Read Ebook: Lessons in chalk modeling: The new method of map drawing by Heffron Ida Cassa

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The effects of glacial action, and the eruptive forces of nature may also be seen in places.

To study river action it is not necessary to visit a river ; any small stream of water, any tiny rivulet beside the roadway, tells its story of wearing and building, its vertical cutting and its swinging from side to side. It has its miniature valley, its basin and water-parting and possibly a delta at its mouth. It may also have its cascade or waterfall.

The wearing of rock, through the influence of rain, frost and heat, may be seen in any stone building, fence or pavement.

Effects of heat and moisture on vegetation, as influencing the growth of plants and trees, should be noticed. The growth of shrubs and trees during a dry season can be measured and compared with that of wet seasons.

The observer should mark the effect of vegetation in the action of rain on a grassy slope--how the grass protects the soil, preventing it from being washed away, and how, by holding back the water so that it flows more slowly, it is less destructive in its action.

To add to the interest, the pupil may be led to imagine the effects upon climate and streams, of the denuding of large areas of their forests; also how rock sculpturing, in the forming of gorges, ca?ons, etc., would be modified by the volume and force of streams.

Observation should also be made on the making of soils, their constituents and relative proportions of loam, sand, gravel and clay, and the relation of these to plant and animal life.

The part that the common earth-worm bears in constantly uniting, enriching and otherwise preparing the soils for the support of vegetable life, may be seen in many areas.

A study made of the action of underground water, as shown in common and intermittent springs, would be full of interesting suggestions.

The effect of glaciers may be seen in part and their tremendous influence imagined, by the presence of the countless numbers of striated boulders, pieces of rock and pebbles, which are strewn all over our prairies hundreds of miles from any mountains which could have been their home.

It is not necessary to witness the devastation of a cyclone in order to study the effects of wind action. The piling of sand on the sea-shore, the drifting of snow or the whirling of dust in the street illustrate this. The observer may notice where the dust blown from the street has choked and buried the grasses and weeds beside it, and imagine what might be the fate of forests in the path of encroaching sand-dunes.

Pupils may be told of the dunes which travel great distances: that one way by which this is known is by noting trees and houses that were once back of the traveling sand-hills and are now in front of them; also tell of the sites of ancient cities long buried and now being excavated and brought to light again.

IMPORTANCE OF LEARNING TO INTERPRET PICTURES AS AN AID TO IMAGING THE CONTINENT.

The ability to image the continent or any part of it, from the reading of pictures, is of great importance. It is an inexpressible aid to the imagination in the study of areas that lie outside of the sense grasp. Good pictures should be chosen: pictures showing several different views of the same section of a country; pictures that are a truthful representation of both detail and generalities.

After a close study of them, questions may be asked the pupil as to climate, structure, nature of rock and soil; whether it may be supposed to be an arid or fertile region; whether the river basins are young or old; what agents were most active in shaping its features, and what its probable destiny: or the pupil may be led to give his own inferences as to conditions, without direct questioning.

In this way contrasting sections of country may be studied and compared, thus making the mental picture more vivid and complete.

It is understood that these mental images gained from such study of pictures, have as a basis, images acquired from actual observation of the earth's surface. From this mental picture, supplemented by images gained by oral and written descriptions, maps may be chalk modeled which will contain all the essential features of structure.

Valuable information for the making of maps has been gained in this way; indeed, adequate maps cannot be made without this means of acquiring the necessary knowledge, which the delineator has not been able to gain through travel and personal investigation.

Through this study or reading of pictures a natural interest is aroused in the mind of the pupil to see located on the map countries and places of special interest; such as natural wonders of structure, and remarkable instances of man's skill and power in overcoming obstacles and improving his environment.

Special features are more readily understood when drawn in detail: as mountain peaks, stern or forbidding in outline, or lofty and grand in their mantles of snow and rivers of ice ; valleys with wooded slopes and streams of water; lakes, waterfalls

The most prominent feature of the new map is the representation of the relief of the earth's surface; showing, as it does at a glance, the great back bone of the continent, with its ragged broken line of peaks dividing the waters of the two slopes; its great land masses, primary and secondary; and its area or line of greatest depressions. Its river basins also are plainly seen, and we infer the reason for the general course of the rivers and read their history from the sculpturing they have done.

We may note also the character of the mountain ranges; whether they are young or old; where new land is being made, and where areas are sinking. One can often determine what the prevailing wind of a section may be and the regions of greatest rainfall, and can judge of the climate and vegetation; in short, very rational conclusions concerning the life and habits of a people may be formed from a study of the map alone, and the student can picture, in imagination, the growth or advancement of nations under the given conditions.

He will be enabled to see, as has been remarked in substance before, that the mighty influences bearing upon civilization have always been largely dependent upon the geographical structure of a country; the relation of natural divisions to existing political divisions will be noted, and the reasons for the locations of great centers of commerce, important cities, and military fortifications, will be understood.

Relief maps in relatively exact proportions will not help to this, as the highest elevation would appear nearly on a plane with the ocean level, and would be of no better service for school use than the flat maps, from which no idea of the general organism can be acquired by the young student, if indeed it can be by one of riper years.

Also in all topographical surveys, and in the profile of vertical sections of country found in many geographies, we find the same exaggeration of height in relation to horizontal distances, used to illustrate elevations and slopes.

These, with photographs or pictures of relief maps are extensively used, as well as birds'-eye views, showing on the part of the map-makers, a recognition of the importance of the pupil's gaining mental concepts of altitudes. The latter, of course, must exercise his judgment in relating the heights, to the horizontal distances given, as he so continually does in every-day life in regard to other matters.

The horizontal map distances should be related to the other horizontal distances of the map, and the altitudes to other altitudes, and these with reference, also, to the tabulated lists found in every geography, of the heights of mountain peaks and lengths of rivers.

"All knowledge of external things comes through observation, comparison, and judgment." To judge of great altitudes, one must have a knowledge of the heights within experience. To be able to gain a proper conception of immense distances, as the distance across a continent, comparison must be made with the distances one has already measured or traveled.

In the measurements of areas, size of fields and gardens, width of ponds, or heights of trees and hills, the pupil has numerical facts from which he judges of other forms and areas; as forests, marshes, plains, the width of rivers and lakes, the heights of mountains and cliffs, or length of rivers and mountain ranges.

Also in the measuring of the deposition of silt in small streams, he may judge of the quantity that large rivers like the Mississippi or Nile must carry; and from measuring the yearly growth of vegetation in his own climate, he judges what might be the growth in other climates. Thus through observations, inferences, and comparisons, he is enabled to read his map with some degree of power to judge its distances and altitudes.

The aim in the preceding pages has been to show the vital importance to the would-be delineator of Chalk Modeled maps, of the thorough study of geography, in its truest sense, and that the foundation of such study lies in the field lesson, with its accompanying expression of the knowledge gained there, of surface forms, areas and structures.

The chalk modeling of maps is in itself the simplest of all modes of drawing. It may have been inferred from what has been said on the subject of maps, that drawing them consists merely in showing simple indications of slopes; short or long, abrupt or gentle, and summits; broken or rounded, river basins, character of water-partings, valleys, lakes, rivers and coasts either bold and rocky, or low and alluvial.

It would be as unnecessary for the purposes of geographical instruction, as it would be impossible, to draw absolutely correct maps of the earth's surface.

Each mountain peak cannot be shown, nor every indentation of coast-line, but the general trend or direction of mountain ranges and rivers, and more or less of geological structure can be portrayed in a conventional manner.

It is not difficult to chalk model with reasonable accuracy. The ability to do this, however, with any degree of rapidity as well as accuracy, implies, as has just been said, an adequate knowledge of the subject to be represented. No mere imitation, or acquisition of technique, or copying of maps, is educational, nor has it any vital relation to the true study of geography. Like all dead copies, it betrays in itself its lack of life, or of real knowledge on the part of the delineator.

An instructor whose eyes are open to truth, can generally tell from a pupil's representation whether it is the result of his own individual thought, the expression of his own knowledge of the subject, or the reflex of another's thought.

If it is an expression of his own, there will be much revealed in the touch and in the quality of line itself, that could not be depicted in form or put into words. The representation, also, will indicate to what degree the subject has interested and inspired the individual, and how, with a clear mental image, he has instinctively expressed himself in the simplest and most direct manner possible with the medium at hand.

In the following pages will be found suggestions as to the method of chalk modeling, given in the form of a series of lessons; the underlying principles in the lessons being those on which is based all expression of thought in every field of study and among all peoples.

Busy teachers need only to realize that comparatively little effort is necessary in order to acquire a certain amount of success, if they have their subject in hand, that is, if they have an adequate mental image of the object to be sketched.

It is hoped that such success will prove a strong inducement to a deep study of the subject of art, and especially to the psychology of expression.

LESSONS.

REMARKS.

Chalk Modeling of surface forms is the easiest and simplest method of geographical drawing, and one of the best ways of beginning art work in the school-room, for absolute definiteness of form and detail is not required, and we know that generalities are represented much more easily than details--large masses more easily than small objects.

No one need hesitate to try to draw who can write or gesture: this last we are all doing continually, either consciously or unconsciously.

Watch the friend while telling some interesting story, or while giving a description of some object or landscape. Note the gestures unconsciously employed and how truthful to the subject they are. Also notice that the more intense the desire to make you understand, the more adequate is the gesture.

No conscious thought is required as to what motion to make, for the very desire to express brings with it both the required word and action. This is spontaneity, and if a pencil or crayon were in the hand of the narrator, with paper or a blackboard near, a sketch might be the result, and one quite adequate to its purpose.

If you are in earnest and truly desire to express your thought by drawing or chalk modeling, you will forget yourself in your effort to be understood. You will find a way to accomplish your object, choosing and using the right direction of line and giving the right accentuation or emphasis without any special attention as to the method of working.

Line represents direction. When applied to surface we understand it to indicate horizontal, vertical, oblique, and curved surface directions. Try it and see if it is not true that lines in one direction never indicate any other direction; the vertical can never be mistaken for the horizontal, or the reverse. For the representation of a level plain, make simple strokes in the horizontal direction with the side of the crayon, and to represent a vertical surface as a cliff, make a stroke in the vertical direction with the same broad side of the crayon. Oblique surfaces, as slopes, are to be drawn with oblique strokes, and curved surfaces like rounded hills, represented by continuous upward and downward strokes. In the delineation of mountain masses, that are high with abrupt declivities as well as gradual slopes, we use the side of the crayon with an oblique stroke as in Fig. 2. We see then that right direction of lines of themselves illustrate surface planes, elevations or depressions.

Detail of structure, however, cannot be well brought out except by effects of light and shade. Choose from which direction your map or sketch is to be lighted, and keep it always in mind while drawing. Study the effects of light and shade everywhere. Note the length of shadows at different times of the day, and their relation to the position of the sun.

To represent an unbroken sweep of land or water, as of a plain or lake, draw a broad unbroken line for the distance, as all detail of surface forms seems to merge into one horizontal mass; nearer to us, we perceive more detail of landscape or broken land surface, which we may represent with broken lines. This is the most simple representation of level distance.

In Fig. 4, or the representation of a plateau , there are horizontal, vertical, and oblique surfaces combined. The detail of structure in the foreground is represented with some definiteness of line, while the mountain slopes are quite indefinite. Notice that the oblique and vertical lines are shorter in the distance than in the foreground, and that the land seems to rise as it recedes from us. Look out of doors and see if it is not so. Notice rows of trees, houses, or telegraph poles, in their relative height, also in their relation to the ground on which they stand.

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