n these conditions: the
torn, and ragged, and scattered fragments of the clouds in their wild
and rushing fury over the sea, with its inexhaustible changes and
endless variety of colour, are the objects painters often choose, from
their very seeming nothingness, to invest with the _beau ideal_ of art.

The extremes of simplicity in composition, should not be attempted by
Tyros; the long-practiced and master hand alone can accomplish that,
which in others, would appear affectation.

The most powerful impressions are produced by the simplest construction.
The chief interest confined to a very small portion of the work, and the
larger space left in so much repose as will give value to, and dignify
the subject, that should at once meet the eye and engage our energies;
investing their accessories with their due portion of interest; taking
care that the expression of the principal action of the picture is
agreeably supported by their subordinate quality; that the object
desired is obtained, to the exclusion of all others, and that its
episodes be in character.

In the arrangement of figures, Mr. Burnet, in his Hints on Composition,
says, 'the heads and hands, the seats of action and expression, are
often referred to each other for the completion of form or extension of
light, beyond which a strong point is required, as a link of
communication between the figures and the background. By making this
point the strongest of a secondary group of objects, either from its
size, lights, or darks, the eye is carried into the most remote
circumstances, which become a part of the whole, from the principal
group being made to depend upon such point for the completion of its
form, the extension of the light, or the repetition of colour.' Thus, in
Vandyke we often see the luminous points of his picture referring to
each other in the form of a _losenge_, composed of the heads and hands,
the collar, ruffs, the hilt of a sword, &c., while all the other parts
are absorbed in dark or half shade, and making the form of his
composition complete, but differing something in their force and
attraction: strong light and dark coming in cutting contrast at a single
point, places the subordinate lights and darks in their proper
situations; at the same time, these points should always be
characteristic of meaning to the composition. (_Plate 1, figs. 5, 6._)

Nothing will teach you to compose a picture like sketching, however
slightly, the different gr