Encouragement for the amateur artist, and/or the complete neophyte, emphasizing the rewards of a hobby. Predicating the desire to draw as natural, normal, the author, an editorial writer and book reviewer on the New York Sun, gives an informal course in sketching, taking the reader from indoor practicing to landscape drawing. Not exhaustive, this nonetheless covers the principles and problems of outdoor sketching, inexpensive and simple ways of equipment, perspective and pictorial composition, training the eye, improvement of style, etc. Fundamentals are illustrated by pertinent pictures, reproductions, and the whole is a lucid approach to a personally satisfactory hobby. Not as cajoling as Alger's Get In There And Paint (Crowell) of last year, but in its way fulfills its purpose as well.