Ruskin, John: The elements of drawing: in three letters to beginners (London, 1857)

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THE ELEMENTS OF DEALING. [letter ill.

warm a minute ago, becomes cold when you have
put a hotter colour in another place, and what was
in harmony when you left it, becomes discordant
as you set other colours beside it; so that every
touch must be laid, not with a view to its effect at
the time, but with a view to its effect in futurity,
the result upon it of all that is afterwards to be
done being previously considered. You may easily
understand that, this being so, nothing but the
devotion of life, and great genius besides, can make
a colourist.

But though you cannot produce finished co-
loured drawings of any value, you may give yourself
much pleasure, and be of great use to other people, by
occasionally sketching with a view to colour only; and
preserving distinct statements of certain colour facts
—as that the harvest-moon at rising was of such and
such a red, and surrounded by clouds of such and
such a rosy grey; that the mountains at evening
were in truth so deep in purple; and the waves by
the boat's side were indeed of that incredible green.
This only, observe, if you have an eye for colour;