Page:Cyclopedia of Painting-Armstrong, George D (1908).djvu/400

392 are first fractured and after they are weathered. Rocks, by their hardness of form, naturally affect the character of the landscape. Too great an exhibition of detail gives the impression of smallness.

However delicate the tints of rocks may be, they should always be painted with more powerful pigments than those employed for the sky and cloud, otherwise they may appear weak and feeble. Variety may be given to the local color by taking up on the point of the brush when charged with the compound tints portions of pure pigment such as madder, lake, blue or gray.

Water is most difficult to represent, and the suggestions given for different tones and tints may be varied indefinitely. The colors which appear in both running and still water are largely the result of the reflections of sky, cloud, and surrounding objects, but they are also produced by the light or shade reflected from its surface, and by the color of the objects over which it flows. Smooth water should always be treated broadly and be painted as far as possible at the same time, and with the same tints, as the objects which are to be reflected in it. The reflections, if too powerful or too brilliant, may be modified by subsequent glazing.

The surface of smooth water is best represented by working the tints in a horizontal direction, but reflections in water are generally perpendicular. If the water is turbid the shadows will be visible on the surface, but in perfectly pure water they can hardly be recognized.

The first tone should be decidedly gray, as reflecting sky and clouds, and on this may be worked raw sienna and brown madder, while nearer the eye French blue, Prussian blue, or indigo may be employed. For very dark parts brown pink, purple madder, and Vandyke brown are useful. On the sea the blue should increase in depth towards the horizon, possibly, however, with a light streak just where the sky meets the water.