The Elements of Drawing

Lesson 8. Invention!

Lesson 7. Strategies for collecting information and recording ideas as an aid to memory.

Lesson 6. The most complex form of drawing. Starting with a pencil outline, the drawing is developed with a brush in clearly defined layers.

Lesson 5. Making a drawing that is dependent for its success on mathematical accuracy.

Lesson 4. Making a livelier drawing, where the line and tone have an energy because they have been applied at speed with a brush.

Lesson 3. How toned paper can be used to provide the mid-tone in a drawing, which records where light and shade fall as a means of picturing an object.

Lesson 2. We use tone, light, dark and the shades in-between to create illusions of volume and depth.

Lesson 1. We use line to define spaces and things. It is not a question of magically getting the line right first time, but of first turning a contour into a line, and then systematically correcting that line until it looks right.

Stephen Farthing R.A. presents eight practical drawing classes using John Ruskin's teaching collections to explain the basic principles of drawing.