room. We must study to place things where they will best satisfy our idea of beauty.

In the picture on this page, painted by Alexander Harrison, an American artist, the horizon line is placed above the middle, so that the artist might show how the waves broke on the shore, and sent rippling, flowing lines of water along the shining sand. The motion of the water is as regular as if it were keeping time to music. Can you see how the big curves seem to mark the beats?

Notice, too, the arrangement of values—the light foam, the darker sky and ocean, the wet sand, and the solid mainland. Only four things are shown—sky, moon, sea, and shore—but they are so drawn as to give the necessary variety.

Pictures from Our Own Surroundings.

Out of Doors in the City. If all the beauty of out-of-doors were in the country, what a sad thing it would be for the boys and girls who spend their lives in cities and towns! It is true that we think of the country when we speak of the landscape, and many artists go there when they wish to gather material for pictures. But often the things you see out of doors in a city or town are as interesting to sketch as country landscapes.

Keeping a Journal. Did you ever hear of a person who kept a journal, and wrote in it the interesting things that happened from day to day? Have you ever tried it yourself? You need not think your life dull because you do not take journeys or see great sights or do unusual deeds. Some of the best journals we know about have been kept by people who lived quiet lives. They wrote about the little things they saw and heard and did. It was the way in which they told these things that made their journals as interesting as storybooks.

An Artist's Journal. Artists and people who love to make pictures keep a kind of journal that they call a sketch-book. They are always on the lookout for material for pictures. They see much more than people do who are not trained to observe.

Some Leaves from a Sketch-book. Look at the sketches on page 13. They are leaves from an artist's sketch-book. He tells of a shady road winding by a little church in a village; of freight-boats on a canal or river; of a view from a high window in a city office building; of a fine stone arch, and beyond it a bridge with a railroad train rushing across it; of a fountain in a city park, and of a grimy, noisy factory, with its long low roofs, its smoke-stacks, and its line of waiting cars. Have you thought of looking for pictures in places like these?

Pictures in Your Own Town. Where are the interesting places in the town in which you live? Is the town near the water? Then there are boats and bridges. Is there a machine shop, a mill, or a quarry? Then you will find something to draw, as interesting as the factory in the artist's sketch. Does a railroad run through the place? There is the station, the switch tower, the engines and the freight cars. Or, perhaps there is a blacksmith shop or a trolley car. Keep your eyes open, and find the things in your town that show the life of the people. Tomorrow, bring a sketch showing some picture you have seen in the place where you live.

The Colors of Springtime.

One of the earliest shrubs that blossoms in the springtime is the forsythia. Its blossoms cover the whole bush before the leaves come, making a mass of yellow in the midst of the green grass. Yellow and green are favorite colors of springtime.

Choose some flowering tree or shrub to paint in a picture. In painting a landscape like the one on this page, one good way is first to draw with a brush line and very light violet color, the shapes that must be carefully placed. Then add the sky and foreground washes and drop on the damp paper the colors you see in the bush or tree. Draw the trunk of the tree, or the branches of the shrub, in dark gray-violet. A path or road may be wiped out of the foreground with the nearly dry brush, and a little red and yellow added to give the color of sandy ground.

Paint a spring landscape, not like the one in the book.

Home Exercises.

1. Draw an elm-tree as it looks in winter.
2. Paint a maple-tree as it looks in October.
3. Use a large finder on one or both of your tree sketches. Decide in which space the tree looks best. Then cut out this selection and mount your picture neatly.
4. Show a snow man in a winter landscape.
5. Paint a sunset on the lake or river.
6. Show in a picture the time of year you like best.
7. Make a brush drawing to illustrate:

Green Things Growing.

Brush Studies of Grasses.