Part 4 (2/2)

[Illustration: FIG 57 C D M]

[Illustration: FIG 58 C D M]

[Side note: _An Architectural Problem_]

To favorably illustrate an architectural subject it will be found generally expedient to give prominence to one particular elevation in the perspective, the other being per

58 may be said to be a fairly typical probleht, it must be understood, is not a mere accessory, but is an essential part of the picture The s is the first we have to decide upon, and these ought always to be disposed with reference to the particular forest Were we dealing with the foreground building alone there would be no difficulty in adjusting the oval or the diamond form of composition to it

As it is, the difficulty lies in the long crested roof-line which takes the sale as the line of the street, and the influence of this line must be, as far as possible, counteracted

Now the heavy over-hang of the principal roof will naturally cast a shadohich will be an ie our accessories at the right of the picture in reference to this Observe that the line of the eaves, if continued, would intersect the top of the gable chi and the tree then for lines of sidewalk and roof, thus qualifying the vertical effect of the building on the right

As the obliquity of the composition is still objectionable, we decide to introduce a foreground figure which will break up the line of the long sidewalk, and place it so that it will increase the influence of so it a little to the right of the entrance and on a line with that of the left sidewalk, the picture is pleasingly balanced

[Footnote : See footnote on page 62]

[Illustration: FIG 59 C D M]

We are now ready to consider the disposition of the values As I have said before, these are deteriven subject may be variously treated

We do not necessarily seek the scheme which will make the most pictorial effect, however, but the one which will serve to set off the building to the best advantage It is apparent that the iven by shading one side; and, as the front is theelevation, on which we need sunlight to give expression to the co a foil for the bright effects on the front This bright effect will be further enhanced if we assume that the local color of the roof is darker than that of the walls, so that we can give it a gray tone, which will alsostand away from the other If, however, ere to likewise assu were darker than its walls, we should be obliged to emphasize the objectionable roof line, and as, in any case, ant a dark effect lower down on the walls to give relief to our , ill assume that the local color of the older walls is darker than that of the new The shadow of theplaced on the nearer corner, which is made almost black This color is repeated in the hich, coroup, are some of them more filled in than others, to avoid an effect of iven by the foreground figure

[Illustration: FIG 60 C D M]

Another scheme for the treat 60 Here, by the introduction of the tree at the right of the picture, a triangular composition is adopted Observe that the sidewalk and roof lines at the left side of the building radiate to the bottom and top of the tree respectively The shadow of the tree helps to forround figure is oularity too obvious In the color-scheme the tree is made the principal dark, and this dark is repeated in the cornice shados and figures as before The gray tone of the old building qualifies the blackness of the tree, which would otherwise have e of the picture, and so detracted fro

CHAPTER VII

DECORATIVE DRAWING

In all modern decorative illustration, and, indeed, in all departn, the influences of two very different and distinct points of view are noticeable; the one de a realistic, the other a purely conventional art The logic of the first is, that all good pictorial art is essentially decorative; that of the second, that the decorative subject anic relation to the space which it is to occupy, and be so treated that the design will primarily fulfil a purely ornamental function That is to say, whatever of dran eneral effect shall please as instantly, as directly, and as independently of theThe former, it will be seen, is an imitative, the latter an inventive art In the one, the elements of the subject are rendered with all possible naturalism; while, in the other, effects of atht and shade are sacrificed to a conventional rendering, by which the design is kept flat upon the paper or wall

One represents the point of view of the painter and the pictorial illustrator; the other that of the designer and the architect The second, or conventional idea, has now come to be widely accepted as a true basic principle in decorative art

[Side note: _The New Decorative School_]

The idea is not by any means novel; it has always been the fundaenesis was not in japan The immediate inspiration of the new Decorative school, as far as it is concerned with the decoration of books, at least, was found in the art of Durer, Holbein, and the Gerravers of the sixteenth century,--interest in which period has been lately so stiland This arded as one of the un with the ai those healthy conditions which obtained before the artist and the craftsed workers The activities of the moveood book-, which fructified in the famous Kelmscott Press (an institution which, while necessarily undemocratic, has exerted a tre), and to-day there is scarcely any sphere of industrial art which has not been influenced by the Arts and Crafts impetus

[Side note: _Criticisms of the School_]

This modern decorative renaissance has a root in sound art principles, which proorous vitality; and perhaps the only serious criticises archaic crudities of technique which ignore the high development of the reproductive processes of the present day; and, moreover, that its sy

While such a criticisested by the work of some of its individual adherents, it does not touch in the least the essential principles of the school Art cannot be said to scout modernity because it refuses to adjust itself to the every caprice of Science The architect rather despises the mechanically perfect brick (very h the camera can record more than the pencil or the brush, yet the artist is not trying to see more than he ever did before There are, too, many decorative illustrators hile very distinctly confessing their indebtedness to old examples; are yet perfectly eclectic and individual, both in the choice and development of motive Take, for example, the very61 There are no archais is as naturalistic and just as careful as if it were designed for a picture The shadows, too, are cast, giving an effect of strong outdoor light; but the treatment, broad and beautifully si which accompanied it, is ithin conventional lines That the character of the technical treatment is such as to place no tax on the mechanical inventiveness of the processy

[Illustration: FIG 61 A B FROST]

A valuable attribute of this conventional art is, that it puts no bounds to the fancy of the designer It is a figurative language in which he et away from coical employment of convention appears in the _Punch_ cartoons of Sir John Tenniel and Mr Lindley Sambourne

Even in those cartoons which are devoid of physical caricature (and they are generally free frolance that it is the political and not the personal relations of the personae that are represented; whereas in the naturalistic cartoons of _Puck_, for exa that personalities are being roughly handled