Part 14 (1/2)
[Illustration: =The Fisher Boy= _Frans Hals_ To show the directness and sureness of brush-stroke, and candor and sih never so free as with Hals]
=Detail=--The question of detail may well co? The Dutch painters went to both extremes Gerard Dou worked teeks on a broom-handle, and hoped to finish it in a few days more Frans Hals would paint a head in an hour The French painter Meissonier paints the high light on every button of a trooper's coat, and De Neuville barely paints the button at all What way are you to turn? Which are you to choose? We have a great deal said nowadays against detail in painting Much is said of breadth and broad painting Which is right?
=True Breadth=--The answer lies in the central idea of the picture
There are tireatest freedom is essential True breadth is compatible with much even minute detail in the sae brush It never means slap-dash It is the just conception of the amount of detail necessary (and the amount necessary to be left out) in order that the idea of the picture e canvas always, and in proportion to its size it is allowable A decorative canvas, a picture which is to be seen from a distance, or is to fill a wall space, wants effect, eness of conception and execution, and only so much detail as shall be necessary to the best expression coeness On the other hand, a ”cabinet picture,” a small panel, will admit of microscopic detail if it be not so painted that the detail is all you can see And just here is the heart of the whole matter Whether you use much or little detail, it is not for the sake of the detail, not for any interest which lies in the detail itself, but for what power of expression ely conceived, and its main idea as to subject and those qualities of aestheticI have spoken of are always kept in view, and never allowed to lose themselves in the search for minuteness, then any amount of detail will take its place in true relation to the whole picture If it does not do this it is bad
The relations of parts to the whole are the key to the situation always
Nothing is right which interferes with the true relations in the picture This is where the working for detail is reat ability and power to keep detail where it belongs Detail is always the search for ss, and they are al of the s Details which do not stay in their places had better be left out of the picture There is such a thing as _values_ in _facts_ as well as other parts of your work And this applies to breadth as well as to detail
[Illustration: =Boar-Hunt= _Snyders_ To show relation of detail to the whole picture The detail is carried far, yet does not interfere with emphasis of action and life The picture is broad in spirit and effect if detailed in execution]
Gerard Dou ree as it may sound, in spite of his microscopic work But only because of his breadth of eye The detail is not thewith him It is in the picture, and you can see it when you look for it
But as you look at the picture it is not peppered all over with pin-points of detail, until the picture itself cannot be seen Every detail stays back as it would in nature; loses itself in the part to which it belongs; ht out; is not seen until it is looked for This is broad painting, because the s are emphasized; and if the details are painted they are seen in their true relations, and the power of the whole is not sacrificed to them
With much or little detail, this is what is to be ai brushes or little ones, the expression of the s,--this is broad painting, and this only
CHAPTER XXIII
MANIPULATION
=Pre si been ain France, under the name of _Premier Coup_; which ht that the painter should use no after or overworkings at all; but that he should carefully and deliberately select the color for his brush-stroke, and then lay it on the canvas at one stroke, each after-stroke being laid beside some previous one, until the canvas has been covered by a le ”first-stroke,” with no after-stroke laid over it to reat deliberation of work and exactness of study Probably no better thing was ever devised for the training of the eye and hand But it has its li of pictures; although the fresh, direct effect of this sort of work is preserved as far as possible in reat estee is especially useful in thecontrol of the brush and the resources of the palette
In all painting of this character the color should have body
Transparent color should not be used alone, but only to ments; for the transparent colors used indiscriminately are apt to crack, which characteristic is avoided when the heavier color for=--Inis the safest,--the least likely to crack, and the most safely cleaned from varnish and dirt without injury to the paint itself It is firives =--Incolors you should be careful not to overtakes the life out of the color Particles of the pure color not toovibration and brilliancy to it The reverse isand overworking of wet paint Don't use ments in one tint if you can help it, and mix them loosely If you must use ether, one beside the other, drag theether with the brush, scoop them up loosely on the end of it, and lay the tint on freely and frankly
Never muddle the color on the canvas Don't put one color over another et a thickwith a mass of another, and the result will be dirty color, which of all things in painting is most useless
Keep the color clean and fresh, and have your brush-strokes firm and free Never tap, tap, tap, your paint; make up your mind what the color is, and o, and lay it on frankly and fairly, and leave it If it isn't right, daubing into it or pat-patting it won't help it Either leave it, orscraped this one off
Don't try to econo A color mixed for one place will never do for another, so don't try to paint another place with it Have the patience to proceed slowly, and mix the color specially for each brush-stroke On the other hand, don't be niggardly with your paint Don't use less paint than you need Mix an ament as to how much you should use each ti new color for every touch of the brush is in itself a charreater truth you are likely to get by it
[Illustration: =Good Bock= _Manet_ To illustrate direct and solid painting]
=Corrections=--As far as you can,when the paint is dry, or nearly so When I say don't work into wet color to correct, I do not mean that you are never to do so, but that to do it too et your work muddy and pasty Of course it is al so sometimes, but when you do, do it with deliberation Don't lose your head and pile wet paint on wet paint in the vain hope of getting the color by force of piling it on You will only get it worse and worse Get it as nearly right as you can If it is hopeless, scrape it off clean, and ht as you can see to o ahead; and put a better color on that place to-morrohen it is dry, if you can