DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20658#0274
260
FLOWERS.
without an absolute necessity, arising from the general tone of tke engraving and colouring of
the print. The outlines of the several objects must be softened down by the colouring, that the
sudden hard effects of the engraving may be kept from the eye. Prints are likewise first washed
with simple water-colours, and afterwards finished with body colouring, which has a very good
effect.
Drazcings may also be tinted in the following manner:—Sometimes they are outlined with a
black-lead pencil, and stained ; the sky and distances in the landscape are done over with a thin
wash of colour; and the ground and front objects with body colours; the whole is then wrought
lip to proper effect with stronger colours alone, or united with Indian ink. At other times
drawings are more completely outlined and washed with Indian ink; after which the whole \&
finished with the requisite colours. Drawings, performed with colours alone, seldom have a
good effect, their glare destroying that repose and harmony without which no representations of
natural objects can please. In whichever method drawings are done, the lights require more
finishing than the shades ; in which a broad manner of pencilling has usually an excellent effect;
and by a due attention to the management of the middle tints, the beauty of the drawing will be
fully attained.
Floioer Painting is one of the most agreeable branches of the art, not only on account of the
splendor, the variety and beauty of their colours, but by reason of the little time and labour
requisite in executing them. It is not, however, to be supposed, that a certain degree of appli-
cation is not necessary for acquiring skill in this elegant and delightful part of painting; but
only that the same rigid correctness in designing and colouring is not expected in representing
a flower, as in a face or a figure. A face is utterly ruined if the artist paint one eye larger,
higher, or lower than another : the mouth too small, the nose too large, and so on with the other
parts. In flower painting slight errors of this sort are not of importance, because the varieties
in form, colours, and distribution of parts are in nature so multiplied, that deviations from the
truth of the object must be very gross indeed, before they can be liable to censure.
To acquire some proficiency in painting flowers, nature must be constantly and carefully
studied, endeavouring to discover among the colours on the pallet, or in the shells and cups, such
original or compound tints as will come the nearest to the real objects. Much useful instruction
may also be obtained by studying and imitating the best drawings or paintings of flowers, to
learn by what practices and arrangements of colours the various tints of the original may be best
imitated.
In general flowers are drawn and laid in the same way with all other figures; but the manner
of completing and finishing them is different; for they are first formed by large strokes and traces,
made and turned in the way the smaller strokes are to be placed in the finishing, which is done
by very fine small strokes, without cross-hatching or dotting, unless, as is the case in some
kinds of flowers, the surface of the natural object be spotted. These very fine small lines must
be repeatedly gone over with the pencil, until all the parts, both dark and bright, have received
their whole force.
To give a few examples of flower painting:—Roses, when the contour and several leaves are
sketched, if it be for a red rose, trace these outlines with carmine, touched with a very pale lay
ol carmine and white. Then the shadows are to be done with the same colours, but with less
white : afterwards with carmine alone, strengthening it more and more by repeated touches.,
according
FLOWERS.
without an absolute necessity, arising from the general tone of tke engraving and colouring of
the print. The outlines of the several objects must be softened down by the colouring, that the
sudden hard effects of the engraving may be kept from the eye. Prints are likewise first washed
with simple water-colours, and afterwards finished with body colouring, which has a very good
effect.
Drazcings may also be tinted in the following manner:—Sometimes they are outlined with a
black-lead pencil, and stained ; the sky and distances in the landscape are done over with a thin
wash of colour; and the ground and front objects with body colours; the whole is then wrought
lip to proper effect with stronger colours alone, or united with Indian ink. At other times
drawings are more completely outlined and washed with Indian ink; after which the whole \&
finished with the requisite colours. Drawings, performed with colours alone, seldom have a
good effect, their glare destroying that repose and harmony without which no representations of
natural objects can please. In whichever method drawings are done, the lights require more
finishing than the shades ; in which a broad manner of pencilling has usually an excellent effect;
and by a due attention to the management of the middle tints, the beauty of the drawing will be
fully attained.
Floioer Painting is one of the most agreeable branches of the art, not only on account of the
splendor, the variety and beauty of their colours, but by reason of the little time and labour
requisite in executing them. It is not, however, to be supposed, that a certain degree of appli-
cation is not necessary for acquiring skill in this elegant and delightful part of painting; but
only that the same rigid correctness in designing and colouring is not expected in representing
a flower, as in a face or a figure. A face is utterly ruined if the artist paint one eye larger,
higher, or lower than another : the mouth too small, the nose too large, and so on with the other
parts. In flower painting slight errors of this sort are not of importance, because the varieties
in form, colours, and distribution of parts are in nature so multiplied, that deviations from the
truth of the object must be very gross indeed, before they can be liable to censure.
To acquire some proficiency in painting flowers, nature must be constantly and carefully
studied, endeavouring to discover among the colours on the pallet, or in the shells and cups, such
original or compound tints as will come the nearest to the real objects. Much useful instruction
may also be obtained by studying and imitating the best drawings or paintings of flowers, to
learn by what practices and arrangements of colours the various tints of the original may be best
imitated.
In general flowers are drawn and laid in the same way with all other figures; but the manner
of completing and finishing them is different; for they are first formed by large strokes and traces,
made and turned in the way the smaller strokes are to be placed in the finishing, which is done
by very fine small strokes, without cross-hatching or dotting, unless, as is the case in some
kinds of flowers, the surface of the natural object be spotted. These very fine small lines must
be repeatedly gone over with the pencil, until all the parts, both dark and bright, have received
their whole force.
To give a few examples of flower painting:—Roses, when the contour and several leaves are
sketched, if it be for a red rose, trace these outlines with carmine, touched with a very pale lay
ol carmine and white. Then the shadows are to be done with the same colours, but with less
white : afterwards with carmine alone, strengthening it more and more by repeated touches.,
according