Study of Tones and Tone-Relations
126. The study of tones and tone-relations means the study of pigment-materials and their effects, to find out what quantities of light we can produce, what qualities of color, what intensities of color, what neutralizations. That is the problem of tones and tone-relations. We cannot know much about tones and tone-relations until we have had experience in the use of pigment-materials. We must be able to distinguish tones, however slight the differences of value or of color or of color-intensity, and we must be able to produce tones according to our discriminations: this with exact precision. In order to think in tone-relations we must have definite ideas of tone and of tone-relations, in the form of visual images. In order to express our ideas we must be able to paint. We must have practice in painting and a great deal of it. I propose to describe this practice in tones and tone-relations: what it ought to be, what forms it should take.