The text discusses techniques for creating shadows and half-tones in drawing, emphasizing the importance of balance between bold and soft touches. It advises against overly thin and parallel shadow lines, warning against drawing too round or too angular shapes, which go against good taste. The third method described is shading by softening, using a shading tool to create gentle transitions, especially on white paper.
THE DRAWING
In some places, to create half-tones and to stop shadows with more firmness, it must be done without affectation, and from this blend, a rich and soft application should result. In drawing in a bolder style, ensure the boldest touches have sufficient depth of shadow to prevent the lines from cutting too sharply against what is next to them, always focusing the main strength in the middle.
Avoid making shadow lines too thin and too parallel. Notice also how nature is never perfectly round, but made up of several angles and flat areas (a); you should not overemphasize this either, by creating angular contours similar to rocks. This would be another flaw, contrary to the notion of good taste in drawing too round: you must keep a balance between these two ways of drawing (b).
Method of shading by softening.
The third manner is by softening, which is nothing more than rubbing with a shading tool, to soften what has been initially drawn with hatching. If the paper is white, all the half-tones are made only with
(a) It is good to clarify here what is meant by 'méplats,' which is a term specific to painting. It is evident that human limbs are not round as if turned by a lathe: they are composed of surfaces where a large part is flat and rounded at the edges; it is necessary to convey these different surfaces in drawings. Thus, what is called a flat style reveals these surfaces in appropriate places; and a round style obscures them, usually due to ignorance of the forms of nature.
(b) Keep to the middle path: 'you will travel safest in the middle,' Ovid Metam. II.