l make you more observant, and less regardful of details; or
if you do regard the details, and forget the other things, it will
show you how inadequate those details are to real expression, unless
there is something larger to place them on.

Don't undertake the painting of a head without considering well that
you are likely to have trouble, and that the trouble you will have is
most likely to be of a kind that you don't expect. But, having begun,
keep your head and your grit, and do the best you can. Remember that
you learn by mistakes, and failures are a part of every man's work,
and of every painter's experience, and not only of your own.

You will save your self-esteem from considerable bruising if you make
it a point never to let your sitter see your work till you are pretty
well over the worst of it. The knowledge that it is to be seen will
make you work less unconsciously, and you will find yourself trying
for likeness, and all that sort of thing, when that is not what you
should be thinking about; and if, after all, the thing is a failure,
it is a great consolation to know that no one but yourself has seen
it!

=Beginning a Portrait.=--The ways of beginning portraits are
innumerable. There is no one right way. Some are right for one painter
or subject, and some for others; but there are some methods which are
more advisable for the beginner.

You can begin and carry through your painting entirely with body
color, or you can begin it with _frottees_, and paint solidly into
that. Take these two methods as types, and work in one or the other,
according to what are the special qualities you want your work to
have.

If you have never painted a head, and have some knowledge of the use
of paint and of drawing, I would suggest that you make a few studies
of the head and shoulders, life size, in solid color, and on a not too
large canvas, say sixteen by twenty inches. This will leave you no
extra space, and you can devote your whole attention to the study of
the head, with only a few inches of background around it. You will
probably make the head too large. A head looks larger than it really
is, especially when you are putting it on canvas. If you measure them
you will find that few heads will be longer than nine inches from the
top of the hair to the bottom of the chin. Take this as the regular
size in drawing it on your canvas, and make the other proportions
according to that.

Make a drawing of the outlines in