The Painter in oil

Keep Looking. - Always keep your eyes open and your mind receptive; do not be
always looking for reasons. Accept the charm as it presents itself; note it, if you have
anything handy to express it with; if not, study it, and get something into your mind and
memory from it. The simplest way of expressing it, and the simplest elements which
cause it, you can study without the materials to preserve it, and you so keep your
receptivity and quicken your power of observation.
Your sketch will be more quickly done, directly and more forcefully, if you map out the
thing rather deliberately first with a few very exact lines and masses in some way: then
you have a free mind to concentrate on the effect. A few values and masses well placed
are the things you most want; you can almost always spare time to ensure their exactness
by a few measurements and two or three rube of color first. Of course if the is of a
passing gleam you can do nothing but get a few smudges of color. But get them true in
value and in color relation; get the glow of it, or you will get nothing.
Canvases of a Size. - In sketching from nature, have the habit of using always the
same sized canvases or panels. They pack better, and you learn to know your spaces, and
so you do quicker and better work. Make them big enough to do free work on, yet small
enough to cover easily, so that you lose no time in mere covering of surface. Ten inches
by fourteen is plenty small enough, and fifteen by twenty large enough, for most persons.
Suit yourself as to the size, but settle on a size, and stick to it.
Nothing is more awkward and inconvenient than to have stacks of canvases of all sizes
and shapes.
Always have plenty of sketching materials on hand. You will lose many a good effect
which will pass while you are getting your kit ready.
In sketching, avoid details. When you want them, make a study of them. In a sketch
they only interfere with frankness of expression. One or two details for the sake of accent
only, may be admitted.
Make a frame with your hand, or, better, cut a square hole in a card, and look through
it. Decide what is the essence of it, what is vital to the effect, and do that; concentrate on
that. Put in what you need for the conveying of that, and leave out everything else.
Work Solidly. - Work in body color, and lay on your paint fully and freely. In getting
an effect of light, don’t be afraid of contrast either of value or of color. Paint loosely; get
the vibration which results from half-mixed color. Don’t flatten out the tone. Load the
color if you want to. In twenty years you will wonder to see how smooth it has become.
Freedom and breadth give life to a sketch. Don’t work close to your work. Don’t bend
over it. Use plenty of color, large brushes, and strike from the shoulder.