DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19955#0055
STIPPLING.
53
This is particularly the case when, to get in the depth of
colour, the washes are necessarily small, or when, as on
ivory, it is difficult to wash one tint over another.
" Stippling" is, then, the filling up with colour these
little inequalities, and taking out, with a brush or scraper,
those dark spots of colour which, if also filled up, might
make your tint too dark. These minute touches of colour
must not be put on in dots of all the same shape, as that
would be mere unmeaning " dotting but you must
endeavour to fill up as nearly as you can each interstice in
the form in which it happens to be left.
Unless that you have some particular object in view,
your touches ought not to be so dark as to appear. There
is a manner of stippling which will make your tint either
darker or lighter; for, curious as it may seem, the general
effect of stippling is to make your face or background seem
lighter than before, although in reality more colour has
been added to it. If you wish your tints to be lighter,
begin by removing all the darker spots, and then debcately
fill up the interstices so as not to add colour to the general
tint; if you wish your tints to be darker, fill up between
the dark spots until they disappear. This is, in fact, the
whole art of stippling. Scrapers made for the purpose may
be used, or sometimes the point of a needle; and occasion-
ally the wetted point of a fine sable brush is advantageous.
As a general principle, the scraper should be used as
sparingly as possible, else your miniature will have a dis-
agreeable, scratchy character; and if it be used much in
forming the texture of hair, it will produce an undesirable
53
This is particularly the case when, to get in the depth of
colour, the washes are necessarily small, or when, as on
ivory, it is difficult to wash one tint over another.
" Stippling" is, then, the filling up with colour these
little inequalities, and taking out, with a brush or scraper,
those dark spots of colour which, if also filled up, might
make your tint too dark. These minute touches of colour
must not be put on in dots of all the same shape, as that
would be mere unmeaning " dotting but you must
endeavour to fill up as nearly as you can each interstice in
the form in which it happens to be left.
Unless that you have some particular object in view,
your touches ought not to be so dark as to appear. There
is a manner of stippling which will make your tint either
darker or lighter; for, curious as it may seem, the general
effect of stippling is to make your face or background seem
lighter than before, although in reality more colour has
been added to it. If you wish your tints to be lighter,
begin by removing all the darker spots, and then debcately
fill up the interstices so as not to add colour to the general
tint; if you wish your tints to be darker, fill up between
the dark spots until they disappear. This is, in fact, the
whole art of stippling. Scrapers made for the purpose may
be used, or sometimes the point of a needle; and occasion-
ally the wetted point of a fine sable brush is advantageous.
As a general principle, the scraper should be used as
sparingly as possible, else your miniature will have a dis-
agreeable, scratchy character; and if it be used much in
forming the texture of hair, it will produce an undesirable