l effect. If truth to
natural appearances is carried far in the figures, the same truth will
be expected in the background; but if only certain truths are selected
in the figures, and the treatment does not approach the naturalistic,
much more liberty can be taken with the background without loss of
verisimilitude.

But there is a unity about nature's tone arrangements that it is very
difficult to improve upon; and it is usually advisable, if you can, to
base the scheme of tone in your picture on a good study of values from
nature.

Such effects as twilight, moonlight, or even sunlight were seldom
attempted by the older painters, at any rate in their figure subjects.
All the lovely tone arrangements that nature presents in these more
unusual aspects are a new study, and offer unlimited new material to
the artist. Many artists are content to use this simply for itself, the
beauty of a rare tone effect being sufficient with the simplest
accessories to make a picture. But in figure composition, what new and
wonderful things can be imagined in which some rare aspect of nature's
tone-music is combined with a fine figure design.

These values are not easily perceived with accuracy, although their
influence may be felt by many. A true eye for the accurate perception of
subtle tone arrangements is a thing you should study very diligently to
acquire. How then is this to be done? It is very difficult, if not
impossible, to teach anybody to see. Little more can be said than has
already been written about this subject in the chapter on variety in
mass. Every mass has to be considered in relation to an imagined tone
scale, taking black for your darkest and white for your highest light as
we have seen. A black glass, by reducing the light, enables you to
observe these relationships more accurately; the dazzling quality of
strong light making it difficult to judge them. But this should only be
used to correct one's eye, and the comparison should be made between
nature seen in the glass and your work seen also in the glass. To look
in a black glass and then compare what you saw with your work looked at
direct is not a fair comparison, and will result in low-toned work with
little brilliancy.

Now, to represent this scale of tones in painting we have white paint as
our highest and black paint as our lowest notes. It is never advisable
to play either of these extremes, although you may go very near to them.
That is to say, there sho