through the poppy-blossom, stem, and leaf?" The poppy is composed of red and green tints, and yellow there is in both red and green. Therefore, if we wish to paint the poppy, and we are of course drawing with the brush and with colour, we could safely decide to sketch it in a pale yellow tint.
On painting the scarlet petal the yellow will melt and become one with the red, and again on painting the stem and leaf the green will absorb the yellow.
If we had not taken the precaution to ask ourselves that question and had simply sketched the poppy in any tint, say Prussian blue, then the result would have been a dirty cold blue creeping into the purity of the scarlet and destroying the vivid glow.
Or, if we had waited for the blue to dry before applying the red, we should not have improved matters. Our poppy would have had a harsh blue outline, and who ever say a poppy so decorated, except on a china plate or on an old tin mug?
Possibly you might argue that the subject is a simple one for the brush, that the problem will be very different when more complicated subjects are attempted.
Gather together several colour-groups and test the problem of colour for yourself—a stick of asparagus, a leaf of rhubarb, apples on a dull painted platter, a sprig of honesty, or a spray of red or yellow (single) chrysanthemums in a copper-coloured vase, a coloured straw hat decorated with a prettily shaded scarf, a Japanese lantern, lighted, and a few objects placed around it. And, having settled upon one of these subjects, ask yourself the same question: "What is the general colour of the subject?" Is it cold? Is it warm? Does a yellow tinge prevail, or a cool grey-blue? Has it a flush of red, or is it suffused with pale pearly tints?
When you are painting groups it is just as well to place them before a plain background, a wall-space, or an angle formed of two plain boards of wood joined together, thus concentrating light and shade and preventing your attention
