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37 Last touches.

In the effort to finish a head highly, and with  the most delicate observance of character, experience proves that it can only be effected upon a solid foundation of Colour by slight glazings, scumblings, and thin applications of paint, and minute touches, constituting the [[strikethrough]] [[effected?]] [[/strikethrough]] final surface of the Picture. Of course this slight surface, [[strikethrough]] of the picture [[/strikethrough]]  however precious in the eyes of the painter, or the early owner of the picture, although in a degree protected by the varnish, is liable, at some future period, to be washed or ground off by the picture-cleaner, and in some cases, even by the friction of wiping it, as I have experienced. The Artist should therefore learn in his dead Colouring, and subsequent paintings, preparatory to this last act of glazing, scumbling and retouching, to come as near as possible to the effect and character he desires, with a full body of colour, so that if all his last touches should ever be taken away, his picture may retain enough of truth and character to be still valuable. Whatever an Artist may learn, in the refinements of Colouring or character, by his practice of glazing, scumbling, and retouching, in his studies from Nature, he should endeavor in all his subsequent operations to embody [[strikethrough]] them [[/strikethrough]] it, as much as possible, in his solid painting, and thus to leave [[strikethrough]] as little as [[/strikethrough]] but little for any superficial additions — Yet it should be well understood that there are admirable effects of tone and colour which nothing but a final glazing or scumbling can effect, and which cannot be omitted from the fear that at some remote period they may be scrubbed off.

38 Retouching.

Retouches are best made as early as they conveniently can be; because, as the Colours grows darker by time, the sooner they are put on, the less comparative changes will occur. New tints, made exactly to match the old ones on the picture will dry darker — the sooner, therefore, they are made, the less will they differ — and the lights should be made even lighter than [[strikethrough]] would [[/strikethrough]] may be desired, to allow them to sink a little.
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