CHAPTER XV: TECHNICAL PRELIMINARIES
Reasons. - Painting is something more than laying on paint. It implies a
certain amount of knowledge of necessary preliminaries - technical
matters which are not strictly painting, but without which good painting
is impossible.
It is all well enough to put on canvas, but there must be a knowledge on which to base
to where and the why of laying it on, as well as the knowledge of how to lay it on. If
anything, the where and why are more important than how. There are almost infinite
methods and processes of getting the paint onto the surface. Every painter may select or
invent his own way, and provided it accomplishes the main purpose - the bringing about
of combinations of form, relative color and pitch, the expression of an idea - it is all
right. But there are laws which govern the positions of the different spots of paint, and
the reasons for placing them in certain relations. These laws are back of personal
idiosyncrasy. They are a part of the laws which control all material things. The painter
may no more go contrary to them in painting than he may go contrary to physical laws in
any of the practical matters of life. If pigments are not used in accordance with the laws
governing their chemical composition, they will not stand. If the laws of proportion are
not observed in composition, the picture will not balance. The laws of color harmony are
as mathematically fixed as the law of gravity. So, too, the relations of size, which give the
impression of nearness or distance to objects, rest on the laws of optics, You have infinite
scope for individual expression inside of those laws, but you cannot go outside them.
Scientific Knowledge not Necessary. - It is not necessary that you should have
any special knowledge of all these laws nor even of the application of them; but you must
recognize their existence, and have some practical notions about them and their effect on
you work.
You can of course carry the study as far as you are interested to go. The farther the
better. The more you study them the more you will find them interesting, and the easier
will it be for you to work freely within their limitations. But this is not the place for
special study. There are books which treat particularly of these things, and you must go
to them.
But a superficial consideration of these subjects can be left out of any book which
would be really helpful to the student of painting.
I can go into the theory of things only so far as to give you that amount of practical
knowledge which is absolutely necessary to use as a painter. What I shall give is given
only because it cannot be wisely left out, and the form of it as well as the substance and
quantity are determined by the same reason.
As you hope to become a painter, then, do not neglect to study and think of this part of
the book, not merely as a preliminary to the process of painting, but as containing