ing it up to the surrounding work, and proceed as before, drawing in
the light and shadow masses.

This form of drawing you will probably find more difficult at first. For
the reason already explained it seems natural to observe objects as
made up of outlines, not masses. The frame with cottons across it should
be used to flatten the appearance, as in making outline drawings. And
besides this a black glass should be used. This can easily be made by
getting a small piece of glass--a photographic negative will do--and
sticking some black paper on the back; turning it over the front to keep
the raw edges of the glass from cutting the fingers. Or the glass can be
painted on the back with black paint. Standing with your back to the
object and your painting, hold this glass close in front of one of your
eyes (the other being closed), so that you can see both your painting
and the object. Seeing the tones thus reduced and simplified, you will
be enabled more easily to correct your work.

I should like to emphasise the importance of the setting-out work
necessary for brush-drawing. While it is not necessary to put expressive
work into this preparatory work, the utmost care should be taken to
ensure its accuracy as far as it goes. It is a great nuisance if, after
you have put up some of your fair structure, you find the foundations
are in the wrong place and the whole thing has to be torn down and
shifted. It is of the utmost necessity to have the proportions and the
main masses settled at this early stage, and every device of blocking
out with square lines and measuring with your knitting-needle, &c.,
should be adopted to ensure the accuracy of these large proportions. The
variations and emphases that feeling may dictate can be done in the
painting stage. This initial stage is not really a drawing at all, but a
species of mapping out, and as such it should be regarded. The only
excuse for making the elaborate preparatory drawings on canvas students
sometimes do, is that it enables them to learn the subject, so that when
they come to paint it, they already know something about it. But the
danger of making these preparatory drawings interesting is that the
student fears to cover them up and lose an outline so carefully and
lovingly wrought; and this always results in a poor painting. When you
take up a brush to express yourself, it must be with no fear of hurting
a careful drawing. Your drawing is going to be done with the brush,