TECHNIQUE

[Side note: _The Individual Line_]

The first requirement of a good pen technique is a good Individual
Line, a line of feeling and quality. It is usually a surprise to
the beginner to be made aware that the individual line is a thing
of consequence,--a surprise due, without doubt, to the apparently
careless methods of some successful illustrators. It is to be borne
in mind, however, that some illustrators are successful in spite
of their technique rather than because of it; and also that the
apparently free and easy manner of some admirable technicians is
in reality very much studied, very deliberate, and not at all to
be confounded with the unsophisticated scribbling of the beginner.
The student is apt to find it just about as easy to draw like Mr.
Pennell as to write like Mr. Kipling. The best way to acquire such
a superb freedom is to be very, very careful and painstaking. To
appreciate how beautiful the individual line may be one has but
to observe the rich, decorative stroke of Howard Pyle, Fig. 66,
or that of Mucha, Fig. 65, the tender outline of Boutet de Monvel,
the telling, masterly sweep of Gibson, or the short, crisp line of
Vierge or Rico. Compared with any of these the line of the beginner
will be either feeble and tentative, or harsh, wiry, and coarse.

[Illustration: FIG. 6 B. G. GOODHUE]

[Illustration: FIG. 7 HERBERT RAILTON]

[Side note: _Variety of Line_]