uld never be pure white or pure black masses in
a picture. There is a kind of screaminess set up when one goes the
whole gamut of tone, that gives a look of unrestraint and weakness;
somewhat like the feeling experienced when a vocalist sings his or her
very highest or very lowest note. In a good singer one always feels he
could have gone still higher or still lower, as the case may be, and
this gives an added power to the impression of his singing. And in art,
likewise, it is always advisable to keep something of this reserve
power. Also, the highest lights in nature are never without colour, and
this will lower the tone; neither are the deepest darks colourless, and
this will raise their tone. But perhaps this is dogmatising, and it may
be that beautiful work is to be done with all the extremes you can "clap
on," though I think it very unlikely.

In all the quieter aspects of lighting this range from black to white
paint is sufficient. But where strong, brilliantly lit effects are
wanted, something has to be sacrificed, if this look of brilliancy is to
be made telling.

In order to increase the relationship between some of the tones others
must be sacrificed. There are two ways of doing this. The first, which
was the method earliest adopted, is to begin from the light end of the
scale, and, taking something very near pure white as your highest light,
to get the relationships between this and the next most brilliant tone,
and to proceed thus, tone by tone, from the lightest to the darkest. But
working in this way you will find that you arrive at the greatest dark
you can make in paint before you have completed the scale of
relationships as in nature, if the subject happens to be brilliantly
lit. Another method is to put down the highest light and the darkest
dark, and then work your scale of tone relatively between them. But it
will be found that working in this way, unless the subject in nature is
very quietly lit, you will not get anything like the forceful impression
of tone that nature gives.

The third way, and this is the more modern, is to begin from the dark
end of the scale, getting the true relationship felt between the
greatest dark and the next darkest tone to it, and so on, proceeding
towards the light. By this method you will arrive at your highest light
in paint before the highest light in nature has been reached. All
variety of tone at the light end of the scale will have to be modified
in this case,