When I am at a stand and perplexed in some parts of the picture, he puts me right and encourages me to proceed by praising those parts which he thinks good, but he is faithful and always tells me when anything is bad.
"It is a mortifying thing sometimes to me, when I have been painting all day very hard and begin to be pleased with what I have done, on showing it to Mr.Allston, with the expectation of praise, and not only of praise but a score of 'excellents,' 'well dones,' and 'admirables'; I say it is mortifying to hear him after a long silence say: 'Very bad, sir; that is not flesh, it is mud, sir; it is painted with brick dust and clay.' "I have felt sometimes ready to dash my palette knife through it and to feel at the moment quite angry with him; but a little reflection restores me; I see that Mr.Allston is not a flatterer but a friend, and that really to improve I must see my faults.

What he says after this always puts me in good humor again.

He tells me to put a few flesh tints here, a few gray ones there, and to clear up such and such a part by such and such colors.

And not only that, but takes the palette and brushes and shows me how, and in this way he assists me.

I think it one of the greatest blessings that I am under his eye.