With Our Youthful model posed and the palette "set" with the blue key paints (page 19), the first move, as always, is to locate the proportions on the canvas pleasingly. These proportions are hurriedly drawn with the round bristle brush (No. 6 or No. 8), using a mixture of cerulean blue and cadmium red light. Either the blue or the red may predominate. (These will mix with succeeding tones without spoiling even the lightest.) Before this drawing is started, wipe on your paint rag the brush used in mixing your drawing tint, so that very little color is left in it. Softness should prevail from the very first line set down. (Plate 22.)

First (and contrary to the procedure in drawing the woman or the man), do the oval of the head—this is taken from the very top to the bottom of the chin. Observe any characteristic tilt of the head and tilt the oval accordingly. (In children's portraits, by the way, the head is often made life-size, or more nearly so than in the case of adults. Too small a head sometimes has a doll-like look.)

Second, locate the neck and shoulder line; also the neck line of the dress.

As you do this, you will find yourself analyzing your sitter, seeking any characteristics which differentiate this particular child from others. Obviously it is these individual things which you must see and ultimately record. Is the head short or long? Is the chin rounded or pointed? What of the size, shape and location of the eyes and ears?

PLATE 22

First Stage Of Drawing

As in our previous demonstrations, the first brush strokes locate the head and shoulders on the canvas.

The hairlines have here been located. Note the avoidance of fine, definite lines.

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