looking at, however naturalistic the treatment his theme may demand.

In the earlier history of art it was not so necessary to insist on the
limitations imposed by different mediums. With their more limited
knowledge of the phenomena of vision, the early masters had not the same
opportunities of going astray in this respect. But now that the whole
field of vision has been discovered, and that the subtlest effects of
light and atmosphere are capable of being represented, it has become
necessary to decide how far complete accuracy of representation will
help the particular impression you may intend your picture or drawing to
create. The danger is that in producing a complete illusion of
representation, the particular vitality of your medium, with all the
expressive power it is capable of yielding, may be lost.

Perhaps the chief difference between the great masters of the past and
many modern painters is the neglect of this principle. #They represented
nature in terms of whatever medium they worked in, and never
overstepped this limitation#. Modern artists, particularly in the
nineteenth century, often attempted to #copy nature#, the medium being
subordinated to the attempt to make it look like the real thing. In the
same way, the drawings of the great masters were drawings. They did not
attempt anything with a point that a point was not capable of
expressing. The drawings of many modern artists are full of attempts to
express tone and colour effects, things entirely outside the true
province of drawing. The small but infinitely important part of nature
that pure drawing is capable of conveying has been neglected, and line
work, until recently, went out of fashion in our schools.

There is something that makes for power in the limitations your
materials impose. Many artists whose work in some of the more limited
mediums is fine, are utterly feeble when they attempt one with so few
restrictions as oil paint. If students could only be induced to impose
more restraint upon themselves when they attempt so difficult a medium
as paint, it would be greatly to the advantage of their work. Beginning
first with monochrome in three tones, as explained in a former chapter,
they might then take for figure work ivory black and Venetian red. It is
surprising what an amount of colour effect can be got with this simple
means, and how much can be learned about the relative positions of the
warm and cold colours. Do not attempt the full r