DRAWING, the art of representing upon a flat surface the forms of objects, and their positions and relations to each other. The idea of nearness or distance is given by the aid of perspective, fore shortening, and graduation. The term drawing, in its strict sense, is only ap plicable to the representing of the forms of objects in outline, with the shading necessary to develop roundness or model ling. In art, however, the term has h wider significance. Highly finished paintings in water-color are called drawings, as are also sketches or studies in oils. Drawing, in its restricted sense, may be divided into these kinds: (1) pen drawing; (2) chalk drawing, which may include lead-pencil drawing; (3) crayon drawing; (4) drawing shaded with the brush or hair-pencil; (5) architectural or mechanical drawing.
Architectural and mechanical draw ings are those in which the proportions of a building, or machine, are accurately set out for the guidance of the construc tor; objects are in general delineated by geometric or orthographic projection. The great schools of painting differ from one another as much in their draw ing as in their painting. In Italy the Roman school, through Raphael's fine sense for the beautiful and expressive in form, and through his study of the antique, became the true teacher of beautiful drawing. The Florentine
school tried to surpass the Roman pre cisely in this particular, but it lost by exaggeration what it had gained by learning and a close study of anatomy. In the Lombard school a tender style of drawing is seen through harmonious coloring, and in the Venetian school the drawing is often veiled in the richness of the color. The Dutch school excels in a careful and minute style of natural istic drawing, combined with great ex cellence in coloring. The French school in the time of Poussin was very accurate in its drawing; at a later period its style betrayed a great amount of mannerism. David introduced again a purer taste in drawing and a close study of the an tique, and these are qualities which dis tinguished his school (the so-called classical school) from the romantic and eclectic schools of a later period. The drawing of the British school is natural istic rather than academic. It has of late years much improved in accuracy and expressiveness.