Cusack freehand ornament by Charles Armstrong

Cusack's freehand ornament by Charles Armstrong with Illustrations

Cusack's freehand ornament

A textbook with chapters on elements, principles, and methods of freehand drawing, for the general use of teachers and students.

Twenty years ago it was generally believed that only a very small portion of the population was born with a natural ability to draw and that it was useless for the remainder to try. Now, however, it is generally admitted that all can develop a certain amount of ability to draw. Drawing has become general in elementary schools and is recognized as help in almost every trade or profession. 

This sudden popularity of the subject must make it very hard for teachers, who find a large proportion of their pupils with natural ability far below the average. To make headway at all with such pupils, the definite method is essential. The object of this book is to teach definite methods and to impress them on the mind by repetition. , The Plates are therefore numerous, tending to increase interest in the subject by the constant change in the material to which method is applied. 

They are carefully graduated from a few elementary lines to a stage beyond the requirements of the usual elementary examinations.' An analysis of each Plate is given, and the different steps shown so that by working on the lines suggested the student acquires a definite method of procedure, which becomes so much a habit with him, by constant use, that he will naturally apply it to any drawing he may attempt, whether at an examination or elsewhere. 

The preliminary chapters deal with Elements, Principles, and Methods, only so far as they are " to the point," or directly helpful in this subject. There are many other Elements, not so common as those used, and also many other Principles of Ornament, but they are for the designer, and not essential for the elementary student of drawing.

The Principles illustrated, however, are really helpful to the student who wishes to make an intelligent rendering of the Ornament. Many of the Plates are taken from copies set at the examinations of the Art Department and are placed as nearly as possible in order of difficulty, but the student must remember that the copies are no sure index to the difficulty of the examination, for if the copies of late are easier, the standard of examination may be increasing steadily year by year. Many of the Plates have been designed to emphasize some particular principle, and have been used successfully in the large classes under the Author's supervision.

 I am indebted to Professor Cusack for reading over the proofs, and for the encouragement given to my methods and ideas on this and other subjects, as also for many valuable hints in the preparation of this and previous works. " Art is long," is true for everyone, but it is much longer for some than for others; the weak ones must not be discouraged, however, but must give the subject more time and more strenuous brain effort, by which in the end they will succeed. It is to be remembered that not the fact of being born clever makes a genius, but that " infinite trouble is the mother of genius." Those who are born clever do not need a method, they can draw without it, but they are a very small minority. If, therefore, the weak ones find help from the methods, and interesting fields for practice in the multiplicity of examples, the expectations of the Author will be realized.

Date: 1900

size: 11.3 MB

Download Zip file contains Cusack's freehand ornament PDF ebook