k, and your work hold; or you may
not have luck, and in a month your picture is ruined. Don't trust to
luck. Keep that element out as much as you can, always. But in the
matter of paints, if you count on luck at all, remember that the
chances are altogether against you. Don't let yourself be persuaded to
indulge in experiments with colors which you have reason to think are
of doubtful quality. Keep on the safe side, and use colors you are
sure of, even if they do cost a little more--at first; for they are
cheaper in the long-run. And even in the time of using of one tube,
generally the good paint does enough more work to cover the difference
of cost.

=Bad Paints.=--Suspect colors which are too cheap. Good work is
expensive. Ability and skill and experience count in making artists'
colors, and must be paid for. If you would get around the cost of
first-class material you must mix it with inferior material.

The first effect you will notice in using poor colors is a certain
hindrance to your facility, due to the fact that the color is
weak--does not have the snap and strength in it that you expect. The
paint has not a full color quality, but mixes dead and flat. This you
will find particularly in the finer and lighter yellows. You need not
fear much adulteration in those paints which are naturally cheap, of
course. It is in those higher-priced colors, on which you must largely
depend for the more sparkling qualities, that you will have most
trouble.

Unevenness of working, and lack of covering or mixing power, you will
find in poor paints also. They have no strength, and you must keep
adding them more and more to other colors to get them to do their
work. All these things are bothersome. They make you give more
attention to the pigments while working than you ought to, and when
all is done, your picture is weak and negative in color.

Another effect to be feared from bad colors is that your work will not
stand; the colors fade or change, and the paint cracks. The former
effect is from bad material, or bad combinations of them in the
working, and the latter mainly from bad vehicles used in grinding
them.

I have seen pictures go to pieces within a month of their
painting--bad paint and bad combinations. Of course you can use good
colors so that the picture will not stand. But that will be your own
fault, and it is no excuse for the use of colors which you can by no
possibility do good work with.

=Good Paints.=--