"I do not think it advisable to engage a child in any but the most voluntary practice of art."
Ruskin's preface to this self-study guide to drawing, exhorts parents and readers on a general approach to art which is as different from a modern Learn to Paint book as Wordsworth's Guide to the Lakes is different from a Lonely Planet Guide. The modern art book lists essential primary colours of the medium and recommends basic appropriate paper types. Compare to Ruskin in his preface: "If a child has many toys he will merely dawdle and scrawl over them; it is by the limitation of the number of his possessions that his pleasure is perfected and his attention concentrated." He is as insistent on the background preconditions to approaching the practice of art and Wordsworth is that we approach the Lakes along a certain valley at a certain time of the day. No-one but a fool would stand at Innominate Tarn at any time of the day but late afternoon!
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