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

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THE ELEMENTS OF DRAWING. [letter iii.

so far as I remember, been reached in dead colour,
and the noblest oil pictures of Tintoret and Veronese
are those which are likest frescos.

Besides all this, the fact is, that though some-
times a little chalky and coarse-looking, body-colour
is, in a sketch, infinitely liker nature than trans-
parent colour: the bloom and mist of distance are
accurately and instantly represented by the film of
opaque blue (quite accurately, I think, by nothing
else); and for ground, rocks, and buildings, the
earthy and solid surface is, of course, always truer
than the most finished and carefully wrought work
in transparent tints can ever be.

Against one thing, however, I must steadily caution
you. All kinds of colour are equally illegitimate,
if you think they will allow you to alter at your
pleasure, or blunder at your ease. There is no
vehicle or method of colour which admits of alter-
ation or repentance ; you must be right at once,
or never; and you might as well hope to catch
a rifle bullet in your hand, and put it straight,
when it was going wrong, as to recover a tint once