The artists repository and drawing magazine: exhibiting the principles of the polite arts in their various branches (2.1788)

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•' In colouring landfcapes, at firft only lay dead co-
lours fmooth all over the piece, leaving no part unco-
vered ; ufe a mafterly freedom ; and the work, though
feemingly rough, will have a good effect.

Let not the roughnefs of the colour difcourage you;
for it is eafy to foften it by degrees with the other
(hadows, obierving only to fweeten and heighten them
according as the light falls.

In fome places lay on ftrong touches, and in thofe
places bring your work up together to an equal ftrength ;
tempering and fweetening your colours with a (harper
pencil than the firft, that no lumps or harfh edges be
left, but that all your (hadows may be foft and fmooth,
gliding gently, as it were, into one another.

You are not to fmifh any part before another, but
work up all the parts gradually alike.

Having laid your dead colours, begin firft with the
diftances and lighted parts, as the iky, fun-beams, Sec.
then the yellowiih beams (which are to be done with
mafticot and white) ; next the bluenefs of the Iky (with
ultramarine, bice, or fmalt alone); making your colours
deeper as they go upwards from the horizon, except in
tempeftucus fkies. The tops of diftant mountains muft
be worked fo faint, that they may feem to lofe them-
felves in air.

Bring your colours forward as your diftance increafes ;
till you come to the fore-ground itfelf.

All diftant objects are to be made imperfect as they
appear to the eye.

In colouring trees, boughs and branches, touch in
all the dark (hades firft, railing the lighter leaves above
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