Two Sketches, Corbel and Waterfall

Arnold William Brunner's paired sketches demonstrate the observational drawing techniques that underpin narrative illustration. The left panel depicts a cascading waterfall amid rocky terrain, rendered in cross-hatching and ink wash to capture light and shadow. On the right, architectural study of a corbeled stone bracket shows Brunner's attention to structural detail. These studies exemplify the foundational skills—precise composition, varied line weight, spatial recession—that would define early comic strip artists' visual grammar in the emerging newspaper medium.