nd it
saves time in the long run.

=Relations and Directness.=--Study to give the true relations of
things. Try to get the just color quality. Give it at once. Don't get
it half way and trust to luck and a subsequent painting to correct it.
You will never learn to paint that way. Paint intensely while you
paint. Use all the energy you have. Paint with your whole strength for
a half or a whole hour, and then rest. You will accomplish more so
than by painting all day in a languid, half-hearted way.

=Directness.=--Directness comes from making up your mind just what
tint of color and value is needed, and just where it is to go, first,
then putting it there with no coaxing. Get the right color on your
brush and plenty of it; then put the brush deliberately and firmly
down in the right place, and take it directly away, and look at the
result without touching it again till you have made up your mind that
it needs something else, and what it is that it needs. Then do that
and stop.

Directness and justness of relation are the most important things in
painting. They tell for most, result in most, both to the picture and
to the student. Whatever you do, work for that. Try to have no
vagueness in your mind as to what you will do or why you do it, and
the effect of it will show on your canvas.

CHAPTER XXIX

FLOWERS

Flower painting is the refinement of still life. You have the same
control of combination, but you have not the same control of time.
Flowers will change, and change more rapidly than any other models you
can have; and at the same time they are so subtle that the most
exquisite truth and justness are necessary to paint them well.

People seem to think that any one can paint flowers. On the contrary,
almost no one can paint them well. There are not a dozen painters in
the world who can really paint flowers as they ought to be painted.
Why? Because while they are so exquisite in drawing and color, and so
infinitely delicate in value, they are also even more infinitely
subtle in substance and sentiment.

When you have got the drawing and the color and the value, you have
not got the _quality_.

What is the petal of a flower? It is not paper, and it is not wax,
neither is it flesh and blood, of the most exquisite kind. All these
are gross as substance compared to the tender firmness of the flower
petal; and the whole bunch of flowers is made