DRAWING is the art of expressing with accuracy the outline, or true boun dary, of objects of every description on any plain superficies. This pleasing me thod of preserving the forms of persons and places, long after the originals have perished, or entirely changed, has beets cultivated from the most remote antiqui ty, and received many improvements, which were frequently lost and recovered through the temporary patronage and ne glect of the rich, under whose auspices only the art of drawing can ever flourish. To form a just conception of the earliest :state of drawing, it will be necessary to recur to the distorted forms produced by man in an uncultivated state of nature, in which we may discover genius struggling with ignorance, and always without suc cess; such were the productions of the first population of the world, and such are still the productions of European youth, before the kind hand of experience has pointed out the paths of correctness and taste. The scriptures furnish numerous proofs, that the art of drawing had before their date arrived to considerable per fection, and the remains of Egyptian sculpture, still extant, skew that people to have been tolerable proficients in de lineating the outlines of men and ani mals ; but the ancient Greeks appear to have studied nature with infinitely great er success, and we are indebted to them for the best of statues, formed with ex quisite skill, from the most noble and -graceful models of male and female beau ty, which cannot be too frequently exa mined, and copied, by the student who wishes to excel. The Romans, inspired by emulation, imitated the Greeks, and although they never attained the excel -hence of their masters, have left multipli ed specimens of correct knowledge in the human outline. Long after the fall of their empire, Italy produced a success ' sion of men, who brought the art of draw ing almost to its greatest possible perfec tion ; of those, Michael Angelo and Ra phael were particularly celebrated, and though the latter seem4 to be most ad 'mired for his taste and correctness, the former once convinced him he had drawn the figures too small in a painting of Ga latea, on the ceiling of a chamber in H Picciolo Farnese, by sketching a large and admirable head of a Faunus on a wall with charcoal, which was preserved with the utmost care in Keysler's time, who relates the circumstance. Roused
by the successful exertions of the Ita lians,' every nation in Europe made their works their study, .'and many persons at 'different periods might be mentioned, belonging to each, who have excelled in particular branches of drawing ; nor are the modern English at all inferior to their rivals in this essential foundation of all the ramifications of the fine arts, as, with out truth in the drawing or formation of the outlines, a statue becomes a disgust ing copy of human deformity, and ob jects delineated in painting or water co lours, destitute of this requisite, the re presentations of creatures of the fancy, unlike those of nature or of art: from these positions it must be obvious, that the student should begin his operations with the greatest caution, acquiring a thorough knowledge of geometry, and the laws of perspective, which will ena ble him to comprehend the various cir cular forms adopted by nature, and the peculiar shapes they assume when placed in particular positions.
Drawing may be practised with lead, chalk, crayons, charcoal, water colours, • and Indian ink.
To proceed regularly and methodically, -the learner must be provided with wove paper, in other words, drawing paper, without wire marks, of different thick nesses and sizes, and middle tint paper, brown or grey, equally calculated to shew the white and black chalks, or coloured, for which it is expressly intended. As pa per, when wet, will present an uneven surface, it becomes necessary to stretch it during the operation of colouring by means of drawing-boards, one descrip tion of which is merely a strong and true square of deal secured from warping, on which the paper may be fastened by wet ting it with a sponge, tracing a border of paste or glue along the edges, and laying it smooth on the board ; thus prevented from blistering, the drawing may be cut away from the border of paste when com pleted; but the most convenient board is composed of a square frame, with a move able pannel, on which the paper is laid wet, then pressed into the frame, and se cured by wedges on the back, when it will dry perfectly even, and become fit for use.