The text discusses the importance of properly defining drawing before teaching it, as failing to do so results in ineffective instructional methods. Drawing is described as the representation of an object in such a way that it appears real. The text categorizes Drawing, Painting, and Sculpture as branches of the Arts of Drawing that share a common foundation in understanding perspective.
INTRODUCTION TO THE METHOD
OF DRAWING
FROM NATURE AND WITHOUT A TEACHER.
DEFINITION OF DRAWING.
Starting to teach Drawing without ever thinking to define it well is a grave error that has become nearly accepted practice. This oversight is undoubtedly one of the main causes of faulty methods, or rather, the complete lack of method in the teaching of Drawing.
The word Drawing, according to its Latin etymology, is associated with the general idea of a sign, the action of representing an object whose image is so accurately reproduced that one might believe they see the object itself. This can be proven, if necessary, by the analogy of the two words, obviously from the same family, 'Designate' and 'Draw'.
Drawing, in general, thus involves reproducing, by whatever means, the image of any object that captures or has captured our attention, representing it as it appears to our eyes or in our memory, which is a way to still see absent objects.
Based on this general understanding, we categorize under the collective name of the Arts of Drawing: 1. Drawing itself, and its various means of reproduction such as lithography, engraving, etc.; 2. Painting; 3. Sculpture: three main divisions founded on a common basis, which is Perspective, since Perspective, in general, involves understanding first how we see the objects that the Arts of Drawing subsequently represent.