former is often little better than a dressmaking class, combined with instruction in embroidery, research into the costumes of the ancients, and the designing of theatrical costumes. It can be imagined how little value may be attached to such fashion drawing, pure and simple, as may survive so much distracting industry.

As a whole the poses assumed by the model in the life class are not very congenial to the fashion student, and it is in any case practically impossible to look smart with nothing on. But this is not so much the time to draw the figure as a whole as it is to make careful studies of the different parts of the body. Remembering this, you will not be so disconcerted when you find that, on alternate weeks, the model is a man. But whomever you are drawing you can learn, from every angle, how the head is placed upon the neck and how the neck springs from between the shoulders. And even if, from the armpits to the knees, a man is valueless as a substitute, you can at least study his elbows, wrists and hands. Do not imagine that all legs and feet are as ugly as those you will usually see in the life class, since those of a professional model, from long standing, become puffy and knotted. Make several studies of the leg, and particularly of the ankle, from the back. It is unnecessary to know the names of all the bones and muscles, or indeed any of them, but you should make special study of all those that must appear on even the flimsiest of fashion drawings. There is the bridge of the nose, the points of the jawbone and collar bones. Occasionally apparent, too, are the bones at wrist and knee and the bone down the front of each leg. The lightest indication of shoulder blades and backbone has given life to many a bleak-looking back view before now. However much you may come to know about the articulation of a knee, never make the mistake of airing your knowledge in the finished drawing. Seen from the front, at least, a woman's knee is a very unattractive thing, and the less attention drawn to it the better.

The study of feet brings us to an interesting point. When you draw a woman standing about 10 feet away from you the level of your eyes, supposing you are sitting down, will be on a line somewhere between her stomach and her chest. But when, as in the life class, the same woman is standing on a platform 2 or 3 feet high the level of your eye, if you are sitting at the same distance of 10 feet, will come at about her ankles or her instep. Till you actually come to experience this difference you might think that it would be rather a trifling one. And so it is, till you come down to drawing the feet. Look at any good fashion drawing and you will see that the feet have been drawn by someone looking down on them. In the accepted convention, that is to say, the model does not stand on a platform but upon the same level as that on which the artist's chair rests. In a life class, where the model is bound to stand on a platform if those at the back are to see, her foreshortened feet are of no value whatsoever from the fashion artist's point of view.

This question of the relationship, both of distance and of height, between the artist and model is one that must be settled at the very beginning. It is, after all, only a question of eyesight. If you are naturally short-sighted you will want to sit very close to the model, and if you are long-sighted you will work more easily at a greater distance. This is less a question of forming a habit as of having one ready formed before you begin.

It is fairly safe to risk the generalisation that the long-sighted back-benchers do small drawings, less notable for the richness of the detail than for the right proportion between the various parts. Those who sit almost on the steps of the throne do big drawings, in which the component parts are well observed but ill-related. The antithesis, though, is rather between too small and too big, than between right or wrong. It seems rather a dull conclusion, but the ideal distance, like the ideal of eyesight, is somewhere between.

If you get into the habit of doing very small drawings (8 inches or less in height) there will never be any need to reduce them when they are produced. This would be a loss, for the reduction in size of a drawing always adds a certain life and concentration and richness to it, and minimises its defects. Very big drawings, which have to be reduced to a quarter or a third their original size, suffer from an excess of these advantages, and have an air of overcrowding, because the component parts have been too severely closed in on one another ; and, above all, it obviously takes much more trouble to finish a huge drawing, to say nothing of more time, paint and paper. There are exceptions, certainly, of both kinds, but it is wise to avoid being different unless this is a condition of your being better. Eleven or 12 inches is a good size for a full length figure, and you will soon discover at what distance from the model it is most convenient for you to produce a drawing of this size.

Throughout your time in the life class, never forget that you are there to learn as much as you can about the appearance of the human body. Please, please do not waste your time trying to produce attractive drawings that might look nice if mounted and framed. This is the sheerest waste of opportunity. Do not vie with the other students in the production of sketches that shall win their admiration, and the approval of the teacher, when you all stroll about during the rest hour looking at one another's boards. It is often the dirtiest, most laboured, drawings that contain the greatest amount of information to the person who did them. No one else matters. Do not make your studies in charcoal or red chalk or conte pencil, or on tinted paper of any kind.

And, on the never-to-be-forgotten day when your first fashion drawing appears in print, do not decide that you have done with studying and can afford to stay away from the life class. You have never done with drawing from the life.

The study of drapery and textures must begin at about this time, but at first no model is required for these. You will be unable to resist starting on a

bit of velvet or satin, but it would be better if you were to arrange an ordinary sheet over a chair. This will teach you, as well as anything, the simple fundamentals of drapery.

It is easier, in the average home, to find examples of different kinds of stuffs to copy than it is to find a variety of furs. It is a great privilege to know a furrier, preferably wholesale, who will let you sit quietly in a corner of his workroom making studies of furs. Failing this, you can learn a lot from catalogues, preferably one illustrated by photographs. Make careful studies in wash, in pencil, and in pen and ink, from good photographs of different furs ; and then show your sketches to your mother and make her guess what furs they are meant to be.

Another thing that it does a fashion artist no harm to know something about is perspective. This will be the greatest help when you come to compose groups, which include a window and a corner of the room. The drawing by Benigni on Plate 38 could never have been composed if the artist had been ignorant of the laws of perspective. It is possible to attend classes on it, or you may read about it in a book. The best book I know on the subject is " Perspective for Art Students," by R. G. Hatton (Chapman & Hall), which goes more deeply into the matter than any fashion artist will need, but it is at the same time simply enough written.

Make studies of chairs, tables, cups, saucers, the inevitable cocktail shaker, tennis racquets, and cars. It is some time now since I saw a fashion plate of a lady in a beautiful tailor-made ready to spring on to her bicycle, but every day you may see part of a luxurious motor car discreetly framing a well-dressed woman, for fashion papers are full of them. Even trees have occurred (pi. 29) and houses (pi. 40), so there is really nothing you can learn to draw that you may not one day be able to drag into a fashion drawing.

Fashion Drawing Sections

Part-1 Part-2 Part-3 Part-4