DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19950#0011
INTRODUCTION.
11
gather them. That bold rock is not grey all over: part
of it stands out, it is true, as pale and gaunt as a ghost,
but observe more closely :—does not blue creep in here and
there among the grey ? Does not a little moss adorn that
ledge ? Is there not a rich brown on the further side of
that angle—a sharp shadow below that hint of vegetation ?
These are the beauties that Nature shows to her attentive
admirers, and these minute touches, carefully noted, bring
a conviction of truthfulness to every beholder. Look at
those trees again: are they absolutely green all over—or
at least of the same even tint of green ? Are the trunks
of one unvaried brown or neutral tint as you have rendered
them ? Look at that pale lichen, which gives a break to
the monotonv of the colour : at the knots here and there,
and the stumps of lopped boughs. Here the bark is more
rugged and corrugated; there a hollow gives a sharp shadow,
and the edge a high light. That road, you will say, is
brown, and you have made yours so. It is brown, but of
an infinite variety of shades; pale yellow here, reddish there,
—in one place broken by ruts—and a grey shadow stealing
across the further end.
So much for the foreground. Now for the distance. You
may take it for granted that blue prevails over a very large
portion of the scene, and you may safely err on this side,
as an excess of this hue is readily detected, but a deficiency
of it betrays a want of atmosphere. The common fault of
young sketchers is, that they make their landscapes too
green, not too blue. They know, for instance, the local
colour of trees to be generally green, and they paint them
11
gather them. That bold rock is not grey all over: part
of it stands out, it is true, as pale and gaunt as a ghost,
but observe more closely :—does not blue creep in here and
there among the grey ? Does not a little moss adorn that
ledge ? Is there not a rich brown on the further side of
that angle—a sharp shadow below that hint of vegetation ?
These are the beauties that Nature shows to her attentive
admirers, and these minute touches, carefully noted, bring
a conviction of truthfulness to every beholder. Look at
those trees again: are they absolutely green all over—or
at least of the same even tint of green ? Are the trunks
of one unvaried brown or neutral tint as you have rendered
them ? Look at that pale lichen, which gives a break to
the monotonv of the colour : at the knots here and there,
and the stumps of lopped boughs. Here the bark is more
rugged and corrugated; there a hollow gives a sharp shadow,
and the edge a high light. That road, you will say, is
brown, and you have made yours so. It is brown, but of
an infinite variety of shades; pale yellow here, reddish there,
—in one place broken by ruts—and a grey shadow stealing
across the further end.
So much for the foreground. Now for the distance. You
may take it for granted that blue prevails over a very large
portion of the scene, and you may safely err on this side,
as an excess of this hue is readily detected, but a deficiency
of it betrays a want of atmosphere. The common fault of
young sketchers is, that they make their landscapes too
green, not too blue. They know, for instance, the local
colour of trees to be generally green, and they paint them