s of it cross
the plane of the canvas, recede from it, cross behind, and return.
This in all directions. You must make your painting express this. It
is not enough that there be features, the features must be part of a
whole which is surrounded, behind as well as in front, by the
atmosphere. The hair is not just hair, it is the outer covering of the
skull, and of necessity follows the curves of the skull; and there is
a back part to the skull which you cannot see, but which you can
feel--can know the presence of, because of the way it is connected
with the front part by the sides. All this you must make evident in
your painting, as well as the facts which are on the side of the skull
turned toward you. How make it evident? By values and directness of
brush-stroke.

=Background.=--Never treat the background as something different from
the head. The whole thing must go together. The slightest change in
the background is equivalent to that much change of the head itself.
For the change means necessarily a different contrast, either of color
or light and shade, and it will have its effect on the color or relief
of the head.

Paint the two together, then. Make the head and all that goes with it
or around it as equally parts of the picture, which all tend to affect
each other. Your background is not something which can be laid in
after the head is finished. True you can paint the background
immediately around the head first, and then, after painting the head,
extend the background to the edge of the canvas; but the color, tone,
and character of the background must be decided upon at the time the
head is painted, and carried on in the same feeling.

It is never good work to paint the head and then paint a background
behind it. Particularly is this true when there are windows or any
objects whatever in the background. It is most important that the
whole thing shall be seen in the same kind of light, and in the same
relation of light. This is hardly to be done when the head is one
painting and the background another.

[Illustration: =Portrait.= _D. Burleigh Parkhurst._]

This is not rigidly true, however, in cases when the whole thing is
planned beforehand, and studies made for each part, as in elaborate
portraits and compositions which include several figures or special
surroundings. But the principle holds good here also. The relation
must be kept of the head to the surroundings, and the effect of the
one upon the other