rough sketch in the shop, I know nothing as good as the cartridge paper that Newman's (of Soho Square, London) make. It is called S cartridge paper, measures 30 x 22 inches and costs a penny a sheet. It is also excellent for making your studies in the life class. I hesitate to recommend the goods of one manufacturer at the expense of others, but I have tried the cartridge paper of other makers, which, when obtainable at a penny, was inferior to Newman's, and it seems unfair to students to withhold this good news from them. Any paper measuring 30 X 22 inches is good for rough sketches as it can be divided into six pieces measuring 15 x 7 1/3 inches which are admirable for full-length sketches (unless your figures are much over 1 foot or 14 inches), or into eight pieces measuring 11 x 7 1/2 inches which do very well for hats and small objects.

The kind of paper you will use for your finished drawing depends entirely on the client for whom you are working. There is a legend that fashion drawings must always be done on " fashion board " or some such stiff card with a drawing-paper surface. Work done for big stores and most shops, and for all magazines of the sixpenny-fourpenny-twopenny class is usually drawn on fashion board ; and advertising agents and commercial studios prefer work done on it. Such firms and papers usually file their original drawings after they have been printed and fashion boards lend themselves to this, and are more liable than paper to survive much handling by a number of people. You can do your samples that you show to prospective clients on what you please, but if you are given an order you must always ask if there is any need for you to execute it on boards. Certainly work will never be criticised on the grounds that it is done on fashion board, and so, if you are a beginner and have not yet developed a complex about it, it is best to get into the way of doing your finished drawings on boards.

When working for some editors, on the other hand, you may find that you are definitely told not to use boards. Supposing that he wants to cut out your figures and paste them up in a different arrangement, if they are done on fashion board, both cutting and pasting are extremely difficult. It is infinitely more bother to trim your own drawings if you use board, than on paper, while it has a great tendency to warp, particularly when you put a wash all over it. A crease in a piece of paper can be remedied, but a bent board is quite spoilt. I cannot claim for paper that it is easier to send through the post because it may be rolled, for it should always be sent flat ; and, indeed, fashion board has the advantage here, as it requires less support when packed for posting.

A number of artists who prefer working on paper and who yet feel how easily it may be damaged, mount their drawings afterwards on a card of some kind. If your samples are done on paper, you should certainly mount them on sheets of paper after they have been trimmed. A tinted paper is good for this as it makes the greys or blacks of your drawing look much richer. Winsor and Newton make an excellent paper (Art mounting and drawing paper, it is called) which measures

30 1/2 X 20 1/2| inches, is made in eighteen different tints and costs twopence a sheet. By dividing these sheets into two, you will have pieces big enough to mount nearly any sample you may choose to do, unless it is enormous, while I should not make the mounting sheets any smaller than this, however small may be the drawing you want to mount on them; your collection of samples will be easier to handle and will seem less haphazard if the drawings, both large and small, are all mounted on sheets the same size, though you will find that it is an improvement to vary the tints. Winsor and Newton also make tinted mounting boards (25 1/2 X 20 1/2 inches), slightly thicker and very slightly dearer, in seventeen different shades.

The choice of paper on which to do a finished drawing must depend largely on the taste and experience of the individual. It pays to use good paper, but do not make a fetish out of this, as rich amateur water-colourists always do. It is not always necessary to get paper whose watermark is a household word, because you will find that many cheaper manufacturers have a few very good papers that may easily suit just as well. A very rough paper is unsatisfactory, being both difficult to work on and liable to produce a certain effect in the original which will not be repeated when it is reproduced on glazed paper. A rough grained paper is, however, admirable for work done in conte pencil, and this reproduces admirably.

A paper with a hot-pressed surface is usually the best for most purposes. Before deciding what paper is going to suit you best, you had better go to your artists' colourman and ask for some samples of water-colour papers (these are usually made up into little booklets), and take them home and try your pencil, your pen, and your brush on each. The man in the shop is often of great help, if you explain what kind of work you are going to do. He can usually give you better advice than another artist, who sees the whole of art (as I fear I do, all through this book) coloured by his own predilections and experiences.

When you get a paper with a surface that satisfies you, you may find that the same surface, on a thinner paper, may suit you just as well and at a lower price. The thicknesses of papers are graded by weight, as it would be difficult to measure the comparative thickness of different sheets. For most purposes a hot-pressed paper at 44 lbs. to the ream is a good quality; but if the drawing is to be very large, to receive a great deal of rubbing out and a great number of washes, and is to be handled finally by a great many people, you may find that hot-pressed at 72 lbs. or 90 lbs. to the ream will be better. You can get a hot-pressed paper at 300 lbs. to the ream, which should be thick enough to please even such clients as cannot look at a drawing unless it is done on fashion board.

But in a matter of this kind, do not be guided by me if you are prepared to take any trouble on your own account. You may find that a paper with a " not " surface will suit you ; this can be got in just the same thicknesses as a hot-pressed

or rough ; and certainly large transparent washes do seem to have more life and sparkle when done on a paper with a certain amount of grain.

Coloured or tinted papers you will not often be required to use, though, when given a free hand, you can get some very good effects with them. A drawing in line or pencil looks very well on a grey paper if you have some solid pieces of black and white, the latter being obtained with Process White. It is not necessary to have a stock of tinted papers, as you can easily tint your usual drawing paper by laying a wash over it. This has the advantage of enabling you to work on the surface you are used to, and you can get the exact tone you have in mind for the background. You must get your drawing right before putting on the wash, as the action of rubber on the washed paper is to take out high-lights, and it is impossible to rub its surface without doing so. Therefore, if you are doing a drawing on tinted paper which will need correcting up till the last moment, you had better buy the paper ready tinted and then your rubber will not take out the colour. If, as is usual, the drawing is to be printed in black, use a diluted black for your wash, as then you can be sure what tone it will reproduce ; with a coloured paper you cannot tell just how it will reproduce. High-lights can also be taken out with a wet brush and blotting paper, if you have tinted the paper yourself ; and where you want the high-light to have a hard edge this is a better method than rubber, but it is always more trouble.

The best drawing papers are usually free from flaws and you have every right to complain if they are not. But if you are in the habit of using cheaper, thinner papers, be sure that there are no flaws. Often these occur in places where it does not matter, particularly if you are cutting the sheet into smaller pieces. Sometimes they do not show even when you hold the paper up to the light. Unless you are careful, you will not discover this till you are putting a wash on (this at once reveals them) or until your pen, heavily charged with ink, runs into one of them and either makes a blot or tears up the paper.

You will need at least two kinds of pen, a mapping pen and a ruling pen. The best way to buy the former is to get a holder and a number of mapping pens, which fit into the thick end of it. Joseph Gillott and Sons (6 Thavies Inn, Holborn, E.C.i) make excellent holders and pens. The same holder will do for several grades of fineness of mapping pens. These pens, although you always get them from the same maker and though they are machine made, do vary in excellence (razor blades are the same !) and you had always better have several, in case one does not suit you. A pen with a rather longer point will enable you to get more variety into the thickness of your lines, but this is not always desirable. If you clean and dry your pen when you have finished using it for the moment, it will last you much longer.

Fashion Drawing Sections

Part-1 Part-2 Part-3 Part-4