No word is on the art teacher's lips more constantly than "construction." Therefore, as with other technical terms, it is most necessary that the student shall understand the word in the sense that the teacher uses it. All specialists are apt to utter a jargon, when they imagine themselves to be talking with the utmost simplicity, and only by constant questioning and discussion can teachers be sure that they and their students are in agreement as to the meaning of the terms used.
This word "construction" has two distinct meanings, both used indiscriminately by artists. First "construction" may mean the actual build of the object. To take a tin pail as example we may note that it is made from a sheet of metal bent into a cone, the two edges being lapped and soldered, that a flat strip is bent into a cylinder, lapped and riveted to form a base, and that the handle is semi-circular in form, composed of a strip bent on itself to give rigidity. One might continue in detail until the entire construction has been investigated.
The second use of the word refers to the construction of the drawing, an entirely different thing. When one speaks of a drawing being well-constructed, one means that it is built up of lines and tones which suggest the actual construction of the object depicted.
Nothing is more difficult to the beginner than the advice to construct the drawing. He sees the model in all its complexity before him, and with a preconceived notion that drawing is imitation, cannot abstract his gaze from the details in order to search for the long enclosing lines of the figure, and those which indicate its build.
A great deal will have been learned if the beginner has been already taught to set up work in clay. In a way, the modeller is obliged to "construct" his study, for he cannot at once arrive at a contour. He has to build his model up in simple planes before he can think of the surface modelling, though even here teachers of modelling speak with sorrow of the way students evade the problems of constructive modelling, and the haste with which they attempt the more superficial qualities before their study has been carefully set up with the great planes. On paper it is fatally easy to begin with surface markings before setting down the main lines of construction. There are two classes of students inclined to ignore construction—first the beginners who can see nature only as a mass of detail, and secondly those students, clever with their fingers, who fancy they can draw well enough without the trouble of "blocking out," and who arrive at a result, by means of their facility, which they think justifies them in ignoring construction. To the latter class of students one may say that a judge of drawing can tell unerringly how it was produced, and can see, through the facile execu-
tion, the weaknesses owing to lack of construction. Further, the greater an artist, the more likely is he thoroughly to construct his drawing.
Constructive drawing really means concentrated intellectual vision in the early stages, and presents this difficulty, that it is precisely at this time that students, owing to want of training, are looking at the model with embarrassment and uncertainty, which result in slurred and fumbling drawing. Many students, indeed, begin to draw after a cursory glance. The model should be well scrutinized for some little time before drawing is commenced. it is during the first few minutes that the drawing is made or marred. Further work adds detail, but substantially the drawing remains the same. This is perhaps the most important caution that can be written about drawing. As already mentioned, what generally happens is that students begin to sketch out the pose and proportions of the model in a more or less haphazard way, and being stricken with horror at its aspect, add detail after detail in the hope of making it "more like."
To some extent the preliminary construction of a drawing has been dealt with under the head of type forms. The essential lines are those which give at once the movement and the mass : these are not necessarily based on actual outlines. A standing pose is best commenced with a line from the pit of the neck to the heel of the foot supporting the weight. Shoulders are often drawn as two isolated forms, the result of aimless wandering round the contours, giving the impression of a boneless figure, a rag doll stuffed with sawdust. Attention to the lines of the collar bones, sternum, arch of ribs and pelvis will correct this as regards the torse. The legs are especially prone to look like Christmas stockings, because the inner lines of structure have been omitted. The bulk of the knee, the line of the tibia (in the front view), the lines defining the ankle, and suggesting the stirrup-like movement of the foot within the ankle, and the backward swing of the heel are important.
Especially should be noted a forward direction in the side view of the leg above the ankle, due to the tendon of the tibialis anticus. This escapes many students, with the result that the leg takes on a lumpy, Indian club-like look. This change of direction, though slight in the leg, is to be seen clearly in the forearm, where the thumb muscles crop up varying the contours in harmony with that from elbow to wrist. It should be noted that the angle forming the crook of the arm is considerably above the elbow, owing to the position of the supinators. In the knee joint the hamstring tendons cause the angle at the back to come lower than that in front. In both cases students often show great perseverance in trying to place these angles at the same level with distressing results. It should be added in regard to these torsions and variations that at almost any point a hollow is balanced by a swelling on the opposite contour. Examples of the above constructional points may be observed in the figure drawings reproduced in these pages.
The student who wishes to progress should constantly submit his drawing to those more advanced for detailed criticism of his construction.