THE STUDY
The qualities which make a good study are the reverse of those which
make a good sketch. In the sketch all is sacrificed to the effect, or
to the one thing which is its purpose. The study is what its name
implies, and its purpose is not one thing, but many. In a study you
put in everything which may be valuable. You store it with facts. You
leave out nothing which you wish to put in. It is all material. You
can take and leave in using it afterwards, as you could from nature.
Of course every study has some main intention, but you must take the
trouble to give everything that goes to the making of that.
A study is less of a picture than a sketch is. For unity of effect is
vital to both a sketch and a picture. But this quality is of no
essential value in a study--unless it be a study of unity. For you can
make a _study_ of anything, from a foreground weed to a detailed
interior, from a bit of pebble to a cavalry charge.
But in a study of one thing you concentrate on that thing, you
deliberately and carefully study everything in it, while in a sketch
you work only for general effect. The study is the storehouse of facts
to the painter. By it he assures himself of the literal truths he
needs, collecting them as material in color or black and white, and as
mental material by his mental understanding of them, only to be gained
in this way.
In making a study you may work as long as you please, timing yourself
by the difficulty and size of the thing you are studying. A study of
an interior or a landscape may occupy a week or two; one of a simple
object for some detail in a picture may be a matter of only a few
hours. But in any work of this kind you should be deliberate, and
remember that what you are doing is neither a sketch nor a picture,
but the gathering of material which is to be useful, but which can be
useful only so far as it is accurate.
In making studies, don't try for surface finish; get the facts, and
leave all other qualities for the picture. Don't glaze and scumble,
but work as directly as you can. Study the structure and texture of
whatever you are doing. Understand it thoroughly as you go on, and
search out whatever is not clear to you. This is no place for effects;
nor for slighting or shirking. If you do not do work of this kind
thoroughly, you might as well not do it at all--better; for you are at
least not training yourself to be careless.
There are places where you may be careless, but the making of a study
is not that place.
Take plenty of trouble with preliminaries. Get all your foundation
work true. Have a good drawing, get the groundwork well laid in, and
then build your superstructure of careful study.
Don't be afraid of over-exactness, nor of hardness and edginess here.
All that is only an excess of precision, and it is just as well to
have it. You can leave it out if you want to in your picture, but a
groundwork of exactness is not to be despised.
Be exact also with your values. If your study is not sure of its
values, it will weaken the results you should get from it later.
Make your studies in the same light as that which the picture will
represent. You can paint a picture under any light you please if your
studies give you the facts as to light and shade that the truth to
nature requires; but studies made in one light for a picture
representing another are useless to that picture.
No good painting was ever made without preliminary studies. When you
are to make a picture, therefore, take plenty of time to prepare
yourself with all the material in the form of facts that you may
require. Don't trust to building up a picture from a sketch or two and
your "general knowledge." That sort of thing is something which a
painter of experience may do after storing his mind for years with
all sorts of knowledge; but it will not do for most people--least of
all for a student. And it is a dangerous way for any one to work. Even
the experienced painter is apt to do the worse work for it, and if he
does so constantly, his reputation may suffer for it. Take time to be
right.
[Illustration: =Study of a Blooming-Mill.= _D. Burleigh Parkhurst._]
Don't be afraid of taking measurements. Every one who did anything
worth looking at took measurements. Leonardo laid down a complete
system of proportions. You can't get your proportions right without
measurements, and if your proportions are not right, nothing will be
right. Use a plumb-line: use it frequently, and measure horizontals
and verticals. If you are in doubt about anything, stop a minute and
measure. It takes less time than correcting.
Whatever you do, get the character first, then the details. Character
is not a conglomeration of details. The detail is the incident of
character. See what the vital things are first, then search farther.
Use your intelligence as well as your eye and hand. Think as you work.
Don't for a moment let your hand get ahead of your brain. Don't work
absent-mindedly, nor without purpose. If your mind is tired, if your
eye won't see, stop and rest a while. Tired work runs your picture
down hill.