If you have several figures to represent, and they are placed on different planes, the one placed on the foreground will have the most vigorous shadows and the brightest highlights. The one on a more distant plane will appear smaller, and at the same time, the shadows will be less dark, and the lights less bright. In the first figure, details will be very apparent; you will see the smallest details of the skin. In the second figure, on the contrary, these details disappear: only the large masses are visible. This reduction occurs as follows: we assume a figure five feet tall is ten feet away from the observer; a second figure of equal size is placed at a distance twice as far, that is, twenty feet away; the second figure will appear to the observer as only half the size of the first; a third one, which would be ten feet further still, would appear half the size of the second; and so on.

The shadows of the second figure will be half as dark as those of the first, and the lights half as bright. The shadows and lights of the third figure will only be half those of the second, etc. Therefore, you must use the darkest black of the pencil for the first figure and keep the pure white of the paper for the lights, and study the smallest details. In the second, the shadows should be half as dark, and the lights half as bright. The pure white of the paper should no longer be used. You would not do the small details, such as eyelashes, thickness of eyelids, movements of the skin, etc. For a third figure, the shadows and lights should only be half those of the second figure. One would see just the positions of the eyes, nose, and mouth; at most, you would see the placement of fingers on hands and feet. Lastly, for a fourth figure, you wouldn't add more details than in the mass represented by fig. 2. In this way, the figures would genuinely appear to recede, whereas if the shadows and lights were as strong in the second or third figure as in the first, with details as visible and studied, these figures would seem on the same plane as the first, but, being smaller, they would appear to be dwarves or children.

CONCLUSION.

A drawing course is usually reduced to a series of exercises, purely practical, and not linked to each other by any reasoning. We have tried to make a drawing course a cohesive whole, where all the parts connected can offer a rationale that speaks not only to the eyes but also to the intellect.

We started by defining Drawing because it is usually the first thing that is forgotten or deliberately omitted. To know how to draw, we said, is to be able to reproduce the image of various objects that have struck our eyes. It must be understood that if a person manages to copy, even with superior talent, a head or any other drawing, but is unable to draw spontaneously from nature, any kind of objects, that person cannot truly draw, or that they have been taught a particular style of drawing, the least useful of all.

Translation Notes:

"Dessin" refers to the concept of drawing in art, involving skill and technique.