249. I have not quite insisted enough on the extreme care which is
necessary in giving the tender evanescence of the edges of the
reflections, when the water is in the least agitated; nor on the
decision with which you may reverse the object, when the water is quite
calm. Most drawing of reflections is at once confused and hard; but
Nature's is at once intelligible and tender. Generally, at the edge of
the water, you ought not to see where reality ceases and reflection
begins; as the image loses itself you ought to keep all its subtle and
varied veracities, with the most exquisite softening of its edge.
Practice as much as you can from the reflections of ships in calm
water, following out all the reversed rigging, and taking, if anything,
more pains with the reflection than with the ship.
NOTE 4, p. 100.--"_Where the reflection is darkest, you will see
through the water best._"
250. For this reason it often happens that if the water be shallow, and
you are looking steeply down into it, the reflection of objects on the
bank will consist simply of pieces of the bottom seen clearly through
the water, and relieved by flashes of light, which are the reflection of
the sky. Thus you may have to draw the reflected dark shape of a bush:
but, inside of that shape, you must not draw the leaves of the bush, but
the stones under the water; and, outside of this dark reflection, the
blue or white of the sky, with no stones visible.