[Illustration: HAVING THE TIME OF HER LIFE.
_Sketched in a Paris Café_]

Allusion has already been made to the progressive method by which
Frank Reynolds evolves a finished drawing, step by step, from an
initial idea roughly jotted down with a few strokes of the pencil.
His draughtsmanship depends, as must of course all draughtsmanship,
very largely upon memory. But it is his practice, whenever possible,
to obtain notes on the spot for later use. This was especially the
case with his work in Paris, where a pocket sketch-book was his
inseparable companion. A few pages of the latter are reproduced
here, illustrating the artist's quick perception and the instant
sureness with which, notwithstanding the leisurely pace of his
work under normal conditions, he conveys the spirit of his subject
by means of a few lines. An excellent example of this faculty is
the sketch of the fat priest (page 53) and his hirsute companion,
admirable in the spontaneity of expression with which the fleeting
impression of a moment has been set down on paper. Equally vivid
is the impression conveyed by the hurried sketch of an old woman
(page 22) made at the stage door of a theatre. The boulevards of
Paris are excellent places from which to study the comedy of life:
and as an example of the peculiar flavour of Frank Reynolds' humour,
it would be hardly possible to better the irresistible sketch from
life, furtively made whilst sitting amongst the audience at a _café
chantant_, which, with a nice sense of the absurd, is labelled in
the sketch-book "Having the Time of her Life."

[Illustration]