on these and the next two, the same wash over six, etc.) ; and second, by grading each step by itself and leaving a little sharp light PLATE 5 RY THE AUTHOR To illustrate the gradation of tone of a wall behind a colonnade, of the shadows cast by the columns on this wall and the contrast of the dark accents of the column capitals against the lightest part of the wall. (See p. 70.) Also back shadows put in with a ruling pen and the gradation of back shadows. (See pp. 75, 76, 77.) RENDERING 71 along the edge of each step and for which we draw light guide lines in pencil to assure the same width to each light edge. These we may start dark at the bottom and grade out lighter, or, we may establish the value we want the top riser to be in relation to the bottom part of the central motif and add value as we go down the steps. And this is the safest and surest way. Windows. At any time we felt we needed to have their value established to help us with our other values, we will have put the washes in the windows. These should be sharply graded from the top down if the plane they occur in is in full light and from the bottom up if they are in a plane which is in shadow. One wash or more is first put over the whole opening which will represent the color and value of the frame and sash, and subsequent washes over the glass. Frequently the window frame is made darker than the glass and is put in with a ruling pen and the shadow on the frame still darker, almost black. This is purely a matter of taste and of the kind of building we are rendering — its whole character and quality will help to deter- mine such questions of treatment. Grading Small Washes. There are several ways of grad- ing all small washes and such as we usually get in windows. One is to use two brushes, one of which is loaded with clear water and the other with wash; we start with the wash at the top and carry it down about a third of the height; take the other brush quickly and, leaving a little gap between the wash just laid, run clear water over the rest of the window, then still with the clear water brush, close the gap between the color wash and the clear water by bringing the water up to the color. If the two washes are of exactly the right and equal degrees of wetness the two will flow together and make a beautiful gradation. The 72 ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING IN WASH brush may be used to guide the fusion. If one wash is wetter than the other, the lighter will fan up into the darker or vice versa. Another way is to use one brush, lay the upper third of the window, dip the tip of the brush very carefully into clear water and take up exactly enough to make up for what you have just laid on the paper, carry this wash down another third of the Way, wash out the brush quickly and vigorously in your big bowl or casserole, take clear water out of another receptacle and grade out with this to the bottom. Another way is to mix a tone for the top third, another for the second third about a quarter as dark. Lay the top third, wash out your brush thoroughly and recharge it with the second wash, wash it out thoroughly and take clear water for the last third. Another way still is to take out two brushfuls of the Mother Wash and put them in a godet, lay part of the wash, add a little water in the godet, mixing it thoroughly with the Mother Wash in it, lay some more wash, lighten up again and repeat. Then throw away what is left of your diluted little wash and start over again for the next window; or you may grade from light to dark by adding ink. Of course these methods are applicable to any wash and the best way is to try them out and see which suits your own tempera- ment; or invent a new way for yourself. Only, it has to be a way you can count upon every time to produce a certain result. In free rendering one often gets a spot of color, a window per- haps, with the most delicious gradations and fusions of color which were the result of working fast and wet and the effect was produced almost by itself — to save your soul you couldn't RENDERING 73 rqDeat just that thing again. In formal rendering you have to repeat the same thing again and again and know how to do it. General Warning as to Grading Washes. There is an- other thing to guard against in grading washes — a tendency to run the wash drier as you lighten it. All parts of every wash must be evenly wet. When you have finished a wash, the be- ginning of it should still be perceptibly wet. And let me repeat again, no matter how light the wash may be, even if it is pure water (or seems to be) carry it over the whole area it should cover. Don't fade it off with dry brush strokes. Column Shades and Shadows. The washes on the shaded side of the columns are done in all sorts of ways. Some men run the brush against a T-square held away from the paper, slap out the color, take pure water and run it down the edges, and the streaks blend. Others run it by hand by a variation of the window wash method, carrying a narrow vertical band of the color down a way, taking up water in the brush and going back to the top and running a second vertical band beside the first over the rest of the shaded part, and repeating the opera- tion, grading down and sideways in sections as it were, then passing a general graded wash, darkest at the right hand 45° point, over the whole column except the high light. Another but much more laborious way is to build up the gradation around the column (and lengthwise also of course) by laying a series of bands graded from top to bottom corre- sponding to the flutes. An unfluted column may of course be modeled in the same way. Diagram J shows how this would be done on a large-scale unfluted column. (See page 74.) For an unfluted column we draw two light pencil lines rep- resenting the width of the high light. And whether fluted or 74 ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING IN WASH unfluted (unless we do it as though flute by flute) the shade line at the right-hand 45° point is drawn sharply in pencil. Fre- quently, in a very light drawing the pencil line itself at the lightest parts of the shade will seem to model the column and 6 6 ■ 5 5 S " 1 1 4 4 1 ' ' i I i i. i S 1 2 2 1 1 1 ! ill ! i j ! 1 i III 1 ] ! 1 ! 1 > 1 ■ ' < 1 1 ' i ! 1 ii hi 6 4 / / /\ \ 1 1 k. 1\ 1 ' 7 1 1/ X > / The washes are numbered in the order in «-^ --i platp: 20 HV THE AUTHOR To illustrate working on wet paper laid on a sheet of glass. (See p. 138.) The general tones are put on first, and as the paper dries the parts requiring more definition are put in, and the crisp accents when the paper is almost dry. The color has to be put on much stronger than usual because it soaks in; and shadow washes, for example, put on very wet paper have to be pushed back into place with the Inusli to keep them from spreading too much anti losing all definition. FULL COLOR AND FREE SKETCHING 139 as the fingers of a pianist or a typist find the keys without process of thought. Use of Black. Black is not mentioned here because it has no place, in my opinion, in work in full color except in decora- tion. Black is the negation of color. If you look carefully enough and long enough at something in Nature which seems on a cursory view to be black you will discover that it isn't black at all but dark grey or brown or violet. There is no black in Nature and one of the marked differences between the older and the new schools of painting is in the banishment of black from the palette by the latter. Brushes. A brand-new sharply pointed brush is for most purposes in free sketching a deterrent of success; for certain de- tails it is indispensable, but for most uses one somewhat blunted is preferable. Flat bristle brushes have their merits and should be tried out to determine their virtues and limitations. A sketch made with flat brushes of different sizes and widths may be given a very distinctive quality by the character of the brush strokes. Papers. As to paper, anything you like is the thing for you — smooth Whatman, rough and extra rough Whatman, Harding paper (a buff paper with a strong diagonal grain and quite ab- sorbent and in this year of grace 192 1 hard to get) , English tinted crayon paper {not the smooth side), French "Torchon" paper, charcoal paper. In using tinted or colored paper you must bear in mind that the darker it is, the furthest removed from white, the more it will lower the value of every tone. As I have said, in water color painting the white of white paper is counted upon to take the place of the white pigment used in oil painting. There- fore the tone of the paper modifies any transparent wash to a 140 ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING IN WASH tremendous extent and Chinese White must frequently be re- sorted to in order to make a light wash opaque enough to cover the paper and prevent it from changing the tone of the wash. F. Hopkinson Smith used to have a lot of paper of different tones with him from which he selected that one which was near- est to the general tone of the scene, and with a few modifications of this tone made here with transparent, there with opaque washes and a few touches of local color, he produced very clever and beautiful sketches. They weren't very true, the sunlight in them rarely seemed like real sunshine, but they were very charming nevertheless. Howard Greenley makes very clever sketches by choosing a darkish paper and working on it in body color, leaving the color of the paper to represent the shadows, the stone joints and the like. Methods. As to the actual painting, the putting on of the color, that cannot be taught or described in a book. I can only give a hint here and there. I learned by hints picked up here and there from this man and that. Study everybody and learn something from each and presently your work will begin to take on a personal accent. Study Fortuny, Harpignies, Whistler, Sargent, Brangwyn, Maris, Israels, Walcott, Guerin, Parrish, Dodge McKnight, Frank Hazell, Herman Murphy. When Robert Louis Stevenson was learning to write he deliberately set himself the task of imitating as closely as he could the styles of various masters of English, rendering a given theme or sentence as each of them would have done. The result was a style so personal that one has but to hear a sentence by Stevenson with the eyes closed to recognize it instantly. It is the best sort of practise to copy provided you copy the work of several, the more "^ v.'.T'^ ^^r- ? -4 I'LATli 2 1 i!V OTTO K. i-:(.(.i:ks Fafadc of St. IVt^irs in R:)niL'. Illustrating an interesting point of xicw and an admirable rendition of textures. FULL COLOR AND FREE SKETCHING 141 widely divergent in method and style the better. The list of men just given indicates a range wide enough for any one. Unless you are making a documentary sort of sketch it is the worst kind of mistake to make an elaborate pencil outline draw- ing first. If you do you get a colored drawing. The moment you make a careful line sketch the tendency is to tighten up when you come to the color. A few of the principal lines to define the big masses, the location of important darks and the rest of the drawing done entirely with the brush. Painters in fact often draw entirely with the brush in pale blue or red — not a bad idea for the architect to adopt. Beginning to Paint. I think it is usually best to put your sky in first, frequently carrying it down over the whole drawing, running it out to water and blotting it up where you don't want it. This makes sure that it is carried down behind the trees and so on. Then the far distance, distance, middle distance and fore- ground in this order, to ensure measures of value as in formal rendering. Sometimes you have to model a good deal as you go, especially in a diffused light without any real shadows, but the usual pro- cedure is to put on the shadows last, of which, naturally, the most important are the first to be done. But it is hard to follow any rule. Each subject has its own exigencies and requirements, and must be carefully analyzed for values, color masses and modulation before beginning to paint in order to determine the steps to take and the proper sequence of those steps. This is of course chiefly applicable to work in transparent as distinguished from body color; in body color you may cover up lots of early mistakes. It is well to take both blotter and sponge with you when you 142 ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING IN WASH go out. Always wet the sponge before you go, for water is us- ually precious in the field. And if you make a bad start just sponge it out at once and start afresh. It is not necessary to use the point of the brush always. In breaking one color over another it is often more effective to use the side. For the rendition of some effects, such as deep grass, not merely should the point be used but the brush should be held by the extreme end of the handle. At other times it should be firmly grasped and used like a lead pencil. By all of which I mean to indicate that you should not stand on ceremony with your tools or materials. For some parts of a water color draw- ing it may be held nearly vertical on an easel — but there is no law of God or man which debars you from holding it flat on your knees or putting it on the ground if by so doing you can get. •what you want. Work upside down if you like, inverting your- self or your drawing as most convenient. And don't let any one tell you that this or that method is not "legitimate" or "fair." Scrubbing. You will see that the Dutch painters often scrub the paper, not merely to remove hard edges here and there but to produce certain effects of light in cloudy skies and else- where. In view of their lovely results it is evident that when you wish you may scrub the paper all you please — but be sure your result is lovely. Textures. Some effects of texture may best be rendered by a general wash varied in tone and laid very wet. Then when perfectly dry, drag color over it where you want it with a pretty dry brush. Manipulation. Color, particularly deposing color, has to be manipulated to get the most out of its possibilities. The be- ginner is apt to work too quickly and not give it a chance to settle C H C ix oTV^ PLATE 22 BY r.RXKST PEIXOTTO A painter's chief concern is with the !)i,u; elements of a composition; an architect is usually obsessed by detail. This drawing exhibits the point of view of a distinguished painter and illustrator. FULL COLOR AND FREE SKETCHING 143 out. Suppose we have a big blank wall in which there is a con- siderable variety of tone, red running into yellow or merging into grey or violet in places. To get quality and a sense of texture and of the vibration of light, mix up some red, some yellow and some violet of the right values and have them ready; then begin at the top and pull the color slowly, working the brush some- times from right to left, sometimes from left to right, sometimes diagonally in either direction, sometimes vertically, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, and taking up the colors you need as you come to them, blending them together where they need it, keep- ing them apart when necessary; now and then you'll need to take water to lighten up a tone — but be sure you take up no more than you require to lighten the tone or you'll get a fan or a run-back — "All parts of the wash equally wet" applies in free as in formal rendering. By this process you arrange the tiny particles of pig- ment in different relative positions, giving variety to the same tone by the mere variety in handling. This is of course a mere hint at the possibilities of manipulation. Water color work is not merely laying perfect flat washes nor evenly and perfectly graded washes, but also giving quality to a wash by the way it is modulated by handling — and to the expert eye this is one of the marks of the adept or of the novice. Broadly speaking, there are two systems by which washes in full color may be laid — particularly large washes. One is by mixing the various pigments together and floating them on in one wash. The other way is to float one color over another. They both require considerable skill. Great judgment is re- quired in mixing the mixed wash and great lightness of hand in laying the colors singly. As has been frequently observed, it is apt to give a wash containing heavy color a muddy appearance 144 ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING IN WASH if the little particles of pigment are disturbed and disarranged. For that reason, in building up a compound tone with individual washes, it is well to lay the washes of the lighter pigments first. For example, if you wish to lay a Violet, put on a wash of Car- mine first and over that float Cobalt or Ultramarine. When well done this individual-wash method has great beauty. Spraying on Full Color. For sprayed washes put on by air-brush or atomizer in full color, it is by all odds the best way to build up the tone instead of mixing red and blue together to make a Violet and then spraying on the mixture. It is far more beautiful to spray on the separate colors. The tiny spots of each pigment fall side by side on the paper and the eye blends them. « « « So much for method and methods; but beyond these lies that inner vision without which all work however skilfully done is empty and soulless. INDEX A Page Accessory Trees and Shrubs 88 Accuracy in Plans lOo, loi Acropolis 84 Aerial Photographs loo Agents, Pigments as Toning 29, 30 Alcohol, Diluting with 49 Alcohol Spray 49 Alteneder Ruling Pens 20 Alternate Method of Laying a Sky Wash 43 Alum, Use of 23 Aims in Sketching 133 Air Brush 48, 113 " " Skies 47 " " Washes, Repairing Defects in 42 " " or Atomizer, Unifying Tone with 113 Analysis of Color Masses and their Modulation 141 " " Subject 141 Antiquarian Paper 4 Appliances 136 Arrangement of Colors, Habitual 138 "Art" Gum 17, 22, 108 Atomizer Skies 47 " or Air Brush, Unifj'ing Tone with 113 Atomizers 48, 113 Author's Palette 126 B "Background" vs. Sky 35 Backgrounds, Warm and Cold 83 Back shades 77 Back Shadows, Drawing 63, 69 " " and Piquage 76 Balance, Reversal for 62, 63 Beginning to Paint 141 "Biting in'' a line i8, 75 Black, Use of 139 Blaisdell Pencil 8i Block Plans 113 Blots, Removing 51 Blotters 10, 141 " and their Uses 28, 29 Board, Drawing 3 Board, Tilting the Drawing 50 145 146 INDEX Page Body Color 82, 128 Brangwyn, Frank 140 Brickwork, Piquage of 79 Brillianc>' by Contrasts 44, 70 " Preserving 44 Brilliant Poche 104, 105 Bristle Brushes, Flat and Chinese 139 Broad Lines 100, 106 Brown, to make 125 Brush Case 137 " Drawing with the 141 * Loading the 38 " The Point of the 14a " The Side of the 142 " Selecting a 26 Brushes, Air 48 " Camels' Hair 26 " Care of 27 " Chinese Bristle 27 " Flat Hair or Bristle 139 " Red Sable 25 " Winsor & Newton's 25 Building assumed to be rendered. Description of 17, 34 Building up from light to dark 36 " " Gradations 66 " " Plane Values 57 " " Values 96 Camels' Hair Brushes 26 Carbonaceous Pigments 123 " Washes 41, no Care of Brushes 27 " " Stick of Ink 28 Carrying the Wash Out 54 Case, Brush 137 Casserole, Use of 23 Casting Shadows 24 Ceiling Indication 105 " Solids, Shadows of 93 Character in Furnishing, Expression of 107 Charcoal Paper 139 Charrette 22 Charrette, En 16 Chifflot 21 Chinese Bristle Brushes 27 " Ink 27 Choice of Subject and Point of View 135 Circulation, Grey 105 " Tone of 105 White 105 Clean Hands n Cleaning, "Dry" 22 Cleaning off 22 Cleanliness 1 1> 108 " again 29 INDEX 147 Page Cloth-backed Paper ^ Cloud Shadows "3 Coarsening Freehand Pens 20 Cold Backgrounds, Warm and 83 Cold and Warm Lines loi " " " Tones, Opposing 84 " -Pressed Whatman Paper 4 " to Warm and Vice Versa, Grading from 88 Colonnade Shadows 7o Color, Body 82, 128 " Drawing in Quarter, Half and Three-quarter 83 " Full m " Habitual Arrangement of J38 " "Lifting" of 87, 91 " Local 52 " Manipulation of 142 " Masses and Their Modulation, Analysis of 141 " Piquage in 89 " Powders "8 " Saucer {godet) 29 " Spraying on in Full I44 Colors, Beware of old dry 123 " Fugitive "8, 119 " Pan "6 Primary 89, 124 " Secondary 89 " Tertiary 89 Tube "5 Column Shades and Shadows 73 Combined Gradations 45 Common Sense in Indication 104 Complicated Shadows 24 Composition 136 Compound Tone by Individual Washes i44 Concentration of Interest in Plan "3 " " Light and Dark in Plans "i Conditions, Indoor and Outdoor I37 Construction Lines for Shadows 24 "Consuming" the Line »9 Conte Crayon 81 Contrast, Law of i " " Reversing Values for S3 Contrasts, Brilliancy by 44, 7° Convention ^^ " vs. Realism 46 Conventional Indications 109 Cooling Ink '7 Copying ; • • • ; ^^° Cornice Shadow, Sharp Gradation in 68 " Shadows 6^, 86 " " Minor Planes in (Diagram) 55. 67 Crayon Paper, English and Tinted ^39 Cret, Paul Philippe 84, 98 " " Working Palette of 129 Crossing Lines '°3 Crow-quill Pens 80 Curved Surfaces, Illumination of 57 Cyma Shades, Gradation of 96 148 INDEX Page D Damp Weather 50 Dampening the Drawing 37 Dark Horizons 45 " Lines 19 Darkening up 81 Darks and Lights, Principal 65 Defects in Airbrush Washes, Repairing 42 " Repairing 41 Demi-poche loi Deposing Pigments 116 Description of Building assumed to be rendered 17, 34 " " Monotone and Monochrome 31 D'Espouy 18, 20, 64, 94, 95 Details, Light Edges in 97 " Rendering of 94 " Textures in 99 Diluting Ink 17 " with Alcohol 49 Diminishing Glass 69 Discipline xvi Distances 45 Division of Washes 33 Drawing at Small Scale, Simplification of 13 " Back Shadows 69 " Dampening the 37 " of Plan, Freedom in 101 " with the Brush 141 " Rendering Detail 94 " Board 3 " " Tilting the 50 Drawings in Quarter, Half and Three-quarter Color 83 " Shade-line 21 "Dry-cleaning" 22 Dull Poche 103 E Easels 137 Edges in Details, Light 97 " Mending 40 " of a Wash, Freshening up the 38 Edifices de Rome Moderne — Letarouilly 107 Eggers, Otto R., Working Palette of 129 Eggshell Paper 4 Electric Fan, Use of 10, 23 Eliminating Spots and Streaks 41, 42 En Charrette 16 English Crayon Paper 139 Ensemble loi Entourage lOo " and Tree Masses Generally 108 Envois of the Grand Prix Men i8 Erasures 14 Erechtheion 84 Evaporation of Ink, Preventing the 28 Experimenting 87 INDEX 149 Page Expression of Character in Furnishing 107 Extra Rough Whatman Paper 139 F Fan, Use of Electric 10, 23 "Fans" or "run-backs" 5, 29, 50, 143 Field, Sponge for the 141, 142 Final Paper, Transferring Studies to 12 Flat Hair and Bristle Brushes 139 Floor Indication 105 Foliage 82 " Use of Sponge for 112 Following a Line 38 Foregrounds, Perspective 46 Fortuny 140 Free Sketching 133 Freedom in Drawing of Plan 101 Free-hand Pens 20 " " " Coarsening and Sharpening of 20 Freshening up Edges of a Wash 38 "Frothing" 15 Frotter 15 Fugitive Colors 118, 119 Full Color 133 " " Spraying on in 144 Furnishing a Plan 105, 106 " " " Use of Washes in 107 " Expression of Character in 107 Furniture 105 G Gamier, Tony 102 Gillott's Pens 20 Glass, Diminishing 69 " Painting on 137, 138 Glazing Method, The 90 Godefroy 65 Godet (Color Saucer) 29 Goodhue, Bertram G 47, 104 Gouache 128 Gradation in Plans no " of Cyma Shades 96 " " Steps 70 " " Windows 71 Gradations, Building up 66 " Combined 45 " Reversing 62 Grading a Wash from Light to Dark and Vice Versa 37 " from Cold to Warm and Vice Versa 88 " Modillion Shadows 69 " of Plane Washes 6a " Plane Washes Upwards 62 " Small Washes 71 Grand Prix Men 94, 95, 96 " " " Envois of the 18 Graphite 11, 15 150 INDEX Page Green Rubber 22 Greenley, Howard 140 Grey Circulation 105 " To make 125 Greys of Plan 105 Grinding or Rubbing up India Ink 28 Grinding Saucer, Slate 28, 104 Guerin, Jules 81, 115, 116, 120, 122, 135, 140 " " Working Palette of 129 H Habitual Arrangement of Colors 138 Hair Line 103 Handling in Plans, Subtlety of 108 Hands, Clean 11 Harding Paper i39 Harmony 83, loi Harpignies 140 Hatching 41 Hatfield's Colors 116 Hazell, Frank 140 " " Working Palette of 131 Hea'vy Pigments 116 ^' " Settling out of 118 Hedges 108 Higgins' Ink 17, 103, 104 " Paste 5 High and Low Key or Pitch 136 Hopeless Stage, The 51 Horizons, Dark 45 Horizontal Working 143 Hot Pressed Whatman Paper 4 Mlumination of Curved Surfaces > 57 " " Planes, Relative SS Importance of Program xiii India Ink 22, 28, 32 •* " "Rubbing up" or "Grinding" of 28 " " Rendering and Pure Color, Intermediate step between 83 Indication, Ceiling and Floor 105 " Common Sense in 104 Indications, Conventional 109 Individual vs. Mixed Washes 143 " Washes, Compound Tone by 144 Indoor Conditions 137 Indoor and Outdoor Scale in Plan 107 Ink, Cnre of Stick of 28 " Chinese 27 " Cooling or Warming 17, 18 " Diluting 17 " Higgins' 17, 103, 104 " India 27, 28, 32 " Keeping 28 " Preventing the Evaporation of 28 " Straining 28 INDEX 151 Page Ink, Toning the 17 Inking in of Plan 105 " " Shadows 24 Inner Vision 24 Interest concentrated in Plan 113 Intermediate or Subordinate Planes 5S " Step between India Ink Rendering and Pure Color 83 Israels 136 J Joining Sheets (of paper) 5 Joint Lines 21 Juxtaposition of Varied Tones 89 K Keeping Ink 28 Keeping the Wash evenly wet 38, 73 Key 136 " High and Low 136 " Preservation of 83, 84 L Larger Scale, Studies at 13 Law of Contrast iit Laying Sky Washes 36, 37 "Legitimate" Methods 142 Letarouilly's Edifices de Rome Moderne 107 "Lifting" of Color 87, 91 Light and Dark in Plans, Concentration of 1 1 1 " Edges in Details 97 " Lines 100 " Reflected 58 " (Color), Quality of 31, 136 " (Value), Quantity of 31, 136 " to Dark, Building up from. 36 " " " or Vice Versa, Grading a Wash from 37 Lightening up 17 Lights and Darks, Principal 65 Lightweight Pigments 116 Line and its Quality, The 18 " "Biting in" a 18, 75 " "Consuming" the 19 " Following a 38 " Hair 103 " Drawings, Shade- 21 " Watertable no " Working 12 Lines, Broad and Soft 20, 100, 106 " Cold and Warm loi " Crossing 103 " Dark 19 " for shadows, Construction 24 " Joint 21 " Light 19, lOD " Piquage by 79 " Speed in Drawing 18 152 INDEX Page Lines, Thick i8 " Thin i8 " Window (in plans) 103, 104 " Wiry 18, 106 " vs. Planes 19 Loading the Brush 38 Local Color 52 Long, Birch Burdette, Working Palette of 130 Low Key or Pitch 136 Luminosity 41 Luminous Washes 41 M McGoodwin's Shades and Shadows 25 McKnight, Dodge 140 Main Cornice Shadows 86 Manipulation of Color 142 Speed of 84 Maris 140 Meagreness 105, 109 Medaille des Concours 100 Mending Edges 40 Method of Laying a Sky Wash, Alternate 43 " The Glazing 90 Methods, "Legitimate" 142 " in Sketching 140 " of Grading Small Washes , 71 Metal Work and Windows, Piquage of 79 Minor Plane Values 65 " Planes in Cornice Shadows (Diagram) 55, 67 Mixed vs. Individual Washes 143 Modillion Shadows, Grading 69 Monochrome and Monotone, Definition of 31 Monotone 31, 83 " and Monochrome, Definitions of 31 Mounted Paper 137 Mounting of Paper 5, 7 Mother Wash, The 32» 85 Murphy, Herman 140 o Old dry colors, Beware of 123 " seasoned paper best 27 Opaque Pigments 116 Openings, Warm or Cold Tones in 87, 88 Opposing Cold and Warm Tones 84 Ornament, Shadows of 75 Outdoor and Indoor Scale in Plan 107 " Conditions I37 Outlining Poche 103, 104 P Pace in Running Washes ^23 Paint, Beginning to ^4^ INDEX 153 Page Painting on Glass i37i ^38 " Scrubbing the Paper in Sketching or 142 Pale Lines ^9 Palette, Establishing a Working 126 " Folding 136 " of Author 26 « " Paul P. Cret 129 " " Otto R. Eggers 129, 130 " " Jules Guerin 129 " " Frank Hazcll 131 " " Birch Burdette Long 130 " " Hubert G. Ripley 131 " Setting the 138 Pan Colors 116 Paper, Antiquarian 4 " Blotting 28 " Charcoal I39 " Cloth-backed 6 " Eggshell 4 " English Crayon i39 " for Sketches i39 " Harding I39 " Joining Sheets of 5 " Lightweight 4 " Mounted i37 " Mounting of 5> 7 " Old seasoned, Best 7 " Preserving the Surface of 14 " Protecting the 14 •' Roll 4, 5 " Selection of 7 " Steinbach 4 " Thin 4 " Tinted Crayon i39 " Torchon i39 " Transfer 16 " Use of Alum for re-calendering the 23 " Whatman Cold Pressed 4 '» " Hot " 4 " " Extra Rough i39 " " Roll 4 " " Rough 139 " " Smooth 139 Parrish, Maxfield "5i i40 Parthenon 84 Passing Plane Washes 54 Paste, Higgins' 5 Pattern 102 Pen Shadows, Ruling- 75 Pencil, Blaisdell 81 Penciling in '4 " a Plan 103 Pens, Alteneder's Ruling 20 " Coarsening and Sharpening Freehand 20 " Crow-quill 20 " Freehand 20 " Gillot's 20 " Ruling 20, 75 154 INDEX Page Penumbra 98 Permanence of Pigments 117 Perspective Foregrounds 46 Perspective in Plan, Trees in 111 Perspectives 90 Photographs, Aerial (footnote) 100 Pigments as Toning Agents 29 " Carbonaceous 123 " Deposing 116 " Heavy 116 " Lightweight 116 " Opaque 116 " Permanence of 117 " Properties of 84, 116 " Settling out of heavy 118 " Transparent 89, 116 Piquage 17, 32, 62, 70, 78, 97 " and Back Shadows 76 " by Lines 79 " in Color 89 " of Brickwork 79 " " Stonework 78 " " Windows and Metal Work 79 " Texture by 79 " Use of the Rubber in 80 Piquer 17. 89 Pitch 138 Pitches of Platforms, etc., Whites in 12 Plan, Concentration of Interest in a 113 " Crossing Lines in 103 " Freedom in Drawing of lOi " Furnishing a 106 " Indoor and Outdoor Scale in 107 " Inking in of a 103 " in Rendering, Simplification of 109 " Penciling in of a 103 " Preliminary Study of Values in a 109 " Shadows 112 " Subtlety of Handling in 108 " The Greys of a 105 " Third Dimension in 102 " Trees in Perspective in a 1 1 1 " Use of Washes in Furnishing a 107 " Washes in no Plans, Accuracy in 100, 101 " Block 113 " Concentration of Light and Dark in 1 1 1 " Gradation of 1 10 " Meagreness in 105 " Rendering of 100 " Window Lines in 104 Plane Values 52, 57 " Minor 6s " Washes, Grading of 62 " " Passing 54 Planes in Line, Value of 17 " Intermediate or Subordinate 58 " Minor, in Cornice Shadows (Diagram) 55, 67 INDEX 155 Page Planes, Relative Illumination of S5 " vs. Lines 19 Planning out Washes 33 Plantations in Plans 108, 109 Platforms, etc., Whites in Pitches of 12 Poche loi, 102 " Brilliant or Dull 104, 105 " Demi- loi " Outlining 103, 104 Pocher 105 " Proper Time to 105 Point of the Brush 142 " " View and Choice of Subject 135 Powders, Color 128 Preliminary Steps 3 " Study of Values in Plans 109 Preservation of Key 83, 84 Preserving Brilliancy 44 " the Surface of Paper 14 Preventing the Evaporation of Ink 28 Primary Colors 89, 124 Principal Darks and Lights 65 Problem in Reflected Light, etc., Sections as 93 Program, Importance of xiii Properties of Pigments 84, 116 Propylaea 84 Protect Drawing, Shield to 14 Protecting the Paper 14 Puddles 10 Pure Monotone 31 Q Quality of Light (Color) 3I1 ^36 Quantity of Light (Value) 3I) ^i^ Quality of Tone 85 " The Line and its 18 Quarter Color, Half and Three-quarter Color, Drawings in 83 R Rays, Spectrum 124 Realism vs. Convention 46 Re-calendering the Paper 23, 24 Red Sable Brushes 25, 26 Reflected Light 58 " Lights, Sections a problem in 93 " Shades 77 " Shadows 63 Relative Illumination of Planes 55 Removing Blots 5^ Rendering Details 94 " Plans 100 " Sections 93 " Simplification of plan in 109 Repairing Defects 4' Reversal of gradations for balance 62 Reversing Values for Contrast 53 IS6 INDEX Page Ripley, Hubert G 81, 84, 135 " " " Working Palette of 131 Roll Paper 4, 5 Ross, Denman 31, 85 Rough Whatman Paper 139 Rubber Cement 47 Rubber, Use of the 80 Rubbers, Green and Ruby 2Z Rubbing on 15 Rubbing up or Grinding India Ink 28 Ruby Rubber > 22 Ruling-Pen Shado^Ts 75 " Pens 20 Runbacks or Fans 5, 6, 29, 30, 50, 143 Running Washes containing much Color 87 " " Pace in 123 " " too wet 39 S Sanguine 16 Sargent, John S 133, 140 "Sauce" io8 Saucer, Color {godet) 29 " Slate Grinding 28, 104 Scale, Indoor and Outdoor, in Plan 107 " in Treatment 103 " Simplification of Drawing at Small 13 " Studies at Larger 13 " Treatment in Relation to 103 Scrubbing the Paper in Sketching or Painting 143 Seats or Stools, Sketching 137 Secondary Colors 89 Sections, Problem in Reflected Light 89 " Rendering of , 93 Selecting a Brush 26 Selection of Paper 7 Sequence, Spectrum 126, 138 Setting the Palette 138 Settling-out of Heavy Pigments 118 Shade-line Drawings 21 Shades and Shadows 65 " " " Column 73 " " " McGoodwin's 25 " Back 77 " Gradation of Cyma 96 " Reflected 77 Shadows, Back 63, 69 " " and Piquage 7^ " Casting 24 Cloud "3 " Colonnade 70 " Complicated 24 " Construction Lines for 24 " Cornice 66 " Grading Modillion 69 *' Inking in 24 " Main Cornice 86 " Minor Planes in Cornice 55> 67 INDEX 157 Page Shadows of Ceiling Solids 93 " " Ornament 75 Plan 112 " Reflected 63 " Ruling Pen 75 " Sharp Gradation in Cornice 68 Small 75 Sharp Gradation in Cornice Shadow 68 Sharpening Freehand Pens 20 Sheets (of paper), Joining 5 Shield to Protect Drawing i^^ Shrubs and Trees, Accessory 88 Side of the Brush 142 Silhouettes 22 Simplification of Drawing at Small Scale 13 " " Plan in Rendering. . . ., 109 Sketches, Paper for 139 Sketching, Aims in 133 Free ■.'.133 " Methods in 140 " or Painting, Scrubbing the Paper in 142 " Textures in 142 Skies, Air Brush 47 " Atomizer 47 " Sprayed 47 Sky Tones 35 " vs. "Background" 35 " Wash, Alternate Method of Laying a 43 " Washes 85, 86 " " Laying 36, 37 Slate Grinding Saucer 28, 104 Small Scale, Simplification of Drawing at 13 " Shadows 75 " Washes, Methods of Grading 71 Smith, F. Hopkinson 140 Smooth Whatman Paper 139 Soft Lines 20, 100, 106 Solids, Shadows of Ceiling 93 Spectrum Rays 1 24 " Sequence 126, 138 Speed in Drawing Lines 18 " (or Pace) in Running Washes 123 . " of Manipulation 84 Sponge, Face 23 " for the Field 141, 142 " " Foliage, LTse of 112 Sponging down Washes 96, 99 " off 23 Spots, Eliminating 41, 42 Spray, Alcohol 49 " Washes, Templates for 47 Sprayed Skies 47 Spraying on in Full Color 144 Steinbach Paper 4 Steps, Gradation of 70 Stevenson, Robert Louis 140 Stick of Ink, Care of . . 28 Stippling 42 158 INDEX Page Stone, Weathering of 97 Stonework, Piquage of 78 Straight-edge, Use of S Straining Ink 28 Streaks, Eliminating 41, 42 Strips, Tick 12 Studies at Larger Scale 13 " to final paper, Transferring 12 Study of Plan Values, Preliminary 108, 109 Subject and Point of View, Choice of 135 " Analysis of 141 Subtlety of Handling in Plan 108 Subordinate or Intermediate Planes 58 Surface of Paper, Preserving the 14 Surfaces, Illumination of Curved 57 T Temperament 114 Templates for Spray Washes 47 Tertiary Colors 89 Texture by Piquage 79 Textures 81, 113 " in Details 99 " " Sketching 142 Thick Lines 18 Thin Lines 18 Thin and Lightweight Paper 4 Third Dimension in Plan 102 Tick Strips i2 Tilting the Drawing Board 50 Time to Pocher, Proper 105 Tinted Crayon Paper 139 Tone, Quality of 85 " of Circulation 105 " Unified with Air Brush or Atomizer 113 " Value of 85 Tones in Openings, Warm or Cold 87, 88 " Juxtaposition of Varied 89 " Opposing Cold and Warm 84 " Sky 35 Toning Agents, Pigments as 29 " the Ink 17 Torchon Paper , 139 Transfer Paper 16 Transferring Studies to Final Paper 12 Transparent Pigments 89, 116 " Washes 41 Treatment in Relation to Scale 103 Tree Forms in Plan, Use of Sponge in 112 Tree Masses and Entourage Generally 108 Trees 103 " and Shrubs, Accessory 88 " in Perspective in Plan m Tube Colors 116 u Uniformity 34 Unifying Tone with Air Brush or Atomizer 113 INDEX 159 Page Unifying Washes t-.-.v 89 Use of Alum 23 " " Black 131 " " Blotters 28, 29 " " Casserole 23 «• " Electric Fan 10, 23 *• " the Rubber in Piquage 80 " " Sponge for Foliage "2 " " Straight-edge 5 *' " Washes in Furnishing Plan 107 V Valley Forge Memorial 98 Value of Tone 85 Values 31 " Building up 96 " " " Plane 57 " for contrast, Reversing 53 " of Minor Planes 65 " " Planes 52 " " Planes in Line 17 " Preliminary Study of Plan 109 Varied Tones, Juxtaposition of 89 View and Choice of Subject, Point of 13 S Villa Medici 94 Viollet-Ie-Duc 18 W Walcott, William .• I33i ^¥> Ware, Professor William R 8 Warm and Cold Lines 101 " " " Tones, Opposing 84 " " " Backgrounds 83 " " Vice Versa, Grading from Cold to 88 Warming Ink *7» ^8 Wash, Alternate Method of Laying a Sky 43 " cut to the end. Carrying the 54 " evenly wef, Keeping the 38, 73 " Freshening up the Edges of a 38 " from Light to Dark and Vice Versa, Grading a 37 ♦' Laying the Sky 36, 37 " The Mother 32 Washes, Carbonaceous 4^1 ^ 'o " Compound Tone by Individual ^44 " containing much pigment, Running of 87 " Division of 33 " Grading of Plane 62 " in Plan "O '• Laying Sky 3<5, 37 " Luminous 4' " Methods of Grading Small 7' " Pace or Speed in Running 123 " Passing Plane 54 " Planning out 33 " Repairing Defects in Air Brush 42 " too Wet, Running 39 i6o INDEX Page Washes, Sky 85, 86 " Sponging down 96 " Templates for Spray 47 " Transparent 41 " Unifying 89 Water Bottle i37 Watertable Line no Weather, Damp 5° Weathering of Stone 97 Whatman Paper, Antiquarian 4 " " Cold Pressed and Hot Pressed 4 " " Extra Rough 139 " " Smooth 139 " Roll Paper 4 " Paper, Rough I39 Whistler 83, 140 White Circulation 105 Whites in Pitches of Platforms, etc 12 Windows and Metal Work, Piquage of 79 " Gradation of 71 " in Plans, Lines in 104 Winsor & Newton's Brushes 25 " " " Pigments "6 Wiry Lines 18, 106 Working from Light to Dark 1 1 1 " Horizontally or Vertically J43 " Line « Y Yellow Ochre Fallacy » J20 rf\ ^ \x ^ ^ i:=^l l^^l %K^i ^mwm'^ '^/smmw* ^ 3 '^/S3AINa-3\^^ ^lOSANCElfx^ fig .^^ S. >■ "ffrt O ^I'UBRARYOr ^0FCAIIF0% ^OF-O >• ■^■^ ^ vmsmih o o 130NVS01^ "^/^aaAiNrt^wv^ ^^lUBKAKYCJc ^iJOJIlVDJO'^ <^3DNVS(n^ ^lOSANCElfx^ %a3AiNmv^ ^lOSAKCEl^^ o UDNVSOl^ "^eMNd^vs^ ^OFCAtlFORj^ ^OFCAUFOP^ >&Aavaanii^ ^^Aavaan'# /jmeunivers/a *%13DNVS01'^ v^lOSANCEl^^ O 6 %a3AlNn-3VlV^ :UBRARYQ^, -^^JJUBRARY^?^ OJIIVDJO'^ \^i\m'l^ ,5MEUNIVER% avIOSANCEIHT;. ^lUBRARYQc ,. ^^HIBRARYQr ^' %a3AiNn-3VkV* L 007 1 ^OF-CAllFOff^ ^.OFCAllFORi^ ^\WEUKIVERSy^ 84 126 6 ^lOSANCEie;^ ^^ ,OFCAllF0/?.)j>^ ^OJIIVDJO^ AA 001 208 885 2 ^MiwnifP o ^^ = ^ % ^OFCAllFOi?^ ^^\U•UNIVER5•/^ ^TilJDNVSOV^ ^lOSANCElfj^ -< ^OFCAUFOi?^ ^ «5MEUNIVER% Or K ^lllBRARY6Jc, ^llIBRARYQc ■^/^aJAiNn-iwv^ '^^ "^MAINrtJWV^ ^^yOJITVDJO^ \ ^lOSANCFlfj)>. o > so ^OFfAUFOftj^ ^OFCAllFOfiU;, ^^WEUNIVERJ/zi ^lOSANCElfj-^ ^CAavaaii^^ '^i'iiaDNvsoi^ ^OfCAUFO% ^C o oe I '^^Aavaaii-^'J^ ^/> ^^lUBRARYQ^ ^•OF'CAllFO/?^ .^WEUNIVFRy/A ^mm-'iow iWEUNIVER%. i3 ^^AavaanT^ "^/sMAiNn-awv^ 55fIUBRARYQr ^tllBRARYQc. ^iSfOJIT^O-JO"*^ '^.^wnvDjo'^ J,^^^UBRARY6?/^ ^^^'