ing the lights almost up to the
commencement of the shadows.

#Tone relationships are most sympathetic when the middle values of your
scale only are used, that is to say, when the lights are low in tone and
the darks high.#

#They are most dramatic and intense when the contrasts are great and the
jumps from dark to light sudden.#

The sympathetic charm of half-light effects is due largely to the tones
being of this middle range only; whereas the striking dramatic effect of
a storm clearing, in which you may get a landscape brilliantly lit by
the sudden appearance of the sun, seen against the dark clouds of the
retreating storm, owes much of its dramatic quality to contrast. The
strong contrasts of tone values coupled with the strong colour contrast
between the warm sunlit land and the cold angry blue of the storm, gives
such a scene much dramatic effect and power.

The subject of values will be further treated in dealing with unity of
tone.

[Sidenote: Variety in Quality and Texture]

Variety in quality and nature is almost too subtle to write about with
any prospect of being understood. The play of different qualities and
textures in the masses that go to form a picture must be appreciated at
first hand, and little can be written about it. Oil paint is capable of
almost unlimited variety in this way. But it is better to leave the
study of such qualities until you have mastered the medium in its more
simple aspects.

The particular tone music of which we were speaking is not helped by any
great use of this variety. A oneness of quality throughout the work is
best suited to exhibit it. Masters of tone, like Whistler, preserve this
oneness of quality very carefully in their work, relying chiefly on the
grain of a rough canvas to give the necessary variety and prevent a
deadness in the quality of the tones.

But when more force and brilliancy are wanted, some use of your paint in
a crumbling, broken manner is necessary, as it catches more light, thus
increasing the force of the impression. Claude Monet and his followers
in their search for brilliancy used this quality throughout many of
their paintings, with new and striking results. But it is at the
sacrifice of many beautiful qualities of form, as this roughness of
surface does not lend itself readily to any finesse of modelling. In the
case of Claude Monet's work, however, this does not matter, as form with
all its subtleties is not a thing he made any attempt