CXXVI

Take a style of silver or brass, or anything else provided the point is
silver, sufficiently fine (sharp) and polished and good. Then to acquire
command of hand in using the style, begin to draw with it from a copy as
freely as you can, and so lightly that you can scarcely see what you
have begun to do, deepening your strokes little by little, and going
over them repeatedly to make the shadows. Where you would make it
darkest go over it many times; and, on the contrary, make but few
touches on the lights. And you must be guided by the light of the sun,
and the light of your eye, and your hand; and without these three things
you can do nothing properly. Contrive always when you draw that the
light is softened, and that the sun strikes on your left hand; and in
this manner you should begin to practise drawing only a short time every
day, that you may not become vexed or weary.

_Cennino Cennini._


CXXVII

_Charcoal._ You can't draw, you paint with it.

_Pencil._ It is always touch and go whether I can manage it even now.
Sometimes knots will come in it, and I never can get them out--I mean
little black specks. If I have once india-rubbered it, it doesn't make a
good drawing. I look on a perfectly successful drawing as one built
upon a groundwork of clear lines till it is finished. It's the same kind
of thing with red chalk--it mustn't be taken out: rubbing with the
finger is all right. In fact you don't succeed with any process until