CXXVII
Charcoal. You can’t draw, you paint with it.
Pencil. It is always touch and go whether I can manage it even now. Sometimes knots will come in it, and I never can get them out—I mean little black specks. If I have once india-rubbered it, it doesn’t make a good drawing. I look on a perfectly successful drawing as one built upon a groundwork of clear lines till it is finished. It’s the same kind of thing with red chalk—it mustn’t be taken out: rubbing with the finger is all right. In fact you don’t succeed with any process until you find out how you may knock it about and in what way you must be careful. Slowly built-up texture in oil-painting gives you the best chance of changing without damage when it is necessary.
Burne-Jones.