Materials,
a sheet of drawing-paper, a No. 2 lead-pencil, and a piece of soft rubber are all you really need to commence with. Later it will be well to have a drawing-pad and several more pencils.
CHAPTER XXII.
HOW TO PAINT IN WATER-COLORS.
THERE is a certain charm in water-color painting—a charm distinctly its own—which lies, as Penley says, “in the beauty and truthfulness of its aerial tones.” Without this quality a water-color, as a water-color, is a failure.
This transparency of effect does not depend alone upon the manner of painting or the colors employed, but much rests with the paper we use. In the days when our mothers and grandmothers were taught painting at school, the finest, smoothest cardboard was thought necessary; but we have since learned that the flat, smooth paper tends decidedly toward producing a flat, smooth effect in the picture painted upon it, while the rough, uneven surface of the paper now in use helps to produce depth and atmosphere. Therefore it is always best to have rough paper to paint upon. We give below the