2m. sm. 



" but think of the wastefulness of 

 using another piece of that ex- 

 pensive water-colour paper I " 



I felt quite abashed at the 

 estimate she had formed of my wicked extravagance, 

 for artists' materials //o make a big hole in a limited 

 supply of pocket money ! Rut at the present time, 

 with matured judgment to help me, I still feel I was 

 right about it : it is impossible to avoid this apparent 

 ^^^ waste at times, for wc must pay for experience in 



"^^B everything, and the experience we have gained, even 



from our failures, has not been lost. 



That dirty, discarded sketch has taught us what 

 to avoid in our next effort, and surely that lesson is 

 worth a few pence spent on a piece of paper. If great 

 economy has to be practised, I would rather buy a 

 cheaper make of paper for these studies, which, after 

 all, are only stepping-stones to something higher, and 

 have no pretensions to being finished works of Art. 

 Whatman's " second quality " for students is reallj- quite 

 excellent material to work upon, being the " throw- 

 outs," i.e. slightly defective pieces of the finest qualit)- 

 made. Sometimes the flaws are unnoticeable, but in 

 any case it is quite good enough for practice, and 

 it is certainly better and more satisfactory to begin a 

 clean, fresh drawing than to muddle about in a desultory 

 way with Que already spoiled. 



Of course, I know alterations are inevitable at 

 times. It happens occasionally that when a group is 

 nearing completion, a glaring fault in composition, 

 that has hitherto escaped our notice, strikes us in 

 the most unpleasantly decided way. In building up the picture, and 

 having it constantly before us da\' by day, its very defects have become so 

 familiar that wc have grown unconsciouslj- to consider them right. But 

 when once we have seen these mistakes, or had our attention drawn to 

 them by a candid critic, the)- obtrude themselves on us so persistentlj- 

 that we cannot rest until we have done our best to remedy them. 



Suppose, for example, in painting a group of flowers we have, 

 unconsciously to ourselves, so arranged tbeni that the)* follow each other,at 

 equal distances (and perhaps in equal sizes), in a straight line, or perhaps 

 they are .so grouped that they mount one above the other at an angle of 

 forty-five degrees, like a flight of steps. 



Once such a mistake is noticed we cannot help seeing it all the time, 

 to the total suppression of any excellent points there may otherwise be 

 in the painting of the pictuic. It must be altered, we feel, but how? 



66 



