hape and variety of the
tone you wish to express, and try and manipulate the swing of your brush
in such a way as to get in one touch as near the quality of shape and
gradation you want. Remember that the lightest part of your touch will
be where the brush first touches the canvas when you are painting lights
into a middle tone; and that as the amount of paint in the brush gets
less, so the tone will be more affected by what you are painting into,
and get darker. And in painting the shadows, the darkest part of your
stroke will be where the brush first touches the canvas; and it will
gradually lighten as the paint in your brush gets less and therefore
more affected by the tone you are painting into. If your brush is very
full it will not be influenced nearly so much. And if one wants a touch
that shall be distinct, as would be the case in painting the shiny light
on a glazed pot, a very full brush would be used. But generally
speaking, get your effects with as little paint as possible. Thinner
paint is easier to refine and manipulate. There will be no fear of its
not being solid if you are painting into a solidly scumbled middle tone.

Many charming things are to be done with a mixture of solid and
transparent paint, but it is well at first not to complicate the
problem too much, and therefore to leave this until later on, when you
are competent to attack problems of colour. Keep your early work both in
monochrome and colour #quite solid#, but as thin as you can, reserving
thicker paint for those occasions when you wish to put a touch that
shall not be influenced by what you are painting into.

[Illustration: Plate XXV.

ILLUSTRATING SOME TYPICAL BRUSH STROKES MADE WITH FOUR CLASSES OF BRUSH

Class A, round; Class B, flat; Class C, full flat brush with rounded
corners; Class D, filbert shape.]

It will perhaps be as well to illustrate a few of the different brush
strokes, and say something about the different qualities of each. These
are only given as typical examples of the innumerable ways a brush may
be used as an aid to very elementary students; every artist will, of
course, develop ways of his own.

The touch will of necessity depend in the first instance upon the shape
of the brush, and these shapes are innumerable. But there are two
classes into which they can roughly be divided, flat and round. The
round brushes usually sold, which we will call Class A, have rather a
sharp point, and this, although helpful