Elements of drawing exercises 6, 7 and 8

 I thought exercise 6 followed the approach previously used, and the outlining of tree branches was to get the idea of the spaces around objects, but reading again Ruskin wants the overlap of the branches to be described by the outline. 

Exercise 7 is about getting the hang of brushing tone evenly. He suggests visiting any ordinary water colour painter to see how this is done by a workman... I think if I was the workman I'd be pretty hacked off by Ruskin's condescending attitude, but anyway I didn't have any paste board, or Bristol board, or Prussian Blue, or in fact a camel hair brush of three quarters of an inch. 

I did try using a 1/2" red sable brush and some Dr Martin's 'Easy Spill' Phthalo Blue on a bit of cardboard, but lost heart and skipped to the next exercise.

Exercise 8 is the one that prompted me to do a Phd, the text I remember hearing was"...Now if you can draw that stone, you can draw anything"

The bit I didn't remember was the caveats that followed immediately "; I mean anything that isdrawable. Many things (sea foam, for instance) cannot be drawn at all, only the idea of the them more or less suggested ...."

Interesting at the time Ruskin wrote the book no-one had been able to see foam except in motion, the capability of photography to capture such things was decades in the future.

Strangely this exercise drops the instructions about what type of pencil or pen should be used and dwells on the direction of light. So I dropped the nasty H pencil and switched to a 2B.

I've stuck the book in my work bag, and will try and carry on withe the exercises over lunch at work.