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THE ART OF SKETCHING FROM NATURE. 
 
 
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PLATE XV 
 
 VmcentBrookSjDay 8tSonLUi 
 
 PH Delaniollje Del 
 
 OLD PORCH, EAST GRINSTEAD 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2019 with funding from 
 Getty Research Institute 
 
 https://archive.org/details/artofsketchingfrOOdela 
 
CHISWICK PRESS C. WHITTINGHAM AND CO., 'I'OOKS COURT, 
 CHANCERY LANE. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The art of sketching is at least as much the property of the amateur as it is 
 of the artist. Whilst the latter uses it as one of the means by which he 
 obtains materials for future pictures, and also, in a less degree, as a mode 
 of studying nature ; to the amateur, sketching becomes of still greater import¬ 
 ance. It is the record of many an hour devoted to the calm enjoyment 
 of natural beauty, or of the monuments of man’s handicraft; it becomes the 
 chronicle of many a holiday spent in visiting new scenes and observing new 
 facts, and it is the one great means of learning the lessons of beauty and of 
 taste that this beautiful world is constantly presenting to our eyes. In the 
 artist’s mind the sketch is always connected with a possible picture; a sense 
 of duty and work are in a certain sense inevitably mingled with the most 
 fascinating scene; and the fact that the half transcript of nature and half 
 composition may some clay pass into the hands of a stranger, prevents that 
 unalloyed enjoyment of the art which the amateur, revelling in a purer 
 domesticated love for his own sketches, entertains towards them as towards his 
 own offspring. We find, then, that whilst but few amateurs ever paint a 
 picture that will at all bear comparison, even in their own eyes, with the 
 works of moderate artists, collections of sketches as valuable to the owners 
 as anything they possess are common to artists and amateurs alike. 
 
 The highest personages in the land not only allow themselves the enjoyment 
 of this fascinating art, but even sometimes permit their productions to be scrutinized 
 
VI 
 
 Preface. 
 
 and commented on by a wider circle than that of their own immediate attendants. 
 Men of all professions seek the recreating powers of Nature in the contemplation of 
 her work ; and not unfrequently they seek it in that best study of her beauty by 
 transcribing the impressions she produces on their minds, sometimes in a very- 
 unpretentious manner, but probably with none the less enjoyment to the quasi 
 artist from the fact that the work is not so intelligible to others as to himself. 
 Occasionally, men who shine in the senate, at the bar, or in the pulpit, let the 
 world see in public exhibitions that it is not artists alone who enjoy the 
 practice of sketching or who possess a feeling for art. Perhaps there are few 
 artists who have kept in their possession such a numerous collection of faithful 
 studies as have been accumulated in the hands of many well-known ama¬ 
 teurs ; such indefatigible sketchers, for instance, as Mr. Gambier Parry, the late 
 Rev. J. L. Petit, the late Dean Alford, or Mrs. Roberton Blaine. 
 
 To assist those, then, who wish to make some attempt at transcribing the 
 
 scenes they may witness, who do not wish to paint pictures , but who desire to 
 learn to sketch , the following pages have been written. 
 
 In order to introduce my readers to a fuller view of the whole subject of 
 sketching than any set of mere rules, or any collection of examples of my own 
 could give them, I have introduced specimens of the works of some of our 
 greatest landscape sketchers; and for permission to reproduce these works I 
 have to thank many kind friends : among whom I may mention, Mr. E. W. 
 
 Cooke, R.A.; Mr. H. R. Taylor, for the Girtin; Mr. Bull, for the Varley; 
 
 Mrs. Selle, for the Varley on the title-page; and the Misses Petit, for Prout’s 
 sketch at Dover and several sketches by their brother, the late Rev. J. L. Petit. 
 
 My hope is, that I may encourage and enable some who already appreciate 
 the beauties of nature to attempt, and to continue to attempt, to delineate 
 some of the objects they constantly have before them. If the following pages 
 lighten the labour, diminish the difficulties, and encourage perseverance, my 
 work will not have been wasted. 
 
C O N T 
 
 Page 
 
 Introduction. 1—3 
 
 Sketching. 1 
 
 Use of Copies. 2 
 
 Chapter I.—Materials.4—13 
 
 Paper. 4 
 
 Easel. 8 
 
 Pencils and Brushes. 9 
 
 Colours. 10 
 
 Chapter II.—Progressive Lessons. . . 15—19 
 
 Sky. 15 
 
 Clouds. 16 
 
 H ills. 17 
 
 Middle Distance. 18 
 
 Local Colour. 19 
 
 Foregrounds. 19 
 
 Chapter IIP—Trees.20—28 
 
 Trees generally. 20 
 
 Elms. 22 
 
 Scotch Fir. 24 
 
 Oak. 26 
 
 Willow. 27 
 
 Chapter IV.—Foregrounds.29—37 
 
 Outline. 29 
 
 Rock. 31 
 
 Royal Fern. 31 
 
 Dock Leaves. 32 
 
 Burdock Leaves. 33 
 
 Coltsfoot. 34 
 
 Ferns and Brambles. 36 
 
 ENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Chapter V.—On What to Sketch, Com¬ 
 
 position, etc.38—47 
 
 One principal Subject. 39 
 
 Direction of Light. 40 
 
 Light against Dark, Dark against Light . 41 
 
 Horizon. 42 
 
 Strong Points. 42 
 
 Repetition. 43 
 
 Contrast. 44 
 
 Variety of Form. 45 
 
 Artificial Shapes of Light and Shade . . 46 
 
 Chapter VI.—Water, etc.48—51 
 
 Transparency. 48 
 
 Reflexion. 48 
 
 Table of Tints. 52 
 
 Chapter VII.—Sketching Copies . . . 53—58 
 
 Ruined Cottage. 54 
 
 Studies of Colour. 55 
 
 Old Porch at East Grinstead. 56 
 
 Chapter VIII.— Sketches of other 
 
 Artists.59—69 
 
 J. Varley. 59 
 
 S. Prout, “Cottage in Kent”. 60 
 
 P. Dewint, “ Unfinished Sketch ” ... 61 
 
 T. Girtin, “ Llanberis ” . 63 
 
 E. W. Cooke, “ Rouge et Noir” . . . . 64 
 
 Final Hints. 67 
 
I. 
 
 II. 
 
 III. 
 
 IV. 
 V. 
 
 VI. 
 
 VII. 
 
 VIII. 
 IX. 
 
 X. 
 
 XI. 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Oystermouth Castle 
 Ovstermouth Castle 
 Oystermouth Castle 
 The Elm .... 
 The Scotch Fir. . 
 The Oak .... 
 The Willow . . . 
 Foregrounds I and 2 
 Foregrounds 3 and 4 
 Foreground 5 . . 
 
 Foregrounds 6 and 7 
 
 COLOURED PLATES. 
 
 (P. H. Delamotte) 
 
 Page 
 
 l6 
 
 XII. 
 
 Foregrounds 8 and 9 (P. H. Delamotte ) 
 
 Page 
 
 3 6 
 
 '1 
 
 18 
 
 
 Table of Tints . . 
 
 11 
 
 52 
 
 11 
 
 19 
 
 XIII. 
 
 Ruined Cottage . 
 
 11 
 
 54 
 
 11 
 
 22 
 
 XIV. 
 
 Study of Colours . 
 
 11 
 
 55 
 
 11 
 
 24 
 
 XV. 
 
 Old Porch .... 
 
 
 11 
 
 26 
 
 XVI. 
 
 Sketch. 
 
 . . {J. Varley) 
 
 59 
 
 11 
 
 27 
 
 XVII. 
 
 View of Kent . . . 
 
 . . (S. Pront) 
 
 60 
 
 11 
 
 31 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 Unfinished Sketch . 
 
 (P. Dewint) 
 
 62 
 
 11 
 
 32 
 
 XIX. 
 
 Llanberis. 
 
 
 64 
 
 11 
 
 33 
 
 XX. 
 
 Rouge et Noir . (E . 
 
 IV. Cooke , R.A .) 
 
 66 
 
 11 
 
 34 
 
 
 
 
 
 WOOD ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 Sketching Bag. 
 
 Sketching Stool. 
 
 Easel. 
 
 Sketching Stool and Easel . 
 
 Brushes. 
 
 Oystermouth Castle (Outline) 
 The Elm .... ,, 
 
 Scotch Firs ... „ 
 
 The Oak .... 
 
 The Willow ... „ 
 
 Foreground ... „ 
 
 Swansea Bay, Fig. 1 . . . 
 
 Pace 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 10 
 
 24 
 
 26 
 
 27 
 29 
 
 38 
 
 Flarlech Castle, Fig. 2.( Varley ) 
 
 Coast Scenes, Fig. 3.( Collins) 
 
 “ Rivers of France,” Fig. 4 .... ( Turner ) 
 
 “At Dover,” Fig. 5. (Prout) 
 
 The Farm Yard, Fig. 6.( Girtin) 
 
 From a Sketch by Rev. J. L. Petit. Fig. 7 . . 
 
 Diagram (Reflexion), Fig. 8. 
 
 » „ Figs. 9, 10. 
 
 Norham Castle, Fig. 11.( Turner) 
 
 “ Rivers of France,” Fig. 12 . . . „ 
 
 Old Bridge at York, Fig. 13 . . . „ 
 
 From a Sketch by Rev. J. L. Petit , Fig. 14 . . 
 
 Page 
 
 39 
 
 41 
 
 43 
 
 44 
 
 45 
 
 46 
 
 49 
 
 50 
 
 51 
 53 
 57 
 69 
 
SKETCHING FROM NATURE 
 
 IN 
 
 WATER-COLOURS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 SKETCHING. 
 
 Nothing will teach sketching so well as sketching. The actual study from 
 nature is the only true way of acquiring the power of representing nature. 
 Not unfrequently a drawing-master is requested to teach an amateur who has 
 some notion of pencil drawing, how to sketch after the style of some most 
 distinguished artist ; he is asked in how many lessons the art can be acquired. 
 It is to be supposed that these would-be Turners or Landseers forget that it 
 has cost such great men as these the full use of remarkable powers, and the 
 whole study of a lifetime to obtain the facility that they themselves expect to 
 acquire in a certain number of lessons, by the assistance of a teacher, who, if 
 he himself possessed the powers that they desire, would certainly not be very 
 anxious to employ time, that would be extremely valuable, in teaching those 
 who have but a moderate desire to learn, and probably still more moderate 
 abilities for learning. The utmost that a drawing-master can do in initiating 
 his pupils into the mysteries of sketching—an art, we cannot too often remind 
 our readers, entirely distinct from painting—is to give them some hints by 
 which they may overcome the principal and most prominent difficulties ; to show 
 them how they may choose fit subjects for these attempts—how certain effects 
 
 B 
 
Sketching from Nature in JVatcr-Colours. 
 
 may be reproduced ; and to encourage them to persevere, in spite of many 
 failures and many discouragements. 
 
 THE USE OF COPIES. 
 
 In this work two copies are given in various stages of progress, in order 
 to show the beginner how he should set to work. We should advise careful 
 study of these sketches, and even more careful copies to be made from them; 
 and still the student must remember that this is not sketching, and it is only 
 intended to give him some clue how to sketch. He will do well then to copy 
 one or both of these, then to choose some subject of somewhat similar character, 
 to attempt to transcribe nature’s own copy, and, where he finds that he 
 fails, let him return again and again to these copies, and to the various 
 works of eminent artists—when he can, to the originals; but if not, to such 
 copies as we have given. From these and from the explanations we intend to 
 give he will receive considerable help in discovering the means employed by 
 various artists to produce certain effects, but he must not expect to acquire 
 the style of any one man. If he studies the works of one man only, no 
 doubt his own work will assume a certain superficial likeness to that of the 
 master he has chosen for himself; but the inspiration and the reality will be 
 wanting: all that really makes the original pictures truly valuable will be missing. 
 He must go to nature direct, and acquire his style from her, for style is 
 
 really the way in which a man sees nature. Style in painting, sketching, and 
 
 the kindred arts, is as much a man’s own as his handwriting or his style in com¬ 
 position. It is just as easy and just as possible for a learner to acquire the 
 style of a great artist, as it is for a schoolboy to imitate the style of Addison 
 or Macaulay, Cicero or Tacitus—he may copy the most striking peculiarities, 
 those very points which are rather failures in the originals, but he fails 
 entirely to produce such works as they have left behind them. At the same 
 time the practice of imitation has done him some good — it has helped to 
 
 form the style of the learner, has led him to notice peculiarities, and has 
 
 shown him how great men of old overcame some of the commonest of 
 difficulties. A man who wishes to write good English will study the works 
 ot great English writers, often men whose style is very different from his own ; 
 and so any one who wishes to sketch well will study the sketches of great 
 
Introduction. 
 
 artists. For this purpose we present him here with sketches by some men 
 who have been eminent in this line, and at the same time some simple works 
 of our own, and, by describing how these latter have been done, enable the 
 beginner to follow in his own work the steps that have been taken. The 
 subjects chosen are simple, in order that there may be no difficulty in fol¬ 
 lowing the steps by which the results have been arrived at; and in order to 
 conduce still more to this object, the drawings are given in various stages of 
 progress. It will be well for the student to begin by observing closely the 
 copies, comparing the early with the later stages, noticing why various washes 
 are first laid on which disappear almost entirely as the subsequent steps are 
 made. It is always these first washes which are most puzzling to beginners. It 
 is difficult to see what oreneral tones of colour underlie the minuter markines, 
 and this may be partially found out by comparing finished with unfinished 
 drawings. By these means, and by studying actual landscapes with a view to 
 discern the general tints, we shall not be entirely at a loss for what washes to 
 put in first. By looking at a view with the eyes half closed, some of these general 
 washes may be noted ; not that it will be advisable to put them on so dark as 
 they there appear, because many subsequent additions will have to be made to 
 keep up the variety of nature, but the general tints may be observed. Again, 
 theory will enable the eye to see what otherwise it is unable to trace. Thus we 
 do not easily see that the grass at our feet is brighter and more green than the 
 patch a mile off, on which the sun is gleaming; but when theory has told us 
 that it is so, and the practice of one or two attempts has confirmed the theory, 
 we feel no doubt about it, and have no difficulty in preparing a colour which 
 beforehand we could not imagine how to mix. Thus theory may be acquired 
 from books, but it must be confirmed and modified by practice; and thus copies 
 may suggest, but actual sketching from nature alone will make the suggestions 
 available. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 MATERIALS. 
 
 Tiie materials required for sketching in water-colours are neither numerous 
 nor complicated. It is best to start with a small supply at first, adding by 
 degrees such appliances as may be found useful and convenient by each 
 individual. A description will be given here of what is generally necessary, 
 so that each one may judge for himself what he may consider requisite in his 
 own case. It is of course impossible to sketch without paper, brushes, colours, 
 and water vessel, whilst the following appliances will add very considerably to 
 the comfort of the sketcher, viz., sketching bag, stool, and easel, and conse¬ 
 quently will conduce to excellence of work. For though it is well for every one 
 to have to conquer difficulties, and by having overcome them to be independent 
 of minor conveniences, still success in such delicate work as sketching, or 
 indeed any kind of painting, is so dependent upon the frame of mind in which 
 the operator may be at the time, that everything which can conduce to comfort 
 and freedom from anxiety makes success more probable, though it cannot make 
 it certain. 
 
 TAPER. 
 
 The choice of paper is an important matter, inasmuch as the style of the 
 sketch depends greatly upon the material used ; the manipulation differs with 
 different surfaces, and the tone of colouring is much affected by the ground 
 upon which the colours are laid. It would naturally be supposed that it would 
 be easiest to lay colour upon a perfectly pure white and smooth ground; but 
 this is not found to be the case. Most drawing-papers consequently are 
 slightly tinged with a warm tint, and have a rough surface. Unless the paper 
 
Chap. I.] 
 
 Materials. 
 
 a 
 
 is tinged, the beginner, at all events, will find that he is compelled to put on 
 washes which will take some length of time to dry, or his colouring will 
 look cold and dead ; and unless the paper is somewhat rough, the colour will 
 drag and will not lie evenly, whereas on the uneven surface of the material 
 washes of any depth will lie, and will look more brilliant than they can be 
 made to look by any process upon a smooth surface. The papers in com¬ 
 monest use are Whatman’s medium, the thick and thin Harding; others use 
 drawing-papers tinted with various colours, the rough Imitation Creswick, and 
 some papers artificially roughened. All these are but slightly sized, and conse¬ 
 quently receive colour well. Common cartridge paper is excellent for pencil 
 drawing, and it “ bites ” remarkably well, but in consequence of being more sized 
 it does not do so well for colouring. 
 
 The tinted papers have a comparatively smooth surface, so that for minute 
 drawing with much detail these are perhaps preferable; but for the same reason, 
 from their smoothness, they are scarcely so well adapted for sketching as for 
 water-colour drawing, two things which we must warn the student are entirely 
 separate and distinct. The Harding paper has a smooth side, which can be 
 used with advantage for highly-finished sketches or pencil drawings, but being 
 more glazed it is not so useful for quick sketching. 
 
 The irregularities of the right side of the Harding and the artificially 
 roughened papers, and, most of all, of the Imitation Creswick papers, prevent 
 so great elaboration of detail, but yield a great transparency and a depth of 
 colour, which may be produced on them in a short time. The advantage 
 of the Harding is that both sides are available. The wrong side is smoother 
 and better adapted to the pencil, at the same time it takes colour freely. 
 The unevenness of these papers will allow a tolerably dry brush to be passed 
 over them, so that the projecting points of the paper alone catch the colour, 
 whilst the hollows retain the tint of the earliest washes. A great variety of 
 effects is thus posssible on papers of this description, and consequently they 
 are most popular. It will be found that most people use the Harding papers, 
 whilst a few whose sketches are rough and effective, but will not bear minute 
 inspection, prefer the Imitation Creswick . 1 
 
 1 This paper takes its name from a celebrated manufacturer, whose actual process was lost, but 
 whose paper was imitated. It is not connected with the former Royal Academician of the same 
 
 name. 
 
6 
 
 Sketching from Nature in Water-Colour 
 
 [Chap. I. 
 
 Many celebrated artists, and amongst them may be mentioned Turner, 
 Stanfield, senior, Cox, Dewint, D. Roberts, and Harding, frequently made 
 use of tinted papers such as are usually employed for pencil drawing; but these, 
 though extremely effective in such hands, require the knowledge, experience, and 
 skill in manipulation of the master. Amongst the best known of such sketches 
 should be especially noticed those of D. Roberts in the Holy Land . 1 
 
 When the paper is procured, the next step is to prepare it for using by 
 stretching it. This may be done in various ways. If making a water-colour 
 drawing were the object, the simplest plan perhaps would be to take a plain 
 drawing-board, and having damped the paper sufficiently, allowing the water 
 to moisten it thoroughly through so that it will bend without a crease, to 
 place it flat on the board, doubling the edges of the paper (which must 
 be a couple of inches larger than the board on each side) over to the back, 
 and securing it then by paste or glue. But as this process is somewhat 
 tedious, and paste is not always at hand, a panel board is preferable. In this 
 the panel fits loosely into a frame, to which it can be fastened by cross-bars 
 at the back. The wetted paper must be placed on the face of the panel, over 
 which the frame is then put ; the whole is turned over and secured by the 
 cross-bars. All that then remains to be done is to wait until the paper is 
 ready. It is well to prepare this over night, so as to give it plenty of time to 
 dry. This is by far the best arrangement when the subject to be sketched 
 is at no great distance from home, so that the heavy board has not to be 
 carried far, nor the surface of the paper to be exposed to the perils of 
 transit. But a board is, after all, somewhat a clumsy article to carry about; 
 various devices, therefore, have been adopted by artists and amateurs to remedy 
 the inconvenience. Some have made use of books, which are certainly very 
 suitable for small subjects and for pencil memoranda, but when large washes 
 are employed, there is nothing to prevent the paper from cockling , as it is 
 
 1 The late Rev, J. L. Petit always used the rough Creswick paper, but then it must be remem¬ 
 bered that his object was the collecting of a large number of subjects for the purpose of having 
 them before him when writing; and those who know his writings will remember how much stress 
 
 he lays upon the beauty of architectural proportion and picturesqueness of the subject; and I may 
 
 * , 
 
 add, that all his early sketch-books prove that he thoroughly understood all the minutest detail 
 both in architecture and shipping, for many of these books contain most beautiful and highly- 
 finished details. 
 
Chap. I.] 
 
 Materials. 
 
 7 
 
 termed; that is, rising as if it had bubbles of air underneath it. A pad or 
 block of paper already stretched is not liable to this drawback, but, on the 
 other hand, it is heavy to carry—a great consideration with a traveller in search 
 of the picturesque. A plan adopted by an eminent amateur sketcher was to 
 carry with him a piece of stout millboard, covered on both sides with a coating 
 of strongish leather. On this he placed the paper, which in his case was always 
 a stiff rough material, and secured it at the four corners by large drugget-pins 
 run through the paper into the leather. This is lighter than a panel board, and 
 it is preferable to the plain board, because the pins here used do not make the 
 same large round spot in the corners that would be produced by the ordinary 
 drawing-pins ; it is more convenient than the panelled board, because not only 
 is it lighter, but no time is required to dry the damped sheet, and for a rapid 
 sketcher it is useful, as it enables him to carry several sheets with him, and 
 as soon as one sketch is finished to begin another if he finds a subject. 
 
 A sketcher’s bag is a great convenience. It is made of mackintosh, or 
 other waterproof material strong enough to stand a little rough wear. It is 
 just long enough to contain quarter sheets of paper or a quarto block. This, 
 with loose sketches, will go in one compartment; the division which separates 
 this from the other side has pockets for colour-box, brushes, pencil-case, 
 a very small sketch-book, and similar articles. Various matters may be 
 placed in the other compartment; and there is, again, an extra pocket outside 
 
8 
 
 Sketching from Nature in Water-Colours. 
 
 [Chap. I. 
 
 SKETCHING STOOL. 
 
 under the flap for water-bottle, sponge, and other things that may be found 
 necessary. One advantage of this bag, which is perhaps not part of the 
 
 original intention, is, that on an odd occasion it 
 may be made to do duty for the necessities of a 
 night, and thus relieve the artist from the trouble 
 of more than one package. A strap from the 
 corners goes over the shoulders, and, whilst 
 making it convenient to' carry, keeps the whole 
 flat. There is just one other addition. I some¬ 
 times use a bag that has two small straps at the 
 lower edge, so that I can strap on a small 
 
 sketching-stool; this leaves the hand free to 
 carry an umbrella, which, by the by, should have 
 a white loose cover, to be put on at pleasure. 
 
 A stool of some sort is a great advantage, for 
 
 not only is a seat on the ground unpleasant, and sometimes impossible, but, 
 as will be seen in the chapter on Composition, too depressed a seat will bring 
 
 •the horizon line too low in the picture, and 
 hide striking points that appear to the spectator 
 when standing In fact, standing is often the 
 best position for the picture ; but of course it 
 
 is impossible to remain long in such a posi¬ 
 
 tion, supporting the paper and whatever it is 
 stretched on, with colour-box on the thumb, 
 and brush in hand. Some rest is required, 
 and this is best found on a three-legged 
 stool; three-legged, because it stands firmly 
 on uneven ground, whereas with a four-footed 
 one, one foot is sure to be in the air ; right as 
 a trivet (three-foot) has become a proverb. 
 
 EASEL. 
 
 Other contrivances for saving inconve¬ 
 nience and trouble from time to time are 
 
Chap. I.] 
 
 Materials. 
 
 9 
 
 brought out by manufacturers. Amongst these a light easel, which can be doubled 
 up and carried in the hand, and so fastened together as to form a walking- 
 stick will be found advanta¬ 
 geous in two ways: the one is, 
 that it places the drawing in a 
 convenient position in front of 
 the draughtsman, who can sit 
 with comfort before his sketch 
 instead of having his back 
 crooked at one moment and 
 the next instant the neck turned 
 upwards in order to look at the 
 view itself; the saving of the 
 sketcher from the unnecessary 
 weight of his pad or strainer 
 is the second advantage of the 
 easel, and this is a matter of im¬ 
 portance, as, whilst preventing 
 fatigue, it enables him to devote 
 more energy to the work in sketching stool and easel combined. 
 
 hand. Any one tired with a 
 
 lengthy walk under a burden of complicated and heavy materiel, whilst the sun 
 itself, which is usually powerful in the weather that offers most temptation for 
 sketching, contributes its share to the other causes of weariness, is not in a fit 
 condition to transmit pleasurable emotions to the blank sheet of paper before him. 
 
 PENCILS AND BRUSHES. 
 
 One pencil is quite sufficient for all the ordinary work preperatory to a 
 water-colour sketch, and this should be an H. or HB. Remember, an H. 
 pencil will mark as black as an HB. on rough paper. Some sketches are pro¬ 
 duced by making a pencil drawing first and afterwards tinting with colour, but 
 these can scarcely be called water-colour sketches. 
 
 Of brushes a greater variety is requisite, but^even here fewer than most 
 people would imagine are sufficient. Many sketcners make use of but one 
 large red sable, which, if it be well chosen, will come to a point fine enough 
 
 c 
 
IO 
 
 Sketching from Nature in Water- Colours. 
 
 [Chap. I. 
 
 to make the smallest possible stroke ; but this requires a neatness and steadi¬ 
 ness of hand not possessed by all. Two brushes, of different sizes, and some¬ 
 times a third, fine, with long hair, for the ropes of shipping and similar fine 
 lines, will be certainly all required. It is of importance that these should be 
 chosen well. They should be of black or red sable . 1 Those enclosed in 
 metal are to be preferred to quills, since the latter are apt to burst and crack 
 if left in the water, for the moisture causes the thread to swell under the 
 
 quill, which at first bulges and then gives way. To this the metal is not 
 liable. Let no notion of convenience induce you to shorten the handles ; 
 far better to have the inconvenience of extra length to carry than to cramp 
 the hand and work with a brush held close to the end. 
 
 COLOURS. 
 
 To look at the list of colours furnished by an artist’s colourman is enough 
 to frighten the beginner. Cakes, pans, or tubes, at various prices from a 
 guinea to a shilling, with names unintelligible, deceptive, and perfectly incom¬ 
 prehensible, form altogether enough to bewilder those who have no key to 
 the difficulties. There is really, however, no cause for fright or despair. 
 These lists of colours are intended to give an extensive choice to those already 
 acquainted with their various peculiarities, but with these there are generally 
 given selections, more or less judicious, with which a beginning may be made. 
 The colours actually required are not numerous, and are certainly not the most 
 expensive. As to the choice between cakes and moist colours for sketching, 
 the subject to which alone we are at present addressing ourselves, there is no 
 doubt that the moist colours are much the more convenient. Cakes are most 
 
 ' Red sable is by far the best, as there is more spring in the brush ; and a good brush will 
 always return to a point. 
 
Chap. 1.] 
 
 Colours. 
 
 i i 
 
 useful sometimes in making finished drawings ; 1 into that matter we cannot 
 at present enter, but the readiness for use which the pan of moist colour 
 presents, makes it by far the most useful form in which colours can be 
 prepared. Tubes may be required by those who do very large drawings, but 
 otherwise there is a good deal of inconvenience about the general use of them, 
 though not unfrequently the sketcher will find a tube of one or two favourite 
 colours rather agreeable, but perhaps a dangerous temptation. Every painter 
 has his own fancies about the pigments he uses, and the student will no doubt 
 after a time make his own list ; in the meantime the following notes will be 
 of some assistance to him. He will find that it is advisable to carry about 
 only a small box of eight, ten, or at the most twelve colours, but these should 
 not always be the same; when one pan is exhausted, let him try the effect 
 of another colour of somewhat similar character. This will give him expe¬ 
 rience, and prevent a sameness of colouring that is otherwise apt to grow upon 
 sketchers. At home, in painting, any amount of variety may be used with 
 advantage ; but whilst actually studying from nature, the use of as few pigments 
 as possible, to give the requisite colours, causes far greater freedom. One point 
 should be always remembered, that brightness of tone or ease of working will not 
 compensate for want of permanence in pigments. It is extremely disappointing, 
 after having made a successful sketch, to find that in a year or two it begins 
 to look dull, and the colouring becomes incongruous. 
 
 The whole of the pigments mentioned below, with the exceptions specially 
 mentioned, will be found to be permanent in water-colours. 
 
 Cobalt, a light, semi-transparent blue, is extremely useful, both pure and 
 in combination with other colours. It mixes best with those of a similar 
 degree of transparency, such as light red and yellow ochre. It will be found 
 best adapted to skies and distances, and in combination to middle distances ; 
 too near the foreground it appears cold and opaque. 
 
 French Blue is an artificial imitation of ultramarine, and completely fills 
 the place of the more expensive pigment. It is of a deep blue, inclined to 
 purple, and mixes well with brown madder (making a most extensive series 
 of greys), with opaque and semi-opaque colours. A little Chinese white is 
 
 1 The late Mr. Charles Winston always used cake colours for his drawings, saying that he was 
 able to obtain greater transparency and brilliancy from them. His collection of nearly 700 original 
 drawings is now in the British Museum. 
 
12 Sketching from Nature in Water-Colours. [Chap. I- 
 
 sometimes an advantage to both these colours, especially in skies ; it causes 
 them to work more evenly, and prevents heaviness. 
 
 Cyanine is a somewhat new pigment, said to be perfectly permanent, of 
 a hue almost as intense as indigo, and as bright as Prussian blue. This is 
 a most useful colour in all landscape painting, and particularly adapted for 
 making various classes of greens. It will no doubt in time entirely super¬ 
 sede the following colour, of which, however, we give a description, as it has 
 up to the present time been a great favourite with most artists. 
 
 Indigo is a very useful colour, but it labours under^the disadvantage of not 
 being perfectly permanent. In deep foreground greens it is not to be surpassed, 
 and it mixes well with almost all yellows. With Indian red it forms a powerful 
 neutral, which has the peculiarity of drying less blue than it appears when wet. 
 
 Lake, like the last-named pigment, is not quite permanent — it bleaches 
 somewhat with age ; but from its peculiar colour and its extreme transparency, 
 it is a paint which can scarcely be dispensed with. It is extremely useful 
 in neutrals, and in deadening the too great brilliancy of greens. It mixes 
 well with any of the blues, and gives a warmth to sepia and other browns. 
 
 Drown Madder, and its near ally, 
 
 Purple Madder, are most enticing pigments. They work well, and mix 
 with any of the ordinary colours. In skies they give most delicate cloud 
 tints, and in foregrounds they afford rich transparent shadows. 
 
 Light Red and Venetian Red are two opaque colours, very useful for 
 mixing, d hey can be used in light washes, and in those of some considerable 
 depth in brickwork, roofs, &c. 
 
 Indian Red has more body than either of the former, and approaches 
 more nearly to the tint of lake. It is a useful colour, but rather inclined to 
 be heavy unless used in light washes. 
 
 Burnt Sienna is mid-way between red and yellow, and yet it is not an 
 orange. It partakes sufficiently of the yellow to form a great number of 
 
 most useful greens; and it is enough of a red to be used in rocks, stones, 
 
 stems, &c., both pure and in combination with browns and reds. 
 
 Yellow Ochre is a pale, useful yellow. In sunset skies and in all warm 
 
 o e & round s it is the underlying colour of which wash after wash has to be 
 
 put on. It combines well with light red (which is only yellow ochre burnt), 
 and with most other reds except lake. With cyanine, indigo, and cobalt, it 
 
Chap. I.] 
 
 Colours. 
 
 forms a great variety of greens. If one were compelled to paint with one 
 yellow, ochre might almost be made to do duty for all others. 
 
 Razo Sienna is a pleasant, semi-transparent colour, but from a certain 
 stickiness it is unpleasant to work with. 
 
 Gamboge . A bright yellow which is almost indispensable for the warm 
 greens of foregrounds. Unfortunately its permanence cannot be relied on. 
 
 Indian Yellow is a a powerful yellow of great body, which contributes to 
 all the stronger greens. It is a fascinating colour, but, if not carefully used, 
 is apt to give a tone to the whole of the picture. 
 
 Aurcolin is almost as powerful as Indian yellow, but it approaches rather 
 nearer to an orange. For this reason it does not help much towards the 
 range of greens, but in sunsets it is useful both in the sky and in foregrounds. 
 
 Brown Pink is an entire misnomer. It is rather a brownish yellow, useful 
 in middle distances, both pure and mixed with various blues. It also is useful 
 for foreground washes. It gets its name of pink from the nature of the 
 material, which is closely allied to lake. 
 
 Sepia is a colour often used by itself in giving only shades. Its trans¬ 
 parency leads to this use of it. Occasionally drawings are done with two 
 colours, of which one is sepia and the other cobalt or French blue. These 
 are useful practices for beginners. A little lake added to the sepia makes the 
 pleasant colour sold as warm sepia. It enters into the composition of some 
 of the deeper greens. 
 
 Vandyke Brown is a powerful colour, which will combine with the darker 
 colours for shadows. 
 
 From the above list the student can make his choice of what he considers 
 will be most useful for the style of subject he intends to attempt. He should 
 remember not to encumber himself with too many colours or too heavy a 
 box. A clean box will go farther towards obtaining the tints required than 
 a multitude of pigments. 
 
 The following list will be found all-sufficient for those who cannot trust 
 themselves to make a list: — 
 
 Brown pink, lake, French blue, gamboge, Indian yellow, burnt sienna, 
 brown madder, cobalt, yellow ochre, Vandyke brown, light red, cyanine. 
 
 A smaller list even is sufficient, and one distinguished amateur, 
 whose sketches were both numerous and effective, never carried more than 
 the following seven colours:—i. Indigo; 2. Indian red; 3. Indian yellow; 
 4. Venetian red; 5. French blue; 6. Brown madder; 7. Lake. 
 
Plate 
 
 PENCIL OUTLINE: OYSTERMOUTH CASTLE. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 PROGRESSIVE LESSONS. 
 
 Oystermouth Castle.—Plate I. 
 
 SKY. 
 
 Cobalt.—First wash very light; second and third deeper. 
 
 To prevent repetition, the following remarks will be applicable, in the main, 
 both to the view of Oystermouth Castle, and also any of the other landscapes 
 which students may find it advisable to copy. To begin with the sky: note 
 that it is not all done at one wash. The heaven is not a mere flat surface 
 of blue, which is put up like a photographer’s background to fill up the 
 unimportant parts of the picture. It is of different intensities of colour all 
 throughout ; as a rule, it is more blue towards the zenith—it is more neutral 
 towards the horizon. That is to say, the pure air above one’s head looks blue, 
 whilst the mists, moisture, and impurities nearer the earth are of no particular 
 colour; they simply impede the sight. 
 
 The sky in these sketches will require three washes of cobalt, each very 
 light, and even these will not be of the same depth throughout. Various 
 methods may be adopted for causing this inequality, depending, of course, on 
 the effect intended to be introduced. By putting the colour on very wet, and 
 inclining the drawing in some particular direction, an evenly graduated inten¬ 
 sity may be procured. From this, again, lighter portions may be taken off by 
 the use of blotting-paper when the wash is partially dry. Another means for 
 graduating the colour is by putting it on tolerably deep to the part intended 
 to be darkest, and then with a brush, with a little clean water, washing off the 
 
16 Sketching from Nature in Water-Colours. [Chap. II. 
 
 edges. This is perhaps more convenient when the graduation has to be 
 rather rapid. Generally, any reflections of the sky on wet surfaces, or in 
 water, should be put in immediately after the sky itself, in order to obtain 
 precisely similar tints. It should be remembered that water (except in the case 
 of foam, or for the purpose of representing the reflection of actual light) is never 
 of a pure white. It receives its colour from the reflection of some portions of 
 the sky, very often of a portion not visible in the picture, but similar, and 
 agreeable to it. Perfectly smooth water reflects the distant sky as we see it 
 in the picture, but with the tints reversed, the same tints being nearest the 
 horizon in both sky and reflection, and the sky tints at the top of the picture 
 being repeated in the foreground. 
 
 CLOUDS. 
 
 ist Tint.—Yellow Ochre, Rose Madder—mix. 
 
 2d Tint.—Cobalt, Rose Madder, very little Yellow Ochre—mix. 
 
 3d Tint.—Add Cobalt largely to the above. 
 
 The clouds will require their shadowing and rounding with a neutral, formed 
 usually by the mixture of purple madder and cobalt and French blue, some¬ 
 times with a little yellow ochre to deaden too purple a tint. Remember, in 
 these, that the light always comes in the same direction. In sketching from 
 nature it will be found advisable, as a rule, to try and imitate the sky actually 
 presented to the eye, as by this means a certain amount of information is stored 
 away for future use; and, moreover, the light most consistent with the rest 
 of the picture is made use of. The absurdity would be manifest at once if 
 a fine blue sky were transcribed upon the paper, and the rest of the sketch 
 was taken whilst a thunderstorm was imminent, or just after an April shower 
 had cleared up. If, then, the inconsistency of putting a sky that does not 
 belong to it upon a sketch is so strongly apparent in cases of this kind, we 
 may be sure that there is an inconsistency in cases where the incongruity is 
 not so apparent to the unpractised eye, but that, by accustoming the eye to 
 what is consistent, an amount of experience will be gained which at a future 
 time will be found invaluable. 
 

 
 
PLATE I 
 
 OYSTER MOUTH CASTLE 
 
Chap. II.] 
 
 I 7 
 
 Progressive Lessons. 
 
 HILLS. 
 
 Distance. 
 
 i. Yellow Ochre; 2. Cobalt; 3. Rose Madder—mix. Finish with Cloud Tint No. 3. 
 
 The blue tint of the sky may be carried over the distant hills. This will 
 receive some modification afterwards, but it gives the groundwork to which to 
 add subsequently the local colours. The principle of this is evident. It 
 is the interposition of the air alone which gives colour to the sky ; for it is 
 said that the air overhead, when seen from a very great height, such as a very 
 lofty mountain or a balloon, is almost black, but at lower elevations denser 
 air intervenes and reflects some of the blue portions of the light. This same 
 lower air which gives a blue colour to the sky is packed closely with the 
 weight of all that lies above it on the stratum that lies between us and the 
 distant hills; and, whilst it hinders us from seeing much of their detail and 
 local colour, it imparts to them its own blue tinge. Whilst our sky and hills 
 and reflections are drying (and it will soon be discovered by the out-of-door 
 sketcher that he will not have to wait long for this process), we can proceed 
 to some of the other underlying washes. Indian yellow running down into 
 burnt sienna helps a gradation from the castle down to the foreground. This 
 of course increases in intensity as it advances towards the spectator. Be sure, 
 in putting on this and similar washes, to leave the blank spaces sufficiently 
 large ; it is easy enough to cover over a portion afterwards, if it be necessary, 
 but the paper once tinged with colour, never, by any amount of washing, 
 recovers its pristine purity. The advantage of the increasing intensity of the 
 wash towards the foreground will be seen at once—the distance begins to 
 retreat. The air, as we said before, interposes between the spectator and the 
 more distant objects, and deprives them of their local colour, and substitutes 
 its own very light blue. This is, of course, a perfectly gradual process, 
 and consequently the gradual intensifying of the foreground tint represents 
 this effect. We do not observe this gradual process in a good picture, the object 
 being to represent nature as closely as may be under given circumstances. The 
 Indian yellow on the nearer hills will not require to be modified to the same 
 degree, as those hills do not retire so rapidly or so regularly as the flat 
 sandy shore of the foreground. 
 
 D 
 
18 
 
 Sketching from Nature in Water-Colours. 
 
 [Chap. II. 
 
 Oystermouth Castle.—Plate II. 
 
 MIDDLE DISTANCE. 
 
 i. Yellow Ochre; 2. Rose Madder, very little Cobalt, adding Gamboge for high lights. Finish 
 with Yellow Ochre, Rose Madder—mix; Indian Yellow, Rose Madder—mix. For bright warm 
 markings. 
 
 Greys. 
 
 1. Cobalt, Rose Madder—mix. 2. French Blue, Rose Madder, Yellow Ochre—mix. 
 
 Trees. 
 
 1. Areolus; 2. Indian Yellow; 3. very little Cobalt—mix. Finish with No. 2 above. 
 
 The Castle. 
 
 Yellow Ochre, Brown Madder, Cobalt—mix. 
 
 Ivy. 
 
 Yellow Ochre, French Blue, Brown Madder—mix. Shadows: Brown Madder, French Blue; Grey 
 
 Shadow behind Cobalt. 
 
 H ouses (Roofs). 
 
 Brown Madder and French Blue. 
 
 Hill, bright and sunny. 
 
 1. Yellow Ochre, Rose Madder—mix. 2. Gamboge. Finish with markings of the same, and 
 
 the Greys, Rose Madder, and C°balt. 
 
 Trees. 
 
 Indian Yellow, French Blue (very little). Finish with same and Brown Madder added from for the Darks. 
 
 By this time the sky is ready for another wash, either of cobalt, or if suffi¬ 
 cient has been done with this, the shadows of the clouds may be indicated by 
 cobalt and madder. Afterwards some of the shadows on the castle and house 
 may be put in with Indian red and cobalt. Markings of this kind help to 
 define the position of various points in the picture, and to guide the eye in 
 putting in future washes over smaller surfaces. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

PLATE II. 
 
 OYSTER MOUTH CASTLE. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
PLATE III 
 
Chap. II.] 
 
 19 
 
 Progressive Lessons. 
 
 LOCAL COLOURS. 
 
 Having laid on the underwashes over nearly the whole of the drawing, 
 we may proceed to a nearer approach to the local colouring. Thus the hills 
 to the right of the spectator may have various washes of yellow ochre and 
 rose madder, with a little cobalt for the shadows, and in the lights a little 
 gamboge will brighten it up. These being pretty well settled, the patches of 
 trees may be put in with the green, care being taken to make the more distant 
 much lighter than those which approach the foreground. These latter will 
 require to be treated several times, leaving the markings in each case distinct. 
 The castle should now receive a little attention, its shadows being put in with 
 grey, and the ivy with its bluer green. The roofs of the houses should now 
 be marked out with a slate colour, in which French blue predominates. The 
 trees and the hillside may again receive a few touches, and their reflections 
 be added to the water, and then we pass on to the Third Plate. 
 
 Oystermouth Castle.—Plate III. 
 
 FOREGROUND. 
 
 1 st Tint.—Yellow Ochre, Brown Madder—mix. 
 
 2d Tint.—Bright Sienna. 
 
 Greys. 
 
 1. Cobalt, Brown Madder—mix. 2. Indigo, Brown Madder—mix. 
 
 Dark Markings. 
 
 1. Brown Madder; 2. Warm Sepia. 
 
 FOREGROUND. 
 
 At this stage the foreground receives most attention. Brown madder, 
 with cobalt or indigo, form the colours principally used for the markings of 
 the shadows of stocks and stones. Some warm sepia, and in some places 
 burnt sienna, will contribute towards deepening the colour on some of the 
 
 mosses. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 ON TREES. 
 
 One of the most frequent remarks of young sketchers is, that they cannot 
 do trees ; nor can any one until they try, and try very frequently. The first 
 step towards sketching trees is to recognize them, not only when the whole 
 leaf is seen distinctly, but also from a considerable distance. This, like many 
 other portions of the sketcher’s art, may be practised without the apparatus 
 of brush and paper, or even pencil and paper; it requires only a country 
 walk, with the eyes open. The time of year even does not signify: for if 
 the full form of the tree may be studied in summer time, when the leaves 
 are fully developed, the skeleton is more easily traced when winter has 
 deprived the branches of their leafy covering; and the anatomy of a tree must 
 be learnt, just as the anatomy of the human body, or of animals, have to be 
 learnt from their skeletons, before we can properly delineate the figure clothed 
 in flesh and muscle, and draped in half-concealing garments. In a tree, the 
 anatomy is so far concealed by the foliage, at the period when sketching is 
 usually in vogue, that an artist who has not made himself acquainted with 
 the anatomy during the winter, will make mistakes in his own mind as to 
 how stems run, and how branches which he can see are connected with the 
 main trunk. In drawing these limbs, no one can put on paper perfectly accurately 
 what he sees—he adds or diminishes a little—he adds, that is, what he knows 
 to be there, or, at all events, what his imagination tells him ought to be 
 there ; or leaves out what appears to be unnecessary detail. The mind 
 does this unconsciously. If, then, the imagination is led astray, by want of 
 sufficient knowledge, either details are omitted, which, if not essential to the 
 
Chap. III.] 
 
 Trccs. 
 
 2 I 
 
 beauty and accuracy of the picture, at least tell more plainly the tale the 
 artist would develop (for every picture is a tale of some kind) ; or, what 
 
 is worse, additions are made, which are incongruous, or out of place. Every 
 country walk therefore—unless the mind is employed about some more im¬ 
 portant matter—should be made the opportunity of noticing the various pecu¬ 
 liarities of form and structure of the trees that may be presented to our eyes. 
 In this study, we should carefully mark differences, not only between different 
 classes of trees, but between similar trees of different ages and stages of 
 development, as well as the peculiarities brought out by varieties of soil and 
 of position. The fir-trees growing on the sides of an Alpine ravine are dif¬ 
 ferent in development from those carefully sheltered in plantations at home. 
 The elm of five years differs not only in size, but also in outline, from 
 
 one of fifty. 
 
 Ruskin, in one of his works, recommends a student to draw accurately 
 the branch of a shrub, at the distance of a yard or two; then to remove 
 twenty or thirty yards off, and attempt the same subject; to retire further 
 still and make another study, and so on. Without insisting on this laborious 
 process, which may be accomplished to a certain extent mentally, without 
 actually going on with the whole on paper, we should certainly recommend 
 the student to notice very particularly the effect of distance in concealing the 
 form of the leaves by which we generally distinguish the various trees, and 
 in bringing ou t the larger differences of outline. 
 
 In the accompanying examples of four of the commonest and most 
 easily distinguishable trees, there will be found trees seen at a little distance, 
 branches or whole trees tolerably close, as well as bits of young or faded 
 
 boughs, and a scrap in an unfinished state; the latter is given to show the 
 
 beginner in each case the underlying tints. 
 
 In each case it will be seen that the manipulation is different for each 
 kind of tree ; and this, though not everything, is a point on which a master 
 can give most assistance to his pupils. 
 
o 9 
 
 Sketching from Nature in Water-Colours. 
 
 [Chap. III. 
 
 The Elm.—Plate IV. 
 
 i. Indigo, Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna, French Blue, Burnt Sienna. 2. Light tint: Gamboge, Indian 
 Yellow, Indigo; Indigo and Indian Yellow for the dark tint; finish with the same tint, with the addi¬ 
 tion of Brown Pink. Branches : Sepia Indigo, Burnt Sienna, Indigo, Lake, Vandyke Brown, and Indigo, 
 3. Indian Yellow, Indigo, very little Burnt Sienna. 4. First lay: Gamboge, Burnt Sienna, Indigo. 
 Yellow Ochre ; Indian Yellow and a little Brown Pink added to the above will give the darker parts of 
 the first lay; finish with the leaving out the Yellow Ochre and adding more Brown Pink. Stems and 
 Branches : Sepia, Indigo, and Vandyke Brown; finish with Warm Sepia, mixed with French Blue. 
 5. Autumn tint: Yellow Ochre, Brown Pink. 
 
 OUTLINE. 
 
 Ill this plate some valuable hints as to how to begin elms under various con¬ 
 ditions will be found. The whole of these examples should be carefully studied, 
 and then a beginning made with Fig. 1. It will be seen that the entire outline 
 has been carefully drawn in pencil first of all; and then with a full brush, and 
 the drawing inclined at a considerable angle by holding up the top of the board, 
 a wash of indigo, raw sienna, and burnt sienna is put in. The advantage 
 of having a lull brush of colour, and of having the board inclined, is, that there 
 is a gradual subsidence of the colour in the lower portions, thus imparting a 
 roundness from the first; for the student must remember that trees are round. 
 In laying in this flat wash, too, it must be noticed that in different portions 
 there is an excess of one colour in one place, and another in another. A 
 sufficient amount ot colour should be prepared before the brush is put to paper, 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
PLATE IV. 
 
 THE ELM 
 

Chap. III.] 
 
 The Elm. 
 
 /■> -* 
 
 and to this mixture additions of the different ingredient colours can be made 
 from time to time as it is found necessary to vary the tint. 
 
 Another point which must not be forgotten is, that the spots through 
 which the sky is allowed to appear must be left somewhat larger than they 
 will have to be; for though it is at all times easy to make them smaller by 
 the addition of a little of the surrounding colour, it is not possible to make 
 the light spots larger without adding body colour, a process certainly to be 
 generally avoided, at all events in the early stages of a drawing. 
 
 Some French blue and burnt sienna will vary some portions of this pre¬ 
 liminary wash, and this should be put in wet, and allowed to run into the 
 other colour. 
 
 Fig- 2 gives a second stage of a similar portion of an elm, additions 
 being made with various combinations of gamboge, Indian yellow and indigo, 
 and, for some of the last tints, the addition of a little brown pink will be 
 found useful. The branches can be marked out with sepia and indigo, and 
 the same blue with burnt sienna, and with Vandyke brown and lake. Care 
 must be taken in the markings to keep them round, so that they indicate the 
 general position of the leaves. 
 
 Fig. 3 shows the under side of a branch, seen so that the foliage is 
 mostly transparent. The colours here used will be found in the list above. 
 The general notion of transparency is conveyed by the dark stems, against the 
 lighter leafage, and by the greater depth of colour in the dark parts ; for when 
 an object is transparent, the darker portions will have more of the local 
 colour, but when there is shade thrown upon any colour, the tint itself is 
 not so strong, being partly neutralized by the shadow. This peculiarity must 
 be carefully remembered, in drawing trees especially, for in them there is a 
 constant combination of shade thrown by other branches, and of light intercepted 
 by the leaves themselves, which consequently appear semi-transparent. 
 
 Fig. 4 does not call for any special remark beyond the fact that the 
 tints are somewhat warmer and more in sunlieht than in the bit of the 
 younger tree above it. Both foliage and branches, too, are given in greater 
 detail, and therefore require more care. 
 
 Fig. 5 shows the groundwork for a tree, as it appears in autumn, and 
 this merely requires the same character of finishing as the former branches, 
 to give it its proper effect. 
 
24 
 
 Sketching from Nature in Water-Colours. 
 
 [Chap. III. 
 
 The Scotch Fir. — Plate V. 
 
 OUTLINE. 
 
 i. Indigo, Madder Brown; Indigo, Burnt Sienna; Indigo, Raw Sienna; Green Oxide of Chrome 
 (very little). One brush used, changing the tint. 2. First lay of colour as above, finish with Indigo, 
 Burnt Sienna, and Brown Pink; French Blue, Madder Brown, and Brown Pink. Stems: Brown 
 Madder, Indigo. Finish with Warm Sepia and French Blue; French Blue, Madder Brown, and Madder 
 Brown alone. 3. Green as above in first and second painting; only more warm colour and in finishing, 
 and less grey in laying in. Stems and Branches—First lay : Madder Brown ; Madder Brown and Indigo, 
 Warm Sepia. Finish with Mars Orange, Madder Brown, and French Blue for Grey, and Indigo and 
 Vandyke Brown for near branches, and Warm Sepia, French Blue, and Madder Brown for markings; 
 Lake and Burnt Sienna for the brightest touches. 
 
 Here, as in the former case, Fig. 1 represents the early washes required 
 for this tree, with a considerable amount of light spaces left to be filled in 
 afterwards. These washes, as well of those of the elm, should be put in 
 with a full brush, the tint being slightly changed in places, and the board 
 inclined as before, but this time rather towards the right, so that it would 
 stand on its right hand lower corner. In this Fig. 1 a second deeper shade 
 is put in just before the first tint gets quite dry, when the colours no longer 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
PLATE V. 
 
 Vincent Brook^Day & Son lith 
 
 P.H.Delamotte Del. 
 
 SCOTCH 
 
 FIR. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Chap. III.] 
 
 The Scotch Fir. 
 
 2 5 
 
 run. The stem should be slightly indicated at this early stage, the colours 
 being kept as bright as they can; for though it is easy to tone down the 
 brightness afterwards, if it is found to be too glaring, it is not possible ever 
 to recover a brightness once lost. No amount of washing out and putting in 
 afresh will ever bring back a delicacy once destroyed by impure or muddled 
 colours. Bright portions therefore, like the stems of a Scotch fir, may be 
 kept clear by putting on pure colour at first and afterwards toning it down 
 with the proper shadows. 
 
 Fig. 2 shows the same character of tree carried out to further stages, 
 by marking out some indications of shape in the foliage with tolerably deep 
 lights and shadows. Notice here how different is the touch required in this 
 kind of tree from that used for the elm ; here it is a series of comparatively 
 long narrow strokes. The deeper markings require a tolerably dark mixture of 
 indigo, burnt sienna and brown pink, varied with French blue, madder brown 
 and brown pink. Similar strokes made with pure water, and after a few 
 seconds rubbed off with a handkerchief, wash leather, or a piece of bread, will 
 give the light touches, and also contribute to the drawing of the tree. Be 
 sure, as in the former case, to make these strokes run in the proper direction 
 for the branches, and that they curve sufficiently to give the the roundness of 
 the masses. 
 
 E 
 
26 
 
 Sketching from Nature in Water-Colours. 
 
 [Chap. III. 
 
 The Oak.—Plate VI. 
 
 OUTLINE. 
 
 The directions given for the former plates will be equally applicable 
 to this, making clue allowance for the differences of colour, and for the 
 form of drawing. The first washes, as in Fig. i, are put in with a full 
 brush, with the board inclined. The shape of the touches must be, of course, 
 entirely different. Instead of being rounded as in the elm, the shape is sharp, 
 and has to be made by letting the brush come inwards instead of outwards, 
 and by keeping the point of the brush towards the edge. Some deeper colour 
 is added before the wash has dried, and the edges are allowed to dry rather 
 hard. 
 
 In Fig. 2, on a similar ground-work, some sharp touches give the shape 
 of the foliage, Avhilst the addition of stems, and especially the bits of bare and 
 rugged branches outside the leaves, give a character to the tree. Notice the 
 sharp corners and turns in the stems generally, as well as the numerous knots. 
 The markings on the stems show the rugged nature of the bark. This is 
 shown better perhaps in Fig. 3, when the whole tree is in a more finished 
 and elaborate state. The smaller stems in the example are not to be made merely 
 with a line of one unvarying colour; but there are numerous shadows and 
 points of light which require to be attended to, whilst the foliage is thrown off 
 from the tree towards the spectator by the depth of shadow beneath each spray. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
PLATE VI. 
 
 "Vincent Brooks Day & Son Lith. P H Delamotte Del 
 
 THE OAK. 
 


PLATE VII 
 
 the willow. 
 
Chap. III.] 
 
 The Willow. 
 
 27 
 
 The Willow.—Plate VII. 
 
 OUTLINE. 
 
 i. Indigo, Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna, French Blue, Burnt Sienna. 2. Indian Yellow, Indigo, very 
 little Burnt Sienna. 3. Light tint : Gamboge, Indian Yellow, Indigo ; Indigo and Indian Yellow for 
 the dark to finish with. The same tint with the addition of Brown Pink. Branches : Sepia, Indigo, Burnt 
 Sienna, or Lake, Vandyke Brown, and Indigo. 4. First lay: Gamboge, Burnt Sienna, Indigo, Yellow 
 Ochre. Indian Yellow and a little Brown Pink added to the above will give the darker parts of the 
 first lay. 5. Finish with leaving out the Yellow Ochre or adding more Brown Pink. Stems and Branches : 
 Sepia, add Vandyke Brown; finish with warm Sepia, mixed with French Blue. 6. Autumn tint : Yellow 
 Ochre, Brown Pink, and French Blue. 
 
 This plate is rather more of a finished sketch than the previous ones, the 
 full stem of a distant tree forming part of the same picture as the detail ot 
 the closer foliage. Many of the remarks made about the other plates will be 
 applicable here, due allowance being made for the well-marked differences. 
 
 Be carful to leave sufficient spaces through which the sky can be seen. 
 In this case second tints had better not be laid on until the earlier ones are 
 quite dry. In the meantime quite sufficient work will be found in the stems, 
 distance, foreground, &c. Rather a finer brush should be used in this work 
 than in most foliage, the strokes required being a series of delicate lines, and 
 these can scarcely be repeated too often. It will of course be seen that 
 
28 Sketching from Nature in Water-Colours. [Chap. III. 
 
 earlier washes do not extend to the extremity of the outline, or to the ends 
 of the branches, but that the portion beyond these first washes will have to 
 be filled up with the same character of slight strokes as are to be employed 
 in finishing over the early washes, and they may be done at the same time 
 and with the same tint. In the stems the same style of stroke is kept up to 
 a great extent; and in these, too, it must be remembered that they are the 
 representatives not of mere flat strips, but of rounded and therefore shaded 
 branches. The sketcher must ever keep in his mind the character of the 
 object he is sketching, supplementing his eye with his previous knowledge, 
 but never acting on that previous knowledge unless his eye assents to the 
 truths discovered by other means. It will be well to notice here, too, that 
 the deep shadows inside the trunk and under the bridge are not at all black, 
 and only look dark by contrast of colour, whilst the transparency of these 
 shadows is secured by deeper markings in some places. 
 
 In comparing the distant with the forward tree, it may be noticed how 
 much less elaborate is the detail of the former, which is put in broadly, whilst, 
 the tone of colour in it throughout is lighter and greyer. These principles 
 hold good with regard to all distant objects. 
 
 > 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FOREGROUNDS. 
 
 It sometimes happens that in the search for a sketch an embarras des richesscs 
 does not allow the mind to settle itself distinctly upon any one point of view 
 which will give an adequate notion of the scenery of which it is the object of the 
 sketcher to carry off the general idea. When thus perplexed, nothing is better 
 
 OUTLINE. 
 
 than to sit down and study a bit of foreground, and this will give the mind 
 time to rest and to decide what it wishes most of all to carry off with it. Or it 
 may happen, that the general and individual points of a landscape are as easily 
 committed to the memory by a pencil outline as by an elaborate water-colour 
 
30 
 
 Sketching from Nature in Water-Colours. 
 
 [Chap. IV. 
 
 drawing ; but then there are minute points of detail which it is not possible thus 
 to make one’s own. Under these circumstances, there is nothing left for it but 
 a careful study of a bit of foreground detail. Such bits we have given in 
 Plates IX. to XIII. 
 
 These, which may be employed as copies, like our former fuller sketches, 
 are rather intended to guide the student as to the style of subject he should use, 
 and, when he has made such choice, to enable him to copy similar subjects as 
 he finds them in nature. From these, too, he may learn what sized drawings 
 he will find convenient, and on what scale it is best to make these studies. If 
 a drawing is commenced in too large proportions, the detail will weary the 
 draughtsman ; if the work is too small, the sketch will be useless for future study, 
 for the detail will be entirely wanting. We should, in fact, recommend a careful 
 study of these plates, and then a copy to be made from the natural objects, and 
 not from our pictures, were it not that nothing impresses a study upon the mind 
 so thoroughly as copying it. So we will suppose that the student is about to 
 copy the subject here set before him. He would begin, of course, as he must 
 begin in all other sketches, with a very careful pencil outline, and it cannot be too 
 much impressed upon the student’s mind that he cannot be too careful in his 
 pencilling so long as he really sticks to outline, and does not attempt to give the 
 effect of shading by means of his blacklead. An immense deal of trouble, and 
 consequently time, is saved by having a full and accurate outline. 
 
 Outlines of trees, of clouds, and of shadows, as well as all those shapes 
 which would be outlined in a pencil drawing, will be found useful in giving 
 accuracy, and advantageous as saving time otherwise spent in looking up to see 
 how far this shadow or that tree should project. It will, moreover, give unity 
 to the sketch, inasmuch as in the space of time occupied in accomplishing most 
 sketches (say from one to three hours) the sun will have passed over a con¬ 
 siderable portion of its course, and the shadows will have changed propor¬ 
 tionately. If during the first half-hour the shadows have been outlined in, there 
 will be no difficulty in arranging the proper and proportionate size ; but if each 
 is left to be put in as the time comes for its especial tint, there will be every 
 variety of length to the shadows, and each distinct object will be out of pro¬ 
 portion to the rest. 
 
 The outline having been accurately rendered, the next point is to put in the 
 lightest tints and the purest colours. It is always difficult for the student to 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
PLATE VIII. 
 
 
 
Chap. IV.] 
 
 3 1 
 
 Foregrounds. 
 
 <_> 
 
 distinguish these pure underlying colours, but it is most important that he should 
 do so, for it is this which enables the finished sketch to look bright and fresh. 
 When once the early tints have become impure and muddled , all hope of an 
 agreeable picture is at an end. The bit of slaty rock numbered i is left unfinished, 
 in order that some of the earlier tints may be perceived at once. How such 
 rocks may be finished and made intelligible may be seen in No. 3. It will at 
 once be perceived that the effects here represented are not to be procured at 
 once, but that wash after wash is required to produce the variety combined with 
 breadth which we require. The care and attention that should be bestowed 
 upon the pencilled outline is not easily perceptible in the more fully finished of 
 these sketches ; but in the unfinished No. 1, and in the slightly tinted No. 2, 
 it can be seen. In this latter especially it may be perceived that each leaf and 
 stem has been carefully drawn before any attempt has been made to colour, and 
 after this but few shades are required to give the form and character of the plant. 
 The same care should be taken in the later pieces, though the subsequent colouring 
 obliterates the marks when they are no longer required as guides ; but in Nos. 4 
 and 5 the remains of such work may be seen in those parts which are not so 
 finished as the rest. 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF NO. 2. 
 
 In this, No. 2, when the outline is carefully drawn, begin by putting in the 
 light green, made by a mixture of yellow ochre and French blue. This will 
 afterwards be shaded with French blue, brown pink, and a little lake in com¬ 
 bination ; but whilst the first washes are drying, the seeds may be marked out with 
 burnt sienna, lake, and a little cobalt or French blue, the shades of which will be 
 brought out by brown madder and French blue. Notice here, again, that grada¬ 
 tions of colour are to be obtained by sloping the drawing or allowing more colour 
 to accumulate in one place than another. The hard edge obtained by allowing a 
 very moist wash to dry undisturbed may be made available for some results. 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF NO. 3 . 
 
 This bit of rock and fern will be begun much as was No. 1. A repetition of 
 washes, with the component colours in slightly different proportions, will bring out 
 the variety of forms without making the colouring heavy, whilst the general tone 
 will be kept up. The form of these rocks should be noticed as showing their 
 
Sketching from Nature in IVater-Cohmrs. 
 
 [Chap. IV. 
 
 peculiar character, for, much as rocks look alike to the unpractised eye, each 
 has its family and its personal likeness. 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF NO. 4. 
 
 DOCK LEAVES. 
 
 Light Yellow and Green Tints. 
 
 1. Gamboge, Yellow Ochre—mix ; with Cobalt and a little Lake for light grey tints. 2. Gamboge, 
 Yellow Ochre, Indigo—mix. 3. Yellow Ochre—Cyanine—mix. 4. Indian Yellow, Cyanine—mix. For 
 warm sunny tints on underside of leaves. 
 
 Dark Greens. 
 
 1. Indigo, Indian Yellow—mix. 2. Indigo, Burnt Sienna—mix. 3. French Blue, Yellow Ochre, 
 
 Indian Yellow—mix. 
 
 Deep Shadow Tints. 
 
 Indigo, Lake, Indian Yellow. 
 
 The great variety of colour in these leaves will give good opportunity for the 
 washes to dry before we find it necessary to touch them again. This is one of the 
 advantages that a sketcher has out-of-doors, especially in the warm weather, which 
 is most suitable for bright and pleasant effects. By degrees the darker shadows will 
 be got in, and these will of course throw forward the brighter portions. The more 
 minute markings will have to be left until nearly the last, as otherwise they will run 
 the risk of being obliterated by the various washes. It may here be noted, too, 
 that in making such a sketch as this from the natural object, a good deal has to be 
 omitted that would not add either to the beauty or the use of the picture. No 
 doubt, beyond these leaves there was other foliage, and probably before them there 
 was grass, &c. ; but if these were given, they would distract the attention from 
 what it is intended to bring most prominently forward, whilst the labour of filling 
 up all the corners would be more than ordinary perseverance could endure, and 
 would not be repaid by any after advantage. The outline just slightly touched 
 with colour in the background shows how the foliage ran on, and gives hints how 
 such bits may be enlarged when made use of in larger pictures. 
 

PLATE IX 
 
 VincentBrooksX>av&Sonlith P.H.Delamottp Del. 
 
 FOREGROUNDS 
 
 \ 
 
 N° 3 & 4 
 

PLATE X 
 
 Vbujflvt Brook»,Day & Son Irfh 
 
 P. H.Delamotte He] 
 
 
 
 
 FOR EGROUND. 
 
 
 
 
 N° 5 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Chap. IV.] 
 
 Foregrounds. 
 
 -*> 
 
 oo 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF NO. 5. 
 
 LARGE GROUP OF BURDOCH LEAVES, &c. 
 
 ( The Colours are placed in the order in which they preponderate in each mixture : that colour is 
 
 placed first of which most is usedi) 
 
 Light Green and Grey Tints. 
 
 1. Yellow Ochre, Gamboge, Indigo—mix. 2. Indian Yellow, Cyanine—mix. 3. Yellow Ochre, 
 Cobalt—mix. 4. Cobalt, Lake, Yellow Ochre—-mix. With Gamboge for under side of leaves as 
 first wash of local colour. 5. French Blue, Burnt Sienna—mix. 
 
 Dark Greens more or less bright and broken. 
 
 1. Indian Yellow, Indigo or Cyanine for very light touches—mix. 2. Indian Yellow, Gamboge, 
 French Blue—mix. 3. Indigo, Burnt Sienna, Brown Pink—-mix. 4. French Blue, Yellow Ochre, 
 Lake—mix. 
 
 Bank. 
 
 1. Raw Umber, Burnt Sienna—mix. 2. Lake, Yellow Ochre—mix. 3. Brown Madder, French Blue, 
 Yellow Ochre—mix. 4. Brown Madder, Indigo, Brown Pink—mix. 
 
 Dark Marking between Leaves. 
 
 1. Brown, Pink, Lake, French Blue—mix. 
 
 H ere, as elsewhere, a careful outline is all important. After that the sky 
 should be washed in, and this not anyhow, as a flat dab of blue, but with careful 
 attention to shape and to depth of colour, thus giving form and reality to a part 
 of the picture which contributes much towards throwing the rest forward. The 
 colours of the sky may be, in some cases, carried over the shadowed leaves, so 
 as at once to give them a cool retiring appearance. In colouring the leaves it 
 will be well not to carry the colour over from one to another too much, as this 
 will obliterate the outlines and tend to loosen the distinction between the various 
 parts. Notice how light the nearest edges of the leaves are left, sometimes the 
 colour not reaching quite to the edge, but the paper left almost, if not quite, white. 
 This contributes to the appearance of their lying quite flat, and standing out from 
 the shadows beneath and behind them. The whole depth of colour cannot be 
 obtained at once either in the greens or in the browns of the earth and bank, but 
 by additions and attention to contrasts this depth will be acquired by degrees. It 
 any portion has to be brought prominently forward, this will be effected as much or 
 more by attention to the surroundings as by touching the part itself. This may 
 
 F 
 
34 
 
 Sketching from Nature in Water-Colours. 
 
 [Chap. IV. 
 
 be seen in this copy by comparing the five very small light leaves that stand 
 prominently forward in the middle of the picture with those in a direct line below 
 them. The colour of the two is not very different, but the deep green shadows 
 around the yellower leaves throw them far more prominently into view than the 
 yellowish brown advances the slightly greener leaves. 
 
 This copy will, of course, be found more difficult than those that have 
 preceded it. 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF NO. 6. 
 
 This copy is much simpler than the former one, and may well be used by the 
 pupil either at first or after Nos. i, 2, and 3. It is placed here simply for the 
 exigencies of printing and arrangement, and not for its comparative difficulty. 
 The outline in this case will not be found difficult. When this is accomplished, 
 each leaf can be washed in independently, great attention being paid to the gradual 
 shading off of the tints, and to leaving the little light spaces sufficiently large. 
 The shadows behind, it should be noticed, are not of one uniform tint, but consist 
 of various combinations of the colours mentioned above. 
 
 STUDY OF COLTSFOOT LEAVES.—No. 7. 
 
 Light Yellow Tints. 
 
 1. Gamboge, Yellow Ochre—mix. 2. Aureolin (very light touches), Yellow Ochre. 
 
 Light Greens. 
 
 1. Cyanine, Yellow Ochre, with a little French Blue—mix. 2. Cyanine, Gamboge—mix. 
 
 Darker Greens (Leaves), first or second Tints. 
 
 Indigo, Yellow Ochre, Indian Yellow (different gradations)—mix. 
 
 More sober Greens behind the Leaves. 
 
 Brown Pink and Raw Umber added to either of the last mixtures. 
 
 Dark Shadow Greens. 
 
 1. Indigo or French Blue, Lake, Brown Pink—mix. 2. Brown Pink, French Blue—mix. 
 
 Deep Shadow Touches between Blades of Grass. 
 
 French Blue, Lake, Brown Pink—-mix. 
 
 Brown Leaf. 
 
 1. Raw Umber, Lake—mix. 2. French Blue, Burnt Sienna. 
 
 Brown Tints, Edges of Leaves. 
 
 Mars Orange, Brown Madder, Raw Umber. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
PLATE XI. 
 
 Vincent Brooks.Day & Son litk 
 
 r H.Delamotte Del. 
 
 FOREGROUNDS. 
 
 N° 6 & 7 
 
Chap. IV.] 
 
 Foregrounds. 
 
 35 
 
 This study of Coltsfoot will be found an advance on No. 5, which it should 
 succeed. The outline should be drawn first of all, independently of the blades of 
 grass that appear over the leaves. These will be put in afterwards. When all the 
 rest approaches near to completion, the light strokes of these blades may be brought 
 out by means of a careful line made by a brush filled with clean water, and after a 
 few seconds rubbed off with bread or a piece of wash leather. When all is dry, a 
 line of darker green by the side corrects any irregularities, and throws out the 
 light stroke. In some cases either the light or the dark stroke alone will be found 
 sufficient according to the background, and sometimes the light stroke may be 
 continued by a dark one. Notice how the reddish-brown markings of the most 
 prominent leaf stand, by contrast against the light green, for a very much darker 
 colour. This economy of effect is required to make up for the greater range that 
 Nature possesses by being able to mix her colours with light and shade. 
 
 LESSER GROUP OF BURDOCHS.—No. 8. 
 
 Light Yellow and Green Tints. 
 
 1. Gamboge, Yellow Ochre, Indian Yellow—mix. 2. Yellow Ochre, Indigo—mix. With Cobalt for 
 greys—mix. 3. Indian Yellow, Indigo, with a little Lake—mix. 
 
 Dark Greens and Greys. 
 
 1. Indigo, Gamboge, Burnt Sienna—mix. 2. Yellow Ochre, French Blue, Lake—mix. 
 
 Brown Markings in Leaves. 
 
 1. Mars Orange, Burnt Sienna, and Lake. 2. Madder Brown. 
 
 Ground or Bank behind Leaves 
 
 1. Raw Umber and Lake. 2. Lake, Yellow Ochre, and Cobalt. 3. Brown Madder, Brown Pink, and 
 
 French Blue. 
 
 Dark Shadow Touches under Leaves. 
 
 1. French Brown, Pink, and Lake, in different proportions. 2. Indigo, Burnt Sienna. 
 
 Again, a little bit of dock is given, later than its natural order, for the same 
 reason that has put back No. 6. The observations made in reference to that plate 
 will be mostly applicable here. Care should be taken in both these cases that the 
 form of the shadow tints does not repeat too closely the shape of the leaves or 
 main subject. A certain contrast, too, between the colours of the different por¬ 
 tions of the subject and the portion of shadow behind them, introduced without 
 such elaborate accuracy as to provoke notice, makes a sketch more pleasing. 
 
Sketching from Nature in Water-Colours. 
 
 [Chap. IV. 
 
 
 6 
 
 FERNS AND BRAMBLE FOLIAGE.—No. 9. 
 
 For Distant Bushes. 
 
 x. Indigo, Yellow Ochre, Gamboge—mix. 2. French Blue, Burnt Sienna—mix. With the addition of 
 
 Brown Pink for the Shadows. 
 
 For Ferns, Green Tints. 
 
 French Blue, Yellow Ochre, Indian Yellow (very little)—mix. 
 
 Yellow Tints. 
 
 Indian Yellow, Yellow Ochre. 
 
 Brown Tints. 
 
 Mars Orange, Burnt Sienna. 
 
 Shadows and Markings. 
 
 1. Brown Pink, French Blue, and Brown Pink—mix. 2. Indigo, Burnt Sienna, Lake—mix. 
 
 Deep Shadows and Markings. 
 
 French Blue, Lake, Brown Pink (used thickly). 
 
 Ground. 
 
 Burnt Sienna, Raw Umber. 
 
 Greys. 
 
 Brown Madder, French Blue—mix. 
 
 Bramble Leaves. 
 
 1.' Indigo, Yellow Ochre, Gamboge—mix. 2. Indigo, Indian Yellow—mix. 
 
 A few leaves of bramble in the right-hand lower corner will show how care¬ 
 fully these leaves should be pencilled in. Of course it is impossible thus accurately 
 to define the fern fronds. Only the main outline of their stems can be traced, and 
 the washes of their light colours must be carried a little beyond what is absolutely 
 necessary, as portions will be afterwards covered over by the darker markings. 
 At first sitting down to sketch such a subject as that before us, it seems sometimes 
 impossible to extract order out of the tangled mass ; but, after having mastered the 
 most prominent forms, it is astonishing how soon the minor details fall into their 
 places. Do not, then, be discouraged because the mass at first seems complicated 
 

 
PLATE XII. 
 
 "Vincent Brooks Day Sc Sonlath. PH Del a no lie Del 
 
 FOREGROUNDS. 
 
 N° 6 & 9 
 

Chap. IV.] 
 
 Foregrounds. 3 7 
 
 beyond all expression upon paper ; try to fix some portion and the rest will come, 
 until at last you will be surprised what a multitude of detail is mastered with 
 comparative ease. Some of the grass and the light strokes can be taken out as in 
 No. 8, and, should they appear too light, can be toned down with a slight wash 
 afterwards. Here, too, the power of contrast is visible, and the effect of shadow 
 without colouring may be seen in the bramble leaves only pencilled in the right- 
 hand corner. 
 
 From a Sketch by Rev. J. L. Petit. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 ON IVHAT TO SKETCH, COMPOSITION, ETC. 
 
 One of the commonest remarks uttered by those who are desirous of making 
 some attempt for themselves at sketching, after having copied a variety of 
 drawings, is, “What am I to sketch?—I don’t know where to begin.” Now 
 the answer to this question is just as simple, “Sketch anything and everything.” 
 But this answer requires a little modification. 
 
 When a sketcher arrives in a new country, and asks some non-artistic friend 
 if there is anything to be sketched, he is frequently told that there is some 
 beautiful scenery ; which is usually true enough : but then he is taken to the 
 top of a high hill whence there is a most magnificent panorama, and he is 
 
Chap. V.] 
 
 IV/iat to Sketch , Composition , etc. 
 
 39 
 
 expected to attempt to delineate a large portion of several counties. Of course, 
 then, the “anything and everything” is not intended to include panoramic views. 
 It must be remembered that one ought only to put on paper as much as can be 
 seen by the eye at one time, and this quantity is never more than what can 
 be contained by an angle of 6 o°; that is to say, if it were required to represent 
 the whole view from any one point, that at least six pictures would be requisite 
 for the purpose. 
 
 ONE PRINCIPAL SUBJECT. 
 
 Another point to be remembered is to sketch one thing at a time; do not 
 attempt to make one piece of paper carry off all the impressions you have about 
 any one place. If you wish to sketch a house, a church, a tree, or a bridge, choose 
 the one you want, and make it the principal feature of the view ; do not attempt 
 to bring two principal subjects into one sketch, for this is false economy, since 
 
 Harlech Castle. J. Varley. Fig. 2. 
 
 you spoil one drawing instead of making two good ones. Settle what your prin¬ 
 cipal object is to be, and let everything else be subordinate to it, as we see in the 
 Turner (Fig. 11) at the end of the next chapter. This may be brought about 
 by choosing such a spot from whence to take it that all other objects may 
 appear less important by being partially hidden, or by being placed con- 
 
40 Sketching from Nature in Water-Colours. [Chap. V.' 
 
 siderably more distant, or by being thrown into shade whilst the main object is 
 in the sunlight. A little consideration and care in matters of this kind add 
 immensely to the effect of the sketch when done ; and it is better to spend an 
 hour in choosing the spot whence to take a view, and in determining the extent 
 of landscape to be taken, than to sit down haphazard and make a sketch which, 
 after all, will not be so pleasing as one that might have been taken from a spot 
 a few yards off. 
 
 DIRECTION OF LIGHT. 
 
 Again, the time of day, implying the direction of the shadows and the 
 lights, is an important point for consideration. The full glare of sunlight upon 
 the whole subject can never be pleasing, and therefore it is not expedient to 
 take a sketch with the sun directly at one’s back, over one’s head, or immediately 
 in front. Shadows are requisite, in order to make the lights appear; lights are 
 necessary to throw back the shadows ; and reflected light to make the shadows 
 transparent. Without contrast all will seem flat and tasteless, but then we must 
 take heed that these shadows arrange themselves in broad masses, and that 
 neither lights nor shadows are mere isolated specks and blotches. A sketch must 
 be something of a composition ; that is, there must be an orderly arrangement 
 of objects in a particular way, and then a transcription of them, according to the 
 ability of the artist. By noticing how great artists have managed these matters, 
 and by following the rules they seem to have adopted, we may frequently 
 help ourselves to make choice of the best spot for sketches—not that any rules 
 in matters of this kind are of such authority as to preclude their being violated 
 even in the most pleasing pictures—for in every class of composition, whether 
 it be literary, musical, or pictorial, we continually find that the greatest masters 
 are not confined by the rules which, previous to their day, were considered 
 inviolable; and that even men of lesser note sometimes hit accidentally upon 
 combinations and arrangements which please greatly, in spite of the flagrant 
 violation of a common rule. Rules, therefore, are not absolutely binding ; and 
 they are only intended to assist the eye in making a choice of which, after all, 
 it is the only true and infallible judge, and for which it has rules of its own 
 iich no language can ever be accurate enough to define and codify. 
 
Chap. V.] 
 
 What to Sketch , Composition , etc . 
 
 4i 
 
 LIGHT AGAINST DARK, AND DARK AGAINST LIGHT. 
 
 One way of bringing a subject into prominence, is either to project it in 
 shade against a light background, or, whilst making it in strong light, to 
 throw that which is immediately behind it into shadow, as is most charac¬ 
 teristically done in every stage of the departing distance in the adjoining sketch 
 by Collins (Fig. 3). Of course the effect is very different in the different cases, 
 and it is not always possible to get such a light as we really would like, but the 
 knowledge of such laws as these may guard us against attempting what can 
 never be picturesque. The effects produced by these different modes of treatment 
 
 W. Collins. Fig. 3. 
 
 may be compared by studying the works of Rembrandt and Turner. The 
 former of these painters was very much given to concentrating the attention 
 upon one small portion of light in the midst of a large mass of darkness, whilst 
 Turner would make the main portion of his picture in a blaze of sunlight, and 
 then throw against the lightest part of the sky the dense foliage of a Scotch 
 Fir, or some similarly prominent object. It is not necessary to attempt such 
 violent contrasts as these, nor as that in the woodcut at the end of Chapter VI., 
 but it is as well to observe whether the principal object we have in view should 
 
 G 
 
42 
 
 Sketching from Nature in Water-Colours. 
 
 [Chap. V. 
 
 have a li^ht or a dark background. For instance, if it is an old tower that we 
 want to portray, let us consider for a moment whether the sunlit walls, with 
 moss and lichen tenderly brought out, will look best against the heathery hill 
 behind thrown into deep shadow, or will the tower itself in shade against a light 
 cloud or clear sky be more in accordance with the thoughts the scene suggests 
 to us ? At all events we know that a dull, leaden sky, a hill unmarked by 
 any special colouring, and a tower, standing in front of these, cut in half by 
 the line which divides earth from air, can never be picturesque. When we 
 have determined which of these arrangements is most appropriate, we must 
 then wait until the light throws the shadows in the proper direction to give 
 these effects. We must choose our spot too, so as to give the proper amount 
 of each, of hill and of sky, in the background, making the line of the horizon 
 neither too high nor too low. 
 
 HORIZON. 
 
 And this brings us to another point that often puzzles the student in his early 
 essays, viz. how high up in the picture should the horizontal line come. Here 
 we can best point out what is to be avoided, rather than state what is to be 
 done. The line of the horizon should not divide the picture exactly in half, 
 nor should it ordinarily be above two-thirds of the way up nor below one-third 
 from the bottom ; that is to say, it should be generally more than a third of the 
 picture from either top or bottom, and it should not be exactly in the middle. Any 
 other position may be tried, but it will be found that these will almost always 
 give unpleasing effects. There are, however, exceptions even to this simple 
 rule, as may be seen in one of the most pleasing plates in this volume, viz. in 
 Cooke’s “Lobster Pots” (Plate XX.). In this view the horizon is close to the 
 top of the picture ; but the effect is that our attention is directed solely to the 
 foreground. 
 
 STRONG POINTS. 
 
 In the same way that the horizon should not bisect the sketch in one 
 direction, so the principal object should not stand exactly in the middle 
 between the two sides, nor should any principal line or object come exactly at 
 the quarter-distance. About one-third from either side again seems to be a 
 position that is pleasing to the eye, and that attracts immediate attention, as 
 
Chap. V.] 
 
 What to Sketch , Composition , etc. 
 
 43 
 
 may be seen in the red cow in Plate XVII. If we have an object of attraction 
 in a striking position on one side of the picture, there ought not to be another 
 object to which we wish to draw the eye in a corresponding position on the 
 other side. Two objects of equal weight neutralize each other, and the eye 
 runs to neither with any pleasure. One object may well be large, prominent, 
 and in strong light at one-third of the way across, and on the other side a 
 somewhat similar figure, smaller, less prominent, and not so strongly lighted 
 up, may stand two-fifths of the way across the scene. 
 
 REPETITION. 
 
 A kind of doubling of the principal points in the picture is pleasing, 
 provided the echo, as it were, be of lower tone than the original, and not 
 
 “Rivers of France.” J. M. W. Turner. Fig. 4. 
 
 immediately under or on a level with it, as a real echo of a sound is never 
 so loud as the original sound, nor comes from the same direction. An instance 
 of this may be seen in the Turner (Fig. 4), where the sheet in the foreground 
 repeats with greater intensity the sails of the three boats on the left. So, too, in 
 the Collins (Fig. 3), the dark mass of rocks in the almost immediate foreground 
 
44 
 
 Sketching from Nature in Water-Colours. 
 
 [Chap. V. 
 
 repeats and intensifies, both in shape and tone, the mass midway across the reach 
 of water. Again, in the De Wint (Plate XVIII.), the thick, heavy water-wheel 
 is echoed in the wheels of the cart; which, besides being lighter in form, 
 are nearer the centre, and consequently less effective. An absolute copy of 
 the same object weakens, but a tolerably similar but weaker object strengthens, 
 the effect. 
 
 CONTRAST. 
 
 In all cases variety should be sought after as much as possible; a similar 
 effect repeated over and over again becomes a mere mannerism. Thus we 
 must not always seek to project light against dark, or dark against light ; but 
 sometimes one, sometimes the other, combined with half-tones of every possible 
 depth. An object neither light nor dark may be brought forward by being 
 
 J 
 
 “ At Dover.” S. Prout. Fig. 5, 
 
 thrown against a background partly lighter and partly darker than itself. In 
 fact, no line should be left against a tint of the same depth throughout. This 
 may be seen in the keel of the boat drawn by S. Prout (Fig. 5) : the part opposed 
 to the sky is far darker than that projected on the block of blackened piles. So, 
 many of the buildings in Turner’s sketches (see Fig. 4) grow darker as they 
 
Chap. V.] 
 
 WJiat to Sketch, Composition , etc. 
 
 45 
 
 ascend into the lighter sky. The variety of Nature is infinite, and we only 
 show our own weakness of imitation if we attempt to copy her variety by 
 unrelieved tints. 
 
 VARIETY OF FORM. 
 
 Constant contrast must be worked out not only of light and shade, and 
 of complementary colours, but also of forms. An object which presents itself 
 to us as huge and flat, must be relieved by many that are small and irregular, 
 as the horizontal lines in Fig. 4 by the irregularities of the spire and buildings ; 
 an angular projection should be counterbalanced by curved lines, but the same 
 curve must not repeat itself too often, and curves should be broken by projections. 
 Thus the curves in the foliage in the centre of the Girtin (Plate XIX.) would 
 be unpleasant, repeating as they do so closely the curves of the arches, were it 
 not for the straight lines of the bridge and of the distant roofs. These 
 
 o o 
 
 The Farm Yard. Girtin. Fig. 6. 
 
 projections, however, ought never to occur in the middle between the ends of 
 the curve, but nearer one side than the other. Thus a clump of trees rounding 
 off both ways becomes picturesque if broken by a chimney or a poplar (objects 
 not picturesque in themselves), if these objects occur a third or two-fifths of the 
 
4 6 
 
 Sketching from Nature in Water-Colours. 
 
 [Chap. V. 
 
 way from one side of the clump, but it becomes even more hideous than 
 before if they arise from the centre. 
 
 As the repetition of lines in the picture becomes unpleasant, so also shadows 
 which recall too closely the form of the drawing or its frame are unpleasant. 
 Thus straight lines running either perpendicularly through the picture, or parallel 
 to the bottom, are offensive to the eye. Almost every horizon is broken by some 
 undulation, and shadows flit across objects of great height. In architectural 
 pieces the light on one side and the shadow on the other, combined with a point 
 of sight not too near the centre of the picture, will help to break up the 
 inevitable perpendiculars; see Fig. 7. 
 
 From a Sketch by Rev. J. L. Petit. Fig. 7. 
 
 ARTIFICIAL SHAPES OF LIGHT AND SHADE. 
 
 Some artists usually contrived that the main light or shadow of their pictures 
 should fall into the form of a wedge from one of the sides, and sometimes this 
 wedge was inclined so as to point somewhat downwards. Something of this 
 
Chap. V.] 
 
 IVhat to Sketch , Composition , etc. 
 
 47 
 
 wedge-shape may be seen in the Girtin (Fig. 6), where a dark wedge, starting 
 from the right, is broken by the light straw-yard and group of pigs. In the 
 Variey (Plate XVI.) a dark wedge is pierced by an eye-shaped light, again 
 broken by the irregular figures of cows and their reflexions. These, and cor¬ 
 responding devices, savour rather too much of the art which does not conceal 
 itself, to be altogether pleasing. Sir Joshua Reynolds used to talk of three main 
 lights, placed so as to form a scalene (or irregular) triangle. Perhaps it is better 
 to note what it has usually been found advisable to avoid than to lay down for 
 oneself any rule to which to make everything fit at all times. Thus a line 
 of light through the picture, either horizontal or perpendicular, is inadmissible ; 
 even in a sloping position it is not agreeable unless it be broken up so as to 
 be no longer straight. Masses of light or dark in the centre are usually un¬ 
 pleasant, and should be relegated to one side, as in Fig. 11 ; and these masses 
 should at no time take the form of regular mathematical figures, but should be 
 broken up into lines not of the same character as the main outline. 
 
 It will thus be seen that we must seek for variety, contrast, and irregularity; 
 
 avoiding everything monotonous, flat, smooth, and mechanical. Added to these 
 
 we must seek for suggestiveness, a thing which nothing but study and a cultivation 
 
 of the imagination can afford us. 
 
 <_> 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 WATER. 
 
 It is at all times difficult to tell what we see on the surface of water. The 
 slightest motion adds to the difficulty, so that we are quite unable to follow 
 all the various reflexions. But besides what we see upon the surface, we 
 somehow can tell that water is thick, muddy, coloured, clear, deep or shallow, 
 and yet we see reflexions in it. How do we find out these various points, 
 and how can we know which reflexions are the right ones for particular 
 positions ? 
 
 Transparency.— When water is perfectly transparent, of course we see 
 directly through it; and the stones, &c., at the bottom, have to be painted as if 
 nothing intervened. Everything which colours the water naturally imparts its 
 tinge to the objects seen through this medium, and deadens, to a certain extent, 
 the depths of light and shade. Muddiness will destroy the transparency, and 
 in its place simply leave the colour of the floating mud. Water, however, is 
 seldom so completely still as to be completely transparent in every part, nor so 
 completely muddy as not to be at all transparent. Lines of reflexion will occur 
 in both, interrupting the most perfect transparency as well as the most complete 
 muddiness. In fact, without these distinguishing marks of transparency, it would 
 be impossible to say that there was water at all, and a line of reflexion necessarily 
 occurs at the edge of every piece of water. The question, then, what is the 
 thing reflected, next presents itself to us. 
 
 Reflexion.— The fundamental principle with regard to reflexion is the well- 
 known law of optics, that the angle of reflexion is equal to the a?igle of incidence; 
 and what this means can be best learned by those who are not acquainted with 
 the mathematical language in which the rule is couched, by means of a piece 
 
Chap. VI.] 
 
 IVater. 
 
 49 
 
 of looking-glass. A few experiments, such as trying to foretell what the mirror 
 will reflect if placed in a certain position and looked at from a certain point, 
 and trying to make the glass give back certain definite objects from other 
 definite spots, will soon bring a practical acquaintance with the general meaning 
 of the law, whilst knowledge of the theoretical applications of the law may 
 be acquired from mathematical works of more or less abstruseness, and, to some 
 extent, from the ordinary manuals on perspective. The experiments we have 
 here indicated will be found sufficient to give the eye the power of seeing for 
 itself what the actual reflexions are that it has before it,—a matter which most 
 people consider easy enough, but which is really at the root of all these difficulties 
 
 REFLEXIONS IN RUFFLED WATER. 
 
 in sketching. If we knew what we saw, we should not have much difficulty 
 in committing our impressions to paper, as may be seen in the facility with 
 which most people can make a very fair copy of a good work by a great master, 
 which they would not dream of attempting to rival in an original performance 
 of their own. Supposing the former to have been merely a transcript of some 
 natural object or scene, the whole of the difference between what a person can 
 do as a copy and what he can do as an original work, consists in the knowledge 
 of what he sees before him. But to return to our reflexions. When water is 
 agitated, every portion of the curved surface of each undulation reflects some¬ 
 thing different. Thus, the furthest part of the curve of the wave will reflect 
 the distant landscape on the other side of the water, whilst the rest of the 
 curve, as far as it is visible, will give back the sky, beginning from the opposite 
 coast and extending all across the heavens to the back of the spectator. Agitated 
 
 H 
 
50 
 
 Sketching from Nature in Water-Colours. 
 
 [Chap. VI. 
 
 water, therefore, is covered with a multitude of reflexions from all quarters, and 
 to depict it accurately requires very careful study. With still water the case is 
 different. This, like a flat looking-glass, repeats the picture above it with 
 more or less accuracy, lengthening out the reflexions more and more as the 
 ripples increase and become visible near the spectator. 
 
 In the diagram on the preceding page ( 8 ), figure A, standing at some height 
 above the water, will see a different reflexion from B, who is nearly on a level with 
 the surface ; but in both cases, all nearer to the spectator than 5 will be reflexion 
 of sky, whilst on that particular ripple all further from the spectator than t will 
 be a representation of the lower foliage on the bank. The intermediate line 
 shows where the top of the tower will be marked. On each wave there will be 
 
 REFLEXIONS IN STILL WATER. 
 
 Fig. 9. As seen by A. 
 
 Fig. 10. As seen by B. 
 
 all these various points given, so that, seen from the bank, they will produce a 
 series of lines of reflexion, showing in turn the tints of sky, tower, tree, and 
 bushes. 
 
 When a steep bank near a piece of water gives the opportunity, it is advisable 
 to note the difference in the reflexions of near and distant objects as seen 
 from different heights. If the student remembers that the reflexion is really 
 
Chap. VI.] 
 
 Water. 
 
 5i 
 
 the same as looking through the water at the landscape turned upside down, 
 exactly at the level of the water, the effects will easily be accounted for: the 
 objects near the edge of the water will be relatively lengthened, whilst those at 
 a distance will in consequence be more concealed. Thus, in the illustration, the 
 steeple and the poplar-trees appear to the spectator B of equal height, because 
 the nearness of the trees makes up for the difference in their actual measure¬ 
 ment; but, in the reflexion as seen by him (see diagram 10), this deception is dis¬ 
 covered immediately, upon considering that the poplar-tree, being nearer to 
 the spectator, does not give such a long reflexion as the taller though remoter 
 steeple, whilst to A this same poplar appears at greater length in the reflexion, 
 the more distant steeple being partially hidden behind the actual bank and 
 the reflexion of the prominent shrubs. 
 
 Again, it should be noted that the spectator at a greater elevation sees 
 less of the distant objects in reflexion than the man nearly on a level with the 
 water. A few such general rules as these, and the observation of reflexions 
 on standing water, puddles, wet sand, and even a street after a shower, will 
 soon give a facility in detecting the objects reflected, and the general principles 
 of their reflexion. 
 
 Norham Castle. J. M. W. Turner. Fig. 11. 
 
52 
 
 TABLE OF TINTS FOR SKIES, FOLIAGE, BUILDINGS, AND 
 
 FOREGROUNDS. 
 
 Skies. 
 
 i. Cobalt and Lake; 2. Cobalt and Light Red; 3. Cobalt, Lake, and Yellow Ochre; 4. French Blue, 
 
 Lake, and Yellow Ochre. 
 
 Foliage. 
 
 1. Cobalt and Yellow Ochre; French Blue and Yellow Ochre; 3. Indian Yellow and Cyanine; 
 
 4. Cyanine and Burnt Sienna. 
 
 Buildings. 
 
 1. Light Red and Burnt Sienna; 2. Madder Brown and Vandyke Brown; 3. Yellow Ochre and 
 
 Vandyke Brown; 4. French Blue and Vandyke Brown. 
 
 Foregrounds. 
 
 1. Brown Pink and French Blue; 2. Indian Yellow and Madder Brown; 3. Brown Pink and Madder 
 
 Brown ; 4. Brown Pink and Burnt Sienna. 
 
 This table gives sixteen most useful tints for the above-named branches of sketching. It is not 
 given as a comprehensive one, but as four series of four tints each, made from a sketching colour-box of 
 twelve colours. One colour of the twelve, viz. Aureolin, has not been used in either of the tints, but, as 
 will be seen hereafter, can be added when varying the set tints of the table. 
 
 Skies, Clouds, and Mountains. 
 
 These tints can be used for other portions of a sketch besides those for which they are here set down. 
 The Grey No. 1. for skies, is the pure local grey of distant mountains, or, when the mountains are in 
 sunlight, the shadow tints to be used on the warm and illumined local colour. This tint, used very 
 thinly, is most useful for quiet daylight skies and for the bright aerial tints of clouds. It is also to be 
 used for the reflections of bright skies in water. 
 
 The three remaining greys are more neutral, and will be found serviceable in painting different tones 
 of clouds. The number of grey tints for clouds and skies can be increased very considerably by simply 
 altering the proportions of the colours composing the tints as set down in the table, and by adding or 
 taking away a third colour. Tints composed of two colours will give two distinct varieties, and those of 
 three colours, three each. 
 
 This practice applies to the remainder of the series of tints, and students should, by practising such 
 alterations, become acquainted with the greatest range of tints their colour-boxes are capable of pro¬ 
 ducing. It should be understood that the colours predominate in the tints in the order they are placed ; 
 thus Cobalt enters more largely into the composition of the Grey No. 1 than Lake, the other com¬ 
 posing colour, and so on throughout the series. The addition of a little Aureolin to the tint No. 1, when 
 the Cobalt and Lake are of nearly equal proportions, gives a very bright pearly grey most useful for cloud 
 tints. The same can be added to No. 2, and will produce a pleasing and useful variety of that tint. 
 
 Foliage. 
 
 The series of tints for Foliage will be found useful for distant foliage and light tints, with or without 
 the addition of the greys, and can be used for near trees, when required, if made with a little more 
 body of colour or with the addition of Aureolin, Madder Yellow, or Brown Pink, as required, to each; 
 while to lower the tone of either, any one of the tints for Buildings can be used; and for very near 
 trees, the tints of the foreground series can be added to increase the power of local colour, or to give 
 autumnal hues. 
 
 Buildings. 
 
 No. 1, for buildings, is a mixture much used for bricks and tiles in light. No. 2 being used for the 
 same materials in shade, the two may be wanted combined in some cases, and the darker tint can be 
 used over the lighter, in light washes as a grey, or used strongly as a finishing colour. Nos. 3 and 4 are 
 useful for woodwork, either singly or in combination, both as local colours, varied by the addition of 
 either of the yellows, or lake for some tints; and No. 4 alone as a finishing colour. 
 
 Foregrounds. 
 
 The foreground tints can be varied with the colours that compose them or by the addition of any 
 of the colours of the colour-box, being brightened or lowered as may be required ; but as given in the 
 table will be found to be a very useful series. 
 
FOREGROUNDS. BUILDINGS FOLIAGE. SKIES 
 
 PLATE A. 
 
 1 
 
 1 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 » 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 «jp 
 
 mk 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 TABLE OF TINTS. 
 

 
 
 
“Rivers of France.” J. M. W. Turner. Fig. 12. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SKETCHING COPIES. 
 
 The various sketches that we now put before our readers will serve as studies 
 to suggest (1) what class of subjects are suitable for taking, (2) how each may be 
 treated, and (3) in what way difficulties can be overcome. We begin with some 
 of our own, that the student may follow in these the means used to produce 
 certain effects. In these, too, he may adopt the directions given for copying the 
 view of Oystermouth Castle, with of course such variations as may be found 
 necessary. 
 
54 
 
 Sketching from Nature in Water-Colours. 
 
 [Chap. VII. 
 
 The Ruined Cottage.—Plate XIII. 
 
 Colours used in study of Ruined Cottage Roof. 
 
 Light Red, Vermilion, Burnt Sienna, Indian Red, Brown Madder, Crimson Lake, French Blue 
 Indigo, Cobalt, Brown Pink, Yellow Ochre, Gamboge, Vandyke Brown, Warm Sepia, Blue Black. 
 
 First Painting. 
 
 Red Tints—Light Red, Burnt Sienna. Light Red—Yellow Ochre. Greys—Cobalt, Lake, Light 
 Red, Indigo, Brown Madder. 
 
 Two brushes should be used, one for grey and one for red. In the lighter 
 parts of the red tiling, the red pink was employed with yellow ochre, almost 
 pure, the other tints being run into each other in the working. 
 
 The Chimney. 
 
 French Blue, Brown Madder, Indian Red, Light Red; the small portions of blue and yellow being 
 put in with Cobalt and Yellow Ochre respectively, pure, and the red bricks with Indian Red and 
 Light Red. 
 
 Woodwork: General Local Colour. 
 
 Yellow Ochre and Blue Black (or Cobalt, Lake, Sepia, with Yellow Ochre) for this tint may be 
 used: Greys, Greens, and other tints—Purple Madder, Cobalt, Lake, Yellow Ochre, Brown Pink, 
 Brown Madder, French Blue, Indigo, Warm Sepia. 
 
 Second Painting of Roof. 
 
 Deepen the tint of the redder portion of the tiles with Light Red, and the bright pieces of the 
 loose tiles with Vermilion. Deepen and extend the grey tint with Indigo and Brown Madder; 
 the pieces of moss may be put in with (i) Brown Pink, Indian Yellow; (2) Brown Pink, Gamboge. 
 
 Mark the spaces between the laths with Indigo, Brown Madder, and Gamboge, increasing the 
 yellow where the green tints are shown. This should be done up to its full strength. 
 
 For deep marking of the tiles and brick of the chimney, use, for chimney, Brown Madder, French 
 Blue, and a little Brown Pink. The local colour of the chimney was produced entirely in the first 
 painting. For markings of tiles use (1) Brown Madder; (2) Brown Madder and Brown Pink. For deep 
 marking under the edge of the tiles on the rafters, use Brown Madder, Brown Pink, and Indigo; and the 
 same in the dark spaces and marking on the woodwork, with Brown Pink and Lake for the warm brown 
 touches on the edges and ends of the larger timbers. 
 
 The upper interior was painted with Greys of different tints, made with Cobalt, Lake, and Yellow 
 Ochre, with Indigo and Warm Sepia for the darker portions. The walls were whitewashed, stained, 
 dirtied, and seen in shade. 
 
 The lower room was indicated with Greys made with Indigo, Lake, Sepia, and Burnt Sienna. 
 
 The “ Cottage in Ruins ” is a view taken of that portion of an object 
 which appeared picturesque, leaving the unsightly matters in the foreground to 
 

 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
PLATE XIII. 
 
 Vincent Brooks Day StScnLvtK 
 
 P. H.Delamntte Del, 
 
 RUINED COTTAGE. 
 

PLATE XIV. 
 
 STUDIES of COLOUR 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
Chap. VII.] 
 
 Sketching Copies. 
 
 55 
 
 the imagination. It is often advisable not to finish off too particularly the corners 
 of a picture, for, in looking at any object, we usually see the surroundings less 
 clearly as they extend further from the principal point. Thus, to any one looking 
 at the broken tiling and the depths of shadows in the opened rooms, the heaps of 
 rubbish in the front would become only a distraction. A similar want of filling 
 in of detail in the corners may be observed in the little Collins, given on 
 page 41. In that rapid sketch, done on toned paper with a little body colour 
 and only two or three tints, the sky and the dark masses of rock are evidently 
 most carefully drawn ; but the foreground, not being the immediate object of the 
 artist, is left with a few pencil-marks and the remains of the colour left'in the 
 brush. Thus there is plenty of authority for leaving portions of a sketch 
 unfinished when some parts are elaborated with great detail. 
 
 To return to our Cottage, the variety of colour in the old tiling should be 
 noticed. The first impression of a sketcher on looking at such a roof as this would 
 very likely be that there was a great sameness of colour, and that the difficulty of 
 the tiling would arise from drawing the shape of each tile. On the contrary, 
 the colour is very varied—Light Red, Vermilion, Burnt Sienna, Indian Red, 
 Lake, each modified more or less by French Blue or Indigo, all have their share in 
 the production; and the drawing of the tiles will not be found to be so difficult; 
 but in the case of the laths and beams the advantage of very careful pencilling 
 will be soon recognized. The slight dark lines under these do much towards 
 bringing them forward. The shadows throughout, it should be noted, are never 
 black, but tend to brown or blue, according to the colour of the adjoining light, 
 the variety giving at the same time depth and transparency. This transparency of 
 shadow is most important, and is often a difficulty to young painters. In the 
 preliminary pencil-sketch the perspective should be carefully attended to. As an 
 instance how rather violent perspective, when in the right place, is not unpleasant, 
 we may notice the boards at the side. 
 
 Studies of Colour.—Plate XIV. 
 
 On this plate two subjects are given, such as may be arranged at any time 
 at home when out-of-door sketching is impracticable. A cocoa-nut with its husk, 
 and some rough hand-made crockeryware, very easily group into shape, and form 
 
56 Sketching from Nature in Water-Colours . [Chap. VII. 
 
 objects that are pleasing and useful for practice. It is hand-made crockery, and 
 not the cast and carefully printed ware, that is thus adaptable. The marks of 
 human attempts, showing their human imperfection in a certain amount of 
 failure, arouse more sympathy in the heart than the most elaborate and perfect 
 piece of machine-made pottery. In all such arrangements due regard must be 
 paid to contrast of colour, of light and shade, and of form. Curves must 
 intersect and oppose one another; lights must fall in front of shaded bits, and 
 shadows across lights. Complimentary colours must assist in throwing forward 
 one another. In the upper group, the dull green throws forward the brighter 
 red; and below, the deep and deadened red draws attention to the brighter 
 green. The lightest portion of the cocoa-nut husk comes behind the dark 
 markings of the handle of the bottle, and the lightest part of the open nut 
 relieves the shadow of the green jar. The broken ear of this, too, leads the 
 eye on to the handle of the red bottle, which counterbalances, but does not 
 repeat, the opposite ear. Thus in the arrangement of a few little coloured and 
 variously shaped articles, there is plenty of room for practice in composition, which 
 will enable the eye to choose at other times that which is beautiful and attractive 
 in natural scenery. 
 
 In the lower group, notice the shading of the large round jar as opposed 
 to that of the blue mug. Notice, again, how different the effect would be 
 either without the green jar, or if it were placed upright. 
 
 If the student will thus analyse every accidental grouping that appears 
 picturesque, and every design that is really pleasing, he will learn more of 
 
 composition than the most elaborate rules can teach him. 
 
 Old Porch at East Grinstead.—Plate XV. (Frontispiece). 
 
 As the last copy was devoted principally to foliage, the following one 
 consists chiefly of simple architecture. It seems, at first sight, a difficult thino- 
 to paint a tree, but a little experience and the comparison of the modes adopted 
 by various artists soon initiate the beginner into the means of getting over 
 
 the difficulty. On the other hand, it seems a simple matter to colour a flat 
 
 wall, but experience soon corrects this delusion also, and to paint well a good 
 bit of old discoloured wall requires great patience, and some knowledge, both 
 of our materials and of the character of walls, for walls have a character and a 
 
Chap. VII.] 
 
 Sketching Copies. 
 
 57 
 
 tale of their own, and, unless we can tell that tale and express that character, 
 we do not carry away the charm that the old stones exercise over our minds. 
 We shall see more of this when we come to the Prout, Plate XVII. 
 Plere is a good bit of old stone work, a solid porch, tiles enriched by age, with 
 
 some fine Sussex chimneys behind them, and all thrown into prominence 
 by the garish impudence of the new bit of brickwork, half hidden as it is 
 behind the corner. In such a sketch as this every stroke of the pencil in the 
 
 I 
 
58 
 
 Sketching from Nature in Water-Colours. 
 
 [Chap. VII. 
 
 outline will save perplexity, trouble, and muddle in later work. All great 
 artists have been careful and elaborate draughtsmen. We see this in the 
 number of mere pencil outlines left behind them by so many of the great masters. 
 The adjoining sketch, by Turner, Fig. 13, shows his practice in this matter: 
 the collection in the Taylor buildings at Oxford is a small portion of the daily 
 work of Raffaelle and Michael Angelo : Mulready’s work may be seen in the 
 South Kensington Museum ; so we might go on through the whole catalogue of 
 celebrated artists both of ancient and modern times, and prove that no man 
 ever obtained a lasting name who did not work constantly and carefully with 
 pen or pencil. When the pencilling is full and accurate, the washes can be put 
 in freely, and with due attention to gradation and change of tint; whereas, 
 if we are obliged to attend to outline as well as to colour and depth, some one 
 of the three is almost sure to suffer. 
 
 In this drawing, again, we see how the bright red brickwork softens 
 off as it runs into the distance, and yet we recognize at once that the sunlit 
 bricks around the distant cottage window are as bright and new as the most 
 prominent piece of the flat wall. The shadow on the right of the picture 
 does not extend over every portion of the stonework, but projections are left, 
 as well as breaks in the shadow itself; thus it does not end abruptly, but mixes 
 itself gradually with the local shadows. The bush in the corner, and the weeds 
 in front, will present no difficulties to those who have followed the previous 
 remarks and details of foregrounds. 
 
 On the nearest pillar of the porch there is a little light immediately opposed 
 to the dark passage behind. The latter is not very gloomy, or it would interfere 
 with the depth of shadow on the pillar, and prevent its standing forward. These 
 little contrasts constitute much of the charm of a good sketch, and they are 
 only to be found by those who look attentively for them. In the same way, 
 the reflected light on the ceiling of the porch throws forward the adjoining 
 dark parts. 
 
 I he straight lines of the roofs require to be relieved by the variety of 
 curves in a broken sky. Had long lines of horizontal stratus repeated the 
 markings of the architecture, they would have caused a deadness and flatness 
 to hang over the whole scene. A choice of day and sky is most important 
 to the composition of a sketch. 
 

PLATE XVI 
 

CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 John Varley.—Plate XVI. 
 
 Plate XVI. is taken from a sketch by John Varley. This painter, one of the 
 founders of the school of water-colour painters in England, was born in 177S, 
 and died in 1842. He was one of the original members of the Old Water- 
 Colour Society, and did much in many ways to promote water-colour painting. 
 There is a peculiar freshness and simplicity about his pictures, though at the 
 same time there is an amount of mannerism, both of touch and of colouring. 
 In estimating the work of the older painters, however, we should make a 
 certain degree of allowance, partly for the inferiority of materials, both paper 
 and colours, under which they laboured, and partly for a slight amount of 
 fading in the colours. Perhaps the latter is not so great as we sometimes 
 imagine it to be, as it is difficult to say how far the smaller variety of 
 pigments of former days prevented artists from carrying out their ideas. 
 
 In the sketch before us, nothing can exceed the freshness and purity of 
 the sky. We can see that it has been a wet day, but that as the sunset 
 has approached, and before the sun had begun to put forth the glorious 
 
 colours of its latter rays, the sky had assumed that appearance of having 
 been washed quite clean which such a day sometimes leaves behind it. 
 The main mass of clouds is sinking towards the horizon, and those 
 
 that remain floating in mid-air (and how thoroughly they stand out away 
 
 from the sky behind them !) are fast driving off,— in a few seconds they will 
 
 be out of the picture. Catch the effect whilst it lasts, if you can; at all 
 events remember it, and commit it to paper as soon as possible. With such an 
 effect the dull sepia of the shaded foreground, is all that is possible. If the 
 sun shone on the wet grass and ground, the sparkles of the gems of moisture 
 
6o 
 
 Sketching from Nature in Water-Colours. 
 
 [Chap. VIII. 
 
 and the glitter of. innumerable lights would be more than any ordinary painter 
 could get out of the most brilliant colour-box. We do not commend the form 
 of the trees or the cows, or advise imitation of them; the general effect 
 of these objects is good, and, at a moderate distance, they will suggest what 
 they intend ; but the main object in this sketch was to delineate this peculiar 
 phase of weather, and the form of objects, alive or dead, was quite of secondary 
 importance. 
 
 We have already drawn attention to some points in the composition of 
 this drawing (see page 47). Note how the depth of shade leads the eye on 
 to the tower in the mid-distance, and how an expanse of many miles rolls away 
 in the space of scarcely more than half an inch. Composition was one main 
 point to which this artist paid attention, and we cannot do better than direct 
 our readers’ attention to the woodcut on the title-page as another instance of 
 the power over light and shade shown by the same painter. The student will 
 do well to copy this latter subject in sepia, either the same size or a third larger. 
 
 S. Prout.—Plate XVII. 
 
 Samuel Prout, of whom Ruskin speaks 1 as “a very great man, who, 
 partly by chance and partly by choice, limited in choice of subject, possessed 
 for that subject the profoundest and noblest sympathy,” was born at Plymouth 
 in 1784, came to London in 1805, for eight years laboured at routine work for 
 publishers, but afterwards came forward as an original draughtsman, and finally 
 established a reputation by a series of publications containing sketches of 
 foreign architectural masterpieces. He died suddenly in 1852. 
 
 With h is usual sweeping assertion, Ruskin said of him, in 1846, that 
 “numerous as have been his imitators, extended as his influence, and simple 
 as his means and manner, there has yet appeared nothing at all to equal him ; 
 there is no stone drawing, no vitality of architecture, like Prout’s.” The sketch 
 we have on Plate XVII. is certainly a good instance of how he worked to acquire 
 that mastery over architectural texture for which he is celebrated. The work 
 lovingly bestowed upon the old plastered wall of this Sussex or Kentish 
 cottage lightened the labour of many a mass of cathedral detail. Note how 
 much colour, completely subdued, goes to make up a flat unremarkable expanse 
 
 1 “Modern Painters.” 
 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
PLATE XVII 
 
 VIEW IN KENT. 
 
 S. P R 0 U T 
 
Chap. VIII.] 
 
 P. Dcwint. 
 
 61 
 
 of weathered building. Put your finger over the red clothes drying on the 
 hedge, and some red appears in the wall above; which, however, retires again 
 on the re-appearance of the old apron, thus purposely introduced. Not a 
 scrap of that plaster but has had care and colour bestowed on it, and yet 
 there is nothing obtrusive or unpleasant in it, and we are led insensibly on to 
 admire the old woodwork of the front, which an ordinary artist would have 
 made the prominent point of his sketch. Not so, however, Prout. He 
 works conscientiously at his blank wall, and throws the more striking but 
 monotonous woodwork into shadow and perspective ; tells the whole tale, but 
 wearies you not with the mass of detail. “He is the most dexterous of our 
 artists,” said Ruskin, “ in a certain kind of composition. No one can place 
 figures like him except Turner.” We may be quite sure that Turner could 
 not have placed these cows more judiciously, if he could have drawn a cow at 
 all that would not have tormented every draughtsman. But Prout’s cows are 
 certainly just where they ought to be, what they ought to be, and the colour 
 they ought to be ; the white cow sending back the deeply shadowed front, with 
 its dark doorways and windows, and the red cow breaking the line of the 
 corner, carrying on the colour of the old apron and taking the strongest point 
 in the whole picture, thus preventing the little window above, which otherwise 
 would monopolize attention, from becoming too prominent. 
 
 Retired in tone and colouring as is the old castle in the background, it has 
 had considerable care bestowed upon its working. The cracks and crannies 
 are in their places, leaving the main portion of the stonework still in regular 
 bands. The texture and the workmanship are visible though not obtruded, 
 and the ivy is ivy entirely distinct from the trees beyond. There is not a 
 point in the drawing which has not received its due amount of attention, or that 
 does not seem to fall naturally into the place assigned to it. The very stones 
 in the road are carefully balanced, though with an irregularity as great as that 
 of nature, and they are placed as carefully as the figures in one of his French 
 market-places. 
 
 P. Dewint.—Plate XVIII. 
 
 No painter is a better example of the leading characteristics of English 
 water-colour landscape painters than Paul Dewint. As far as material is concerned, 
 he uses water-colour as a transparent medium for conveying colour, without any 
 
62 
 
 Sketching from Nature in Water-Colours. 
 
 [Chap. VIII. 
 
 attempt to adopt the manipulation of other material ; and the genuine English 
 landscape—the more English the better—was felt, enjoyed, and transmitted by 
 him. There is a calm and peace in his drawings which speak of a tone of 
 mind such as Isaac Walton possessed. The true enjoyer of Nature, the man 
 who feels nature is so beautiful, so calm, so abundant, that he must try to 
 
 imitate her and transmit what she tells him, must recognize in Dewint a 
 
 companion and sympathizer. We esteem ourselves, therefore, very fortunate 
 in being able to give an unfinished sketch of one who must be so dear to 
 
 sketchers. In this we see how he worked, and we can follow in his 
 
 footsteps. It is really like having the master working before us. Here we 
 
 see how he began with blues and browns, to work in the shades and forms 
 before he applied the local colour. This mode of colouring was much 
 in vogue with the older artists, some even, at an earlier period, working 
 with Indian ink before they put on any tints. This process, as may be 
 
 supposed, gave a heavy, cold, and untransparent tone to the shadows. Brown, 
 however, is pleasanter to the eye, though perhaps it is better to work in the 
 shadows with the local colour in most instances in sketching, because it is 
 almost impossible to distinguish between colour and shade in Nature. 
 
 There are one or two points which we may well notice in this sketch. 
 A bit of pure colour is put in on the brick wall, and a considerable depth of 
 cobalt is left on the unfinished sky. These two give the key to what it is 
 possible to work up to ; and from such bits as this the whole tone of the future 
 picture would be regulated. It is a most useful practice thus to pitch upon 
 the scrap of colour which is to be the telling-point in the sketch. Put this 
 
 in at nearly its proper depth, and then work up to it from the deepest 
 
 shadow and the purest piece of white paper. 
 
 The main objects of the sketch are worked in first. The sky even is left 
 unfinished, in order to get the picturesque form of the ash-tree, with its due 
 amount of light and shade, and its shadow on the house, whilst the passing 
 waggon is indicated as it passes ; the reflexions on the tire of the wheel, too, 
 being marked out for future manipulation. The main lights and shadows of 
 the distance are mapped out ; but this, with the cottage wall and of course 
 the foreground, are left as matters of detail, which can be filled up easily when 
 the passing effects of light and shade, of cloud and figure, have departed from 
 the face of the landscape. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
PLATE XVIII 
 
 D E W I N T. 
 
Chap. VIII.] 
 
 Girtin. 
 
 63 
 
 We have drawn attention elsewhere to some of the points in the composition 
 of this picture (see p. 44). Many of the lines, and notably that of the sky, 
 run diagonally from the upper right-hand side to the lower left of the drawing; 
 but the perspective of the roof cuts into this, the curves of the various trees 
 break any monotonous tendency, and even the road, which tends in the same 
 way, ends with a curve in a new direction. Cut off the curve from the 
 end of the road, and see how tame the whole becomes. The stems of the 
 larger trees repeat one another to a certain extent; but one is dark and the 
 other light, and they branch from different sides. 
 
 Girtin:—Plate XIX. 
 
 It is rather strange that Mr. Ruskin, in his “Modern Painters,” makes no 
 mention of Girtin. Had he not died so young (at the age of 29), the hero of 
 that great art epic, Turner, would have had some difficulty in obtaining the 
 renown he has otherwise acquired. Thomas Girtin, like Turner, was a Londoner, 
 born in 1773, two years before his rival, and dying in 1802, nearly fifty years 
 before him. What had Turner done, at the age of 29, that would have 
 compared even with the sketch on Plate XIX. ? Up to Girtin’s time, artists 
 had been accustomed to use a smooth glazed paper, but he adopted cartridge ; 
 and he also departed from the traditions of his predecessors in giving up 
 successively the use of the pen in outline, and Indian ink or neutral tint for 
 delineating forms before colour was laid on. Here we have no dull black 
 shadows, such as would have resulted from that practice; and, though the 
 drawing is careful and accurate to a degree, there is none of that harshness 
 of outline which we see in so many of the older painters, and which was 
 
 continued even down to our own time by David Roberts in his oil-colour 
 
 paintings. 
 
 This drawing, which represents the bridge at Llanberis, with Cader Idris 
 in the distance, is a good example of the work and style of the artist. His 
 main characteristics are breadth, simplicity, and force ; and these are well marked 
 in the plate before us ; the effect, composition, and handling of which are alike 
 admirable and worthy of study. A warm glow runs from the clouds along the 
 
 surface of the mountain to the front of the old house, and is lost at length in 
 
 the reflexion in the stream, only tempering, with modified brightness, the more 
 
64 Sketching from Nature in Water-Colours. [Chap. VIII. 
 
 remote arch of the bridge and the distance visible beneath it and its neighbour. 
 Then in composition how simple is this sketch, and yet how effective ; the one 
 figure of a fisherman (rather differently drawn from one of Turner’s grotesque 
 bags of stuffing !) concentrates the whole picture and leads the eye down to the 
 foreground, thus counterbalancing the strong light on the house-front on the 
 other side. The handling affords lessons too. Scarcely any lights are taken out, 
 only on the little ripple on the water. Wash after wash is put on boldly, and in 
 its destined place. The tints of which these washes are composed are more 
 numerous than we usually find in most drawings, each having reference to its own 
 place in the picture—the shades in the mountain being almost pure blue, the 
 middle distance combining a tendency to green with a warmer tint, whilst the 
 foreground shadows are of a deep warm brown. The delicate combination of 
 greys with the local colouring in the middle distance is an important lesson in 
 the art of colouring, and shows how a foreground may be brought into pro¬ 
 minence by attention to that which is immediately behind it. Then the old 
 building is decidedly marked out with deep shadows, throwing out the lights 
 of the wall and glittering roof; but these shadows are kept transparent and 
 clear by the use of considerable varieties of tint and depth. Lastly, the stone¬ 
 work of the bridge receives as much attention as if it were the delicate face of 
 a child. Such was the work which Girtin has left us, and which certainly 
 deserves more consideration than it usually obtains. The neglect he has 
 received can only arise from the paucity of his pictures. 
 
 E. W. Cooke, R.A. —Plate XX. 
 
 Everywhere on the coast of our own country, and indeed wherever sketchers 
 are likely to penetrate, are to be found numerous objects for sketching, both 
 principal and accessory, and most of them are highly interesting, picturesque, and 
 attractive. The precipitous cliffs, the jutting headlands, huge boulders and fallen 
 rocks, the winding and well-worn paths leading from beach to downs and other 
 heights above the sea, the long sweeps of shingle, the spread of sands and sunny 
 beach—these all are natural features common to most parts of the coast: but, 
 besides this, the attention of the student ought also to be directed to more transient 
 beauties—to the moving incidents of the beach, to the accessory and picturesque 
 detail of fishing and sea life, and to the various effects of weather and of tide. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
RUN. 
 
Chap. VIII.] 
 
 E. IV. Cooke , R.A. 
 
 65 
 
 These matters of coast scenery have been sketched in various places by Turner, 
 Stanfield, Prout, and Collins. Each of these has chosen some one series of 
 subjects differing from that of his fellows, and some have taken many—all have 
 been good, some pre-eminently successful. 
 
 The first-named artist touched with his master-hand every particular of this 
 wide field of art opened to us by residence near the sea-shore. Nature’s grandest 
 features and her simplest details were alike appreciated and grasped by his all- 
 embracing mind, and transcribed by his facile hand ; and thus with prodigious 
 industry were gathered into the vast storehouses of his mind and portfolio every 
 object that could afford effects either of beauty or power, forming collections such 
 as no other man ever attempted. 
 
 Stanfield, brought up to the sea, was a painter both of coast and sea life, 
 sketching carefully and indefatigably details that he knew well. His excellent 
 work, freely but accurately drawn, forms an excellent model which the student may 
 study with advantage. Stanfield, like Turner, knew what deep-sea waves were 
 like, and those who would learn to catch the ever-changma- forms of waves would 
 do well to look at the rolling masses through the spectacles provided by these 
 two artists. 
 
 Prout delighted as much in the picturesque circumstances of fishing-hamlets 
 and sea-shore, as he did in the inland villages and the decayed and crumbling 
 buildings of country towns. The fishers’ cottages, ruinous and weather-beaten ; 
 the wrecked boat, no longer able to keep out the water from below but still able 
 to ward off rain from above, inverted and changed into a land-dwelling for the 
 amphibious race of sea-side dwellers (see Fig. 5); details of mooring and landing- 
 places, with their ever-changing arrangements: all these were alike sketched 
 by him ; and had not fashion demanded that he should tell, over and over again, 
 the tale of tottering wall and crumbling stone, we might have boasted of Prout as 
 one of the greatest of marine painters in the annals of our island art. 
 
 One of the most faithful sketchers of English coast scenery was Collins, and 
 many of the works of this eminent painter were genuine sketches. The original of 
 the woodcut (Fig. 3) is a vigorous sketch from nature, with more power and 
 force than Collins’s works generally possess. It is painted on tinted paper, the 
 lights being expressed with white. 
 
 The subject of this drawing is most simple, and its fixed features of sea and 
 land would, when not under the influence of strong light, as they are in this 
 
 K 
 
PLATE XX 
 
 COOKE, 
 
Chap. VIII.] 
 
 Final Hints. 
 
 67 
 
 represents an incident, a very simple one, but sufficient to give greater interest to 
 the sketch than it would have if it were a representation of Lobster Pots only. 
 A live lobster in its sombre natural hue looks from its wicker prison, with 
 considerable and natural surprise, at its dead brother, boiled into a resplendent 
 red, placed, lifeless and edible, half out of the sooty iron pot; hence the sketch 
 is called by the painter, “ Rouge et Noir.” The sketch shows in a marked 
 degree one of Mr. Cooke’s many excellences, viz. the transparency of the 
 shadows. This valuable quality of transparency is apparent in every part of 
 the painter’s work, and doubtless helps to give that pre-eminence in the repre¬ 
 sentation of reflexions for which he is noted. The subject of the sketch is a 
 representative scene, such as is frequently to be found in every fishing-village. 
 
 Mr. Cooke is a most prolific sketcher, perhaps the most prolific living, and 
 innumerable are his delineations of every kind of vessel common on our own 
 coast, or that of Holland, Scandinavia, and in the Mediterranean. His views of 
 Venice and of the Western Coast of Italy must be known to every one. His 
 published work, now very scarce, “ Etchings of Shipping,” is a text-book, and 
 invaluable to students of Marine subjects. 
 
 Final Hints. 
 
 The preceding sketches have all of them been painted in water-colour used 
 as a medium for tinting a white or nearly white paper with a transparent colour;— 
 where lights were to be very vivid, the paper was left colourless, or only slightly 
 toned; and when this was impossible, a scraper, or some such means, was used 
 to restore the discoloured surface ; and where opacity was required, it was produced 
 by leaving an even surface of the opaque paper also tinted to the required hue. 
 But of late years there has been a more determined and more successful attempt 
 than had hitherto been made to obtain some of the facilities which were, up 
 to this time, peculiar to oil-colour, and to use them in the medium of water¬ 
 colour ; and the discovery of new pigments has added to the capabilities of the 
 materials. Both these processes of oil and of water-colour had their advan¬ 
 tages and disadvantages; and the principal disadvantage under which water¬ 
 colour drawing laboured was the inability to produce, with facility and accuracy, 
 small points of light of various tints and of graduating tones on the surface of 
 a large shadow, or in front of some mass in deeper tone. Constantly it occurs 
 
68 
 
 Sketching from Nature in Water-Colours. 
 
 [Chap. VIII. 
 
 that the spray of a tree or portion of a shrub in strong sunlight, or the bright 
 tones of some figure, might be in the actual scene projected in front of the 
 deepest shadow in the whole sketch, thus forming one of those happy contrasts 
 on which the beauty of a composition frequently depends ; or it might happen 
 that the sharp edge of a ripple reflected the glancing colours of a sunlit sky, 
 whilst all the rest of the water was toned down by the colours of reflected 
 shadows. In all these cases the scraper would take off the colour on the paper, 
 but it left the untinted body of the paper beneath with its surface and its glaze 
 destroyed, so that the pure bright tint of the light could not be laid on with 
 any security that it would not run together in blots and disfigurements. To 
 remedy this inconvenience, attempts have been made, at various times, to use 
 water-colours in the same manner as oils, and, by the admixture of a portion 
 of white pigments with the tint, to form what is called body colour. This may 
 be laid on the surface of a deeper shade, and yet may stand off bright and 
 clean; and if at first its tone is not bright enough, it can be heightened by 
 the addition of more of the pigment. 
 
 This method, in the hands of most artists, usually has had the disadvantage 
 of looking chalky and pasty; but there are a few in whose work we do not 
 observe this drawback. To a beginner, however, the process is enticing and 
 dangerous, likely to lead to a muddiness of colouring and to a dependence upon 
 trick to produce effect; we cannot, therefore, recommend it when we see that 
 the attempts of some even skilful artists are not altogether successful in 
 overcoming all the difficulties and temptations attendant upon the use of body 
 colour. 
 
 We have now indicated the road along which the student who wishes to 
 sketch must travel. As we began, so we must end. He who will sketch, must 
 sketch in order to learn; but the auxiliaries to such practice we have pointed 
 out. He must draw carefully, accurately, fully. He must occasionally copy 
 a sketch or a picture, to acquire a facility in the use of materials. He must 
 study the works of masters, to see how they have overcome difficulties. He 
 must compose and arrange subjects, and continually pick out sketches from 
 amongst the wealth of beauty which he daily views, though he may be unable 
 always to commit these sketches to paper. He must study all the component 
 parts of pictures separately and individually; clouds, distances, foregrounds, 
 
Chap. VIII.] 
 
 Final Hints. 
 
 69 
 
 water, and trees. If to these he can also add figure drawing, he will not only 
 be adding to the stock of subjects that he introduces into his sketches, but he 
 will learn very much more of the drawing of every object that his pencil can 
 touch. Perseverance in this, as in everything else, has its reward, and genius 
 is the word by which the world characterizes the man who can work most, 
 and who, for its own sake, loves his work most. 
 
 From a Sketch by Rev. J. L. Petit. Fig. 14. 
 
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