IF a copy is to be made of any illumination, the easiest mode is by affixing a piece of French tracing paper on the back of the drawing, and throwing it over the front; begin with a fine-pointed H H H pencil, to draw an accurate outline of the whole thin, pale and delicate. Above all things, be correct; do not trace more than is necessary for your object, and avoid details, which may more easily be put in by the eye. Too much tracing often confuses. The upper and inner line of the hair, the eyebrows, the line of the nose, the upper line of each eyelid, the central line of the mouth, and the contour of the cheek and chin, is sufficient to give a correct tracing of a face; if you trace more, in retracing it you will get confused. With ornamentations the same rule applies; trace only as much as will secure your object. When your tracing is complete, unfasten it, and attach it by two spots of gum to the back of the drawing-board or vellum prepared to receive it, and placing the red prepared paper between it (with the prepared side towards the board or vellum), you trace over it with the same pencil (using a little pressure), and you then obtain a fine, thin, delicate and faint red tracing on the vellum. In this operation, in order to work cleanly, the following rules must be observed. You should use a fine H H H sharp-pointed pencil; you should not press hard to make the transfer too red, nor should your pencil-tracing in the first instance be otherwise than light; it becomes deeper when the pencil goes over it a second time, which avoids the necessity of lifting up the paper, to ascertain where you have or have not been over. A good, correct and delicate transfer makes it pleasurable to paint; a coarse deep red one gives the artist an infinite deal of trouble, and the drawing in this case will always look smeared and dirty, which with a little attention can easily be avoided. As the prepared red paper cannot always be easily obtained, it is much easier to prepare it yourself, which is done as follows: Purchase at the chemist's a quarter of a pound of red French chalk, scrape some with a table-knife on the thinnest white writing paper you may have handy, and with a piece of wadding rub it equally over the surface, taking care that the other side is kept perfectly clean; no grease or water should be used in this operation. Should a pencil tracing be preferred, blacklead may be used instead of the chalk.