And if he has a good master he may learn by degrees how to mix his colour into harmonies;
Doing a little first, cautiously;
Trying the problem in one or two simple tints; learning the combinations of these in their various degrees of lighter or darker:
Exhausting, as much as he can, the
possibilities of one or two pigments, and then adding another and another;
But always with a very limited number of actual separate ones to draw upon;
All the infinity of the whole world of colour being in his own hands, and the difficulty of dealing with it laid as a burden upon his own shoulders, as he combines, modifies, mixes, and dilutes them.
He perhaps has eight or ten spots of pure colour, ranged round his palette; and all the rest depends upon himself.
This gives him, indeed, one side of the practice of his art; and if he walks warily, yet daringly, step by step, learning day by day something more of the powers that lie in each single kind of paint, and as he learns it applying his knowledge, bravely and industriously, to add strength to strength, brightness to brightness, richness to richness, depth to depth, in ever clearer, fuller, and more gorgeous harmony, he may indeed become a great painter.
But a more timid or indolent man gets tired or afraid of putting the clear, sharp tints side by side to make new combinations of pure and vivid colour.