- "Note the different quality of the edges - try to analyze the variety of an edge. Take the figure of the little boy. That edge of the shoulder is too sharply cut. It went around easily on the shoulder and on this fold while on the contrary this other shadow was sharp. These differences give a sense of the illusion and make the object go around."
- "Be careful of the darks on the light side of the face. They are not holes punched in, they are on the surface. Always remember that a dark color happening in a large plane of light isn't as dark as it seems."
- "Feel the skull under the hair. Study carefully where the hair meets the flesh. The head falls into shadow very beautifully."
- "Watch the edge of that shadow down the edge of the nose a little more sharply. See where the shadow goes hard and where it loses itself. There are some places where the shadow should be a little lighter and the light on the nose a little lower - the result would be that it would be more like flesh and less like a plaster cast."
- "You have tried to carry that farther than you knew how. If you don't do what you don't know, you don't give yourself away. If what you have done is right, people will think you have all the power in the world - believe me, you will get on faster by stopping on the right side. If you conduct your work in that way by carrying it each time as far as you know, each time you will go a little farther. Consider the great singers, musicians. They always make you conscious of a reserve of power, something greater that they are capable of. Never fire your last shot. Power is real strength - don't give all, have reserve."
To be continued
(Excerpts from "Hawthorne on Painting" by Charles Webster Hawthorne.)
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| "The Waiting" by Charles Hawthorne |
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