g, such details as
the features, fingers, etc., being neglected. The light and shade on
the single figures also is not expressed, but the light and shade
effect of the whole picture is carefully shown, and the same with the
color-scheme. It is this first sketch that establishes the character
of the future picture in everything but the details. Sometimes this
work is done on a quite large canvas, but usually is not more than a
foot or two long, and of corresponding width.

=Studies.=--After this there must be studies made for the drawing of
the single figures, and for more exactness of line and action in the
bringing of all together into the whole. This work is usually done in
charcoal, from the life, and sometimes on a piece of drawing-paper
stretched over the same canvas that the picture will be painted on, or
otherwise arranged, but of the same size. Often, however, this work,
too, is done on a smaller scale than that of the picture, especially
when the picture is to be very large. This is based on the preliminary
sketch as composition, and is intended to carry that idea out more in
full, and perfect the drawing of the different figures, and to
harmonize the composition. The composition and relation of figures
both as to size and position on the final canvas depend on this study.

[Illustration: =Study of Fortune.= _Michael Angelo._]

=Corrections.=--In making these studies and in transferring them to
the canvas, corrections are of course often necessary. The correction
may or may not be satisfactory. To avoid too great confusion from the
number of corrections in the same place, they are not made always
directly on the study or canvas, but on a curtain of tissue paper
dropped over it. The figure may be completely drawn, and is to be
modified in whole or in part. The tissue paper receives the new
drawing, and the old drawing shows through it, and the effect of the
correction can be compared with that of the first idea. The study
itself need not then be changed until the alteration which is
satisfactory is found, as the process may be repeated as many times
as necessary on the tissue paper, and the alterations finally embodied
in the completed study.

=Figure Studies.=--The studies for the various single figures are now
made in the nude from the model, generally a quarter or half life
size--a careful, accurate light and shade drawing of every figure in
the picture, the model being posed in the position determined on