Page:The practice of water-colour painting (IA cu31924014501971).pdf/156

looks at such subjects with an architect's knowledge, undeniably, but he interprets them with the sensitiveness and the subtlety of vision which are the chief essentials in the equipment of the landscape painter.

The habit of seeing things largely is, indeed, one that he has assiduously cultivated. It guides him very definitely in his method of building up a picture from small studies made out of doors, and it governs the whole working process by which he leads on to his intended result. With his small studies beside him he prepares a cartoon in pastel of the same size as the picture he is going to paint – using a brown or grey paper with a rough surface and drawing with the softest pastels obtainable – and in this cartoon he masses his subject without emphasising outlines or small forms, and establishes the broad scheme of colour and tone that he desires to reproduce in his painting. The friability of the pastel on the rough paper is an actual mechanical assistance, as it makes small drawing impossible and forces him to deal only with the large and generalised masses.