Pyle's Advice on Choosing a Subject

 American illustrator and teacher Howard Pyle (1853-1911) said:

"A subject must not be chosen because it is picturesque. It should be a general subject and should hold some great truth of nature or humanity so that a person seeing it would give a part of his life's earnings to possess so beautiful a thing."

"After you have chosen a general subject, submit it to the crucible of your own imagination and let it evolve into the picture. Project your mind into it. Identify yourself with the people and sense, that is, feel and smell the things naturally belonging there."