International studio (40.1910)

Pictorial Stencilling

course, no white. In proving, colour should be
well brushed up to all edges, and the desirability
of shutters ascertained by experimenting with the
cuttings reserved.

The proof finished, the plates corrected from it,
and the contour cut as scored, the silhouette is
free ; it is then dressed with oil and turpentine,
and when dry, varnished with shellac. The
shutters are now attached by tapes, so that when
opened they will clear their apertures. To ensure
this, the tape is glued, first to the shutter, then to
the stencil a little way from the opening, as shown
in Figs. 3 and 6; the location of attachments
being previously marked as indicated. In Fig. 3, a,
the lower attachments of the tunic cross that of
the border, so that the latter can be screened while
the former is being tinted.

Shutters may be either simple or compound

(Fig. 6); and the component sections of the latter
attached, either independently, like a pair of gates,
or consecutively, like folding doors (Fig. 6 b, cloak
and throat), where designed for successive grada-
tion. An isolated space may be shielded from
surrounding tint by independent shutters overlap-
ping it (Fig. 6a, face), elsewhere meeting edge to
edge, each section screening it in turn. The
wagoner's right hand in Fig. 8 is thus protected
from the tint of his smock frock.

The compound shutter facilitates refined con-
trast, and that " losing and finding" so dear to
painters; by opening either part alternately, now
one side, now the other of their boundary is
emphasized, or, both open together, the demarca-
tion is fused. It saves continual shifting of plates,
and gives freedom in dealing with a surface which
can be wholly or partially exposed at will.

FIG. 7—SHOWING PROGRESSIVE WORKING FROM THREE STENCIL PLATES

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