LINGERIE
The principal thing to remember in drawing lingerie is to keep it clean and dainty-looking. Black backgrounds are frequently used to enhance this effect. In painting a black surround the paint is put straight on, but care must be taken not to encroach on the figure. If there is to be a black line round the figure, it must be remembered that this normally forms part of the figure, and one must allow for the black surround absorbing this and so reducing the size of the figure, particularly hands, arms, and so on.
GENERAL
To get a good bright wash drawing, the high lights must be kept fresh and clear, and not left to be rescued by masses of white paint. Always work with a fairly big brush. Some artists work with two brushes, keeping one clean for softening off the edges of the wash. Always work from light to dark. Practice will teach the value and knowledge of where to put in the last touches of solid black that give finish to a drawing. In making corrections, do not rub out on a wash sketch until it is quite dry. A very hard rubber should not be used as this impairs the surface of the board.
DRY BRUSH WORK
Dry brush work has a special technique of its own. This requires a very rough board, and the expert artist, by careful drawing, can produce an attractive stippled effect resembling crayon, which may be reproduced by a line block.
LINE
Although in some respects lending itself to simple treatment, line drawing is not by any means an easy medium. On the contrary, the very limitations inherent in the style make convincing representation in line more difficult than in wash. There is a great deal of variety in line drawing, and although all line work has a common characteristic in a certain clear-cut quality, so much of the individual artist is betrayed in every single line drawn, that the result is
inevitably to a great extent a distinct expression of the artist's personality. Thus, a line drawing may be bold or delicate; virile, exact, decorative, or free. But whatever the individual style, in
line work the principal aim should be to draw simply and surely with an eye to the reproduction. Every line should be clean and firm; a line, however fine, will always reproduce as long as it is not ragged and weak. Weak, broken lines, and lines uneven in depth, must be avoided. Except in the special decorative style of
line drawing which requires rather elaborate treatment, where one line suffices to get an effect two should not be used. On account of the essential simplicity of a line drawing, detail must be very accurately drawn. What might be only a minor fault in a wash or colour job may appear glaringly evident in a line drawing where there is nothing to hide it.