About leathers, which, because of their markings, seem to follow on furs, there is really nothing you need know. The different leathers like morocco, pig-
skin, suede, kid, lizard, crocodile, etc., are used for bags, belts and shoes, and you have only to make a note of the grain, when it occurs, and which way it runs, when you are sketching these things in the shop. They are not things which you ever have to make up without having seen the original. It is, however, best to remember which are usually shiny, like patent, kid and crocodile, and which, like suede and python, are usually dull.
Something has already been said about drawing jewels in the shops, and of the necessity for taking precise notes about the design of a piece of jewellery as a whole and also of the shape of each stone that composes it. Rest assured that it is useless to begin a finished drawing of an elaborately worked bracelet without knowing exactly how every part of it goes ; guessing is no good, for your imagination and the jeweller's art are unlikely to produce the same result. Even if it means going back to the shop to verify a detail, always do so. In working for a magazine like Harper's Bazaar, or for a jeweller like Mauboussin, you may be sketching something worth 500 or more. Imperfect details supplied by your faulty memory can only detract substantially from its value. It is just the same if you are drawing a cheap clip made of synthetic diamonds. There are probably five thousand of these clips ready to be sold from your drawing, and a mistake on your part may mean as many disappointed customers.
The peculiar combination of intricate parts and a brilliant whole make jewellery rather difficult (not to draw, which requires patience only), but to present effectively. In a full-length figure, for example, a diamond bracelet may appear as a smudge of white which overlaps its own outline in some places, spilling on to the dark dress behind, its brilliance being accounted for in this way. But where detail is of chief importance, it is so easy to lose this sense of blazing light in a maze of precise drawing.
The best drawing of jewels I have ever seen is on pi. 18 and is by Tchek-honine. The original, about the same size as the reproduction, was done on a smooth board in indian ink, so it was in the most uncompromising medium. The whites were left. The advantages of a black background are well shown in the bracelet at the bottom, which seems to glitter from the printed page. The disadvantages are not apparent in such skilful hands, but at the same time with a black background it is often difficult to distinguish between the shadows in the diamonds, the onyx, and the black of the background, and the result usually resembles a handful of high-lights thrown on a black paper.
You can study here the different cutting of diamonds, the bracelet at the top being composed of circular stones and that at the bottom of baguette diamonds. There is a combination of both in the pendant on the left of the page which has extraordinary solidity and brilliance without the aid of any background. The brooch below it is made partly of crystal and there is no possibility of mistaking
it for gold or some opaque but equally polished substance. No photograph, no half-tone drawing, could have expressed this better, but you will notice that little bits of half-tone of a peculiar luminosity have been suggested by the use of cleverly broken lines and occasional dots. I forget if the circular bracelet is made of jade, but it is easy to see that it is a substance that does not radiate light as readily as the huge jewels in the pendant on the right ; it is perhaps as highly polished, but it has none of those lambent flashes that seem to come from below the surface which we notice in these huge gems, or even in the emerald or the crystal brooch. There is something quite overpowering in the succession of fat, round stones in the pendant on the right, and this has been well expressed here. Though very effective they are not, I fancy, so difficult to draw as others less showy, for they readily adapt themselves to a formula when a consistent light is directed upon them. Note the masterly way in which, at the top, dark stones have been made to show up against a dark background.
On this page almost every problem that jewels can present to the student has been solved with astonishing bravura. Admirable as it is, however, for a magazine, this technique may be found rather bold for advertisement purposes, for jewellers so often prefer a touched-up photograph or something that resembles it.
The drawing by Rhys (pi. 19) shows the objects in use on a figure, the advantage being that some idea is given of their size. There would be no other way, in fact, of showing that the bracelet could be unrolled and made into the necklace. However listlessly she looks through the pages of the magazine, a woman could never miss the point of this adaptability as it is presented here. This method also shows the precise size of the earring. Pen has been used for the outline and wash and Process White for the jewels themselves. Note the discreet simplification with which the face and hands are treated when they are merely accessories, as compared with the usual treatment of them by the same artist (pi. 5).
This page is a good example of spacious layout, where space is no object, and a few things well shown are considered better than a mass of small objects huddled together. The dark accents of the large stones, the isolation of the bag, and particularly the angle at which it is placed, just give touches of animation to the whole page.
Plate 20, also by Rhys, gives a good treatment of accessories, carefully chosen for a particular place at a certain time of day. The comparatively faint tonality of the frieze, which admirably suggests the setting and the hour, gives added prominence to the accessories themselves. All these things are carried just far enough. For an advertisement for a shop they would have to be given a greater finish, but, far from adding to their effectiveness, this would only supply a deficiency in the eye of the beholder. When grouping several objects of much the same size, separate as far as possible those that have a similar shape and tone ; and place, as here, the heaviest, darkest object at the bottom. Here, the monotony
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