How to Begin
these he drew with loving care. A great artist called Cimabue happened to pass one day when Giotto was absorbed in his drawing. His curiosity was awakened, and dismounting from his horse he drew near. ‘To his unbounded surprise he saw, traced on the ground, a number of beautiful little sketches.
He began to talk with Giotto, and soon discovered that the boy’s whole soul was in his simple art. And, being a wise and very generous man, he determined to do all that lay in his power to educate Giotto as an artist. In a very little time the shepherd-boy left Vespignano for Florence, where he entered the great man’s studio. Being extraordinarily gifted and more than usually industrious, he made rapid progress in his art. He soon outstripped his master, and in course of time was acclaimed the foremost artist of his day.
And that is the story of Giotto, who died ten years after Edward III came to the English throne.
Young people (and sometimes old people are not much wiser) are fond of excusing their laziness by saying, “I can’t draw this—or I can’t draw that. I haven’t got the materials, or the pencil won’t work.” Which the last excuse is about as reasonable as mounting a push-bicycle and expecting it to carry you up a hill without your moving your legs.
The shepherd-boy taught himself by drawing with a pointed stick on a smooth piece of ground. So lack of materials is no excuse for lack of effort.
One of my young readers may cry, “Draw! Draw! I draw ? Why, I cannot draw a straight line.” As a matter of fact, a perfectly straight line is one of the most difficult things to draw. There are many artists who cannot easily draw a straight line. If you study Nature—and she is our safest guide—you will never see an absolutely straight line. If you do see one, you may be sure that the hand of man has helped to make it.
A very general excuse is that which pleads the impossibility of drawing two sides of an object alike. Have you ever seen two ‘sides’ alike in Nature—a tree, a flower, or even
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