DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20658#0266
252
WATER-COLOURS.
pasted a similar sheet of paper, that the contraction or pressure on the board may he equal on
both sides, to keep the board from warping or cracking when dry. The paste for this purpose
is usually made of the finest flour or starch, mixed up with double size or Flanders glue, diluted
and purified with vinegar. But Indian glue is now preferred to every other made, being clean
and always fit for use. To prevent both the board and the paper from being attacked by
worms, a little of the juice of garlick is mixed with the paste. The paste is applied to the edges-
of the paper only, so that the drawing wdien finished may be detached from the board. Other
contrivances are also employed, to fasten down the paper, as by having moveable tedges to the
board, by which the paper when properly stretched and smoothed, can be kept fast. But.
mechanical inventions for the ease of the student are now brought to great perfection, and will
be much better understood by inspection than by any description however minute *. When the
paper is dry and otherwise prepared for use the outline of the subject is drawn with the black-lead
pencil; taking care that the lines be sufficiently strong to resist the application of the first tint.
Strongly as it has been inculcated on the student to bestow most special attention on the execution
of his outline, it must be again repeated that the outside-line, correctly understood, is a most
important point to accomplish. For light, shade, and reflection are only the general continuation
of outline. What it is to the apparent edge of the object, lights and shades are to all the parts
which lie between them. By their degrees of force or tenderness all the projections or recedings
are exhibited as perfectly as the outline, so that a sculptor might make a perfect model from their
representation. It is the more necessary to be attentive to drawing, in the use of water-colours,
that they are of themselves so agreeable to the eye and apparently so easy to employ, that the
pupil is tempted to regard colouring as the principal object of his study. As a proof of this the
following fact may be related. A lady of fashion wished an artist to instruct and occupy her
son in painting only, to the neglect of drawing, which she conceived to be useless. To oblige
his employer, who had already placed the youth under different instructors on similar conditions,
the artist set the pupil to copy a flower-piece : when copied the piece was so unlike the original,
or indeed so unlike nature, that no one could tell what it was intended to represent. The lady
surprised, asked what the picture was.—" It is Madam," answered the teacher, ""painting
without drawing."
In painting with water-colours the first operation, after the outline is traced, is to shade or in
fact to make a model of the whole piece, with a neutral tint. By this modeling is produced a
representation of the subject, supposing it to be wholly composed of white subtances, and
without any regard to the particular colours of the several parts. This neutral tint, so called
because it consists of an equal proportion of both warm and cold colours, is composed of indigo
and Indian red, a combination which furnishes a cool retiring colour, in general better suited
to receive upon it the particulars of each object than any other which can be employed.
Whenever you observe in an object a particular tint which may seem to be the effect of some
shadow, and not a real local colour, the neutral tint is to be used, without regard to that local
colour. The neutral tint in this case, is to be considered as representing the effect of shade;
and
* In the warehouse of the proprietor and publisher of this work, drawing materials and implements, of every possible
kind, are constantly kept in readiness, for the use of the proficient as well as of the student in drawing and painting,
at No. 101, Strand.
WATER-COLOURS.
pasted a similar sheet of paper, that the contraction or pressure on the board may he equal on
both sides, to keep the board from warping or cracking when dry. The paste for this purpose
is usually made of the finest flour or starch, mixed up with double size or Flanders glue, diluted
and purified with vinegar. But Indian glue is now preferred to every other made, being clean
and always fit for use. To prevent both the board and the paper from being attacked by
worms, a little of the juice of garlick is mixed with the paste. The paste is applied to the edges-
of the paper only, so that the drawing wdien finished may be detached from the board. Other
contrivances are also employed, to fasten down the paper, as by having moveable tedges to the
board, by which the paper when properly stretched and smoothed, can be kept fast. But.
mechanical inventions for the ease of the student are now brought to great perfection, and will
be much better understood by inspection than by any description however minute *. When the
paper is dry and otherwise prepared for use the outline of the subject is drawn with the black-lead
pencil; taking care that the lines be sufficiently strong to resist the application of the first tint.
Strongly as it has been inculcated on the student to bestow most special attention on the execution
of his outline, it must be again repeated that the outside-line, correctly understood, is a most
important point to accomplish. For light, shade, and reflection are only the general continuation
of outline. What it is to the apparent edge of the object, lights and shades are to all the parts
which lie between them. By their degrees of force or tenderness all the projections or recedings
are exhibited as perfectly as the outline, so that a sculptor might make a perfect model from their
representation. It is the more necessary to be attentive to drawing, in the use of water-colours,
that they are of themselves so agreeable to the eye and apparently so easy to employ, that the
pupil is tempted to regard colouring as the principal object of his study. As a proof of this the
following fact may be related. A lady of fashion wished an artist to instruct and occupy her
son in painting only, to the neglect of drawing, which she conceived to be useless. To oblige
his employer, who had already placed the youth under different instructors on similar conditions,
the artist set the pupil to copy a flower-piece : when copied the piece was so unlike the original,
or indeed so unlike nature, that no one could tell what it was intended to represent. The lady
surprised, asked what the picture was.—" It is Madam," answered the teacher, ""painting
without drawing."
In painting with water-colours the first operation, after the outline is traced, is to shade or in
fact to make a model of the whole piece, with a neutral tint. By this modeling is produced a
representation of the subject, supposing it to be wholly composed of white subtances, and
without any regard to the particular colours of the several parts. This neutral tint, so called
because it consists of an equal proportion of both warm and cold colours, is composed of indigo
and Indian red, a combination which furnishes a cool retiring colour, in general better suited
to receive upon it the particulars of each object than any other which can be employed.
Whenever you observe in an object a particular tint which may seem to be the effect of some
shadow, and not a real local colour, the neutral tint is to be used, without regard to that local
colour. The neutral tint in this case, is to be considered as representing the effect of shade;
and
* In the warehouse of the proprietor and publisher of this work, drawing materials and implements, of every possible
kind, are constantly kept in readiness, for the use of the proficient as well as of the student in drawing and painting,
at No. 101, Strand.