The Painter in oil

Here is a composition which is an almost literal rendering of the movement and light
and shade effect of a position quite accidentally seen.
The whole effect of lighting and of line, the grouping and the pose, resulted purely
from the musician’s desire to get a good light on his music. There was no need to add to
it. It was simply necessary to recognize the charm of it, and to represent that charm
through it as frankly as it could be done.
Posing the Model. - Let the character of the model suggest the pose. If you have a
scheme for a picture, choose a model whose personality will lend itself naturally to the
occupation or action natural to that scheme. Then follow the suggestion which you find
in the model. Some rearrangement will always be necessary if you do not use as a model
the same person who originally gave you the idea for the picture. Every human being has
different manner. You cannot hope for exactly the same expression in one person that
you found in another. But put the model as nearly as you can in the same situation and
pose, and then when the model eases from the unnatural muscular balance into the one
natural to him, you will find the idea taken from your first observation translated into
the characteristics of your present model.
Never try to place a model in a pose which he can only hold by an unnatural strain.
You will not get a satisfactory result from it. Study your model; see what pose he most
naturally falls into, and then take advantage of one of these, and arrange your picture
with reference to it.
Never attempt to represent a character in your picture by using a model of a different
class or type from it; you will not be successful either in painting a lady from a model
who is a peasant, nor in painting a peasant from a model who is a lady. The life and
occupation and thought common to your model will get into your painting of her; and if
that is not in accordance to the idea in the picture, your picture will be false. The dress,
no less than the pose and occupation, must be such as is natural to your model. The
accessories of your picture must befit the character you wish to paint; otherwise your
model becomes no more than a lay figure.
Take note of the characteristics which are peculiar to your model, and use them; do
not change them nor idealize them. Rather paint them as they are, and make them a vital
part of your study of the subject. This is the best you can do with these characteristics.
They may be the mot expressive thing in your picture. If they are of such a nature that
you cannot use them in this way, then do not use this model at all; you cannot get rid of
these things. In trying to obscure or idealize them, you only lose character, or paint a
character into your model which is unnatural to him; the result will not be satisfactory.
Quiet Sitters. - An inexperienced painter should not use a model with too much
vivacity of body or of expression. The quiet, reposeful, thoughtful model, who will
change little in position or manner, will simplify the problem. A model too wide awake
or too sleepy will either of them give you trouble.
Avoid very young children as models, and particularly babies. They are never quiet,
and the problems you will have even with the best of models will be made enormously
more difficult by their restlessness.
For your first work choose models with well-marked faces, and pose them in a direct
light which will give you the simplest and strongest effect of light and shade.