I am getting on with my pictures, and have now got them all three into a
fairly forward state of _under_ painting; completion, however, will only
be reached in the course of next winter, for I intend to execute them
with minute care. I have simplified my method of painting, and forsworn
all _tricks_. I endeavour to advance from the beginning as much as
possible, and equally try to mix the right tint, and slowly and
carefully to put it on the right spot, and _always_ with the model
before me; what does not exactly suit has to be adapted; one can derive
benefit from every head. Schwind says that he cannot work from models,
they _worry_ him! A splendid teacher for his pupils! Nature worries
every one at first, but one must so discipline oneself that, instead of
checking and hindering, she shall illuminate and help, and solve all
doubts. Has Schwind, with his splendid and varied gifts, ever been able
to model a head with a brush? Those who place the brush behind the
pencil, under the pretence that _form_ is before all things, make a very
great mistake. Form _is certainly all-important_; one cannot study it
enough; _but_ the greater part of _form_ falls within the province of
the tabooed _brush_. The ever-lasting hobby of _contour_ which belongs
to the drawing material is first the _place_ where the _form_ comes in;
what, however, reveals true knowledge of form, is a powerful, organic,
refined finish of modelling, full of feeling and knowledge--and that is
the affair of the brush.
_Leighton._