DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20658#0280
266
M [MATURE.
and they will acquire a beautiful brightness and lustre. This preparation makes the colours stick
better on the vellum, and prevents them from scaling. These colours are commonly diluted in
small ivory cups or sea-shells, with water in which gum arable and sugar candy are dissolved.
To know whether the colours be properly gummed, the artist has only to give a stroke of the
pencil on his hand, or a piece of paper, &c.: if the colour when dry, chaps and scales, there
lias been too much gum used ; and, on the contrary, if the colour can be rubbed off with the
finger, too little has been mixed with it. Too much gum makes the colour hard and dry : and
when the painter wishes to give to his colours a greater darkness than they naturally possess, he
has only to add a greater quantity of gum than would be requisite for other purposes.
The pallet used in miniature painting is of very smooth ivory about the size of the hand, on
which the colours for the carnation, or naked parts of the picture, are ranged in the following
way :—the middle of one side of the pallet is covered with a large quantity of white, being the
colour most used ; and round the edges, beginning at the left hand, are these, viz.—Masticot,
.Dutch-pink, orpiment, yellow ochre, green, blue, vermilion, carmine, bistre and black. The
green here mentioned is a composition of equal quanties ofverditer, Dutch-pink and white;
and the blue is made in the same way with ultramarine, indigo and white, worked to a very pale
hue. On the other side of the pallet white is spread in the middle, and the other colours
necessary for the draperies or other parts are ranged around it.
As the delicacy of this work depends much on the goodness of the pencils, great care is
requisite in selecting them. In order to make a good choice wet the pencil a little, and if the
hairs keep close together, when turned on the finger, making but one point, the pencil is good ;
but if they do not keep close, and divide into different points, some longer than others, the pencil
is good for nothing. The hairs may likewise be too long, feeble and sharp pointed : in this case
they ought to be shortened and blunted with a pair of scissars. Different sorts of pencils ought
also to be provided, the larger for laying the grounds or dead-colouring, and the small ones for
the finishing. It is necessary in working to put the pencil just between the lips, moistening and
pressing the hairs together with the tongue, in order to give them a compact point, and to take
take off"a little of the colour when the pencil is too full. There is no danger in this practice from
the qualities of the colours, excepting in the use of orpiment which, being a combination of the
calx of arsenic with sulphur, might have hurtful effects, were it received inwardly in consider-
able quantities, which never can be the case in miniature painting. The practice here recom-
mended is especially necessary in dotting and finishing, particularly in the carnations, that the
touches may be neat and clear, and not too much charged with colour. In doing the draperies
and other parts, it is sufficient to draw the pencil to a point on the edge of the shell, or upon the
paper employed on the picture to support the hand.
The light is of great importance in this sort of painting; it ought to enter the room by only
one window, and the table and desk ought to be placed near it, in such a position that the light
may come in on the left hand, and never in front or on the right.
In working, the first thing to be done is the dead-colouring, laying on the colours with free
strokes of the pencil, in the smoothest manner possible, as is practised by painters in oil ; but
without giving it all the strength of the finishing: that is, the lights must be a little brighter,
and the shadows less dark than they are ultimately to be made; because in dotting on them
afterwards the colour is always strengthened; and would thus at last become too forcible.
Dotting
M [MATURE.
and they will acquire a beautiful brightness and lustre. This preparation makes the colours stick
better on the vellum, and prevents them from scaling. These colours are commonly diluted in
small ivory cups or sea-shells, with water in which gum arable and sugar candy are dissolved.
To know whether the colours be properly gummed, the artist has only to give a stroke of the
pencil on his hand, or a piece of paper, &c.: if the colour when dry, chaps and scales, there
lias been too much gum used ; and, on the contrary, if the colour can be rubbed off with the
finger, too little has been mixed with it. Too much gum makes the colour hard and dry : and
when the painter wishes to give to his colours a greater darkness than they naturally possess, he
has only to add a greater quantity of gum than would be requisite for other purposes.
The pallet used in miniature painting is of very smooth ivory about the size of the hand, on
which the colours for the carnation, or naked parts of the picture, are ranged in the following
way :—the middle of one side of the pallet is covered with a large quantity of white, being the
colour most used ; and round the edges, beginning at the left hand, are these, viz.—Masticot,
.Dutch-pink, orpiment, yellow ochre, green, blue, vermilion, carmine, bistre and black. The
green here mentioned is a composition of equal quanties ofverditer, Dutch-pink and white;
and the blue is made in the same way with ultramarine, indigo and white, worked to a very pale
hue. On the other side of the pallet white is spread in the middle, and the other colours
necessary for the draperies or other parts are ranged around it.
As the delicacy of this work depends much on the goodness of the pencils, great care is
requisite in selecting them. In order to make a good choice wet the pencil a little, and if the
hairs keep close together, when turned on the finger, making but one point, the pencil is good ;
but if they do not keep close, and divide into different points, some longer than others, the pencil
is good for nothing. The hairs may likewise be too long, feeble and sharp pointed : in this case
they ought to be shortened and blunted with a pair of scissars. Different sorts of pencils ought
also to be provided, the larger for laying the grounds or dead-colouring, and the small ones for
the finishing. It is necessary in working to put the pencil just between the lips, moistening and
pressing the hairs together with the tongue, in order to give them a compact point, and to take
take off"a little of the colour when the pencil is too full. There is no danger in this practice from
the qualities of the colours, excepting in the use of orpiment which, being a combination of the
calx of arsenic with sulphur, might have hurtful effects, were it received inwardly in consider-
able quantities, which never can be the case in miniature painting. The practice here recom-
mended is especially necessary in dotting and finishing, particularly in the carnations, that the
touches may be neat and clear, and not too much charged with colour. In doing the draperies
and other parts, it is sufficient to draw the pencil to a point on the edge of the shell, or upon the
paper employed on the picture to support the hand.
The light is of great importance in this sort of painting; it ought to enter the room by only
one window, and the table and desk ought to be placed near it, in such a position that the light
may come in on the left hand, and never in front or on the right.
In working, the first thing to be done is the dead-colouring, laying on the colours with free
strokes of the pencil, in the smoothest manner possible, as is practised by painters in oil ; but
without giving it all the strength of the finishing: that is, the lights must be a little brighter,
and the shadows less dark than they are ultimately to be made; because in dotting on them
afterwards the colour is always strengthened; and would thus at last become too forcible.
Dotting