s the bald work of
learning to see facts justly, in their proper degree of relative
importance; and how to convey these facts visibly, so that they shall
be recognizable to another person.

The ideals of art are for the artist; not for the student. The
student's ideal should be only to see quickly and justly, and to
render directly and frankly.

Technique is a word which includes all the material and educational
resources of representation. The beginner need bother himself little
with what is good and what is bad technique. Let him study facts and
their representation only. Choice of means and materials implies a
knowledge by which he can choose. The beginner can have no such
knowledge. Choice, then, is not for him; but to work quite simply with
whatever comes to hand, intent only on training the eye to see, the
brain to judge, and the hand to execute. Later, with the gaining of
experience and of knowledge, for both will surely come, the
determination of what is best suited for the individual temperament or
purpose will work itself out naturally.

The student should not allow the theoretical basis of art to interfere
with the directness of his study of the material and the actual.
Nevertheless, he should know the fact that there is something back of
the material and the actual, as well as in a general way what that
something is.

Because the student's business is with the practical is no reason why
he should remain ignorant of everything else. It is important that he
should think as a painter as well as work as a painter. If he has no
thought of what all this practical is for, he will get a false idea of
his craft. He will see, and think of, and believe in, nothing but the
craftsmanship: that which every good workman respects as good and
necessary, but which the wise workman knows is but the perfect means
for the expression of thought.

Some consideration, then, of the theoretical side of art is necessary
in a book of this kind. A number of considerations arise at the
outset, about which you must make up your mind:--

Is judgment of a picture based on individual liking?

Can you hope to paint well by following your own liking only?

Is it worth your while to try to do good work?

Can you hope to do good work at all?

You must decide these questions for yourself, but you must remember
that it depends upon how you decide them whether your work will be
good or bad.

To take the last consideration first, you