DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20658#0290
27Q MINIATURE.
requisite. You should begin with the largest masses of colour, working with a large pencil, and
reserve the strong lights and the darkest touches for the finishing: to make the colours still
deeper use a little gum.
When in this manner the ivory is covered with colour, and the largest masses of the piece are
properly laid, without attending to the details and smaller parts, you may return to the carnations.
Wash a slight tint of indigo on the piece, near the lights of the face, where the skin is of a
blueish hue, such as the temples, the middle of the forehead, the outside of the mouth, and lower
part of the face to represent the beard, particularly when this is of a dark colour. Next you are
to go over the shadows with a faint wash of indigo, or if necessary, of indigo mixed with a little
Mats-yellow, to give the tint a greenish cast: taking care always to soften and blend the colour?
neatly into one another. These blue and green tints serve to diminish the redness of the shadows,
and to give them more transparency: but they would not have the same effect were the same
colours mixed with the tints used in drawing the first sketch. The blue is employed to blend the
middle tints with shadows: and it is here that particular attention must be given to the grey
tints ; but these must not be overcharged by making them too hard, as often happens when blues
and greens are not used with great caution. In working it is proper to remove the picture from
time to time from the eye, and examine the work at a distance; otherwise the artist, after
bestowing great pains, may find himself disappointed in the effect intended to be produced. The
greatest care is also requisite in blending and softening tints together, that they may come the
nearer to nature. The lines should never be hard, or strongly marked, particularly in those parts
which round off; and for the same reason brilliant colours should seldom if ever be employed.
The warm tints ought to be next to the great lights, but never near the strong shades ; and you
should always finish with the lights. Under the eyes and wherever else it may be necessary,
lay on a tint of purple with burnt carmine, or the preparation of gold and tin called the precipitate
of Cassius : but this must be done so faintly as rather to require some addition to be made to the
colour, than that any of it should be taken off. In the lights you must soften as much as
possible with vermilion, blue and violet, burnt terra de Sienna, and blue in the shadows. All
these colours must be so blended as to prevent any one employed from being distinguished from
the other. The strongest touches must be reserved to the last, such as the pupil of the eye
(which is done with ivory-black more gummed than the other colours), the eye-lashes, and the
shaded side of the eye-brows, when they are black. For the last strong touches of the face you
will use bistre or burnt umbre, mixed with a little burnt carmine. The visual ray or sight of the
eye, is produced by a small speck of pure white, after the face is finished. It is also sometimes
requisite to give strong touches of light, upon the nose and the corners of the eyes ; this is done
with white and Naples-yellow, touched with the utmost delicacy, and the colour extremely thin.
When the flesh is finished you then conclude the back-ground, before the hair and drapery.
This is particularly necessary in body-colours, which require to be done very quickly, and you
might accidentally, in so doing, cover a part of the hair and drapery.
To paint a female Head in Miniature.
To paint the carnation of a woman's or child's head the foregoing directions must be observed,
with this difference—that the shadows must be begun with vermilion and precipitate of Cassius,
or
requisite. You should begin with the largest masses of colour, working with a large pencil, and
reserve the strong lights and the darkest touches for the finishing: to make the colours still
deeper use a little gum.
When in this manner the ivory is covered with colour, and the largest masses of the piece are
properly laid, without attending to the details and smaller parts, you may return to the carnations.
Wash a slight tint of indigo on the piece, near the lights of the face, where the skin is of a
blueish hue, such as the temples, the middle of the forehead, the outside of the mouth, and lower
part of the face to represent the beard, particularly when this is of a dark colour. Next you are
to go over the shadows with a faint wash of indigo, or if necessary, of indigo mixed with a little
Mats-yellow, to give the tint a greenish cast: taking care always to soften and blend the colour?
neatly into one another. These blue and green tints serve to diminish the redness of the shadows,
and to give them more transparency: but they would not have the same effect were the same
colours mixed with the tints used in drawing the first sketch. The blue is employed to blend the
middle tints with shadows: and it is here that particular attention must be given to the grey
tints ; but these must not be overcharged by making them too hard, as often happens when blues
and greens are not used with great caution. In working it is proper to remove the picture from
time to time from the eye, and examine the work at a distance; otherwise the artist, after
bestowing great pains, may find himself disappointed in the effect intended to be produced. The
greatest care is also requisite in blending and softening tints together, that they may come the
nearer to nature. The lines should never be hard, or strongly marked, particularly in those parts
which round off; and for the same reason brilliant colours should seldom if ever be employed.
The warm tints ought to be next to the great lights, but never near the strong shades ; and you
should always finish with the lights. Under the eyes and wherever else it may be necessary,
lay on a tint of purple with burnt carmine, or the preparation of gold and tin called the precipitate
of Cassius : but this must be done so faintly as rather to require some addition to be made to the
colour, than that any of it should be taken off. In the lights you must soften as much as
possible with vermilion, blue and violet, burnt terra de Sienna, and blue in the shadows. All
these colours must be so blended as to prevent any one employed from being distinguished from
the other. The strongest touches must be reserved to the last, such as the pupil of the eye
(which is done with ivory-black more gummed than the other colours), the eye-lashes, and the
shaded side of the eye-brows, when they are black. For the last strong touches of the face you
will use bistre or burnt umbre, mixed with a little burnt carmine. The visual ray or sight of the
eye, is produced by a small speck of pure white, after the face is finished. It is also sometimes
requisite to give strong touches of light, upon the nose and the corners of the eyes ; this is done
with white and Naples-yellow, touched with the utmost delicacy, and the colour extremely thin.
When the flesh is finished you then conclude the back-ground, before the hair and drapery.
This is particularly necessary in body-colours, which require to be done very quickly, and you
might accidentally, in so doing, cover a part of the hair and drapery.
To paint a female Head in Miniature.
To paint the carnation of a woman's or child's head the foregoing directions must be observed,
with this difference—that the shadows must be begun with vermilion and precipitate of Cassius,
or