Due to the critics, art has too long been considered a gift of the gods and artists who are usually contented to let the results of their labours speak for themselves have too long been misunder stood. Let us therefore examine a few of the processes of thought of which they make use. (See PAINTING.) Conception.—The original conception of a work of art or of an invention of any sort is usually largely intuitive, in that it may be said to reach out beyond the regular step by step procedure of pure reason. The possibility of such and such a thing often occurs suddenly after a long and arduous searching of the facts which may be more or less involved. The mind grasping the trend in which the assembled facts seem to be leading will reason ahead of the yet unproved result and the inventor or artist may say to himself that if such and such could only be done the result would be desirable, and he then sets himself to obtain this result as he conceives it. Thomas Edison must have said something of the sort to himself when he first made an electric wire glow in a vacuum and suddenly perhaps imagined the possibility of string ing these glowing bulbs along a street so that it might be illumi nated by a current of electricity. The artist's conception is simi lar. He suddenly realizes that a certain grouping of figures under an illumination of a certain sort producing certain highlights and shades would give a magnificent effect for some cathedral mural decoration. For years this general idea may be kept in the back of his mind until the opportunity offers itself and certain other relative conditions fall into line and make it possible for him to attempt its development.
His first step is often a preliminary sketch which is rough and undetailed and which is only a sort of notation aiding him to keep his general scheme in mind. He may then proceed to work out the details just as does an inventor. "Will such an arm if lifted pro cure a more rhythmical line in the composition?" "Would such a raising of the arm be natural to the figure?" "Is this shadow to be darker than that or would it be too much of a spot and should it glow with a diffused light reflected from some nearby surface?" "What surface could be brought to use in the reflecting of this light?" and similar questions occur in his mind and must be solved logically and reasonably.
During the solution of these questions he may make innumer able sketches or notes just as the scientist takes notes during the various steps of experimentation in his laboratory, and it is through the assembling of the more important of these various considera tions that finally the work of art is actually conceived and con structed.
surprise when these characteristics are not evidenced, like the sen sation when one touches one of the metal desks made to appear so perfectly like wood. One may never have considered con sciously the warmth of wood though subconsciously one's mind has taken note of it. This surprise whether to the sense of touch or sight is always misleading and is usually ruinous to the effect of what might otherwise be an excellent work of art. We know for instance that iron is so strong that man cannot bend a slender rod of it and if we are confronted therefore with an iron garden gate made of thick and uselessly heavy pieces of metal we mistrust that it is iron and suspect that it may be lead or some other substance. Tapestry lends itself to a certain sort of design which can be better expressed in its weave than it can in a mosaic or fresco. (See WATER COLOUR PAINTING, OIL PAINTING, TAPESTRY, etc.) The faculty for properly expressing the medium, avoiding its limitations and taking advantage of its possibilities, is one not arrived at by intuition but by careful research and practice, so that the artist sometimes learns almost to think in the medium which he has studied. Thus a painter may actually learn to see a landscape in brush strokes, or a composer of music associate at once a certain section of the score with the tone quality of a certain instrument or group of instruments.
The Expression of the Tool.—Fully as important as the cOn sideration of material is that of the characteristics of the various tools with which it is to be worked. The brush of sable, the tjan tjing, the etching point, the chisel, the wheel of the gem cutter or even the fingers of the sculptor modelling in clay, will each make a certain cut, mark or impression which must be studied in rela tionship to the material. (See ART : Far Eastern Methods.) It is unpleasant to see clay carved with a sharp instrument as though it were wood, or stone, or to behold what appears to be a wood block print and find that ft has been painted with the brush.
Not only must the mark of the tool be considered in relation ship to the material but it is capable if properly handled of a beauty in itself comparable to the single note drawn by a master hand from a fine violin. Look at the line drawn upon a piece of paper by a master draftsman. Is it not similar to the violin note with its gradations of shade and its sweeping curve? The expres sion of beauty in a masterful handling of the tool so that each note is pleasing was a joy to the ancient artist and he would often spend years acquiring this deftness which many modern artists have been fooled into thinking is unnecessary because of the stressing of originality and spontaneity in art training.