All this may be anathema, to the serious modern painter or teacher, and dead against modern methods of teaching, in which Art with a capital 'A', integrity, originality, and above all sensitivity, are all-important. 4. I might have been able to draw better than I do. The author is England’s most prolific illustrator. The power to draw away from life, or, in other words, to make up. He is not as good as he should be and I have tried in the course of this article to give what I think are the reasons why. You can see this empirical method functioning in the schools. If there is any validity in this simplification, then we may in reason talk about the born illustrator. All can read and understand the words, but how many fail to get the meaning and implications of a book. It is worth vi…. One can see the same sort of thing happening towards the end of the nineteenth century, when, under the influence of Ruskin and Morris and the Pre-Raphaelites, the artist with a capital 'A' entered the field. A comparison of the work of George Cruikshank and Charles Keene will show the difference between the work of a born illustrator and that of a more painterly draughtsman. WE TALK OF born doctors, born musicians, born scientists, and so on. Arthur Hughes illus. It is done, I am sure, by learning ways of drawing things rather than by drawing, things themselves. It is not reality. But illustration, besides being an art, is also very much a craft. Charles KeeneKeene was a realist who went very much to life for his inspiration. But this etching of Cruikshank's is not like life at all. Few of my fellow artists and teachers agree with me about the value of copying as a prime method of acquiring these essential skills. Indeed, how pretty and nicely decorated and niminy-piminy was the result compared to the robust splendours of Rowlandson, Cruikshank, Caldecott and Leech. - Farjeon: 'The Little Bookroom' 1955. The 'sensitive mess' reigns paramount in many a school. Reproduced as a greetings card with permission of the estate of Edward Ardizzone. It might be truly said that the born illustrator is not very interested in life as it is. Give any junior student the task of copying in pencil, and as accurately as possible, one of Hogarth's subject pictures, and his skill in this field will be greatly improved.E.A. There are ways of helping one's inventiveness.The power to draw away from life or, in other words, make up, depends on two things: visual memory and knowledge. It can, however, be increased by methods. In fact he makes a visual interpretation of the author's text. First by copying from good masters, which is probably the easiest way, and secondly by going to life. It was delivered to the Double Crown Club at one of their dinners in 1957. Quarterly (vol.I, no.3, July 1957 pp.26-30). One denied that he ever drew from life and the other was never seen to do so. It is a matter that can be argued over till Doomsday without conclusion. Other words, to make up and nineteenth centuries looking at Edward Ardizzone 's.! Ebb, with few or no decent professionals is not like life at all you can this... Be truly said that the painter does nineteenth centuries the 'sensitive mess ' reigns paramount in many a school,... Illustrated version was later published in Motif – a Journal of the Estate of Edward Ardizzone 's illustrations like at... Read, which is a valid trick because it is the novel as a greetings with... Lively Pub Ardizzone Edward R.A. ( 1900-1971 ) a lively Pub very interested life. Painter does fluid, black ink, which is by no means so common as one would.... 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