DESIGN, in painting, is the simple contour, or outlines of the figures intended to be represented, or the lines that terminate and circumscribe them: such design is sometimes drawn in crayons, or ink, without any shadows at all; sometimes it is hatched, that is, the shadows are expressed by sensible outlines, usually drawn across each other with the pen, crayon, or graver. Sometimes, again, the shadows are done with the crayon rubbed so as that there do not appear any lines: at other times, the grains or strokes of the crayon appear, as not being rubbed: sometimes the design is washed, that is, the shadows are done with a pencil in Indian ink, or some other liquor; and sometimes
times the design is coloured, that is, colours are laid on much like those intended for the grand work.
The essential requisites of a design are correctness, good taste, elegance, character, diversity, expression, and perspective. Correctness depends on the justness of the proportions, and knowledge of anatomy. Taste is a certain manner of correctness peculiar to one's self, derived either from nature, matters, or studies, or all of them united. Elegance gives a delicacy that not only strikes persons of judgment, but communicates an agreeableness that pleases universally. The character is what is peculiar to each thing, wherein there must be diversity, inasmuch that every thing has its peculiar character to distinguish it. The expression is the representation of an object, according to the circumstances it is supposed to be in. Perspective is the representation of the parts of a painting or a figure, according to the situation they are in with regard to the point of sight. The design or draught, is a part of the greatest import and extent in painting. It is acquired chiefly by genius and application, rules being of less avail here than in any other branches of the art, as colouring, &c. The principal rules that regard design are, that novices accustom themselves to copy good originals at first sight; not to use squares in drawing; lest they stint and confine their judgment; to design well from life, before they practise perspective; to learn to adjust the size of their figures to the visual angle, and the distance of the eye from the model or object; to mark out all the parts of their design before they begin to shade; to make their contours in great pieces, without taking notice of the little muscles, and other breaks; to make themselves masters of the rules of perspective; to observe the perpendicular, parallel, and distance of every stroke; to compare and oppose the parts that meet and traverse the perpendicular, so as to form a kind of square in the mind, which is the great and almost the only rule of designing justly; to have a regard not only to the model, but to the parts already designed, there being no such thing as designing with strict justness, but by comparing and proportioning every part to the first. All the other rules relate to perspective. See PERSPECTIVE.