The Painter in oil

See that your sitter is in as comfortable a position as you can get him into, so that the
pose can be held easily. Don’t attempt difficult and unusual attitudes. Such things
require much skill and knowledge to take advantage of, and to use successfully. Make
your effect more in the study of composition and color than in fanciful poses. Later,
when you have gained experience, you may do this sort of thing.
If you are painting a face, see that the eyes are in at a restful angle with the head,
and that they are not facing a too strong light, nor are obliged to look at a blank
space. Give them room to have restful focus, and perhaps something pleasant or
interesting to look at.
Length of Pose. - No sitter can hold a pose in perfect motionlessness. Do not
expect it. You must learn to make allowance for certain slight changes which are
always occurring. You must give your model plenty of rest, too, especially if he be not
a professional model. A half-hour pose to ten minutes’ rest is as much as a regular
model expects to do as a rule. If you have a friend posing for you, particularly if it be
a woman. Twenty minutes’ pose and ten minutes’ rest, for a couple of hours, is all
you should expect; and if the pose is a standing one, this will probably be more than
she can hold- make the rests longer.
An inexperienced model - and sometimes even a trained one-is likely to faint while
posing, particularly if the room be close. Look out for this; watch your sitter, and see
that she is not looking tired. The minute that you see the least sign of fatigue, if she
shows pallor-rest. Do not get so absorbed in your canvas that you do not notice your
model’s condition. If you are observing and studying your model as closely as you
should, you can hardly fail to notice any change that may occur, and you should at
once give her relief.
Distance. - Don’t work too near your model, nor too near your canvas. As regards
the first, be far enough away to see the whole of the figure you are painting, or of
that part which you are doing, entirely at one focus of the eye, and yet near enough
to see the detail clearly. If you are too near, you see parts at a time, and do not see it
as a whole. If you are too far, you see too generally for good study. You might make it
a rule to be away from your subject a distance of about three or four times the
extreme measurement of it. If it is a full length, say fifteen to twenty feet, if you can
get so large a room. If it is a head and shoulders, about six or eight feet. Never get
closer than six feet.
As to your canvas, work at arm’s length. Don’t bend over - again you see parts, and
you must treat your canvas as a whole. Never rest your hand or arm on the canvas.
Train your arm to be steady. Sit up straight, hold your brush well out at the end of
the handle, and your arm extended; now and then, if you need closer work, lean
forward, and if necessary use a rest-stick; but as a rule your work will be stronger
and hang together better if you work as I have suggested. Of course you will often get
up, and walk away from your work. Set your easel alongside the model, and go away
to a distance, and compare them. Too intense application to the canvas forgets that
relations, effect and wholeness of impression are of the greatest importance, and are
only to be judged of when seen at some distance.