The text provides advice on improving drawing skills, emphasizing the importance of practice and observation. By erasing initial flawed attempts and learning from models such as drawings and plaster casts, aspiring artists can gradually develop their techniques. Studying nature is highlighted as crucial for mastering the different movements in human anatomy.
48 METHOD FOR LEARNING
Do not discourage yourself if your early attempts are monstrous, deformed, or clumsy: simply erase or correct them immediately; then, when you have started again and can no longer change or add to it, leave it as is until the next day. Meanwhile, continue studying from drawings, plaster casts, or even prints, and review the slate a few days later: you will then notice flaws you did not see the first day. Upon erasing these, create something else from your imagination and trace it onto the same sheet, as you did the first time. This gradual process helps you become self-sufficient; when you come across successful compositions, make copies or sketches on paper to keep. The slate offers an easy means to practice various proportions following different authors who have written on the subject. Start by marking the main divisions on which the figure is built; once these rules are mentally ingrained through practice, creating figures of all proportions becomes easier. I see nothing more convenient for expressing ideas and training the hand to faithfully trace all the concepts the mind creates.
On Studying from Life.
The study of nature is the most effective way to perfect drawing skills; from it, we must learn to know all the various movements it can produce in the limbs.