Howard, Frank: Colour, as a means of art: being an adaptation of the experience of professors to the practice of amateurs (London, 1838)

TONE.

of working, to imitate the effect of Oil painting. The
progress of the true art of Water-colour drawing,
must necessarily receive a check from ihe adoption
of such a practice, which will doubtless he sanctioned
by the idle or the hurried; and attempts to carry
out the original prospects and genuine advantages
of the transparent medium, will probably become
rare, if they should not cease entirely.

It is true that opaque Water-colours are supposed
to have an advantage over Oil-colours, in light and
brilliant parts, in consequence of the tendency of
the Oil (the vehicle, as it is technically termed) to come
to the surface, and thus to give a tinge to, or
obscure, the purer tints of skies and distant brilliant
objects. On this account, they are said to be used
by Turner in these parts, when he desires to attain
great clearness and purity of colour. But, however,
the union of Water-colours with Oil may be advan-
tageous for these purposes, and thus Opaque Water-
colours may receive a partial sanction; it cannot
be denied, that, in the instances previously alluded
to, in which the Opaque Water-colours are used
for no other purpose than the facility of recovering
half-tints that had been too much obscured, the
only advantage of Water-colours is abandoned,
without obtaining the equivalent of richness, arising