ood and bad materials is
of slight importance compared with the relative effect on your work.

The way to economize is not to get anything which you do not need.
Save on the non-essentials, and get as good a quality as you can of
the essentials.

Save on the number of things you get, not on the quantity you use. You
must feel free in your use of material. There is nothing which hampers
you more than parsimony in the use of things needful to your painting.
If it is worth your while to paint at all, it is worth your while to
be generous enough with yourself to insure ordinary freedom of use of
material.

The essentials of painting are few, but these cannot be dispensed
with. Put it out of your mind that any one of these five things can be
got along without:--

You must have something to paint _on_, canvas or panel. Have plenty of
these.

You must have something to set this canvas on--something to hold it up
and in position. Your knees won't do, and you can't hold it in one
hand. The lack of a practical easel will cost you far more in trouble
and discouragement than the saving will make up for.

You must have something to paint with. The brushes are most important;
in kind, variety, and number. You cannot economize safely here.

You must have paints. And you must have good ones. The best are none
too good. Get the best. Pay a good price for them, use them freely,
but don't waste them.

And you must have something to hold them, and to mix them on; but here
the quality and kind has less effect on your work than any other of
your tools. But as the cost of the best of palettes is slight, you may
as well get a good one.

Now, if you will be economical, the way to do it is to take proper
care of your tools _after you have got them_. Form the habit of using
good tools as they should be used, and that will save you a great deal
of money.

CHAPTER II

CANVASES AND PANELS

You should have plenty of canvas on hand, and it would be well if you
had it all stretched ready for use. Many a good day's work is lost
because of the time wasted in getting a canvas ready. It is not
necessary to have many kinds or sizes. It is better in fact to settle
on one kind of surface which suits you, and to have a few practical
sizes of stretchers which will pack together well, and work always on
these. You will find that by getting accustomed to these sizes you
work more free