, if you
have not gotten the character first by the representation of those
proportions which mean the structure which underlies all the
accidental positions of the detail of feature.

=The Frottee.=--If you want to be more exact with your drawing before
you begin to paint, lay in your canvas with a light-and-shade drawing
in charcoal. Then make a _frottee_ in one color, and paint into and
over that, as was described in the Chapter on "Still Life."

By careful and studious use of these two methods of work you can learn
the main principles of painting portraits, and modify the handling as
you have need; for all the various methods of manipulation are
modifications of one or the other, or combinations of both of these
fundamentally different ways of working.

If you paint more than one sitting, get as good a drawing as you can
the first day. Put in your _frottee_ the next, or make your blocking
in; then after that do your painting into the _frottee_, or the
working out of such details as you decide to put in.

Titian painted solidly, probably with no details; then worked these in
and glazed, then touched rich colors into the glaze.

But you had better not bother with all these ways of painting. When
you can work well in the simplest way, you will find yourself making
all sorts of experiments without any suggestions from me. Work first
for facts of utmost importance, and technical methods are not such
facts. Perception and representation by any most convenient means are
the first things to be thought of, and nothing else is of importance
until a certain amount of advance is made along this line.

Learn to see and paint the wholeness of the thing at once, not the
details, but the _fact_ of it. Try to lay in things so that you have a
solid ground to work onto and into later.

Look for the vital things. Don't try for "finish." Finish is not
worked for nor painted into a picture; finish _occurs_ when you have
represented all you have to express. When you have got character and
values and true representation of color, you will find that the
"finish" is there without your having bothered about it.

The masses you are to look for and emphasize are the great spaces
where the light strikes and the shadows fall. Close your eyes. The
lines disappear. You only see large planes of values; express these at
once and simply.

Don't be afraid of rudeness, either of handling or of color, at first.
Don't try for finesse. All these