andle it without getting
dirty; that the mixing-surface will not foul the freshly mixed paint;
and that the paint around the edge is always so that you can pick up a
fresh, clean brushful. If you try to clean off all your color every
day and polish your palette nicely, you will not only take up more
time with your palette than you do with your painting, but the fact
that some left-over paint may be wasted will make you a little stingy
in putting on fresh paint, which is one of the worst habits a beginner
can fall into. You cannot paint well unless you have paint enough on
your palette to use freely when you need it. It is all well enough to
put on more, but nothing is more vexing than to have to squeeze out
new paint at almost every brushful. You must have paint enough when
you begin, to work with, or you waste too much time with these
details.

[Illustration: =Arm Palette.=]

If you are painting every day, leave the good paint where it is at the
end of your work, and scrape off all the muddy or half-used piles, and
clean carefully all the palette except those places where the paint is
still fresh and pure. Then, when you have to add more to that, clean
that place with the palette-knife before squeezing out the new color.
In this way the palette will not look like a centre-table, but it will
be practically clean, have a good clear mixing-surface, and you will
neither waste paint nor be stingy with it.

=The Arm Palette.=--For painting large canvases, where the
largest-sized brushes are used and paint must be mixed in greater
quantities, the arm palette is a most convenient thing if it is well
balanced. It is in the way rather than otherwise for small pictures,
and is useful only as it is particularly called for.

CHAPTER VIII

OTHER TOOLS

It remains to speak of those tools which are not essentials, but
conveniences, to painting. Even as conveniences, however, they are of
importance enough to have an influence on your work. You can paint
without them, but you will work more easily for the having of them;
and something of the sort, although not necessarily of the same kind,
you must have. You may improvise something, in other words, to take
the place of these, but you would be wiser to get those which are made
for the purpose.

=The Box.=--First, the box. You must keep your things together
somehow, and it would be as well that you keep them in a b