Another brush that has recently come into fashion is called a filbert shape (Class D) by the makers.  It is a fine brush to draw with, as being flat it paints in planes, and having a rounded top is capable of getting in and out of a variety of contours.  They vary in shape, some being more pointed than others.  The blunt-ended form is the best for general use.  Either this class of brush or Class C are perhaps the best for the exercises in mass drawing we have been describing.  But Class A should also be tried, and even Class B, to find out which suits the particular individuality of the student.

On page 114 [Transcribers Note:  Plate XXVI] a variety of touches have been made in turn by these different shaped brushes.

In all the strokes illustrated it is assumed that the brush is moderately full of paint of a consistency a little thinner than that usually put up by colourmen.  To thin it, mix a little turpentine and linseed oil in equal parts with it; and get it into easy working consistency before beginning your work, so as not to need any medium.

In the first column (No. 1), a touch firmly painted with an equal pressure all along its course is given.  This gives you a plane of tone with firm edges the width of your brush, getting gradually darker or lighter as your brush empties, according to the length of the stroke and to whether you are painting into a lighter or darker ground.

In column No. 2 a drag touch is illustrated.  This is a very useful one.  The brush is placed firmly on the canvas and then dragged from the point lightly away, leaving a gradated tone.  A great deal of the modelling in round objects is to be expressed by this variety of handling.  The danger is that its use is apt to lead to a too dexterous manner of painting; a dexterity more concerned with the clever manner in which a thing is painted than with the truth expressed.

Column No. 3.  This is a stroke lightly and quickly painted, where the brush just grazes the surface of the canvas.  The paint is put on in a manner that is very brilliant, and at the same time of a soft quality.  If the brush is only moderately full, such touches will not have any hard edges, but be of a light, feathery nature.  It is a most useful manner of putting on paint when freshness of colour is wanted, as it prevents one tone being churned up with another and losing its purity.  And in the painting of hair, where the tones need to be kept very separate, and at the same time not hard, it is very useful.  But in monochrome painting from the cast it is of very little service.