The text discusses different methods of drawing, focusing on three primary techniques: using pencil, wash, and pen. It explains the types of paper suitable for drawing, including white, colored, and mid-tone papers like gray, blue, and bistre. The text also describes how mid-tone paper can save work with a pencil by serving as a natural base for shading.
METHOD FOR LEARNING
CHAPTER FOURTH.
On the Practice of Drawing.
There are several ways to draw, typically reduced to three main ones; namely, with pencil, wash, and pen: we will discuss each of these methods separately and indicate the approach one should use to make some progress; but it is necessary to first say something about the different papers suitable for drawing.
Paper Suitable for Drawing.
There are two types of paper on which one can draw: white paper and colored or mid-tone paper; the latter divides into three different types, gray paper, blue, and bistre. Gray and blue papers both come colored from the mills where they are made. As for bistre paper, it is nothing more than white paper on which one applies, with a sponge, wash water more or less charged with color, depending on whether one wants the paper to be darker and brown.
Mid-tone papers were invented to save the effort of using a pencil in areas that should be the same strength as the paper's tint, and one uses chalk, pencil, or white pastel to enhance, that is, to make the highlighted parts appear. In this way, the color of the paper itself serves as a mid-tone: it then only involves shading with pencil.