ALSO BY 
 ADOLFO BEST-MAUGARD 
 
 THE 
 SIMPLIFIED HUMAN FIGURE 
 
 An easy and original method 
 for drawing the human figure 
 and its component parts. 
 
 This 1s a Borzoi Book 
 published in New York by ALFRED A. KNOPF 
 
A METHOD FOR 
 OC Repeal Vv he DES LGN 
 
Gm. © 0, 0,0,0.0,0,0,09,090,0,0,% 
 
 ONT OAN 
 
 A METHOD FOR 
 CREATIVE 
 DESIGN 
 
 By 
 ADOLFO BEST-MAUGARD 
 
 NEW YORK 
 ALFRED: A+-KNOPF 
 1949 
 
COPYRIGHT 1926, BY ALFRED A. KNOPF, INC. 
 
 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without per- 
 
 mission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief 
 
 passages or reproduce not more than three illustrations in a review to be printed in a 
 magazine or newspaper. 
 
 REVISED EDITION, MAY Shor 
 REPRINTED TEN TIMES 
 TWELFTH PRINTING, FEBRUARY  Oeo 
 
 THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK, 
 PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF, INC. 
 
 MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 
 
Ipeeh eHony Gr 
 
 THE series of lessons used in this special method are 
 quite simple and are intended both for children and for 
 adult students. It is primarily for those who love 
 drawing and design but have found them an unattain- 
 able dream, having given up their hopes and ambitions 
 because of the difficult years of study required by the 
 usual methods. It is the purpose of this book to give 
 them the opportunity of making their dream come true, 
 and this realization may be brought within the realm 
 of possibility by the application of their efforts a short 
 time each day, in a trial of a few weeks. 
 
 Some people are unhappy in life because they are 
 unable to express themselves through the different 
 arts, such as Music, Painting, Dancing, Singing, etc., 
 since to do so they must study for many years. By 
 that time they have lost their first fresh impulse. They 
 are so tired of the drudgery that they do not care 
 whether they express anything or not. And most 
 persons do not even try to study. 
 
 Individual creation should give us a relief from the 
 routine of everyday work, and in this method we will 
 try to make our designs merely for our own amuse- 
 ment. Art is to be considered as a plaything, a re- 
 freshing pursuit by which we may find an outlet for our 
 emotions through our own creations. 
 
 We shall give the student what he is unconsciously 
 striving for: the materials and suggestions which will 
 
vi PRE FE ACG 
 
 make him utilize his creative energies by putting him in 
 the proper environment. By giving him the general 
 principles, we shall help him to find the most direct 
 road to complete self-expression through his own ex- 
 perience, thus eliminating unnecessary waste of effort 
 and time. The most salient features of this system are 
 the simplicity and rapidity with which results are ob- 
 tained. 
 
 The student will find himself making progress with- 
 out any conscious effort; from the first week’s study 
 he will begin to realize unexpected potentialities for 
 artistic expression which will develop later on a new 
 faculty, and he will realize that he is now able to create 
 his own schemes, which before he never dared dream 
 of doing. The development of this power within him 
 is the basis of his real individuality and makes him a 
 creator in the finest sense. He will be no longer 
 under, the necessity of copying from others, he will 
 dream his work out of his own imagination and his 
 production will be unique. 
 
 The child enjoys drawing; why should not the adult 
 enjoy it as well? For the toiler and the business man 
 drawing should be as much a diversion as it is for 
 children. A grown-up person who has never studied 
 the art of design will appreciate it as fully as a child 
 enjoying his first lessons, and with the same chances 
 of success. 
 
 Thanks are due the Metropolitan Museum of Art 
 and the Museum of Natural History for the use of 
 certain of the illustrations; also to Harry C. Block and 
 to Julian P. Smith for their aid in revising and preparing 
 the manuscript for the press. 
 
GONTENTS 
 Pewee COREATIVE DESIGN 
 
 PART 1 
 
 1 THe Seven Motirs 
 
 2 BORDERS 
 
 3 PosITIONs oF THE MotTIFs 
 
 4 RosETTES AND FLOWERS — (FULL VIEW) 
 
 5 Avt-Over PATTERNS 
 
 tat AL 
 
 6 GROWTH 
 
 7 FLOWERS — (IN PROFILE) 
 8 LEAVES 
 
 g STEMS 
 
 10 FLOWER COMPOSITIONS 
 
 PART OI 
 
 11 BUTTERFLIES AND Dracon FLIES 
 12 RIBBONS AND BowkKNotTs 
 
 13 BASKETS 
 
 BART 1K 
 
 14 VasEs, PircHERS AND URNS 
 15 FRuirts 
 
 16 Fruit CoMPosITIONS 
 
 17 GARLANDS 
 
 PART V 
 
 18 PLANTS AND EARTH 
 19 TREES 
 
Vill CON TENTs 
 
 20 WATER AND WAVES 
 21 FisH AND OcEAN PLANT LIFE 
 
 fon esta, 
 
 22 Birps 
 23 COMPOSITION OF AMERICAN Coats OF ARMS 
 
 PART ALE 
 
 24 MouNTAINS AND CLoupDs 
 25 SUN, Moon AND STARS 
 26 FLAMES 
 
 FART Lae 
 
 27 Houses 
 
 28 FENCES 
 
 29 SMOKE AND FLaGs 
 
 30 CURTAINS 
 
 31 TypicaL Earty AMERICAN ORNAMENTS 
 
 PART IX 
 32 ANIMALS 
 
 PART 
 33 [THE Human Ficure 
 
 AR es 
 
 34 COMPOSITION 
 SpacE AND Mass CoMPoSsITION 
 35 CoLor 
 
 PART CALI 
 
 36 PERSPECTIVE 
 37 DISTANCE 
 38 SHADING 
 
 PART Sis 
 39 MopERN SURROUNDINGS 
 
CON EIN TS 
 
 ioe REATIVE IMAGINATION 
 
 PART I 
 THE DEVELOPMENT OF CREATIVE IMAGINATION 
 
 PART II 
 THE SEVEN MotiFs IN PRIMITIVE ARTS 
 
 PAR Tell 
 THE ARCHETYPE 
 
 PART IV 
 THE WHIRLING SPIRAL 
 
 PART. Vf 
 THe PsycHOLOGY OF CREATION 
 
 BART Pd 
 Tue INNER AND OUTER CAUSES OF CREATION 
 
 1x 
 
 109 
 
 125 
 
 147 
 
 156 
 
 166 
 
 172 
 
BOOK I 
 CREATIVE DESIGN 
 
ie eaUicdh oa 
 
 ft ee SEVEN MOTIFS 
 
 The suggestions and rules that we will follow are 
 simple and easily understood by everyone. They are 
 quickly grasped and retained in the mind of the student. 
 
 In this method, there are seven simple motifs and 
 signs, which we consider as fundamental, and a few 
 rules to follow, and these, once in the student’s memory, 
 will enable him to make an infinite number of combina- 
 tions and designs which he will enjoy. These seven 
 motifs are already well known to us, and we find them 
 in the forms and shapes of all our surroundings. 
 
 The first is the Spiral or the very familiar scroll 
 motif, suggested in the whirlpool, or in the rolled shape 
 of such things as the snail’s shell. 
 
 @ 
 
 The second is the simple Circle. We see it in the 
 shape of the sun or in the ripples in the surface of still 
 water into which a stone has been dropped. 
 
 O 
 
 I 
 
2 CREATIVE DESTGH 
 
 The third is the Half-circle, found in the rainbow 
 and in the crescent moon. 
 
 Can 
 
 The fourth is Two Half-circles in the form of the 
 letter S, like the shape of flames of fire. 
 
 Ne 
 
 The fifth is the Wavy line; we see it in water waves 
 or in the shape of wavy hair. 
 
 O™”°.\SF0INI 
 
 The sixth is a broken Zigzag line; it suggests the 
 outline of the broken peaks of mountains or the light- 
 
 ning. 
 ANIA 
 The seventh is nothing but the simple Straight line 
 which gives the position of quiet hanging things, trunks 
 of trees, or the ocean line of the horizon. 
 
 GA OA OERD, 
 
 These seven motifs, which, as we have seen, are al- 
 ready familiar to us in the shapes of natural objects, 
 are the fundamentals of this method of design, and 
 everything that we do hereafter will be in the way 
 of combining and arranging two or more of the motifs 
 into attractive designs. There are two rules to be 
 remembered: 
 
 1. Never cross lines, or allow one line to interfere 
 with another, but let every line go on its way with- 
 out touching the others. 
 
BORDERS 3 
 
 2. When using similar motifs, as in border ar- 
 rangements, they should be drawn in parallel and at 
 equal distances apart. 
 
 2. BORDERS 
 
 The student should now experiment with a few 
 simple arrangements: 
 
 Take motif 6 and fill the free spaces with the second 
 motif: 
 
 YSV NN KYKYRY 
 Instead of circles, half-circles (motif 3) may be used: 
 EOONENONGS 
 UGG 
 Es Oi, a alr 
 
 The fifth motif also makes an excellent basis for 
 border design. Add dots or circles in the free spaces: 
 
 1\IVIVAV BMMPMVE 
 
4 CREATIVE DE Sia 
 
 Now try the half-circle (motif 3) in a series like a letter 
 M, and also use the circle in the spaces left. 
 
 “VV VVYVN YoYoYo YoYo’ 
 
 Naturally we can use these motifs in all their pos- 
 sible shapes, making them more open or close together, 
 as it may best suit each scheme. The half-circles may 
 be used in succession in a condensed arrangement (A) 
 as well as in the following open arrangement (B). 
 
 A B 
 
 The same for the wavy line, or the zigzag, or for 
 the S motif. 
 
 AGON Sam 
 
BORDERS F 
 
 It is obvious that if we only developed the few bor- 
 ders here demonstrated, we should already have an 
 immense variety. The first, of the wavy lines and 
 circles, Fig. A, in a closer arrangement would be Fig. B 
 and the second, of zigzags and circles, in the same way 
 would be Fig. C and the third of the S motif would be 
 Fig. D and Fig. E. 
 
 0)(9)(0) (0) (O 
 on oe IOOC 
 
 A B 
 
 ° re) 2) OAOAO, 
 a /VoVo 
 
 C 
 
 DEr~2 HOO VIIA 
 
 D E 
 
 Thus we see how simple it is to do those borders and 
 we will now try to elaborate them, combining as many 
 motifs as possible in making designs. 
 
 Start with the first arrangement of wavy lines and 
 circles, following it with other motifs, and so on with 
 the others as tried before. 
 
6 CREATIVE DESig 
 
 It cannot be too strongly emphasized at this point, 
 that a mere reading or even attentive study of this 
 method will not yield the best results. Only actual 
 practice with original combinations of the motifs will 
 give the necessary training of the hand and the release 
 of true creative power. 
 
 An infinite number of combinations are possible 
 with the seven motifs and the student should try to 
 exhaust all that his imagination suggests to him. The 
 examples here given (in this instance, all constructed 
 on the wavy line as a base) are not to be copied 
 exactly; they are merely illustrations of some of the 
 combinations, and from these many more may be 
 developed. 
 
 ISLAY DOO 
 
 ORISA AY 
 YY YNa 
 
 RASR Rey Hw 
 DEY SSS 
 
le (OMRCIDM Oats 7) 
 
 For the beginner, a practical method for building 
 border designs is the following process. First think of 
 a steady rhythm or beat, either slow or fast, and then 
 indicate on paper by means of a series of dots, the 
 actual intervals of the beat, thus: 
 
 Then select the basic motif of the proposed border 
 and adapt it to the given rhythm: 
 
 By adding other motifs in an arrangement harmonizing 
 with this given rhythm, the border is developed. 
 
 This method, from this point on, is divided into 
 progressive lessons. The student should be careful not 
 to advance beyond any lesson before he has mastered 
 what has gone before. 
 
CREATIVE DES 
 
 The following are further examples of borders show- 
 ing the combination of all the motifs: 
 
 8 
 
 asa ARR SSS 
 (YYY Y\ GCROFO 
 DALAL ae 
 
 ee | Som a 
 YWYY BODOG 
 
 Udllley SEA SSS 
 
BORDERS ° 
 LBOWERX29VDIDOD LLLLL. ©:©:@: 
 REEBE THON SSSSS 
 ==—=— Ed @ O10 OAD 
 
 Wee E@FOEC 9999. BAS 
 KW CLE BB PIP. 
 
 ene 
 
 MTs Ses, 
 
 RAGA S@S288 DEEZ RRA 
 
 wan TES WSC OY 
 TATA, & , one 4 5° Brel 
 SS 2D TOS ADA 
 
IO CREATIVE DEisiiaas 
 
 In designing borders, the student should feel the 
 major movement of rhythm and harmony underlying 
 the design he draws. Borders must move forward, and 
 grow as they move. This movement will be obtained 
 by choosing one motif from among the seven and 
 building on that, adding other motifs the design may 
 require as secondary decoration supporting the central 
 one. The single ruling motif of the border is called 
 the dominant, and the complementary one the sub- 
 ordinate. 
 
 Dominant. 
 
 i 
 
 Spirals are the Subordinate. 
 ~9 —~9 
 Oa aa 
 
 This continuous suggestion of movement in a definite 
 direction is enhanced by the tangential junction of the 
 subordinate motif, which always springs from the dom- 
 inant motif in the forward direction of the movement. 
 
 LO 
 
PomlOoNS OF THE MOTIFS 11 
 
 3. POSITIONS OF THE MOTIFS 
 
 There are four basic positions to be observed in draw- 
 ing the seven motifs: 
 
 1. Horizontal position: Draw the motifs in a con- 
 tinuous forward line. 
 
 Cea 2000000 CLLR LL 
 PALANAN WV WET Csi: 
 
 2. Vertical position: Draw the motifs up and down. 
 
 60000000 
 
 3. Right-hand oblique: Draw the motifs to the 
 right. 
 
 fa 
 
12 CREATIVE DESiGa 
 4. Left-hand oblique: Draw the motifs to the left. 
 
 “ii. 
 
 In drawing the motifs, follow these four general 
 positions either in the single line or parallel. 
 
 4. ROSETTES AND FLOWERS — (full view) 
 
 Oo) 
 
 Now that we are able to draw designs of elaborate 
 borders, let us see how they may be used for a different 
 purpose; we are going to draw rosettes and flower 
 shapes by using the borders already designed. First 
 draw a circle. (It does not matter if it is not perfect 
 for flowers are not perfectly round). Then pick up some 
 simple border, any one will do, but since it is for a 
 flower, we suggest taking one with the shape of petals 
 (like the one of half-circles and circles (Fig. A) and draw 
 it around the circle, instead of forward in a straight 
 line A second row can be drawn inside of the circle 
 and the center filled with scrolls or dots (Fig. B). An 
 
ROSETTES AND FLOWERS 33 
 
 infinite variety of rosettes and flowers can be designed, 
 depending on the borders used and the invention of the 
 
 student in their arrangement. 
 
[4 CREATIVE DESt@ss 
 
 5.. ALL-OVER PATTERNS 
 
 We will now give a few suggestions for arrangements 
 of all-over patterns, which can be used to represent the 
 centers of the flowers. This all-over pattern is disposed 
 on a plaid distribution and we will, accordingly, draw 
 first a rough sketch of a plaid design: 
 
APE-OVER PATTERNS IS 
 
 The motifs should be placed at the crossings of the 
 lines so as to give an even distribution (Fig. A), or in 
 alternating arrangement (Fig. B). Any of the simple 
 motifs may also be used in the spaces (Figs. C & D) 
 after which, the guiding lines should be erased. 
 
 o@ 
 => 
 oe 
 
 6- 
 : 
 
 ~ = aoe 
 = 
 
 6 
 
 rake 
 ©0- 
 o 
 6 
 
 : 
 © 
 a 
 6. 
 
 ® t) j J 
 e Ne ps2. \ .-+ oa | canal @ oe aaa de 
 . aone | ’ —)_ ry ’ 
 MPS hs ek yon. lk 
 Stee oy so I Aol potas eaten tae aa 
 ‘ \ exam | ' \° ai ‘ eo! | 
 ; ‘TI i= |[f. € leu ay: 
 Rees! st leg tet 
 \ | = @ ; @! 
 ' au» | oH { le I e ' 
 =} a a acd Bera Ey ee LR 2 pe —~p--t- 
 e \ ) § ’ ’ 
 : 4 
 C D 
 
 The following page gives a few suggestions for all- 
 over patterns. 
 
16 CREATIVE DESI 
 WZ RQ oe 90 
 
 ee #F on 
 
 SSS) ee 
 recs NEN Ralies 
 Sl, MES © @ » 
 GS POP OTT a1 1) 0 |—-|ostea o 
 ee eo te SE 
 
 ee 
 lo : \\l 
 
eee ow ER PATTERNS 17) 
 
 All the numberless combinations that can be made 
 with the seven motifs are divided into two distinct 
 groups of expression. The first expresses quiet, repose, 
 balance, and is called Static arrangement. The second 
 expresses movement, development, growth, a breathing 
 quality, and is called Dynamic arrangement. 
 
 To the first group belongs the all-over design which 
 gives a restful feeling of stillness. The motifs are 
 balanced against each other in a pattern, and spread 
 evenly over a surface. 
 
 uitsiay 
 REED =< 
 Ca 
 
 Static Arrangement: | a | 
 
 The second group includes borders and frets in which 
 there is a feeling of movement. In all of them the eye 
 feels the necessity of following the lines. 
 
 ul 
 iit 
 
 Dynamic Arrangement: 
 
 Usually, motion is represented and felt as running 
 
 from left to right. 
 When lines join as forces, they join in the direction 
 of the movement of the border. 
 
 ae 
 
PAR Aaa 
 
 6. GROWTH 
 
 All branches, flowers, and leaves follow a principle of 
 design in nature that we call growth. In growth, a 
 series of leaves or flowers increase or diminish evenly 
 and harmonically along a stem. To design a fern-frond, 
 for example, draw the curved central vein, with deep 
 half-circles beginning at the base and tapering gradually 
 to a point at each side of the tip. 
 
 The lilies of the valley shown below illustrate this 
 principle of growth. 
 
 tte 
 
 Observe that all branches, stems, and flowers spring 
 out in an upward-slanting curve. This is called Tan- 
 
 gential Growth. 
 18 
 
GROWTH 19 
 
 This can be done in symmetrical arrangement, or 
 alternating. 
 
 Symmetrical Alternating 
 
 f 
 
 The character of a border consists in steady repeti- 
 tion of motifs which create the rhythm; this even 
 repetition in a rhythm is called continuous growth. 
 The harmony of the whole depends on the right selec- 
 tion and arrangement of the component motifs. The 
 back-ground is called space. 
 
 Growth being, as we have said, the harmonious 
 repetition of the same form in an augmenting or 
 diminishing proportion (Fig. 1), we find in nature the 
 
 (wed) 
 
 ite Ge 
 
 combined manifestation of growth and tangential junc- 
 tion in symmetrical or alternate arrangements, in 
 branches, leaves and flowers. [Fig. 2, see next page. | 
 
20 CREATIVE DEsiga 
 
 DUR Ree 
 Kéc« KR Case 
 
 Also in structures, buildings, and perspective: 
 
 P preg 
 
oy ino LN PROFILE ot 
 
 7. FLOWERS — (in profile) 
 
 A flower in profile is made by drawing a round 
 flower, divided in the center: 
 
 To this half-circle add the shape of a flower seen from 
 
 the side: 
 
 And complete with a few scrolls: 
 
 y | : 
 All the following examples from early American designs 
 of conventional flowers are an aid in understanding the 
 possibilities for creating new combinations which are 
 
 endless and a few suggestions will be found on the next 
 page. 
 
 Erase half of it: 
 
ee ALV. ICS xe) 
 
 8. LEAVES 
 
 Add leaves and stems to the flowers. To make a 
 simple leaf, draw two half-circles joined at one end in an 
 almond shape, and for the scalloped edges add small 
 half-circles or zigzags. 
 
 — > 
 
 To complete, draw a straight line down the center, 
 with other small straight lines slanting upward at the 
 side, to suggest the veins of the leaf. 
 
 QD S 
 
 Practise drawing a great many kinds of leaves, using 
 some of these as suggestions. 
 
 wy SS & 
 
24. CREATIVE DES 
 
 In the following examples most of the leaves have been 
 drawn using the seven motifs in growth arrangement. 
 
STEMS 26 
 
 Q. STEMS 
 The stems of flowers or fruits are designed with two 
 
 parallel lines, and one motif between these two lines 
 will add to the decoration. 
 
 Lief 
 
 Thorns are designed with the motifs outside the lines 
 
 of the stem. 
 Wheat ears are very easy to draw: 
 
 EES 
 > 
 ‘“‘ 
 
26 CREATIVE DESiGs 
 
 Flowers may also be designed very simply in a great 
 variety of ways. 
 
 WAAL Ae 
 
 VRPRRRPS SLITS 
 
FEOWER COMPOSITIONS ay, 
 
 10. FLOWER COMPOSITIONS 
 
 Put these designs together in the natural order, and 
 the result is a composition of flower, stem, and leaves: 
 
 It is now time to begin making a few flower compo- 
 sitions. The first one must be very simple. First draw 
 lightly an outline of circles and curved lines as a guide 
 to the blossoms and stems. Fill in with petals and 
 leaves: 
 
28 CREATIVE DESi@e 
 
 A flower composition in thin light lines: 
 
 & 2 <yeT 
 
 4A Se 
 SMAAK ANS 
 
 Design with light and heavy lines. Draw the thin 
 lines first, and fill in the black spaces with heavy thick 
 strokes: 
 
 Note: These designs as well as 
 that on page 20 are adapted from * 
 
fevk EIT 
 
 oe eRe LES AND DRAGON FLIES 
 
 The conventionalized butterfly may be easily formed 
 out of two flower shapes in profile. 
 
 GOG 
 
 Put the body in the center. The antennz are repre- 
 sented by scrolls, and the eyes by small dots or circles. 
 
 With a few variations, all kinds of butterflies may be 
 drawn on this general design. 
 
30 CREATIVE: Distt 
 
 Butterflies in profile: 
 
 The dragon fly has a long body shaped like a shallow 
 S motif, drawn in parallel with decorations between. 
 The wings are leaf-shaped, but decorated differently, 
 with two small circles for eyes. The student should 
 develop his own ideas for decoration. 
 
tebe AND BOWKNOTS 31 
 
 I2. RIBBONS AND BOWKNOTS 
 
 The ribbon and the bowknot are familiar traditional 
 designs in early American art. 
 
 The simplest ribbon is made of two 5 motifs drawn 
 in parallel, with a single zigzag at either end; or with 
 the ends of the S motifs joined; also combined with 
 wavy lines. 
 
 + 
 
 There are many other combinations: 
 
 Re Nari 
 
 Phe 
 
ate CREATIVE DESIGN 
 
 Draw the center of the bowknot first. Make a circle 
 with an 5 in it: 
 
 Add two irregular, double half-circles on each side. 
 
 Design other shapes of bows, using any of the ex- 
 amples shown above, as in these suggestions. 
 
 9D FE FS 
 
 For a flower composition tied with a bowknot, 
 sketch another small outline. Let the stems show 
 clearly, and tie the bowknot around them. 
 
 Butterflies and dragon flies hovering about the 
 flowers, may be added wherever they seem to belong. 
 
 Take care that in these designs, as in all others drawn 
 by this method, every flower, leaf, stem, ribbon or band 
 is shown completely. Never draw one object partly 
 hidden or covered by another. Flowers must be full 
 face or flat profile. No perspective. 
 
Bios KE TS 33 
 
 13. BASKETS 
 
 The basket is a widely used motif in nearly all 
 decorative compositions containing flowers. 
 
 For a very simple basket design, draw a straight or 
 slightly curved line for the upper rim, and a correspond- 
 ing line for the base; 
 
 Two half-circles on the sides will complete the outline. 
 
 VT wol 
 
CREATIVE DESTGs 
 
 Suggest the weaving of the basket with an all-over 
 pattern; or a simple plaid. 
 
 Avit | Swe 
 
 i—t——s lait= 
 —t~1 = =usl 
 i—t— (tale 
 
 The rim and base, as well as the handle, may be done 
 with an S line used as conventionalized cord. 
 
 SSS 
 
 There may be handles at the top or sides. 
 Make the side handles with simple double S lines. 
 
 7 
 WE 
 1 
 
 34 
 
BASKETS 38 
 
 Fill the basket with flowers following the lines of 
 construction. 
 
 Experiment with these basket shapes, adding flowers 
 to harmonize with their structures in the same way 
 that the bunch of flowers was done. 
 
PART LV 
 
 I4. VASES, PITCHERS AND URNS 
 
 The outline of a jar reduced to its simplest elements 
 consists of two motifs: a circle for the center, and 
 shallow half-circles in basket shape, one for the mouth 
 of the jar, and an inverted one for the base. 
 
 The handles may be in the S line shape with the ends 
 curling inward toward a spiral. 
 
 For a pitcher vary the shape of the neck, and add one 
 
 BS 
 
 A study of these shapes will suggest further original 
 variations. 
 
 $9 GS 
 
Weert CHEERS AND URNS 37 
 
 The typical urn consists of a half-circle for the body 
 and a smaller inverted half-circle for the base. Add a 
 circle to join these two, with an inverted basket shape 
 and two shallow half-circles joined to form the mouth. 
 The handles may be similar to those on the vases. 
 
 This is a very typical motif of ornamentation used 
 in the past century in which this and many other 
 classic forms were developed from the Greek. The 
 same structure, in elongated form, may be used in 
 design as balustrade or column. 
 
38 CREATIVE DESIGN 
 
 I5. FRUITS 
 
 In drawing fruits, study the use of motifs in borders 
 or all-over patterns. The repetition of a single motif 
 often gives the most decorative effect. 
 
Previel COMPOST RIONS 39 
 
 There are many ways of using different motifs and 
 patterns to draw the same fruit. Taking these two 
 pineapples as examples, try drawing the fruits shown 
 above with different borders and all-over patterns. 
 
 16. FRUIT COMPOSITIONS 
 
 A fruit dish is designed in the same way as the lower 
 half of an urn. Or else the student may use one of 
 the baskets he has already drawn, and fill it with fruits 
 and leaves in this way: Other suggestions for fruit 
 
 dishes: 
 
40 CREATIVE DE oii 
 
 AN a == 
 > “Bae 
 
 , 
 
 A cornucopia, or “‘horn of plenty,” is very decora- 
 tive, and seems elaborate, but on examination it is 
 quite simple: 
 
 For the outline, draw a circle for the mouth, an S 
 line on the side, and a half-circle from the center, 
 running up to join the S line in a peak, for the horn. 
 Then with a series of S lines beginning at the top of the 
 peak and growing longer towards the base, twist the 
 horn into a whirl. When the cornucopia is filled with 
 fruits, only the upper half of the opening must show. 
 Finish this edge with the same S$ line border that is 
 used on the basket rims. 
 
GARLANDS 41 
 
 I7. GARLANDS 
 
 The foundation of the garland is a festoon made of 
 two shallow half-circles. 
 
 For a more decorative garland, drop a deep half-circle 
 between each festoon, or loop. 
 
 4) I 
 
 Begin with a single loop, and sketch in the pattern 
 for flowers or fruits. 
 
 OC 
 OC 
 O 
 
 Suggestions for garlands: 
 
 ~S 
 reac 
 . \“ ck (P ( 
 S ‘ (4 
 4 Ee ®) 
 
 cN AXA 
 
PAR Tey 
 
 18. PLANTS AND EARTH 
 
 Leafy shrubs and the foliage of tree branches are 
 most simply represented by half-circles in succession. 
 Half-circles with straight lines may represent a small 
 
 bush: 
 
 The zigzag line is useful in designing long pointed 
 leaves, or long grass: 
 
 NB Wy 
 
 Groups of short straight lines in a semicircular ar- 
 rangement suggest grass. An all-over pattern of these 
 groups becomes a meadow: 
 
 ww ov wv NY 
 
 Avy VY SY 
 Wi, walle NV 
 
 ae =e OW 
 42 
 
PLANTS AND EARTH 43 
 
 There are many variations in the fern and palm leaf. 
 Begin by drawing a curved line for the center of the 
 leaf, and let the smaller fronds spring from it, diminish- 
 ingtoapoint. (Fig.A.) Use the zigzag in acute angles, 
 or half-circles in close arrangement. (Fig. B.) Fern 
 leaves are made in much the same manner. (Fig. C.) 
 
 }7 
 \) wr > 
 
 A 
 
 Design a small, trunkless palm tree by joining several 
 leaves together at the base. 
 
44 CREATIVE DESIGN 
 
 Practise drawing these examples of plant-life shapes: 
 
 \ 
 \\ 
 vt 
 
 The surface of the earth is uneven, full of little hil- 
 locks and depressions, which may be represented by an 
 irregular line of S motifs and half-circles. 
 
pl Rakie les 45 
 
 Fill in with a pattern of circles for stones, groups of 
 straight lines for grass, and tiny dots, in reality small 
 closed circles, for sand. 
 
 = AWAVAYV GS 
 TEE WA WA AWA 
 
 TOs TREES 
 
 The trunk of a tree must spread a little at the base, 
 and again at the top where the branches of foliage 
 begin. The roughness of the bark may be represented 
 by an all-over pattern. 
 
46 CREATIVE DESI 
 
 Examples of the use of the half-circle and the zigzag 
 in drawing foliage: 
 
VEG ONS 47 
 
 Draw the palm tree with a long trunk decorated 
 with a border or all-over pattern, and let the fronds 
 radiate from the top as they do in the short palms pic- 
 tured among the small plantlife. | 
 
 $ 
 
 BEI 
 WL 
 OOD 
 
 AA 
 Hes BES3: 
 
48 CREATIVE DESIGN 
 
 In the willow tree, all the branches droop, and the 
 leaves spring from both sides: 
 
 g AD a 
 C, 71 a Wa 
 ‘ ” 
 A\ & in Pies “) 
 = 4 24 am’ ba Un 
 an y \ AN In oo. t ND 
 Ts 2 \\ A \' sx Nh, 
 AG yy A YAN Jn ym, 8, 
 y\ AN \ A \ ) \! 4 - 
 ,e aN fy \ f > Va CPE: 
 7S gn YX Lf DUN MN AARC 
 4 ‘\ x 5 AS DN aN hs a fa \ , aN Fi , 
 xX ANG OS AY SAARA\ AR RB LN A AS 
 am TN AN YN \ f a\ Vary AN Yn (YTD 
 Y a AN fi 4S ut fre OR \ yp fh AW , 7) 
 OR AX ie DAA ARR RRs N°: 
 \K '- 9 ae aa 8 Po BAAR 
 , 4\ (4 4 \ x } : (] 
 Nina A \¢ NA RR A : AS ws 
 \y, } " A, \ \ N £ 4 \ NG 
 DIN ON DS a \INA A ARM RA AAR 
 ffs y\ i,\ fos ‘SN YT] ( ne , , aN iN (iN , 4 n\ YN 
 WwW ws AN U ly iY i ZN Al \ y 
 Y ad \ 4 nn» A IX InN , 4 in 
 1 a & “N 4,“ ’ VFA \ \ v a AN 
 Vs 4 Ie ty i, * , ‘4, \ aN Ve LR ‘ 1) i. (j ys 
 , : fin OR i’ eX Ny, AX oN a x \ f) a 
 he BX YN 7 ( : Dp 4N 
 S &A fay 1 
 ot ts Ny 
 
 20. WATER AND WAVES 
 
 Still water is represented by parallel straight lines; 
 moving water, by wavy lines, the wave being deepened 
 to represent the degree of movement of the water. 
 
WATER AND WAVES 49 
 Half-circles in succession give the feeling of shallow 
 ripples: 
 
 For heavier waves, draw the S line in succession, or 
 the scroll: 
 
 meee 
 
 SSE ope 
 
 To represent a marsh, combine water and grass 
 alternately: 
 
 Falling water: 
 
50 CREATIVE DESIGN 
 
 21. FISH AND OCEAN PUAN TSUirs 
 
 Two opposed 5 lines are used to design a fish. An 
 all-over pattern of crossed lines suggests scales: 
 
 or use the half-circles to design scales, and vary the fins 
 and tail: 
 
 Starfish and Shells: 
 
fees D OCEAN PLANT LIFE 51 
 
 Ocean Plants: 
 
 5 a 
 0 
 
 | 
 
PAR Tava 
 
 fe gs Re 
 
 In drawing a bird, consider the body as the core of 
 the design. The flexible members, head, neck, wings, 
 tail, and legs, are drawn separately, and the motion of 
 the bird is determined by the placing of these separate 
 parts on the body. 
 
 The body is egg-shaped and mostly immobile. Move- 
 ment depends on the placing of the head: 
 
 G CS (= 
 
BER Ds ao 
 
 and the position of the tail. The legs are a broken line. 
 
 Note the different proportions of each particular 
 bird, and their various characteristics on an identical 
 basic structure 
 
CREATIVE (DES 
 
 When both wings are shown they must not interfere 
 with each other, but must be clearly separated: 
 
 54 
 
55 
 
 BIRDS 
 
 Bird-shapes: 
 
56 CREATIVE DESIG@m 
 
 23. COMPOSITION OF AMERICANS COs 
 OF ARMS 
 
 Note: These examples of 
 traditional American art, as 
 well as others which are re- 
 produced in this book, are 
 valuable to the student be- 
 cause they show the use of 
 the seven motifs in the build- 
 ing of beautiful symbolic de- 
 signs. The student should 
 experiment as widely as pos- 
 sible with similar composi- 
 tions of his own. 
 
 : ha ot 
 
 M 
 = CON 
 « 
 
 IS 
 1F 
 F 
 SF 
 
 i 
 
PART VII 
 
 Z4. MOUNTAINS AND CLOUDS 
 
 Mountains are drawn with the same lines used to 
 represent shallow earth-surfaces, but with a deeper 
 rise and fall of the curves. 
 
 For cone-shaped hills and mountains use the zigzag. 
 
 For clouds use half-circles, S lines, and scrolls. 
 
 fee? SS 
 > A, 
 
 Sf 
 
58 CREATIVE DEStem 
 
 25. SUN, MOON AND STARS 
 
 To draw the sun and moon with human faces is a 
 very ancient and beautiful fantasy of design: 
 
 Moon, Stars, Lightning: 
 
 Ss 
 oN oe 
 
 Flight of birds in all-over pattern: 
 
 vw 
 v 
 vw ai 
 Vv 
 ~ Vv vw 
 nu” Vv 
 vv vw 
 vy iw rw 
 ~~ ™ wv“ i 
 vv vv vv 
 Val yw vv 
 yy 
 
PART VIII 
 
 27. HOUSES 
 
 First draw the elementary lines of a house. The ad- 
 dition of a side tower makes a church. 
 
 A cottage with a 
 fence around it and 
 a small garden: 
 
 P| | TITITILULLESUM EET 
 Weave MESA 
 UVCAUTOROBRARIDULALV RTL \Win! PTTL 
 
 mn 
 TYMITHTUELLUALLMLU LULL RADOLS 
 
HOWs Es 61 
 
 American Colonial house: 
 
 BOS OSS 0 S60 SENSO OO9 OLN O98 0.00 0908.9 th 
 
 Ree 
 
 0% 
 
 A castle: 
 
 A brick house: 
 
62 CREATIVE DES tGay 
 
 Experiment with different types of houses: 
 
 28. FENCES 
 
 The house enclosed with a slight low fence, the field 
 enclosed with wire, are familiar scenes in American 
 village and country life: 
 
FENCES 63 
 
 A few types of fences drawn with straight lines, or 
 zigzag in rows: 
 
 acdaad 
 a ex | 
 
 paseo 
 
 / 
 Afar 
 
 Kiosks and Pavilions: 
 
64 CREATIVE DEstGy 
 
 29. SMOKE AND FLAGS 
 
 The lines of smoke are the same as the lines of clouds, 
 but in smoke the movement is more rapid, and in a 
 definite direction, as if blown on the wind: 
 
 For floating flags, use the ribbon design: 
 
 A pennant: 
 
CUaR GE ASEN-S 65 
 30. CURTAINS 
 The curtain is a variation of the garland shapes 
 
 already shown: 
 
 TA. ma” OOO 
 toest 2 PP aPragoas 
 Tro y 3 
 
 aedeay 
 Sseeee 
 
 Si~ sj Pesatowassss 
 a8se: 
 
 Geases 
 . 
 
 Tassel, made with circles, half-circles, and 5 lines: 
 Cord with S lines: 
 
 UUW 
 
 Fringes: 
 
CREATIVE DESIGN 
 
 66 
 
 TYPICAL EARLY AMERICAN ORNAMENTS 
 
 214 
 
Pent CAN ORNAMENTS 67 
 
 Typical Early American Ornaments 
 
PAR Ps te 
 
 32. ANIMALS 
 
 All quadruped animal forms may be reduced in the 
 beginning to one basic structure. It consists of two 
 circles. Join these circles with two lines, as shown. 
 
 OO Gas 
 
 The position and movement of the animal depend on 
 the placing of the neck, head, legs, and tail, as already 
 noted in drawing birds: 
 
 Observe the different ways in which the legs and head 
 may be placed on the same body to alter the position 
 and movement: 
 
 Oa 
 
 ht Ce 
 
ANIMALS 69 
 
 On this same shape which has been transformed into 
 a horse, change the tail and ears, draw long thin legs 
 and add horns to represent a deer: 
 
 Bo. 
 
 Note how the same structure serves for widely 
 different kinds of animals: 
 
CREATIVE DESIGN 
 A few examples of animal design in very simple 
 
 outlines: 
 
 7O 
 
ANIMALS 
 
PARI 
 
 33. THE HUMAN FIGURE 
 
 The human body may also be divided into several 
 parts which are, separately, very simple. It is better to 
 begin this study, ordinarily rather difficult and com- 
 plicated, by drawing only the most primitive outlines. 
 The torso, or trunk, of the human figure resembles a 
 basket standing on a circle: 
 
 The torso: Mf : 
 | Leg 
 
 QI 
 
 Arm Hands 
 72 
 
THE HUMAN FIGURE 73 
 
 Now draw the lines of the human body in whatever 
 position desired, but simply, as children do. Try these 
 dancing and running figures: 
 
 See 
 
 Now attach to them the separate parts shown above. 
 Let the legs begin at a point in the center of the circle: 
 
 . >. 
 a: 
 
 Outline of woman: Outline of man: 
 
74 CREATIVE \DEstaa 
 
 The head: 
 
 Head in front view, three-quarters, and profile: 
 
 These heads are taken from early American orna- 
 ments, but many other simple conventions may be 
 used as well. Note that the line which forms the nose 
 and the eye-brow is based on the S form. 
 
fetta UMAN FIGURE 75 
 
 Parts of the face: eyes, nose, mouth, ears, and hair: 
 
 @@ i. (.— ¢ 
 
 “ g S* 
 
 Try designing various other objects in combination 
 with the human figure. For example: 
 
 Ag 
 
76 CREATIVE “DES 
 
 Examples of the human figure clothed and in com- 
 bination with other objects: 
 
Peele X | 
 
 34. COMPOSITION 
 
 The student should experiment with combined de- 
 signs containing the designs already learned. Note the 
 composition below, which contains many elements in 
 very condensed form: 
 
 DESIGNS CUT IN PAPER 
 
 For decorative arrangements on a flat background 
 without perspective, the student will find that cutting 
 paper silhouettes of his designs and pasting them on the 
 
 77 
 
78 CREATIVE DESIGN 
 
 background will greatly simplify the early problems of 
 composition, and this procedure will prove very valu- 
 able as training. 
 
 Select a number of designs already familiar, such as 
 birds, butterflies, or flowers: 
 
 Cut them all about the same size, say three inches 
 square, decide what size the composition shall be, and 
 work on a flat surface. After the larger figures are 
 placed, fill in with smaller bits of single designs. All- 
 Over patterns may also be used. 
 
COMPOSITION 79 
 
 This is an interesting way to practise composition, 
 and the changes that suggest themselves to the student 
 are more easily adaptable than they are in drawing. 
 
 Do not consider either proportion or perspective at 
 this stage. Place the figures where their shapes blend 
 most harmoniously with each other and with the whole 
 design. The effect should be similar to that of printed 
 silks or cretonnes, in flat design on a plain background. 
 
 Composition must be creative. Keep always in mind 
 that original designing forbids a mere copying from life, 
 and that the artist is not limited only to possibilities 
 in Nature. In design, the artist is free to draw a 
 butterfly larger than the tree it hovers over, or a bird 
 and a house of equal size. It is only important that the 
 finished composition be beautiful and right, the result 
 of an honest mood and a careful plan. 
 
 Preserve the spaces between each unit of the design; 
 do not crowd or overlap them in any way. 
 
 Crowded and incorrect spacing: 
 
 Proper spacing: 
 
 a 
 
80 CREATIVE Dist 
 
 Having assembled a great number of subjects and 
 elements to work with, the student will now be able to 
 represent his ideas first in a simple decorative design. 
 
 There are no fixed subjects to limit inspiration. The 
 student is free to follow his imaginings into fantasy, 
 dreams, legends or fairy tales, if he so chooses. He may 
 record his impressions of actual life, of his surroundings, 
 of street scenes, of the life of the city, the country and 
 the seaside, either from actual view or from memory; 
 and he should do this without regard to any pictures he 
 may have seen of similar things. Let him rely on the 
 method of design he is studying, and on his own in- 
 dividual use of the things he knows and feels. 
 
 The unit of a design has its individual value, cer- 
 tainly, but the important consideration for the moment 
 is harmony of composition. Whatever idea or emotion 
 the student wishes to express should be contained 
 within a limited number of elements of his own choos- 
 ing; the important problem is then the way in which 
 it goes into the picture, the form of its arrangement 
 within a certain allotted space. 
 
 In making his own compositions, the student has an 
 opportunity to use all his previous training in an 
 original way. A border or an all-over pattern already 
 familiar may be very helpful as the skeleton of a new 
 combination. 
 
 Take for example a composition having as its subject 
 a leaping rabbit. The rabbit leaps forward in long 
 curves, and this is best suggested by the use of the 
 wavy-line motif. 
 
POWEP Osi TON SI 
 
 This motif has been drawn many times in previous 
 lessons, combined with scrolls, circles, and other motifs. 
 Thus, we may take the simple border as it stands and 
 use a small part of it. 
 
 The rabbit may be placed at any given point of this 
 line, following its curves. 
 
 Now choose which position the rabbit shall occupy, 
 draw that part only of the curved line to the full size 
 of the intended design, and arrange all the rest of the 
 drawing in harmony with this ruling line. 
 
 In case of designs built upon simple growth, not 
 representing actual movement, but using for example, a 
 shrub or tree, the same rule is applicable, not as motion 
 but as growth. 
 
82 CREATIVE DE Sia 
 
 Study the composition of the rabbit for its movement. 
 Note that the effect of movement is dependent on a 
 ruling line. This main line of the composition is called 
 the dominant, and the supplementary parts are sub- 
 ordinate. ‘The subordinate lines must never obtrude, 
 they must support and be in complete harmony with 
 the main line or lines. Adapt the leading unit or figure 
 to the dominant line, and group the lesser ones in the 
 order of their importance. 
 
 If the dominant unit is to represent the movement of 
 
COMPOSITION 83 
 
 a running animal or a flying bird, then the dominant 
 line directs the orbit or path of the flying creature in its 
 flight. This line is used in a very obvious way in the 
 comic-supplement pictures, where a dotted line repre- 
 sents the track of a look, a leap, or an object thrown in 
 the air. 
 
 To get a greater effect of movement, or swing, to the 
 composition, the silhouettes which were used at first 
 in the study of composition should now be cut in their 
 separate parts, and their positions adapted to the re- 
 quirements of the design, precisely as was done in 
 drawing them. This method applies to everything from 
 the human body to flowers, leaves, and stems. 
 
 For example, cut the silhouette of a bird into all its 
 parts: 
 
Sat CREATIVE? Dik Sai 
 
 SPACE AND MASS COMPOSITION 
 
 When working directly in areas instead of in lines, 
 the background is as important as the mass of main 
 design. 
 
 In compositions which do not suggest motion, 
 make nearly the same arrangement as for all-over 
 patterns. The elements must cover the entire compo- 
 sition in a true balance; draw the more important de- 
 signs first, and fill in the spaces with the smaller ones, 
 remembering always to leave some space around every 
 object, whether large or small. They must not touch 
 one another. This free space may be painted plain 
 black, which makes a very decorative effect. 
 
 Observe in the above composition how the darkened 
 spaces between the units of design must also be con- 
 sidered as masses necessary to the pure balance of the 
 structure. Perfect structure cannot be achieved by 
 
COLOR 8c 
 
 rules: the student must be guided by his natural sense 
 of equilibrium. 
 
 We have here given suggestions for the most simple 
 methods of composition, but in time, the student will 
 be able to plan other compositions, more complicated, 
 which will be merely decorative and free representa- 
 tions or illustrations of ideas of his own. 
 
 oe COLOR 
 
 Up to this point the work has been done with pencil, 
 in black and white. The next step is to learn the use of 
 color. 
 
 The art of color is a study not to be dealt with here 
 to a greater extent than is necessary to give the student 
 a few hints, to stimulate his imagination, and allow him 
 freedom for his own compositions without suggestions or 
 the interference of special rules. Let each student de- 
 velop his. individual feeling for color, for this is one of 
 the most important aids to originality and honesty of 
 expression. The student who perseveres and becomes 
 an artist will naturally take up the intensive study of 
 color as a part of his work. 
 
 There are for the present no special rules for combin- 
 ing colors. In this method the colors at first are never 
 mixed. Use the pure shades as they come in the or- 
 dinary school paint box, and try them in succession in 
 all the combinations that occur to the color sense and 
 are pleasant to the eye. 
 
 Crayon is the simplest form of color to use, and 
 younger students usually prefer it, but it is advisable 
 
86 CREATIVE DES ta 
 
 also to learn from the beginning the easy use of brush 
 and pen. For this reason they should be encouraged to 
 work in water colors and India inks. 
 
 For the trial of this new medium it will be well to 
 repeat some of the designs already learned, such as 
 rosettes and borders, in color outline. 
 
 Begin with outlines in color, and progress gradually 
 to full-color compositions with backgrounds. From this 
 lesson on, the work should be as much as possible 
 in color. 
 
elon LT 
 
 36. PERSPECTIVE 
 
 So far all objects and figures have been dealt with in 
 flat profile, silhouette, or full front view, without refer- 
 ence to their bottom or top surface. They will now be 
 represented and described in perspective: not the 
 usual perspective in art, with the receding lines con- 
 verging to a point on the horizon, but a much simpler 
 one. 
 
 An object seen in front view from above naturally 
 shows its upper surface, or, as with a cup, its inside 
 
 surface. 
 > > 
 
 An object seen from below shows its base. 
 
 ame 
 
 Round objects such as vases and baskets which have 
 previously been shown only in profile or silhouette are 
 87 
 
88 CREATIVE DEStig 
 
 now shown combining the profile outline with the top 
 or base in perspective. 
 
 og 
 
 This method applies to round objects, but those 
 having several sides must be drawn in perspective to 
 show the right-side face, the left-side face, and either 
 the top or the base, depending on whether the object 
 is viewed from above or below. 
 
 Three of their sides are thus actually visible, giving 
 a full description of the subject and an idea of its 
 volume. 
 
PERSPECTIVE 89 
 
 Diagonal Y shaped lines are mainly used in perspec- 
 
 tive. 
 
 Following these simple rules, practise drawing in per- 
 spective all the designs hitherto done only in flat 
 surfaces. 
 
90 CREATIVE DESTGy 
 
 37. DISTANCE 
 
 The simplest way to represent distance is to diminish 
 the size of objects as they recede one above another into 
 the background. This sense of distance is obtained by 
 drawing on planes. 
 
 All the nearest objects are the largest in size, and 
 appear together in the first row, or plane, at the bottom 
 
ptt BAC PTV. hh gI 
 
 of the composition. The objects on the rising planes 
 gradually diminish, keeping proportions among them- 
 selves in the same plane. For example, a composition 
 of tents and trees in perspective: 
 
 Third row, background: fe INN 
 Second row, middle distance: @ INS 
 
 First row, foreground: 
 
 Children, exactly as primitive man, always represent 
 objects in the distance in the upper part of their 
 designs and objects nearby in the lower. 
 
92 CREATIVE DESia 
 
 38. SHADING 
 
 The representation of depth and volume of objects is 
 obtained by shading, that is, by distinguishing between 
 different planes by an arrangement of light and dark. 
 Darkness suggests depth in relation to the light, or 
 outstanding parts. 
 
 To impart volume and roundness to an object, begin 
 the shading inside the outline of the figure, almost, but 
 not quite, touching it. The shading should be very 
 dark at the edges and grow lighter towards the centre. 
 (Fig. A.) 
 
 To suggest depth around a figure, shade very dark 
 around the outline, then fading outwards. (Fig. B.) 
 
 When objects have flat surfaces, emphasize the edge 
 between two breaking planes with shading starting 
 from the angles. (Fig. C.) 
 
 Note that the vase in Fig. D is seen in perspective 
 from above and that although its base is almost a 
 circle in outline, an effect of its flatness and the relief 
 of the stem are obtained by shading on both sides of 
 the stem. 
 
 In the fruits shown in Fig. E, observe that the 
 apple is shown to be round by means of the circle of 
 darkness which follows its contours, just within the 
 outside line. 
 
 This method of shading, not being a realistic repre- 
 sentation of a direct light, is the simplest way to 
 achieve the desired effect and gives the feeling of a 
 diffused light. 
 
Behe UT 
 
 39. MODERN SURROUNDINGS 
 
 The student should observe the modern life about 
 him, and draw what he sees reduced first to its utmost 
 
 simplicity of expression. 
 
 ‘Choose whatever lies near at hand or catches the 
 imagination. The list given here will suggest some of 
 the numberless subjects to be found in actual sur- 
 roundings, and the examples given will be helpful in 
 working out the problems of perspective, of distance, 
 of composition and simplification: 
 
 Airplanes 
 
 Amusement parks 
 
 Automobiles 
 
 Boats 
 
 Bridges 
 
 Building cranes 
 
 Camping tents 
 
 Casks 
 
 Circus 
 
 Cups 
 
 Electrical appliances and 
 
 machines such as: 
 
 Electric bulbs 
 
 Radio set and wire coils 
 
 Radio towers 
 Telephones 
 Trolley cars 
 Engines: Railway locomo- 
 tives and fire engines 
 Factories 
 Flags 
 Household objects 
 Public buildings 
 Ships 
 Skyscrapers 
 Theaters 
 UG eetc: 
 
 95 
 
96 CREATIVE DESI 
 
 VAVAV 
 LO WM JV 
 geiiteaaen 
 
MODERN SURROUNDINGS o7 
 
 WY 
 
 QB 
 y , Bie? S= 
 EEO 
 
 L695 J 
 eos 
 
98 
 
 CREATIVE DESTO® 
 
MODERN SURROUNDINGS 99 
 
 Beer |i l pe 
 
100 CREATIVE DESI 
 
IOI 
 
 MODERN SURROUNDINGS 
 
CREATIVE DESIGN 
 
 Va 
 
 RE AE Lil [1 
 PSPS PA AALS | 
 XY NRO 
 
 LS CG wet 
 mod _—_—_—_s: 
 
 8 
 
103 
 
 MODERN SURROUNDINGS 
 
 il 
 
 RRT 
 7.5% 
 
 (R) 
 Oy 
 
 0-04 
 
 i" =| 
 Mees 
 Sao 8 Sot 
 €<8 HHeT mas 
 
 (a= 
 
 Oo 
 
CREATIVE DE 
 
 104 
 
Smo N SURROUNDINGS = 105 
 
 It must be remembered that the beauty of most 
 modern forms is the result of the exigencies of their 
 
106 CREATIVE DEStaay 
 
 use. It is the result of the quality and texture of 
 materials, the fitness of their application and the necessi- 
 ties which determine their form rather than of any de- 
 liberate striving for ornamentation or so-called “‘artistic 
 forms.” For this reason, many of our modern sur- 
 roundings have much of the quality of primitive art 
 and as such furnish us with new examples of the old 
 forms adapted to a new culture and a new conception. 
 The use of the arrow in modern design is a good example 
 of this development, as the accompanying drawings 
 will illustrate. 
 
 This method for design, the first part of which ends 
 here, has thus far been concerned only with the simplest 
 exposition of the rules and principles to be followed, 
 and as such it can be used by all elementary students 
 of the art of design. The second part, addressed to 
 teachers and advanced students, is the explanation, in 
 greatly compressed form, of the main theories underly- 
 ing and justifying the method. In other words, the 
 first part shows how things are done and effects are 
 achieved; the second part explains why they are so done. 
 
BOOK II 
 Poel VE IMAGINATION 
 
sew RodE Eal 
 
 THE DEVELOPMENT OF CREATIVE IMAGINATION 
 
 The particular aim of this system of design is to pro- 
 vide a simplified method of graphic art for the expres- 
 sion of ideas and emotions, to help the student to avoid 
 meaningless effort and waste of vital energy from the 
 beginning, and above all to set him on the way to 
 solving his own problems. Its happiest feature is 
 the simplicity and rapidity with which it removes 
 obstacles, and gives the student a sense of progression 
 from his first attempt to draw. ‘This is because it 
 is a stimulant to the imagination and to the creative 
 forces rather than a textbook of exercises. The aim 
 is to establish at once an understanding of the funda- 
 mental laws of order, growth, rhythm, harmony, and 
 balance, to which all life is subject, progressing gradu- 
 ally to less abstract forms, with a study of simple, gen- 
 eral designs, inspired by nature, but conventionalized 
 by many generations of human expression. 
 
 In training a child, then, the first step 1s to free him 
 from timidity by means of a flexible craftsmanship, 
 in order that the expansion of his ideas may be en- 
 couraged by perfect command of method. On this 
 foundation he builds up his own style, his inner point 
 of view, and evolves, through his own experience, into 
 an individual capable of finding his proper material 
 and making the fullest use of it. 
 
 109 
 
110 CREATIVE DESI 
 
 These suggestions for the more important forms of 
 traditional design will provide the student with a 
 knowledge of the essential forms of expression of the 
 past. Let him recognize that this must be his starting 
 point, from which he may enter into a whole new world 
 of fresh endeavor. He must at first use the suggestion 
 of old form to clothe the new concept, until he is able 
 to create forms of his own. 
 
 All popular expressions of art are the fruit of a collec- 
 tive ideal; national collectivity is necessary before there 
 can be unity in the national art. In the future, popular 
 arts will gradually become conscious: it is not enough 
 to know that certain things are done in certain ways, 
 the members of the group will demand to know also 
 why they are done that way. A knowledge of form and 
 a solid technical equipment are the first requisites for 
 any work in the arts; add to this, understanding of 
 the origin and meaning of form and technique, and the 
 way is cleared for true creativeness. 
 
 All good work in art originates in a lively and 
 vigorous imagination working with freedom from 
 prejudice and with a spontaneity gained from the 
 liberated play impulse. This enthusiasm and pleasure 
 give warmth to creation, which is guided and attained 
 by intuition. It is the boast of certain kinds of artists 
 that they do not know how they get their results — 
 that they are driven by what they call “inspiration.” 
 True art, however, has to be conscious, otherwise it 
 lacks those necessary qualities of high sincerity and 
 the expression of a feeling, accurately defined and — 
 clearly understood. Such art can be produced only by 
 those who have full control over their creative impulse 
 and who act always with a clear comprehension of its — 
 causes. On the other hand, complete sincerity in ex- 
 
GREATIVE IMAGINATION 111 
 
 pression may also be attained by the savage, acting in 
 absolute unconsciousness and guided only by mere 
 instinct. 
 
 The work of art may show these qualities in two 
 ways: at the one extreme stands the primitive, or the 
 child, ignorant, even, that art exists, and expressing 
 himself in artistic creation without prejudice or knowl- 
 edge and acting purely under the guidance of instinct; 
 at the other extreme, is the highly civilized man whose 
 expression is impelled by neither prejudice nor uncerti- 
 tude, because he knows and is master of his knowledge. 
 Between these are the stages of struggle, development, 
 experimentation and experience until sufficient knowl- 
 edge has been attained to allow for complete conscious- 
 ness and freedom of action. The primitive method 
 may be called instinctive or emotional, the civilized 
 either intuitive or conscious. 
 
 _ The failure of this high faculty of reason limits the 
 peasant arts. The uncultured artist-craftsmen of all 
 times followed their instinctive processes: they created 
 unconsciously from the heart, with tenderness and 
 naiveté, and the appeal of their work is limited to the 
 heart. They gave unreasoning response to their feel- 
 ings, governed by their immediate needs and the limita- 
 tions of their environment. That their motifs of decora- 
 tion could be analyzed, that their work was ruled by 
 certain laws, never occurred to them. No matter how 
 touching their art may be asa record of human aspira- 
 tion, it is not a complete art because it lacks the quality 
 of the higher expression, the quality of being conscious. 
 
 In art, as in all other manifestations of the human 
 spirit, our mind grows steadily more conscious, in this 
 enlightened sense, more critical in its use of traditional 
 materials, more analytical for the sake of a fuller un- 
 
112 CREATIVE DESti 
 
 derstanding: emotion is not the master, but the ally of 
 intelligence. This makes a balance. It is all very well 
 to feel rhythm, harmony, growth, but feeling will carry 
 the artist only a certain distance. ‘These instincts are 
 shared in some degree by every living thing. With- 
 out knowledge of the principles ruling these instincts, 
 it is impossible to reach the fullest degree of creativeness. 
 
 When we consider human development, it is clear 
 that for thousands of years the unconscious goal of 
 mankind has been to give plastic shape to its emotions 
 and concepts. This prolonged, blind, and diffused effort 
 has created many forms of art, all of which evince a sim- 
 ilar striving: the will to express beauty (rhythm, har- 
 mony, order, etc.), that sense of beauty common to all 
 races and times, however varied the surface forms it may 
 assume. In all ages, the artist has taken hold of the 
 idea of his time, wrought upon it all imaginable shapes 
 and passed it on to the succeeding generation as in- 
 destructible evidence of the true nature of his times. 
 
 The growth of this evidence corresponds intimately 
 with the development of all human perception: as the 
 perceptions grow more keen and subtle, man gains a 
 more luminous knowledge of his ideas; as the ideas in- 
 crease, he gives them surer definitions. Through study 
 of the primitive arts we can trace the long course of 
 this growth, thereby comprehending with more sym- 
 pathy this clarifying process of the human spirit. The 
 best guide for our own experiments is this understand- 
 ing of the law ruling the creative impulse of the primi- 
 tive. For basically it rules us also, and will command 
 the future. We must choose either to abide by it or to 
 disperse our energies without profit. 
 
 It is the intention of this method of teaching graphic 
 art to return to the sources, to begin with basic symbols, 
 
Spee VE [MAGINA-TION (113 
 
 and little by little to establish in the mind of the 
 student his own sense of, and his kinship with, these 
 laws: he is the natural heir of all the stored wisdom 
 accumulated in Time, and he can better use his herit- 
 age if he knows its boundaries. For the child and the 
 novice in art, it is a new approach to the past, a more 
 personal way of appreciating his own formula. He ts 
 a composite product, a present projection of an endless 
 tradition: on his present possession he must build up 
 his future. The past is an apparently formless body, 
 carrying in it all that we are, our knowledge and ex- 
 perience, and all that we may draw upon to strengthen 
 our own contribution to the present. 
 
 This knowledge of art is one of the keys to the 
 mastery of life, a consciousness that is beyond mere 
 sophistication. Children should be early persuaded 
 not to confound creative art with mere realism, but to 
 identify it as reality; to recognize it as a special, en- 
 lightened way of seeing and defining; and this way 
 must be their own, not imitations and copies of the 
 visions of others. 
 
 In the usual method of teaching design, the child is 
 started too far along a road which is never his own; 
 he does not begin at the beginning. By this method we 
 are careful to provide the pupil with only the materials 
 and suggestions necessary to stimulate him to discover- 
 ies of his own. By putting him in the proper environ- 
 ment and giving him the general principles, we help him 
 to find his way through his own experience, the only 
 experience he can possibly use to any fruitful end. 
 
 This method is thus in harmony with the true ideal of 
 pedagogy, which aims to provide a synthesis of human 
 experience in the realm of ideas, and its results as they 
 are visible in the culture of the present. This should 
 
114 CREATIVE DESi 
 
 be accomplished with the least expenditure of effort, 
 while developing the student’s energies and enthusiasms 
 for use in his further explorations. This textbook is de- 
 signed to rouse in the student his natural desire for par- 
 ticipation, for creaticn and discovery in the limitless 
 world of art. By its simplicity it hopes to forestall self- 
 consciousness. A child, a student, should be a pioneer, 
 an adventurer in life, and he will be, if only his young 
 curiosities are not early smothered with artificial for- 
 mulas, the workings of his imagination not curbed by 
 fixed rules. 
 
 The manner of approach to art is common to primi- 
 tive peoples, to children, and to beginners in the art of 
 design. Especially in the case of the child, we find that 
 a sophisticated design will confuse him, or fail to interest 
 him. For this reason it is fatal to burden the novice 
 with the task of literal copying from objects. He is lost 
 in the struggle with sophisticated form, volume, per- 
 spective. Given a few principles and left to himself, he 
 starts more simply. Huis first drawings are flat, primi-_ 
 tive, naive, alien to some persons with a fastidiously 
 cultivated eye, if you like, but they have a beauty of 
 their own, because they are right for him, it is the seed 
 that will grow. He must pass through that stage 
 precisely as he must cut his teeth, before he is prepared 
 for any further advancement. 
 
 It is useful for him to learn early that there are 
 seven basic motifs underlying all forms of art, and 
 that these symbols are the shapes of primitive expres- 
 sions of art. Once he learns the fundamental represen- 
 tations shared by all animal-shapes on earth, among 
 all animals in their kind, all tree-shapes in theirs, all 
 earth-shapes, he will have disposed of his first great 
 problem, of seeing clearly into the core of the forms of 
 
tere! VE IMAGINATION tts 
 
 representation. Having got the structure straight in 
 his mind, the way he covers it is his own affair. 
 
 Art should be a social function, a collective popular 
 expression. In proportion as it becomes a part of every- 
 day life, the concern of everybody, it grows in meaning 
 and power. In China, in Greece, in Egypt, and other 
 countries where there has been a vast underswell of pop- 
 ular art, we find the most profound expression of a 
 genuine national culture. This culture consists of 
 numberless elements brought together and fused by 
 the fire of national consciousness; without this con- 
 sciousness art loses its character, or, rather, fails to 
 develop one, and remains untempered and lifeless. 
 
 In the Americas, this welding process has been going 
 on for almost three hundred years. It took some time 
 for the imported elements to acclimatize, before they 
 could begin to mingle with each other. Surely more 
 diverse cultures were never brought together than in 
 this new world. The old native Indian civilizations of 
 Mexico, Central and South America, the Spanish, the 
 Negro, the later infusion of English, Dutch and French, 
 the trade with China and the Indies, the fairly recent 
 addition of large numbers of peoples from all the races 
 of the earth, make for such a mingling of cultures as 
 only time can unify when they are all wrought together 
 into the same ideal. 
 
 In this country there are recognizable manifesta- 
 tions in architecture, in painting, in music, in dancing, 
 in the theater, a definite point of view and method of 
 projection which: are identifiably American. It is not 
 yet a thorough blend, its essentials remain unclassified, 
 its characteristics are not clearly outlined. This will 
 come with time. The conditions are ripening for the 
 creation of a distinctly American art, something fresh 
 
116 CREATIVE DES Tags 
 
 and unique that will come to life out of all this mass of 
 traditional tendencies and new materials diverted into 
 new fields. The foundations of all new cultures are 
 borrowed, usually from the nearest neighbor, and be- 
 cause America was discovered at the beginning of an 
 era of world travel and easy communication between 
 widely separated countries, her borrowings have been 
 free and varied beyond all precedent. This makes a 
 complex problem and many apparently irreconcilable 
 elements must yet be reconciled. A remarkably 
 generous, broad and plastic culture is promised from 
 all this, for already there is a pattern discernible on the 
 surface. 
 
 When the student realises his possibilities and his 
 preferences he will focus his efforts on a certain ideal 
 of achievement. The ideal of most American students 
 is to achieve a genuine expression of American art. 
 As we have said, there are already some remarkable 
 expressions of this American spirit, in architecture and 
 the graphic arts and other forms, but there is no defini- 
 tive outline or form that can be called pure American 
 as yet. 
 
 This genuine American expression can only grow out 
 of the sincere feelings of the people from the mo- 
 ment they give up influences from without and the 
 imitation of foreign expressions. For this enterprise 
 they must use all the genuine American elements that 
 now exist, all modern American surroundings, as well 
 as all the traditional, well defined American forms. 
 These forms are often found to be purest in the simple 
 objects, such as furniture, porcelains, hooked rugs, 
 embroideries, and other simple manifestations of a 
 popular art. 
 
 The American artists themselves must work out the 
 
Serer VE IMAGINATION § 117 
 
 evolution of traditional elements into a form expressive 
 of modern feeling and the requirements of modern 
 life; the northern spirit has its own feeling for color, 
 for form, its own special rhythm, and by keeping faith 
 with his own impulses regarding these things, the 
 American artist will create in time an art of his own 
 country, which is the art of the people. 
 
 ~ We believe that artistic intuition isauniversal gift, but 
 very few are encouraged to use it. This conception of 
 the universality of the human gift of expression is the 
 basis of modern teaching in all the arts. Simplified 
 methods of teaching music, dancing, painting, etc. will 
 testify to man’s new faith in himself as the instrument 
 of beauty. It is the province of the teacher to build up 
 and fortify this faith in the individual. The untrained 
 hand has at first an easy victory over the struggling 
 imagination, and the first work done may show poor 
 technique and little skill. Without a little help the 
 student may grow discouraged. Therefore it is 1m- 
 portant that the first lessons shall be so simple as to be 
 easy for even the smallest child. The conception is the 
 important thing, and the student must be encouraged 
 to rely on his own idea, to have faith enough in it to 
 sustain him through the period of probation to the 
 medium of his art. 
 
 In adopting this method, the student who has had 
 previous training will probably find his situation almost 
 reversed. If he is able to free himself of preconceptions, 
 begin to work in a spirit of play, of honest experiment, 
 with the sincerity of a child, he will find not only a 
 source of refreshment for his imagination, but added 
 technical training and a widened field of vision. 
 
118 CREATIVE DEST 
 
 As we can see in the different expressions of Art in 
 different periods and among different peoples, there 
 are two main tendencies corresponding to the different 
 states of evolution and the temperament of the artist. 
 They are the naturalistic, in which nature is visualized 
 and the representation is of what we see in nature; and 
 the conceptual in which the representation is of what 
 we think of nature. Both methods are also found in 
 combination. In contemporary academic art much has 
 been done in naturalistic representation, but little in 
 conceptual. In this method we give the guides for learn- 
 ing first how to think about the form of things, correcting 
 and revising our conceptual images by afterwards turn- 
 ing to nature. Thus the perceptual and conceptual 
 views are wrought into each other in an intelligent and 
 conscious way, necessary to the perfect form of repre- 
 sentation. 
 
 There are three main approaches to form: the tradi- 
 tional, which reverences the past or the work of other 
 artists; the realistic, which believes in photographic 
 literalism; and the individual, free approach, which 
 insists on recording things through the medium of a 
 personal creation. 
 
 The follower of tradition obeys rules laid down, and 
 clings to a style of expression already accepted. 
 
 The realistic school may also work in traditional 
 ways, but it is closer to the outside aspect of things, 
 and sets down a literal record of actual life. If our 
 aim is to express exactitude in matters of anatomy, or 
 machinery, or the precise shapes of mineral, vegetable 
 or animal life, then we go to nature, or even to books 
 about machinery, zoology, anatomy, or botany, and 
 so get complete details of forms and structures. 
 
 The creative way follows a free impulse in an effort 
 
weet tl VE [IMAGINATION § 119 
 
 to express feelings, to give shape to emotions and ideas. 
 Here the individual uses everything that he finds 
 useful and desirable. He will use them as a base for 
 his symbols to suggest his concept, and create new 
 forms of his own out of them. 
 
 It is well to experiment with everything; much 
 exercise in the three approaches to free expression 
 develops a knowledge of forms. It gives strength to 
 creative power and a sense of selection. Practise in 
 both the traditional and the realistic manner bring 
 knowledge and experience on which to base our future 
 creations. 
 
 The traditional is an example, and the realistic is 
 a firm base. ‘Together they furnish much material 
 that can be seen afresh, and newly felt, and so given 
 new life and a more perfect form. If we wish to ex- 
 press an emotion through the form of a flower, it is 
 necessary first to know what a flower is, how it 1s built, 
 and of what it is composed; and it is also well to know 
 how all artists have looked at flowers, and how they 
 have felt about them; and it is important to know the 
 conventions of flower representations, and the simplified 
 forms to which they have been reduced. 
 
 This will give the beginning artist a store of forms 
 and possibilities on which to base his experiments and 
 work out his own individual mode of expression and 
 use of symbols. New art is merely the old forms 
 selected and corrected by the light of a new imagina-_ 
 tion, and thereby further illuminated. 
 
 When studying borders and frets, a little while ago, 
 the motifs used in making them were chosen and 
 arranged for form’s sake, and for abstract representa- 
 tions of rhythm and harmony. 
 
 The next step is to develop those abstractions into 
 
120 CREATIVE. DESIG 
 
 symbols representing animals, plants, flowers and other 
 forms. In this work the student may refer to all that 
 has been said about composition, as regards masses 
 and spaces; the simple lines may be turned into spaces 
 representing units; and thus a circle may be made 
 into a flower, a curved line may be used as a stem or 
 the curved vein of a leaf. 
 
 Oo 
 
 Follow this example in the work of making a design 
 of a unit. Select some of the borders already made, 
 and develop them into a representation of leaves and 
 flowers. 
 
 O 
 OY OGD Re) 
 
 Then take only a part of the border and, using its 
 leading lines, turn it into a representation of flower 
 and leaves and solve the problem of masses and 
 
 spaces. 
 27 SEXS 
 
pe VE IMAGINATION | tor 
 
 Then finish according to the individual feeling. 
 Using a knowledge of form, it is possible to gain fresh 
 inspiration from even the most classic form, say the 
 Acanthus foliage equally with plants from nature, and 
 by all these means arrive at the perfect form, personal to 
 us, through which we may express our modern feeling. 
 
 CREA TLON 
 
 Often when moved to create, to express an emotion 
 or idea through form, we have only a vague notion of 
 how we wish to represent it. The best steps toward 
 making an original drawing are as follows: 
 
 Begin by sketching a line, or general movement which 
 corresponds in an abstract way to the vague emotion 
 oridea. This may be used as the back-bone of the form; 
 it should be simple and intuitive, a mere suggestion 
 of the form of the thing felt, which we want to represent. 
 It will be much simplified if the student uses a broad 
 adaptation of one of the seven motifs or a combina- 
 tion of several, precisely as is done in making borders. 
 
 eee oe 
 
122 CREATIVE DEs iG 
 
 Using this line as a foundation, adapt the object or 
 unit which represents your idea to it, build around it, 
 and proceed with the composition of spaces from this 
 center, or back-bone, outwards. After the desired form 
 has been set down in a solid composition, finish with 
 color or shading. 
 
 a sree" 9 
 
 ~ 
 nf é o 
 Tm cd 
 * C4 <4 
 ae a ~y 
 a? » | 
 \ 
 ~s 
 %, 
 cause” %, >’ 
 ze 
 
 Of these three steps in creation, we may say that the 
 first line, or back-bone, corresponds to our own inner 
 idea or emotion, that the added units or figures sym- 
 bolize them, and that the color and finish convey it to 
 the observer, make it more comprehensible and 
 interesting. [See also illustrations on page 177. | 
 
 One who has the faculty of reducing his representa- 
 tion of design, by lines, forms, masses and units, into 
 a complete creation of his mental conceptions will 
 give to the observer the impression that he desires. 
 
 \ 
 yr A Ad 
 ry ’ A 14 a A 
 wr eat fe ef 2! 
 “/ a ee ofa 
 t 4 eo” 2S 
 a asm ¢ Basa 
 i a> | 
 af Dy ‘9 
 af ’ 
 a! 1 @ 
 a ed 
 ‘i '@ f 
 
Mom IVE IMAGINATION — 123 
 
 REPRESENTATION OF MOTION 
 
 To give the sense of motion in a design, the repre- 
 sentation of the object should be connected with its 
 line of motion, orbit, track, or path, and should follow 
 its motion in space. So when following such a design 
 with the eye, it is possible to reconstruct this suggested 
 line, and feel the object in relation to its path when in 
 motion. [his gives dynamic quality. 
 
 This feeling of the motion is very strong when follow- 
 ing the major line in a border. A wavy line carries the 
 eye along in a curving, up-and-down movement; the 
 zigzag gives a sharp, broken rhythm; a straight line 
 give a sense of even progress. 
 
 It is very easy to understand this orbit, or trajectory, 
 when observing an airplane “writing” with smoke 
 against the sky. The smoke hangs in a line describing 
 the path of the airplane. 
 
 So if we suggest a part of the path of the moving 
 object in a design —in this case the airplane — and 
 the object itself, we will reconstruct in the observer’s 
 mind a feeling of the airplane and its flight. 
 
 A sky-rocket can be used as another example. The 
 ball of fire ascends, and marks its path by showers of 
 sparks that hang in the dark background of the night. 
 In the same way our moving hand leaves behind a line 
 on the black-board, when designing with chalk. Here 
 the line of motion, as the back-bone of the composition, 
 suggests the movement of a definite part. 
 
124 CREATIVE DESTGs 
 
 COMPOSITION 
 
 The intellectual comprehension of the laws of order 
 should enable the student to make balanced composi- 
 tions. 
 
 A composition must be considered as a whole, and 
 worked out first as an arrangement of mere lines with 
 a consideration of rhythm and harmony; then mass 
 and space must be organised when sketching the repre- 
 sentative units or figures. Finally it must be finished 
 with regard to all the details of which it is composed, 
 into harmonious wholeness. 
 
 In the first stage, lines must be considered as forms of 
 motion; they must push one another forward, or break 
 upon one another in such relation that they harmonize 
 in movement. 
 
 In the second stage, the most important unit or 
 figure and also the secondary ones must be adapted to 
 the dominant and subordinate lines and spaces of the 
 structure which have been laid down to govern the posi- 
 tion and form of these units and figures; if care is 
 not taken at this point, the student can easily lose the 
 harmony of the whole composition, by altering a line 
 or a mass outside of his first intention. Each smallest 
 unit works in a mutual relation with all the others, 
 and care must be taken to keep this relation true and 
 poised. 
 
 In the third stage, the finishing of the composition, 
 it is necessary to carry out to the end what has been 
 started. In coloring and shading try to keep all the 
 quality of the original design, and add to it style, feel- 
 ing, and wholeness. 
 
PARE PADAE 
 
 PivemomvyeN MOTIFS IN PRIMITIVE ARTS 
 
 A few suggestions as to the traditional uses of the 
 material contained in this book will offer an interesting 
 basis of comparison to the student. It will be seen that 
 the foundation is the same, only the manner and the 
 spirit vary from the crude primitive to the skillful 
 classic; from the eternal peasant emotion, which sur- 
 vives even today in nearly all countries, to the fresh 
 instinctive expression of children. 
 
 All primitive art forms are based on seven natural 
 motifs, and a comparative analysis of the ancient re- 
 mains ‘of art in all countries reveals their presence in 
 the very earliest attempts of man to materialize his 
 emotion and ‘make a record of his imaginings, using 
 them as spontaneous representations of abstract form 
 or as schematic drawings representing animals, plants 
 and so forth which became simplified and then modified 
 again into the seven motifs. In some countries the 
 motifs were used only in part, but they are as a whole 
 the foundation of all design. 
 
 Among the ancients, these seven motifs were used 
 as signs to represent their gods, or the phenomena of 
 sun, moon, stars, lightning, water, and other natural 
 forms to which they attached symbolic meanings. In 
 later epochs each region, or race, began to combine and 
 elaborate these motifs in different ways, according to 
 
 125 
 
126 CREATIVE DESTia 
 
 tradition and temperament, producing characteristic 
 arts which seem at first glance to be altogether separate 
 and individual. But a closer examination discloses 
 that they are all ruled by the same basic law of design. 
 
 The reproductions from primitive arts which are 
 shown in the following pages are given only as a sample 
 of what might be specially studied. They are some 
 examples of art expressions in different mediums, from 
 prehistoric times to our days, and from all over the 
 world, from the most diverse localities and races and 
 most different periods. Some of them might have had 
 their inspiration from other countries but still others 
 must have been the originators. 
 
 As line is the basis of ornament, we shall consider the 
 lines we are using, comparing them to those used 
 basically in antique arts. Since we haven’t the space to 
 cover the entire field, let us confine our examination 
 to Greek art, which has exercised a predominant in- 
 fluence over the art of the western world and should 
 therefore interest us the more for being more closely 
 related to our own expression. 
 
 The Spiral: © 
 
 The so-called open curve, the scroll or spiral that 
 forms the wave pattern Fig. A called MEANDRE. With 
 the S-line it forms the double spire, Fig. B. 
 
 Fic. A Hr6é.28 
 
 The circle: C) 
 
 Representing the stars or the sun. 
 
fer OE VEN MOTIFS 127 
 The half-circle: Ce) 
 
 which forms the ImpricaTEp or scale-like SEES 
 
 pattern and the F'Estoon, or swag, called the CaATENARY, 
 
 which appears in looped drapery. \W2A7 ARYA 
 
 The S form: CN 
 
 called StRYGILEs, which combines into the GuILLocHE 
 (Fig. A) as it is called in French, and which is the basis 
 of the double Sprre element, (Fig. B) 
 
 BIiG,. A: Pie. b 
 
 C§UCUwvvee 
 
 The wavy line: 
 
 a continued series of the S form. 
 The zigzag: WW4V 
 
 a broken series of straight lines forming angles. 
 The straight line : tssscsssssssms 
 
 These simple geometrical forms in their primary 
 combinations exist alike in the ancient arts of the Tol- 
 tecs, Egyptians, Lake-Dwellers, Assyrians, Chinese, 
 Greek, Early Britain, Persian, Hindu, Aztec, and many 
 others. (Stone Age and Bronze Age) 
 
 They are found not only as extemporaneous expres- 
 sions but also as the result of simplified natural forms, 
 
oe CREATIVE DESIGN 
 
 such as plant, animal and human life represented in 
 conventionalized design. But in one way or another, 
 there is always the tendency to use these seven funda- 
 mental forms. The accompanying illustration is an_ 
 example of the way in which a bird representation 
 
 £ 
 
 has been reduced to a simple zigzag form. 
 
 The following pages of examples have been selected 
 from the primitive arts of various countries and 
 civilizations and despite the wide discrepancy of period 
 and geographical distance, they all show the common 
 use of the seven fundamental motifs at a certain mo- 
 ment in the artistic and cultural evolution of each race. 
 
 Fig. 1. Ornamentation on Hittite pottery in the Near East, about 2000 B.c, 
 
ieee EVEN MOTIFS 129 
 
 a e 
 
 &e > 
 
 Fig. 2. Present day Roumanian painted egg shells and other 
 peasant ornaments. 
 
 Ivy, 
 
 Fic’ 
 
 Fig. 3. Persian pottery from Susa, about Fig. 4. Italian pottery dur 
 3000 B.C. ing the Bronze Age, 2000 
 
 B.C. tO 700 B.C. 
 er ees 
 G O ie 
 Q 
 ‘) , 
 
 FIGS 
 Contemporary African ornaments from the Niger district and 
 the East and West Coasts. 
 
 Fie S 
 
 Figs. 5 and 8. 
 
130 CREATIVE DESIGN 
 
 ~~ 
 KK 
 
 | Ficé Fie 7 
 
 Fig. 7. Painted fabrics of the Finnish 
 
 tribes in Russia. 
 
 Fig. 6. Detail of the Greek 
 frescoes at Tiryns, 1400 B.C. 
 
 Fig. 10. Contemporary ornaments from Northern 
 
 Fic. 9. Woodcut from the Hervey 
 Lapland and Siberia. 
 
 Islands, South Pacific Ocean. 
 
 FIG 11 
 Fig. 11. A very com- \' 
 mon pattern in the \ 
 
 popular arts of China 
 and Chino-Turkistan, Fig. 13. Contemporary leather work from 
 twelfth century. Tuareg and Liberia. 
 
foe SEVEN MOTIFS 131 
 
 12 
 2) 
 
 As 
 
 re a Me 
 \Ar» JarS Sw, 
 
 OPO LLCS 
 Fic 14 
 
 Figs. 12 and 14. Present day African ornaments from the Congo 
 and Abyssinia. 
 
 Designs used in Borneo for the tattooing of the body. 
 
Fig. A shows the use of the motifs for various representations in a Greek vase 
 of the early Athenian Period (600 B.c.). Fig. B is a very good example of the 
 Hellenistic Period (200 a.p.). Fig. C is a pomegranate of the Dipylon type (goo 
 B.c.). The peasant arts of all the European countries show the use of these 
 forms. Fig. D is a painting from Dalecarlia, Sweden (1800), and Fig. E shows an 
 old Renaissance sketch for jewelry in which the forms are used by the artist in 
 free-hand drawing. 
 
paaareat rater 
 ea hag IEE SS Se 
 
 AMARA RE EE ease oseet 
 
 C 
 
 The black Italian pottery from Teano, Campania, of about 300 B.c. (Fig. A), and 
 the example of Athenian pottery of the geometric period, goo B.c. (Fig. B) as well 
 as the Hadra vases from Egypt (300 B.c.) are all good examples of the Greek 
 influence. 
 
Fig. A is an oinochoé jar in the Cypriote style (700 B.c.) and Fig. B shows some 
 late Mycenaean vases of 1400 B.c. 
 
les. 
 
 1 
 
 Examples of Coptic text 
 
 le, 17th Century 
 
 1 
 
 French Text 
 
Fig. A. An early American lamb’s-wool hooked rug (1820), showing some of 
 the motifs. 
 
 Fig. B. An early American pottery pie dish from Pennsylvania (1800). 
 
 Fig. C. Detail from a Greek vase of the late Bronze Age (1500 B.c.) 
 
Examples of modern Mexican pottery in which the seven motifs are used. 
 
B 
 
 Fig. A. Pre-Dynastic Egyptian pottery of 5000 B.c. 
 Fig. B. Painted drum of the Nootka Indians, British Columbia. 
 
. The common plaving card shows the use of the seven motifs with very little 
 variation over a period of five centuries. 
 
 French Textile, 17th Century 
 
140 CREATIVE DEStam 
 
 Fic, A Fic. B 
 
 Fig. A. Ornaments from the Malay Peninsula, taken from designs illustrating the 
 mythology of the primitive Negrito tribes. 
 Fig. B. Bead work of the American Iroquois Indians. 
 
 > 
 
 Painted Tapa of the Samoan bark fabrics of Oceania. 
 
Mme ok VEN MOTIFS I4I 
 
 ZN 
 
 Examples of ornamentation on pre-hispanic pottery from the Valle de Mexico. 
 In Mexico the motifs are found from pre-historic times to the present day. 
 
 Examples of ornament in the Bismark Archipelago of Australasia and among 
 the American Apache Indians, 
 
142 CREATIVE Dis ia 
 
 An example of American colonial embroidery (1700), obviously influenced by 
 the painted cottons imported from India during the seventeenth century. 
 
Poke kVEN MOTIFS 143 
 
 In ancient primitive arts there seems to have been 
 an esthetic feeling against the crossed line. But there 
 are certain exceptions where the lines do cross, as we 
 have noted previously. The most characteristic ex- 
 ception is the straight line crossed by the straight line, 
 as a base for the checkerboard pattern: 
 
 The wavy line may also be crossed with itself: 
 
 eH 
 
 The S-line crossed with itself may form a single or 
 double swastika: 
 
144 CREATIVE DESIGN 
 
 The zigzag crossed with itself: 
 
 OO MAY 
 
 The technical limitations of weaving and basketry 
 must have suggested many of the variations in the 
 motifs which we find in ancient design. The necessity | 
 of using only straight lines brought about a geometrical 
 type of ornament. Thus the original wavy line may 
 have become the zigzag, and the compact wavy line 
 (Fig. A) was turned into a square, (Fig. B): 
 
 PIG at SSG | | | | Figesb 
 
 The more compact wavy line (Fig. C) lent itself to a 
 very interesting square pattern, (Fig. D): 
 
 MIUSWAVAVAVAN 
 
 Liga Fie, 2 
 
 The circle (Fig. E) and the spiral (Fig. F) were also 
 adapted into angular manysided figures in order to fit 
 a given space and follow the demands of the woven 
 material: 
 
 © [ol A Cid A 
 
 Fic, E Kieat 
 
THE SEVEN MOTIFS 145 
 
 All of the motifs were adapted in this way. 
 
 Nae all 
 
 Ce EA div 
 Pert ae 
 
 This book contains the record of certain facts in’ 
 graphic art expression from which we have established 
 principles to serve as a basis for a fundamental law 
 of design. These facts are: 
 
 1. The similitude of certain basic forms or symbols 
 used in primitive art expressions all over the world; 
 
 2. The derivation of these basic forms (in flat, 
 second dimensional representation) from various as- 
 pects of one mathematical form (in volume) ; 
 
 3. The identity of this one mathematical form (the _ 
 logarithmic spiral) with the course of all growth and , 
 motion in the universe. 
 
 The objective of this method is always to afford the 
 student the means whereby he may release his own 
 latent creative powers. For this purpose we have 
 siven him as his alphabet of form, seven of those forms 
 of primitive art expression, all derived from the one 
 universal and ultimate form, the spiral. 
 
146 CREATIVE DESiG 
 
 It may be well to emphasize here that these derived 
 forms are not strictly limited to seven. It is only for 
 the purpose of this method that we have selected the 
 seven most commonly found in primitive popular arts 
 all over the world, that is, the seven which seem to 
 show a common psychological cause for their use in 
 art expression. The examples here given illustrate 
 some of the subsidiary motifs derived from the com- 
 mon source, the logarithmic spiral. 
 
 The student of today, approaching these primitive 
 symbols from the civilized rather than from the savage 
 viewpoint is able to appreciate their mathematical 
 quality and their relation to the universal order. Thus, 
 what was unconscious and instinctive in primitive man 
 becomes conscious in our modern approach and the 
 artist now can have a glimpse, at least, of the part 
 played by his creation in the cosmic scheme. 
 
Pee rl tet 
 
 THE ARCHETYPE 
 
 The archetype is the essential idea of a certain thing. 
 
 We can form our own idea of a certain archetype by 
 studying the types which are derived from it. Suppose 
 we wanted to form the conception of the archetype 
 “flower.” We would analyze carefully from nature an 
 infinite number of different kinds of flowers and search 
 in botany, as well as in all the representations of flowers 
 in art, and in all other possible ways, for all the known 
 and unknown laws that affect the being, purpose, 
 function and structure of a flower, and discover what 
 are its essentials. This abstract idea will be a concep- 
 tion of the archetype. By it, if unlimited biological 
 creation were possible to us, we could create other 
 flowers of our own invention which would be as truly 
 flowers as the others, because they would be built on 
 the same fundamental plan or idea, somewhat in the 
 way inventors create a more and more perfect machine. 
 
 Innature we find the archetypes adapted to the special 
 circumstances of environment which create the different 
 types of species. In art, inspired by an archetype, we 
 create types. With the idea horse conceived in its 
 archetype we can paint, model, or in any way we choose 
 represent a certain horse that is our own conception 
 and creation, a type of our own, unique, different from 
 those created by others, having our own personality 
 
 147 
 
148 CREATIVE DESIGR 
 
 but derived from the archetype which is not ‘ours be- 
 cause it is an existing idea from which we have taken a 
 conception. Similarly we can realize how the human 
 figure, animals, plants, flowers and so on which have 
 been represented in an infinite number of different 
 ways or types corresponding to the various periods, 
 arts, styles, countries and artists are each and all but 
 types derived from their few archetypes corresponding 
 to the fundamental ideas of the human figure, animals, 
 plants, flowers and the other forms. 
 
 In this method there has been suggested a series of 
 general types of each kind, with their essentials, for 
 purposes of design. Each of them suggests the arche- 
 type of its species, and with this conception built up 
 firmly in the mind, each one is the core of a new crea- 
 tion of the individual artist. 
 
 We have for example on page 52 a suggestion of the 
 archetype bird which suggests the general structure and 
 general characteristics of all birds. For designing pur- 
 poses, this form contains nearly all the essentials of a 
 bird. 
 
 If we make such conception of our own, and want 
 to create in our design any special kind, whether it 
 exists in nature or is on the other hand of our own 
 conception, we can build it according to the archetypal 
 bases and our fancy. It is possible to create simply by 
 adapting this conception of the archetype to the special 
 variation which we wish to represent. 
 
 We can give it long or short legs, a slender or a fat 
 neck and so on within the essential idea of the arche- 
 type bird, which are certain general characteristics 
 such as two wings, two legs, a neck and a head and 
 so on. We make it in our own way and so we create 
 the type we wanted. 
 
THE ARCHETYPE 149 
 
 The artist, by combining his knowledge of birds from 
 his naturalistic and artistic point of view with this 
 sense of the archetype, will discover a simple road to 
 the most fantastic and original expressions. Patterns 
 may be used for the texture of the feathers, forms of 
 growth for the tail, in short, any decorative design 
 desired may be used according to the individual 
 imagination. In this way even the beginner will find 
 himself doing with ease things he thought impossible 
 to do at all. 
 
 The simple types selected for this method are mere 
 suggestions for the building of units or symbols. Most 
 of them are characteristic of our modern surroundings 
 reduced to the simplest form. Units are really conven- 
 tions which must be created by each artist separately 
 as the inevitable symbols of his own feelings and 
 reactions. 
 
 Summing up, nature is necessary to the designer, but 
 not to the design: the artist should not look to nature 
 for justification of his designs. The young artist 
 aid. create his ideas and make his compositions 
 within the laws and principles given here for his use, 
 but always creatively, never in the sense of copying. 
 He will gradually develop his own symbols and units, 
 inspired by nature, and by existing art expressions. 
 The individual will discover within himself the ade- 
 quate forms for his own conceptions. 
 
 All methods, treatises and textbooks on art are merely 
 the means by which the student may hasten his own 
 ends, the natural development of his own faculties. 
 If he has creative ability, textbooks act as a guide, but 
 they | do not offer any substitute for creativeness; nor 
 
 must the student rely on them to chart the path of 
 his personal development. The normal course of human 
 
150 CREATIVE DESIGN 
 
 development is slow, and the aim of education is to help 
 the student to acquire rapidly such knowledge as he 
 may need for the full expression of his original talents. 
 
 We are trying here to give general suggestions to the 
 student, rather than technical details. There are many 
 special treatises on technique, color, and use of medium, 
 which the student is advised to consult when he feels 
 himself far enough advanced to attack these particular 
 problems. 
 
 It is of the utmost importance at this stage that the 
 student build up his own sense of discrimination and 
 be guided by his own opinion in selecting advice and 
 suggestions. No one can do this for another indi- 
 vidual; each person must choose for himself the way 
 he will go in the creative life. Books will help, as all 
 experience and knowledge help, only when the indi- 
 vidual depends on his own judgment, backed by his 
 own developed imagination and understanding. 
 
 This method for art study has a further effect and 
 application if we realise that, later, as man discovers 
 through art the laws of nature and, through their 
 relationship, the laws of the universe, he becomes 
 acquainted with the rhythm and harmony that is 
 universal, that rules the infinite. All the arts are ways 
 of experimenting to find the key to universal law. Art 
 is, therefore, only a means, not an end: the means to 
 ‘self-perfection. By this method man is able later to 
 solve and understand higher problems of universal law, 
 in some way to become part of them; that is, to be 
 more conscious of and really to understand them. 
 
 When by this training we have acquired more knowl- 
 edge than we really thought we needed for art, as we 
 have advanced farther than we had expected, and 
 learned more than we ever thought we could learn 
 
Mee ARCHETYPE 151 
 
 merely by trying to give shape to our emotions, we have 
 reached a knowledge of universal law and have attained 
 the means of creation. Thus art leads us, drives us, ina 
 way, toward philosophy. Here we realise the impor- 
 tance of art education and how far we can go by the 
 means of art. We may consider that the study of an 
 art is a medium to awaken the germ of enthusiasm, life, 
 and movement, which can be applied to the problems of 
 knowledge. Here though we have observed only the 
 special case of graphic art, drawing, we can see that 
 it is a medium for attaining the knowledge of philos- 
 ophy. We could reach as high a level through the study 
 of other arts, because the different arts are the ways to 
 conquer, to reach the unknown. 
 
 We have seen how all primitive arts are based on 
 seven primitive motifs. Thoroughly studying the 
 seven motifs, we find that they are seven types derived 
 from an archetype: the ideal archetype spiral, which de- 
 velops in all dimensions. ‘The seven motifs are the 
 more characteristic aspects or types of that ideal arche- 
 type spiral in a conventional flat representation con- | 
 sidering only one plane of their development. That 
 is why lines never cross in this system nor interfere 
 with each other; because that could only occur in 
 the case of two planes in which lines could go one 
 behind the other. 
 
 Thus we give the student the seven motifs, the seven 
 most characteristic types of the archetype spiral and with 
 this suggestion he unconsciously builds in his own mind 
 the conception of the archetype and he gets the emotion 
 of what it suggests; that is, motion, action, life, evolu- 
 tion; and conversely, motion, action, life, evolution 
 evoke the archetype spiral. Our highest effort is to get 
 the conception in our minds of this idea) shape in all 
 its dimensions. 
 
152 CREATIVE DESiiaay 
 
 The teacher after having a perfect knowledge of 
 what the archtype means must work with his students 
 until each one of them gets consciously that knowl- 
 edge for himself. The student must understand that 
 each archetype is the common denominator, the mother, 
 of an unlimited number of types. He must see that, 
 although each type differs from the others in its 
 quality and structure, the essential plan or idea on 
 which their construction is based is the same for all of 
 them. He must know that they all come or flow from 
 the same mother idea which gives them all the same 
 mother inheritance, the essential constitution, obey- 
 ing the same immutable laws of generation. On this 
 depends in the greatest degree the difference and va- 
 riety of the types. The teacher can make this point 
 clear by this example. All the skeletons and frames of 
 the vertebrates, man as well as animals, are derived 
 from an archetype with the same plan of structure; 
 the differences are due only to the different degrees of 
 evolution that each type has reached corresponding 
 to the necessities of its own progress or the different 
 purposes of its evolutive course. 
 
 We may be sure that when the student has made 
 such knowledge his own, he has opened to his mind 
 a broad way which connects him with the world of 
 the archetypes within which inventors and creators live 
 and act. Because, in fact, from that moment he wil 
 find that all types and shapes manifested in the 
 world are derived from their corresponding archetype. 
 He knows when looking at a machine and at its work 
 how to find the archetype from which it was originated. 
 And since he knows that from that archetype an infinite 
 number of varieties or types may be produced, he can 
 conceive the one type which will best suit his special 
 purpose. 
 
THE ARCHETYPE 153 
 
 Now the student will understand easily the way to 
 evolve a machine; that is, by having more facilities to 
 make improvements on it. He will see how all inven- 
 tions have at the beginning some imperfections, that 
 little by little they are improved, as, for instance, the 
 typewriter, a machine every new model of which has 
 some improvement. The student that has made such 
 knowledge his own will be able to improve and evolve 
 things much better and in less time than other students 
 who have not had the chance to acquire such knowl- 
 edge through these principles that encourage the 
 awakening of intuition. 
 
 The student who practises this knowledge will find 
 that he is a creator and that he has the place of the 
 father when creating. He will see that before he can 
 produce atype fromthe mother archetype, he must make 
 a mental fecundation without which the type could not 
 be manifested as a child of that mother archetype and 
 of hisown mind. The student will realise that the type 
 that he got from the archetype is the child of his imagi- 
 nation, a creation of his own that has his own charac- 
 teristics and to which he, consciously, with the power of 
 his mind, has given a certain shape, with a definite 
 purpose. Or, in other words, he imagined the type he 
 needed and has given it shape, using the essential con- 
 stitution of the one mould, the archetype. 
 
 Now let us consider the ideal spiral as the mother 
 archetype of the seven motifs. I have used only seven 
 of the infinite variety of them, because they are the 
 ones by which primitive man expressed himself first and 
 because they are the most typical representatives of the 
 different characteristic groups of types and also because 
 they make the archetype more synthetically comprehen- 
 sive. If we consider that man always tried to give ex- 
 
154 CREATIVE DESIGN 
 
 pression to his emotions and ideas and that at a certain 
 degree of his development he expressed himself with 
 seven primary motifs each of them represented in an 
 infinite variety of shapes, we may well suspect that 
 these simple motifs represent or correspond to the 
 infinite ideas and emotions that man has expressed. So 
 the seven basic motifs may be said to correspond to 
 seven basic emotions or ideas, and this conception may 
 help us to understand that the archetype spiral is the 
 common denominator for human graphic expression of 
 emotions; the synthesis of expression of shape and 
 movement. 
 
 Thus, we may see that the original inspiration goes 
 through the following steps: the individual, who has an 
 inspiration, feels the necessity to express it, to give 
 shape to it, in a plastic way. While trying to. find the 
 shape of his inspiration he will fall into other forms of 
 expression which correspond to, or are types of, the 
 same archetype, and they lead him till he conceives the 
 essential of it or its Arch. Accordingly, the individ- 
 ual with his inspiration and the archetype with which 
 he is to give plastic shape to it, originates the type he 
 wants. From this inspiration and the archetype is born 
 the special type that he desires. The individual repre- 
 sents the inspiration through the archetype and, when 
 the special type is conceived, he has only to reduce it 
 to plastic shape; then, depending on his personal abili- 
 ties in the different arts, he decides through which art 
 he will express himself. In this special case, he expresses 
 himself through graphic forms, through the material 
 medium of drawing. This is the course from the pure 
 conception of the idealistic inspiration to the material 
 plastic form which depends upon and is ruled by the 
 archetype. ‘This special shaped type in plastic form 
 
fete ARCHETYPE 155 
 
 corresponds to his inspiration. Naturally much depends 
 on the freedom of the individual and his ability to be 
 sincere and to rise above the prejudices that would hin- 
 der real expression, and also upon the possibilities of his 
 skill in his chosen medium of expression. All these are 
 factors in the pure expression of his inspiration. 
 
 Thus, we have a new procedure for learning graphic 
 art, a procedure based on the recognition that the arts, 
 the material representations of racial emotions, are not 
 to be learned, as it were, by rote, but must be con- 
 ceived by a developing process, comparable to that by 
 which the arts were first evolved. This new method 
 recognizes that the development of individual artistic 
 perception is the recapitulation of the evolving artistic 
 perception of the race, and that, therefore, graphic art 
 is not something to_ be learned but something to be 
 lived, something that each person must discover for 
 himself, and will discover for himself if he be given the 
 right principles and the proper tools for the adventure. 
 
PAK] iy 
 
 THE WHIRLING SPIRAL 
 
 It 1s the purpose of this part of the discussion to con- 
 sider with the student the factor of form not as given 
 shapes, but as conceived from its very beginnings; for 
 the student’s creative urge will reach fulfillment not 
 through manipulation of given shapes only but through 
 as much of a conception of the very creation of form 
 as he can grasp. With the idea of searching out an 
 understanding of form from the very beginnings of 
 things the student might take as a starting point the 
 fact that there is in the universe a constant relation 
 between cause and effect. This constant relation is a 
 uniform way in which mental and physical forces pro- 
 duce their effects and a certain phenomenon results 
 from a certain condition. This constant relation is a 
 law. We may thus conceive that the unknown, occult 
 potentialities which rule the universe acquire form when 
 they manifest themselves as laws acting on matter; 
 that it is through matter that they assume form. 
 Whatever may be one’s thought with regard to ultimate 
 causation, at least it is necessary to begin with the 
 postulates which sum up in the hypotheses of physical 
 science of our own day, man’s conception of the creation 
 of form. Expressed in briefest epitome those postulates 
 comprise the conception that the forces of these occult 
 potentialities are eternal energy which, taking the form 
 
 156 
 
fee dt RLING SPIRAL Wy 
 
 of vortical motion, comes into being in the manifested 
 universe as forces or modes of motion which act on 
 matter and so produce forms. When we think of these 
 laws we should not limit our thought to known laws, 
 but should bear in mind that we only begin to know a 
 few of those which comprise the more familiar dynamics 
 of the Universe; but besides these, there are probably 
 other undiscovered forces which undoubtedly take 
 their part in determining the forms of the universe. 
 
 These laws, known and unknown, all interact to- 
 gether in a perfect interior accord, which we call the 
 harmony of the universe. Thus there must be a mani- 
 festation, which is the synthesis of this dynamic inter- 
 action of all the laws, and therefore the all-inclusive 
 origin of all forms. If we try to conceive what it may 
 be which comprises in its own existence all the dynamic 
 principles, such as the centrifugal and centripetal 
 laws, movement, cohesion, unity, attraction, repulsion, 
 thythm, harmony and so on, and if we try to form a 
 concept of this synthesis by establishing its analogies 
 and generalities in its purest and most primary form, 
 we arrive at an idea or concept of something which we 
 ay call, for lack of a better word, a whirling spiral 
 in motion, or vortex, in which there is the possibility 
 ‘for all the laws and principles to coéxist. 
 
 In such a conception we may consider the vortex 
 or whirling-spiral motion of the lines of force as the 
 ‘synthesis of such lines, through which are produced 
 basically all forms of matter and diverse modes of 
 motion from the simplest to the most complex. Since 
 the universal lines, in which resistance, cohesion, 
 attraction, repulsion, movement, and so on have their 
 being in action, are known as mechanical laws, the 
 universe is therefore, according as we perceive its 
 
158 CREATIVE Disa. 
 aspects of form and motion, mathematically organic, 
 
 just as the laws by which its shapes and movements are 
 constituted are organic and subject to mathematical 
 law and analysis. 
 
 The whirling vortex in all its dimensions is for us 
 with our present limitations of thought an undefinable 
 form. What we wish to express by the name is a 
 noumenon, a one thing, which, however, is indescribable 
 since it is an infinite form, a cause, whereas we are able 
 to describe only finite manifestations or phenomena 
 within the limited sphere of our knowledge. The in- 
 finite form of the noumenon is manifest to us only in 
 the finite form of phenomena which are its phases or 
 aspects, for it has an infinite number of phases or aspects 
 which differ from one another. Hence we will take very 
 simple phenomena of the whirling spiral, so as to be 
 able better to understand and study them, and see 
 their relations to the phenomena of art. We will take 
 one portion of it, a single point 7m motion in the whirling 
 spiral, i.e., as if we were considering a particle of dust 
 in a whirlwind. Following its passage, or orbit in 
 space, we will find that it describes a whirling form of 
 motion. If this motion-form could be crystallized so as 
 to make it a form without motion, and its passage 
 fixed, such track would be a form similar to that of a 
 curl-shaped spring. This curl will represent in space 
 the solidification of the run of one point in the whirling 
 spiral, the motion being thus, as it were, frozen. 
 Thoroughly to get in mind a structural conception of this 
 form, a similar form should actually be constructed 
 with wire. Such a coiled wire will represent a part of 
 the solidified form of movement in space of one point 
 of the vortex or whirling spiral. 
 
 Objects in full volume can be represented in the flat, 
 
Tew HIRLING SPIRAL  ts9 
 
 as projections of their own shadows on a flat screen. 
 So the coiled wire existing in space gives a flat repre- 
 sentation of itself in its shadow and we have elimin- 
 ated the element of volume, or the third dimension. 
 
 Thus, we shall project the shadow of the coiled wire on 
 a screen in all positions, so as to get its most character- 
 istic aspects in the shadow, and we get now line-forms 
 as design with no volume. In so doing we have finally 
 reduced the most characteristic aspects of the whirling 
 spiral to simple lines projected on the screen according 
 to the different positions from which it may be observed. 
 As we see, this same form exists as motion, as structure 
 in volume and as line-form on a surface according to the 
 dimension in which we consider it. 
 
 We may observe that if the lamp is placed in the 
 center of one of the openings at the ends of the coil we 
 get in the projected shadow a spiral or scroll-form. I 
 the lamp is slightly moved to one side of the opening 
 then we get a series of tangential circles, touching one 
 another at a similar point; if a side projection is made, 
 it will show a zigzag form; and if the coil is slightly 
 stretched, then we get the projection of an undulating 
 or wavy line; seen more from the side we get a series of 
 half-circles like a script ““m.” We must not yet con- 
 sider the combinations of these forms when their lines 
 cross, for they are confusing, being combinations of 
 front and side views. If we study these forms we find 
 that they correspond marvellously to the seven most 
 characteristic motifs which we have pointed out as ex- 
 isting in all primitive art expressions, considering that 
 the S-shape is a part of the wavy line, and the straight 
 line is a portion of an infinitely large conception of any 
 one of these motifs or a very stretched wavy line. So 
 these seven selected forms which are phases or aspects 
 
160 CREATIYV ©) Ditaiiaes 
 
 (when lines do not cross) of the most simple conception 
 in the flat of the whirling spiral’s form, seem to show a 
 primordial reflection in the sub-conscious mind of man 
 of the cosmic abstract form. The greater part of very 
 primitive art sprang from emotive feeling, not from the 
 head. Such unconscious work must be considered as a 
 reflection of the motion-forms of the dynamic forces of 
 the universe acting on the subconscious mind of man 
 with its limited perception and understanding. 
 
 Likewise and at the same time, the source of the in- 
 spiration of these seven forms may have been nature’s 
 visible structure and motion. The mind of man has 
 always been enthralled by discovering geometric forms in 
 nature which subconsciously have always interested him; 
 and _as the spiral form of the vortex is the simplest that 
 is produced by the joint action of all the laws upon 
 matter it naturally follows that we find its manifesta- 
 tions as the fundamental form in all shapes and struc- 
 tures, andin all modes of motion and their combinations. 
 There are certain common forms, of structure, motion, 
 ‘and growth, that are easily perceived or conceived. 
 Observing nature we find this force at work in atmos- 
 pheric phenomena, as in the vortical movement of the 
 air and of water, visible in whirlwinds, whirlpools, 
 movements of all gases and liquids, clouds, smoke, 
 waves, flames of fire; in plant life, in the structure and 
 growth of vegetables, the arrangement of leaves and 
 branches, the growth of trunks and stems, the arrange- 
 ment of petals in flowers, the structure of pine-cones 
 and pineapples; in animal life, in snail and other shells, 
 antelope-horns, arrangement of feathers in birds, scales 
 of fishes, structure of nests and spider-webs and in 
 many other forms of natural growth. 
 
 Motion-Form as we have said before, is represented 
 
itty WHIRLING SPIRAL 161 
 
 in types of the Arch of motion, the whirling spiral. 
 Primitive man had perhaps established the concept of 
 the whirling spiral for motion-form from his observa- 
 tion of the natural phenomena of his environment. For 
 us nowadays there enter into that concept other im- 
 pressions of motion from our contemporary environ- 
 ment, so that besides impressions from nature, the con- 
 cept comprises such impressions as those received from 
 the dance, the forms of curves described by a whirling 
 top, the lines of the parcours of a rolling piece of money 
 which turns around in a logarithmic spiral, falling in its 
 center; in a wood shaving which curls in the same way; 
 a falling strip of paper which turns on itself and also 
 describes a spiral in space; the bouncing and other 
 motion-forms of a ball, the movements of machinery, 
 and an infinite number of other motion-forms in our 
 surroundings. 
 
 In astronomy we find the whirling spiral in the form 
 of nebulae and orbits of celestial bodies; it is also found . 
 in microscopic structure and motion and in the pre- 
 sumed whirling-form of the motion of electrons in the 
 structure of atoms. All of these phenomena abstractly 
 convey to the same whirling spiral form. 
 
 Things sensed and emotions are connected with each 
 other when they are simultaneously experienced. So 
 the memory of things sensed may by association of 
 ideas awaken emotions, and vice versa. Perceiving the 
 lightning (zigzag form) man was frightened, and so the 
 memory of the concept of the lightning may have 
 awakened a subconscious emotion of fright and con- 
 versely, the emotion of fright may have awakened, 
 among other images, that of the zigzag, which was 
 then used to induce the sensation of fear. Similarly, 
 satisfaction and water (wavy lines) may have been 
 
162 CREATIVE DES 
 
 associated. Hieroglyphics and symbols are created 
 in this way. Thus, each of the aspects of the whirling 
 spiral must have corresponded to certain associated 
 emotions, some of these being common to all peoples. 
 Spontaneously, forms of mental images will appear in 
 art manifestations as unconscious response to the emo- 
 tions and the impressions of the exterior world upon 
 the artist. 
 
 In the conceptual harmony of the universe of which 
 we have been speaking, we live and move and have our 
 being. As its natural laws rule the universe, they 
 naturally also rule our arts. There must be a relation 
 between these laws and the plastic arts, which means 
 that there must be a natural law of plastic arts. To 
 sum up the whole point of this discussion, then, if we 
 relate the fact of the underlying dynamic of the whirling 
 spiral in nature to the plastic arts, this similitude will 
 be the basis for what might be called the natural law 
 of drawing or design. It can also be the basis for the 
 study of surfaces and volumes and for painting and 
 sculpture. However, as we are to confine ourselves to 
 the study of drawing we shall only consider the law in 
 respect to lines. As governed in its primary forms by 
 the principle of the whirling spiral, we find this natural 
 law to consist therefore of the phases of the whirling 
 spiral perceived in its projection in the flat which give 
 the seven lines, common to all primitive art. it 
 
 In the preceding discussion we have endeavored to 
 arrive at the fundamental principle of design, which we 
 defined as the form of the whirling spiral. It remains to 
 find how art expression in design is accomplished within 
 this principle. 
 
 First we shall consider how to think about form. The 
 impressions of forms in the natural world which man 
 
THE WHIRLING SPIRAL _ 163 
 
 has developed through the ages of his experience into 
 
 the generalized ideas or concepts of which we have 
 
 spoken, when they come to reach their utmost general- 
 _ity are called archetypes. 
 
 Our stock or vocabulary of conceptual forms are arche- 
 types of forms of structure and of motion-forms in our 
 environment. Nevertheless, archetypes can not be rep- 
 resented in any form of plastic art, because then they 
 become types. The archetype being infinite and the 
 types finite, the finite types are only phases or aspects 
 of the infinite archetype. 
 
 At this point we have in mind, then, the conception 
 of the archetypes which the foregoing paragraphs have 
 set forth, and the conception of the whirling spiral as 
 the possible archetype of all motion-form and forms of 
 structure as was suggested in the discussion of the nat- 
 ural law of design. We come next to observe the 
 manifestations of this archetype and its relation to 
 conventional terms of design such as rhythm, growth, 
 composition. 
 
 Rhythm is perceived as repetition of events. Be- 
 tween every two events or expressions there is a relative 
 space or distance called their intervals. Rhythm is 
 the expression in relation of the space or distance be- 
 tween the events. In the track of the whirling spiral 
 motion-form each event or beat may be considered as a 
 similar point in each successive arc of the spiral. [See 
 illustration page 164. | 
 
 We have the sensation of rhythm in nature in the se- 
 quence of days and years; in plant and animal life as 
 structure and movement; in music it is the lapse of 
 time between every two beats; in design, the space or 
 distance between every two units. 
 
 The factor of change in rhythm is called growth; 
 
164 CREATIVE DER 
 
 on faa / 
 i —— 
 Sach U2, wy. of re /\ 
 y \ j ee 
 \ | ihe 
 i\ 7 \ a 
 Famers | ee 
 lath ita + ei 
 | 1 Fees “ ; 
 | | | | \ ] ee 
 | | Nag 
 | i 
 eg 
 c / 
 
 a represents the events, and the spaces 
 in between are the intervals. 
 
 there are two types of rhythm; one uniform, designated 
 as continuous growth, and one changing, designated 
 simply as growth. 
 
 CoNTINUOUS GROWTH is the arrangement of events, 
 or units, and intervals, or spaces in between them, in an 
 even rhythm, in a sequence of continued even conditions 
 without any perceptible change. 
 
 GrowTH is the rhythmical and harmonious change 
 of rhythm, augmenting or diminishing its events and 
 intervals. It is, like everything else depending on the 
 function of the whirling spiral motion-form, subject 
 to mathematical proportion. We must bear in mind 
 that all the spirals, in order to be perfectly shaped, must 
 have a mathematical logarithmic proportion in their 
 structure. Students who are acquainted with Dr. Jay 
 Hambidge’s Dynamic Symmetry are familiar with this 
 principle. Growth is the rhythmical and harmonious 
 structural way in which nature is built. There we 
 perceive the different steps of growth in the continual 
 change or development which life effects in living forms. 
 
fees HIRLING SPIRAL 165 
 
 Perfect growth in art exists when the events and inter- 
 vals keep the logarithmic proportions having the rela- 
 tion of the size of the units and the space between each 
 unit and the next one in an augmenting or diminishing 
 sequence, as in a fern or palm leaf.! 
 
 Confining ourselves in this discussion, among the 
 different phases of design, to that of form only, we leave 
 out of consideration those inner qualities of design 
 variously designated as feeling, expression or life. 
 
 We have not yet studied in this book the aesthetic 
 phase but only the form through which the aesthetic 
 function is performed. 
 
 It has been said that things more excellent than 
 images have been expressed by images. To the art- 
 ist this means that his own created types or symbols, 
 made to express something that is of his own soul, in 
 their aesthetic composition give an emotion to other 
 souls far more significant than the simple, separate 
 things of which the composition was composed. We 
 shall see later how the symbols acquire a new life when 
 used by our inspiration, and how the feeling gives 
 life and expression to the forms. 
 
 This is, of course, one of the most important parts of 
 the natural law of design and should be considered in a 
 special discussion; and we come last of all to find how 
 the student may grasp the potentialities latent in the 
 universe, and how in turn they act on him and reach 
 fulfillment in an art expression. To set forth how this 
 fulfillment may come to pass we shall discuss two 
 phases of the student’s development which we shall 
 call intuition and technique. 
 
 1 See Bragdon’s The Beautiful Necessity. 
 
PA Relay 
 
 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SCRE 
 
 Our compositions, being ruled by the laws of order, 
 are in a sense mathematical and geometrical, but far 
 beyond the extent to which we can use geometry and 
 mathematics. Besides, there is something else, which 
 is mathematics related to the emotional and spiritual 
 element; thus we are not able to solve our problem 
 completely in this purely intellectual way, and the only 
 way left is to develop our growing intuition, by which 
 we shall be able intuitively to solve such intricate 
 problems. Intuition gives us the right solution for 
 what we feel is the best. When the student gets beyond 
 attainment-by-conscious-reasoning he is able to feel by 
 his instinctive sense of beauty or truth (his growing 
 intuition) and in proportion to his degree of evolution, 
 the action of the laws of the universe and to sense their 
 mathematical relations and unity far beyond his powers 
 to prove. 
 
 We use “intuition” not in the sense of the uncon- 
 scious reaction which is emotional or instinctive, but 
 in the sense of the action which is free, although it is 
 conscious. Intuition is the comprehension of the emo- 
 tional feeling, and through it a direct comprehension of 
 the harmony of the universe. This comes through 
 the self-development of the student. This growing 
 development brings with it the power of acting freely 
 within the laws, of being to a certain extent in harmony 
 
 166 
 
Pitre rCOHOLOGY OF CREATION 167 
 
 with the universe. Knowledge gives a larger field to 
 our receptivity, making the universe more accessible 
 and bringing us closer to reality. 
 
 No other rule can now be given than to act within 
 the laws, using each separately and testing each one 
 as far as possible. This is more for the purpose of 
 getting acquainted with them, because the problem 
 becomes too involved when the simultaneous interac- 
 tion of all these laws in harmony is considered. Since 
 we are dealing not only with known laws but with others 
 as yet conceived only as presentiments or feelings, only 
 our sense of beauty or intuition can help us to use them; 
 and the more developed our intuition is, the truer will 
 be the perception of our feeling. 
 
 Finally, then, the student must of necessity ask, 
 “How may intuition be gained; what is the way of 
 attainment of this desideratum?” ‘The answer is, by 
 the desire to comprehend the emotional feeling and by 
 developing that knowledge through the acquisition of 
 technique as an aid to expression. 
 
 For design, as for achievement in other activities, 
 technique is comprised of the mastery of the activity 
 by the comprehension of the laws that govern that 
 activity. From what we have said so far about the 
 conceptual view of the laws of design the student can 
 understand at this point that comprehension neces- 
 sarily implies an increasing synthetic knowledge of the 
 laws that form the harmony of the universe. ‘This 
 answer may perhaps still seem remote, and it remains 
 to explain the way to the comprehension that gives 
 mastery or technique. ‘This we shall find, as we have 
 suggested, in the individual development of the stu- 
 dent. 
 
 Development is the only way to comprehension. A 
 
168 CREATIVE DEoaiass 
 
 child would not understand how to run his father’s busi- 
 ness even if it were carefully explained tohim. He needs 
 to build up, to evolve himself, to go through his own ex- 
 periences of the why’s and wherefore’s, so as to get the 
 capacity and mentality and knowledge of a grown-up 
 person. Hence we have to build up our mentality to a 
 higher standard in order to comprehend what is now 
 far out of our reach. The hidden knowledge we seek 
 exists and manifests itself everywhere in every existing 
 thing, depending for its discovery on the fitness of the 
 seeker, on his degree of evolution, his capacity to feel 
 and to perceive the action of the laws and to apply 
 their generalization. We attain as much comprehen- 
 sion as we can grasp and the farther we develop mentally 
 and spiritually the more we are able to grasp. Curiosity 
 moves us to a desire for experiences to provide the 
 material for the establishment of generalities, the world 
 being for us a laboratory in which we make assays of_ 
 phenomena. These experiments may be real actions 
 in life, or exist only in our imaginative life — intense 
 thoughts rather than outward acts — giving us the 
 knowledge of a real experience almost as truly as if they 
 had been outwardly lived. The imaginative life is 
 obviously a broader field for experimentation, since 
 our imagination is shackled only by our intellectual 
 and emotional limitations and its experiences may be 
 contemplated and analyzed from a detached view point. 
 
 The field of experimentation in imaginative life with 
 which we are concerned is art. However as we 
 develop further and further in this field the technique 
 which we have defined as constantly increasing syn- 
 thetic knowledge, we shall find its generalities common 
 to all other fields. Astronomy, medicine, chemistry, 
 physics, mathematics, political economy and other 
 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CREATION 160 
 
 lines of intellectual activity, as well as art, if they could 
 be studied to their utmost depth, would come in their 
 final analysis to the same basic fundamentals of the 
 laws of the universe. Thus all activities are good ways 
 to attain the ever increasing knowledge with which in- 
 tuition is to be supplemented. 
 
 In the end, then, we see that art is one of the many 
 ways by which man attains knowledge and builds him- 
 self into a superior being. Through his endeavors in 
 this field he works toward his own evolution. Each 
 design is an experiment, each line a problem to solve, 
 where all the universal laws are in function, and from 
 these experiments he gathers knowledge which _ is 
 universal and which quickens his intuition. Through 
 aesthetic emotions he realises universal generalities. 
 The simple fact of considering the possibility of the 
 existence of yet unknown analogies and laws acting in 
 our world will help toward their discovery. Self-effort 
 and experimentation helped by our growing intuition 
 will approach to the hidden order with its, for us, new 
 analogies and laws. 
 
 Self-effort is the only way to self-development, and it 
 has to be wrought through one’s own experience, by 
 thought and meditation, by striving and suffering. 
 These practices develop in us the faculty for knowledge 
 just as gymnastic exercises develop the faculty of 
 physical force. Discoveries acquired by our own ex- 
 perience are the everlasting ones, and the effort they 
 cost is necessary for the development of our mental 
 and spiritual life from which comes intuition. 
 
 Such self-development is the attainment of the char- 
 acteristics of the superior man, endowed with faculties 
 of deeper comprehension. There is an unconscious 
 human necessity, an instinctive, emotional or intuitive 
 
170 CREATIVE DESTGN 
 
 tendency to act within the harmony of the universe, 
 known as the desire for beauty, perfection, rhythm and 
 so on; and so human evolution reaches out toward the 
 comprehension of such laws. What we call beauty and 
 perfection is a deepened perception of the action of 
 those laws. 
 
 The increased knowledge of the superior man makes 
 him a master of his instinctive and emotional nature 
 and he is thus more consciously able to act freely. 
 Guided by his intuition, his work in art is of a superior 
 kind, and the message he has to give through his work, 
 in the form of higher beauty, gives to others that high 
 aesthetic enjoyment which he experiences in creation. 
 
 The evolution of forms and their expression make the 
 evolution of art. Art is ever changing, evolving and 
 developing its fundamental forms. The fundamental 
 expressions and forms in their infinite stages of evolu- 
 tion and in their combinations are what produce the 
 different arts of different times and peoples. Present- 
 day expressions of art are the evolved ideas and feelings 
 of yesterday; and the efforts, desires, feelings, dreams 
 and fancies of our creative imagination are bulging the 
 New, the Art that is to be. 
 
 The aesthetic function or the function of art is rela- 
 tive to the state of evolution of the artist or observer. 
 It comprises a different reaction in each different case. 
 We find the aesthetic function in primitive man as 
 instinctive as play; in a higher degree of evolution, 
 as a sensual and emotional outlet, as a field of experi- 
 mentation for his desires and emotions in the form of 
 beauty. Then afterwards it becomes a speculative 
 field for 1 investigation of knowledge and for the develop- 
 ment of his intuition, and then only does art reveal to 
 man the inner life of nature. 
 
Pr emOLOGY OF CREATION 171 
 
 So it is that art has very different meanings, depending 
 on the standpoint of the active artist and the passive 
 observer and on their degrees of evolution. Certain 
 aesthetic experiences are sometimes attained through 
 psychological states artificially induced by stimulants 
 and narcotics. Aesthetic comprehension which, in 
 comparison to this sporadic type of experience, depends 
 on a certain degree of cultivated and attained develop- 
 ment of intuition is what has been called by phi- 
 losophers “the musical state” or the “lyric state,” or 
 what is known as “ecstasy”’ in the practices of mysti- 
 cism. Similarly it is known by many as induced by 
 love, perhaps the most potent emotional experience of 
 all. ‘These variously known aesthetic experiences some 
 philosophers have held, are not subject to conscious 
 purpose or to any laws. They are the usual ways by 
 which man escapes the fetters of this lower life. The 
 fact remains though that they give him no control over 
 feeling; they do not come when he wishes and he can 
 not direct them in the way he would. They are in fact 
 but an unconscious outreach to a higher realm of which 
 we are only occasionally aware. Yet we do not need 
 to be satisfied with that degree of attainment. One who 
 has highly developed his will power, through self-effort, 
 is able by his own will to maintain a state of intuition 
 which he can master and through which he can com- 
 prehend his feeling and to give to this world aesthet- 
 ically, through symbols, the expression of his feelings of 
 the inner world, which, being universal truth, reaches 
 everyone’s soul. 
 
PAR Teva 
 
 THE INNER AND OUTER CAUSES) OF 2h. 
 
 We have studied in this work given forms and their 
 exterior causes or forms, but we have said little about 
 the other part which rules the form, the inner cause 
 of form, the inner cause of creation, the life or expres- 
 sion within the form. This being a subject to be treated 
 in a special work we shall give in the following pages 
 only a synthesis of it. 
 
 In the period in which we are now living, a new form 
 of art expression is to appear. It will correspond to a 
 social group more highly evolved than any other hereto- 
 fore, the flowering, we might say, of this period and 
 what we might consider as the forerunner of a new race 
 of beings endowed with superior characteristics. 
 
 This does not mean that all previous art expressions 
 will disappear, because they all have their right to 
 exist and have their place in the ladder of human evolu- 
 tion. They are characteristic of the different cultural 
 categories into which, broadly speaking, humanity 
 falls. 
 
 The modern movements of art have revised the 
 ways of expression of nearly all the existing and past 
 forms of art expression. Through them, we are finding 
 the possibility for a new expression. In the discovery 
 of new forms in our modern surroundings we are finding 
 
 172 
 
Meavaks OF CREATION 173 
 
 the means for a complete expression of the true spirit 
 of our times. This re-creation of the old forms and 
 interpretation of the new by the modern artist will, 
 under the illumination of his vision, achieve a syn- 
 thesis of forms as a basis for future expression. 
 
 This new form of the future art, of the real Futurism, 
 is not based on any particular style or exterior aspect 
 of art, but on its inner quality which has been developed 
 or awakened in the artist who created it. Skill, and all 
 the matters related to styles or different schools of art, 
 which have so disturbed and divided so many artists 
 and which are only exterior factors, have no great im- 
 portance in the new way of art. 
 
 The important part in the new conception will be 
 the work, its aesthetic function. Being no longer cir- 
 cumstantial but transcendental, and of a higher cate- 
 gory, the work of the artist will comprise conscious 
 knowledge of its causes — its function and its purpose. 
 It will have passed the experimental stage. 
 
 We begin to realise that the actuation of this new 
 period of evolution in which we have entered, is going 
 to manifest itself in comprehension of the feelings and 
 their functions and this is going to be the characteristic 
 by which this future period will be ruled, as the char- 
 acteristic which ruled the last period which we are just 
 completing was thought. Thus it will be in this new 
 way that we shall pass from the knowledge of form to 
 the knowledge of its cause or genesis. 
 
 What corresponds to the emotions and feelings 1s 
 what we call Aesthetics. The function of aesthetics is 
 manifested. by them, but man is not yet sufficiently 
 evolved to be capable of interpreting those feelings in 
 their corresponding thoughts. 
 
 It is on a superior plane to the mental one that feelings 
 
174 CREATIVE DEwigay 
 
 engender thoughts, and only through developed intui- 
 tion is the individual able to reach such a plane con- 
 sciously. To lead, awake or develop our generation 
 toward such a state will be the goal alike of purposeful 
 artists and teachers. ‘The creators will be moved to their 
 creations by causes which will depend on their degree of 
 evolution and their capacity to interpret their feelings. 
 
 The evolution of individuals or of their genius will be 
 easily measurable by the kind of feelings manifested 
 in their thoughts or ideas and expressed in their works. 
 Whatever the evolutional state of the individual, crea- 
 tion is arrived at through these most characteristic 
 steps: 
 
 The consciousness which makes us feel, the feeling 
 which makes us think, the thought which reveals the 
 special form of what we are going to create and the de- 
 sire of the creative act which makes us shape the thought 
 in physical matter. 
 
 There is already in our consciousness the form with all 
 its minute details exactly as we wish it to be later on 
 when it will have been shaped in physical matter, but 
 its fulfillment depends on our comprehension and 
 physical aptitude for it. (We understand by con- 
 sclousness the higher cause within ourselves, our inner 
 will, which, by means of the intuition, we must learn 
 to be aware of and to use.) 
 
 Thus the most perfect creation depends on the com- 
 prehension and interpretation of feeling by thought, 
 conceiving in this way the real form which best cor- 
 responds to and expresses the feeling. When this is 
 achieved the shaping of that form is comparatively 
 easy. 
 
 The absolute comprehension of feeling can only come 
 by the unification of feeling and thought wrought to- 
 
CAUSES OF CREATION 175 
 
 gether by an effort of will—a deep desire for such 
 achievement. This will bring us to real comprehension: 
 the possibility of feeling the thought and of thinking 
 the feeling, both as one, is only reached by self-effort, 
 by the awakening of the intuition, and such achieve- 
 ment produces the comprehensive and creative poten- 
 tiality of the superman. 
 
 Until we do arrive at a complete development of in- 
 tuition, since through intuition we feel the forms which 
 are coming to the mind later to be expressed as ideas 
 or thoughts, it is not possible for us to get a perfect 
 interpretation of our feeling in corresponding thoughts 
 or ideas, and naturally impossible to get perfection in 
 our creation. 
 
 Genius is the higher state of the individual in human 
 evolution before reaching that perfect comprehension 
 of the feeling which turns him into a different being 
 far beyond all that we have thus far known. ‘Thus in 
 this ascending course of evolution there are infinite states 
 with different degrees of comprehension in which al- 
 ready there are in different ways the reflection of the 
 superior qualities of the superman in man. When quite 
 developed the reflection of such qualities makes him 
 superior to his fellows and he is considered a genius; 
 but his creations are yet only the reflection of the super- 
 man within himself, and to reach his total unfoldment 
 must always be his aim. Our future quest will be genius, 
 but our ideal will be the superman. 
 
 While we are not dealing with the reality of the super- 
 man who has achieved the unification of feeling and 
 thought, we shall use the term feeling-thought to define 
 a quality as yet only relatively formulated, conceiving 
 it to be caused by will power and itself to be the cause 
 for creation; remembering that the comprehension of 
 
176 CREATIVE DESiGmN 
 
 the feeling and the feeling of the thought are at their 
 beginnings manifested in the individual only as a grow- 
 ing intuition. 
 
 This perfect unification or comprehension of the 
 feeling and thought achieved by the intuition is in- 
 describable under our present limitations but we shall 
 try to explain it as far as possible. This presentation 
 of the conception can be no more than a mere outline, 
 but it will help us toward its further comprehension. 
 
 We know that in this world there exist two opposite 
 forces and that they are maintained not in perfect 
 equilibrium but that, as one or the other has the prepon- 
 derance, different phenomena are produced. Those 
 two forces are the centripetal, which is characterized by 
 attraction, integration, conservation and designated 
 as feminine or negative, and the centrifugal, which is 
 characterized by the action of radiation, disintegration, 
 expansion, and is designated as masculine or positive. 
 Those two forces correspond to the two we have 
 being studying, the feminine factor to the feeling and 
 the masculine factor to the thought. Thus the problem 
 is to destroy polarity, fusing those two poles in one. In 
 separate state each pole needs the other; that is why 
 they are attracted to each other; they are their own 
 complements, and when the two are unified in one by 
 mutual comprehension they reach perfection. 
 
 In the same way, the three factors, will, feeling and 
 thought, when they combine, establish a new vibration 
 which makes possible the state of the superman, in 
 which the struggle between the feminine and masculine 
 natures has been balanced and wrought together, fused 
 by the will in the form of mutual comprehension, so 
 that duality exists no more. 
 
 All existing things are governed by the immutable 
 
CAUSES OF CREATION 177 
 
 laws of nature. Each existing thing in our manifested 
 world is the expression of an idea transmuted into 
 physical matter and thus is subject to its laws. The 
 existence of forms, and the action and movement of 
 matter, are only possible when subject to these essen- 
 tial laws and conditions. We all have a conscious or 
 sub-conscious knowledge of such laws, as well as of 
 the manifested forms developed under them, and this 
 knowledge is gained either experimentally or intuitively. 
 An idea can be manifested in matter only by being 
 formulated within the laws of matter, and this essential 
 basic form is called the archetype of the idea. 
 
 Let us now examine, in its several stages, the process 
 known as creation. In its fundamental aspect, this 
 process arises out of the creative impulse. The com- 
 bined action, on the one hand of the feeling, resulting 
 in an inspiration, and on the other, of the knowledge 
 of the laws of the universe and their existing forms of 
 manifestation shaping that inspiration, together pro- 
 duce the conception of the essential idea, or arche- 
 type. More precisely, our examination of the creative 
 process reveals this constant plan: The will wants to 
 create and transmits this desire to the feeling, which in 
 turn produces the inspiration. The inspiration, driven 
 by an inner necessity to find a thought as a medium for 
 its expression, with the assistance of all our knowledge 
 searches the fundamentals of the problem and so 
 arrives at the essential idea or archetype, from which 
 it develops a type until it (the type) is fully revealed. 
 This revelation takes the form first of abstract motion- 
 form and then proceeds to forms of things or symbols, 
 from which we are able to give concrete expression to 
 the type in matter. 
 
 A detailed analysis of the process may render it more 
 
178 CREATIVE DERG 
 
 easily understandable: The consciousness or will wants 
 to create something and gives its command, which is 
 transmitted to, and acts upon, the feeling, making it 
 vibrate, and illumination or inspiration is thus attained. 
 This awakens the desire for expression and we then try 
 to formulate our inspiration in terms of its essential 
 conditions; and with the assistance of our knowledge 
 of the laws of the universe, and of its manifested forms 
 (created under those laws), we search for an essential 
 thought or idea. Intuitively, as a response, we find 
 the essential idea, or archetype which corresponds to 
 the requirements of our inspiration within the range 
 of our knowledge. From this archetype, the inspira- 
 tion visualizes a determinate idea of a concrete form 
 which best symbolizes the original command of the 
 will. The achievement of this symbol through in- 
 voluntary but precise reasoning, is the revelation of 
 the type which we wish to create. Thus we have found 
 the basis for its future manifestation in matter. Then, 
 through the thought process, this concrete symbol is 
 seen in all its details: first, as abstract motion-form 
 (Fig. A.) which seems to be its expression as movement 
 only; then as the concrete form or symbol (Fig. B.), 
 built up from the line of motion which gives the ex- 
 pression to the symbol. Both motion and symbol 
 correspond to each other and are different aspects of 
 the same expression of the inspiration. With this clear 
 conception of the form of the symbol in our mind, the 
 desire for its materialization is aroused and moves us 
 to develop it to its final form in physical matter, the 
 ultimate expression of the will’s original command. 
 In this way, the creative process has been brought to 
 its fruition. [See also illustrations on pages I2I-122. | 
 
 The more knowledge we have, the more perfect arche- 
 
Gaels OF CREATION 179 
 
 types we are able to find and thus the more perfect types 
 or symbols we are able to create for our expression. The 
 unexpected difficulties which bar our way when material- 
 izing our creation will give us new knowledge on which to 
 
 etPtg, 
 
 Fig A Fig ls 
 
 < Fia C 
 
 The motion-form (Fig. A) has to be represented through material symbols as 
 the type of structure of the object, (Fig. B) or as a representation of the 
 movement of the object (Fig. C). 
 
 base future creations; but from the new creations we 
 shall gain new experience and new knowledge, so mak- 
 ing evolution possible. Thus, what we now know and 
 approve, after the experience of creation we shall come 
 to reject, because we shall have learned more and will 
 
180. CREATIVE DESI. 
 
 know better, and this evolutionary process within our- 
 selves will move us always on to new action and to new 
 creation. At the same time, we are always likely to use 
 some particular laws or forms in preference to others, 
 knowing or liking some better than others, and this 
 will always give a certain individual stamp to our crea- 
 tions, or what we term the characteristic mark of 
 personality. 
 
 Thus we see that the will to create the form as it exists 
 in matter after being manifested with all its details as 
 far as we are able to express it, existed from the very be- 
 ginning in the consciousness. ‘The different and infinite 
 forms of matter of our world are but manifestations of 
 the consciousness. When we understand this we shall 
 see that our creations already manifested or yet to be 
 manifested are the expression of the consciousness and 
 will of the creator. Every thing that is created is a 
 part of the creator — it is of hisown nature. Such cre- 
 ative function may be unconscious and instinctive or on 
 the other hand conscious and intuitive. So we realise 
 that all that exists or is going to exist is or was wrought 
 by different beings in their different states of evolution, 
 and all works of art have their place in the complete 
 plan of evolution, from the most primary instinctive 
 unconscious creation, to the intuitive creation of the 
 superman. 
 
 In this the vital fact is that everything has in its 
 being or inner essence (or vibration) the feeling-thought 
 of him who created it, it is a part of its creator. In the 
 case of artistic manifestation we find that the action 
 of feeling-thought through the manifested thing (the 
 work of art) acts upon our being and impresses us or 
 awakens in us a feeling-thought similar to that of the 
 will, of the feeling-thought of the being (the artist) who 
 
Seuss OF CREATION 181 
 
 created it. This is what we call the expression of the 
 thing, which has the specific faculty to awaken in one 
 the feeling of its creator by means of its expression. 
 
 The comprehension of consciousness, expressed by the 
 feeling-thought and manifested in created forms, 1s Art. 
 Each thing that we create is a form of our feeling- 
 thought and we call it a symbol or image, understanding 
 as true symbols the types which best express our feeling- 
 thoughts. The things that we use as symbols irradiate 
 or awaken in others vibrations similar to those of the 
 feeling-thought of the one who brought the symbols 
 into being, and this is the power of expression of the 
 symbol. 
 
 The artist uses this and makes a language composed 
 of symbols or images, using all kinds of forms and by 
 means of them, through the work of art, contacts and 
 synchronizes with the souls of others. Thus we get 
 through the work of art the reaction of a spirit in 
 the presence of the creation of another spirit. What 
 we create must be the symbols of our feeling-thoughts. 
 The work of art is the expression of our feeling- 
 thoughts and we impress in it those two elements in 
 their forms, colors, sentiments, symbols, composition 
 and so forth, each of these corresponding to the expres- 
 sion of the feeling or of the thought. Thus they express 
 our masculine and feminine nature interwoven in the 
 different parts of the composition. 
 
 When the artist makes a composition combining those 
 two elements in the right way, he gets their unification 
 as a chord, producing the sensation of the higher 
 harmonic vibration of their unification in the being of 
 the observer, which is the quality called life, peculiar 
 to master-pieces. —The comprehension or consciousness 
 of this and the fact of being able to fuse feeling and 
 
182 CREATIVE DES 
 
 thought in the work of art through its expression is the 
 achievement of a genius. 
 
 As the evolution of art is worked out by the evolu- 
 tion of its forms and its expressions, so the artist who 
 is able to create more perfect forms and expressions is 
 helping the evolution of art. By the means of such 
 more perfect expressions the higher feeling-thoughts 
 may be expressed; or life in its higher forms and aspects 
 manifested. 
 
 We have said that by the development of intuition 
 the comprehension of the feeling and the feeling of the 
 thought is possible. This is the link to the higher or in- 
 ner region. Intuition makes us conscious of it, makes the 
 feeling and the thought one, and thus the connection is 
 formed, and the way opened to the inner world of causes. 
 The being who has awakened in the intuitive plane is 
 conscious of the kind of thoughts the feeling awakens in 
 himself and thus accomplishes with all perfection the 
 thought-forms which correspond to his feelings. When 
 he has also developed his will power, he is able to main- 
 tain that state, and is able to accomplish bringing into 
 physical manifestation, through his thoughts in form of 
 symbols, the expression of that inner world which is the 
 purer manifestation of consciousness. The nature of 
 his will and consciousness which moved him to create 
 will be expressed in his creation. 
 
 This is the nearest reflection of the possibilities of 
 the superman’s action and it is thus that the genius is 
 inspired for his action, attaining this state of recep- 
 tivity or inspiration in a greater or lesser degree, depend- 
 ing on his state of evolution, but always incompletely. 
 It is thus that the artist or ‘the inventor or any other 
 creator solves his creative problems, being more or less 
 conscious of the part he takes in the evolution of forms 
 
Peeks OF CREATION 183 
 
 and their expressions while incidentally he works out 
 his own evolution and so creates the new bases of the 
 form, expression, and feeling of the future. 
 
 The superman knows his place in the plan of evolu- 
 tion and his actuation is conscious, when all this is 
 brought to perfection. The perfect state of intuition 
 is of absolute perception and comprehension of the 
 consciousness. 
 
 Summing up we may say that the development of 
 the intuitive faculty to its utmost degree will make each 
 being able to interpret and afterward to unify his dual 
 nature. He will then know the part in the evolutional 
 plan which he must perform and which corresponds 
 to his achievement, being in its essence to help the 
 unfoldment of all life. Art is one of the ways to fulfill 
 such aspiration, for those who have a preference for that 
 way. He will approach the goal, using of the strength 
 of his will power, discriminating wisely and acting under 
 the laws of order, selecting, destroying and building 
 anew, each time that he knows or conceives something 
 better. With this continued effort we shall unfold until 
 we attain the unified action of our duality and reach 
 consciousness, the perfect self-consciousness through 
 intuition. And so, we shall achieve the goal of all 
 life, Metamorphosis and the Superman. | 
 
A NOTE ON THE TYPE VIN 
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 The type in which this book has been set (on the Monotype) 
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 that William Caslon (1602-1766) brought the old-style letter 
 to its highest perfection and while certain modifications have 
 been introduced to meet changing printing conditions, the 
 basic design of the Caslon letters has never been improved. 
 The type selected for this book 1s a modern adaptation rather 
 than an exact copy of the original Caslon. The principal 
 difference to be noted is a slight shortening of the ascending 
 and descending letters to accommodate a larger face on a given 
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GETTY opt od LIBRARY 
 
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