The Painter in oil

This is the sketch from nature, always the record of an impression, the note of an idea
hinted by one fact or condition seen more sharply or clearly than any or all the
thousands which surrounded it at the moment.
The painter must always sketch from nature. Only by so doing can he be constantly in
touch with her, and received her suggestions unaffected by of multitudinous facts. The
sketch reserves for him the evanescent effects of nature, which the study would not so
entirely, because not so simply, grasp. The sudden storm approaches; the fleeting cloud
shadow; or the last gleam of after-glow; these, as well as the more permanent, but
equally charming effects of mass against mass of wood and sky, or of meadow and hill,
he can only store up for future use in his sketches.
Main Idea Only. - In the making of the sketch, then, no problem should come in but
that of the expression of the main idea, — no problem of drawing or of manipulation of
color. To get the idea expressed in the most direct immediate inconvenient way, anything
will do to sketch on or with; that which presents the least difficulty is best. The matter of
temperament, of course, comes in largely, and technical facility. That which you can use
most freely, use in your sketching, and keep for other occasions the new means or
medium. Use freely, if you can, black and white for whatever black and white will
express, and pigment for all color effects. Oil for greatest certainty and facility of
correction.
Quick Work. - Make your sketch at one sitting, or you will have something which is
not a sketch. Work long enough, and it may be a study; but more than one sitting makes
it neither one thing nor the other. To say nothing of the fact that the conditions unlikely
to be exactly the same again, you are almost sure on the second working to have lost the
first impression, — the freshness and directness of the purpose which the first impress
gives; and this is the very heart of a sketch. You must never lose sight of what was the
original purpose of it; never forget what it was which first made you want to paint it. No
matter what else you get or do not get, if you lose this you lose all than can give it life or
reality.
The very fact that you have limited yourself to one working makes you concentrate on
that which first caught your attention, and that is what you want to seize.
Over workings and after-paintings will only interfere with the directness and force
with which this is expressed.
Remember that nature is never at rest. You must catch her on the wing, and the more
quickly you do it the more vivid will be the effect.
“Nature is economical. She puts her lights and darks only where she needs them.” Do
the same, and use no more effort than will suffice to express that which is most
important. The rest will come another time.
Try to keep things simple. Keep the impression of unity; have the sketch one thing
only.
Express things as they look. As they look to you and at this time. How they seem to
some one else, or seemed at some other time, is not the point. What you know they are
or may be will not help you, but only hinder you in a sketch. The more facts the worse, in
sketching. Remember always what a sketch is for. Don’t be beguiled into trying to make
a picture of it, nor a study of it. Make something sincere and purposeful of it, and have it
as concise, as terse, as direct, and as expressive of one thing as you can.