TONES AND TONE-RELATIONS
122. Up to this point I have avoided the consideration of Tones and Tone-Relations. I have spoken of possible changes of tone in dots and in lines; changes of value, of color, of color-intensity; but it is not in dots nor in lines that these changes call for particular attention. Our interest has been in the positions, measures, shapes, and attitudes of dots and lines, and in the possibilities of arrangement and composition. When it comes to the consideration of areas and area-systems, however, the subject of tone-relations becomes one of the greatest interest, because areas are defined and distinguished, not only by their outlines, but quite as much by differences of tone; that is to say, by tone-contrasts.
THE PROCESS OF PAINTING AS
DISTINGUISHED FROM DRAWING
123. The first thing to consider is the tone of the surface upon which you are going to paint. You then take a tone differing from the ground-tone, in value, in color, or in color-intensity, you put it in a certain position, and you spread it over a certain extent of space. In so doing you give to the space a certain shape. This is the process of Painting, as distinguished from the process of Drawing. In Drawing we think of lines and outlines first. In Painting we think of Tones first, of positions, measures, and shapes afterwards.