Study the subtleties of values of contours, and make your figure relieve by the contrast
of value in mass rather than by the modeling within the outline. See how the figure
“tells” as a whole against what is behind it first, and keep all within that first relation.
It is possible to look for and to find many of the qualities which distinguish the figure
in the studio light; sometimes you may want to do so. The telling of a story, the literary
side of the picture, it you want that side, sometimes needs help that ways. But in this you
lose larger characteristics, and the picture as a whole will not have the spirit of open air
in it.
What has been said of the painting of landscape applies to the painting of figures in
land-scapes. Pose your figure out-of-doors if you would represent it out-of-doors. Then
paint it as if it were any other out-door object. If the figure is more important to the
composition than anything else in the landscape, as it often will be, then study that
mainly, and treat the rest as background, but as background which has an influence
which must be constantly recognized.
Never finish a figure begun out-doors by painting afterwards from a model posed in
the house. Leave the figure as you bring it in. If it is not finished, at least it will be in
keeping with itself; and this will surely be lost if you try to work it from a model in
different conditions.
Animals. - Animals should be considered as “figures out-of-doors.” There is no
essential difference in the handling one sort of a figure or another. The anatomy is
different, and the light falls on different textures, but the principle is not changed. You
must consider them as forms influenced by diffused light and diffused color, and paint
them so. You will find that often, especially in full sunlight, the color peculiar to the
thing itself is not be seen at all.
The character of the light which falls on it gives the note, and controls. In the shade the
effect is less marked, but the constant flicker makes the same sort of variation, though
not to the same extent.
There is no secret of painting either in the house or out-of doors which is not the same
as the secret of painting the human figure. If you would paint an animal, get one for a
model and study it. Work in some sort of a house-light first, in a barn or shed, or, if it be
a small animal, in your studio. Study as you would any other thing, from a chair to a
man. The principles of drawing do not change with the character of anatomy. The
animal may be less amiable a poser, but you must make allowance for that.
When you have got a knowledge of the form, and the character of color and surface,
take the animal out-doors, get some one to help hold him, and apply the same principles
that would govern your study of a rock or a tree in the open air.
As for fur, and all that sort of thing, treat it as you would any other texture-problem in
still life.