Studio: international art (3.1894)

From Gallery, Studio, and Mart

of light; do not afterwards attempt to touch
the burnish with colour. A very beautiful gold
background may be obtained by the use of diapers;
for which old illuminations and many early pictures
show precedent. The diaper pattern, if raised, may
of course be laid on with the brush and thin gesso.
For a sunk diaper, a die was generally used; which
can be easily made in plaster hardened by being
mixed with thin alum water. Model the diaper,
mould it in wax, and fix a cast from the wax on
the end of a piece of stick by means of " knotting,"
or black elastic glue from the nearest shoe-shop.
The diaper may be varied in pattern ; you will find
it offers an opportunity of introducing allusions to
many little cognate interests, which would be dis-
tracting to incorporate more fully in the main
design of the relief.

The best framing for a relief is a simple archi-
tectural moulding ; the worst, anything approach-
ing the appearance of an ordinary picture-frame.
Do not be tempted to put a relief under glass; the
best protection is a final coat of hard oil-varnish,
such as copal or amber. In the case of wax paint-
ing, wax itself may form a final varnish.

As regards schemes of colour, it is well to bear
in mind that colour must elucidate. Consequently
in colouring, for instance, any single figure, be
cautious of introducing violent contrasts of tone.
Here again the study of the earlier masters helps
us, and it is surprising how much their harmony
was obtained by cunning distribution of primaries
and secondaries, to use old-fashioned terms. They
did not (as does the pictorial artist) paint in greys.

Bearing in mind that it is not sculpture which is
under consideration, but relief intended for paint-
ing, you may, with a view to clearness and often
for purposes of softening, paint a dark outline
round a form ; sometimes this may be against gold,
shading it off rapidly inwards on to the body of
the form. Where painted colour comes against
painted colour, it is still wise to soften with dark-
ness the edge of the lighter coloured form. Gene-
rally this shading is best done with warm colour,
such as burnt sienna or burnt umber. These,
however, are but rough rules of practice, and after
experience enable the worker to ignore them
at discretion. In colouring, proceed first from
those objects which by the nature of things have
their colour settled. You have then colour data,
and perhaps a colour predominance, from which
sentiment and the colour instinct will develop
harmony. Do not too quickly seek the safety
of dull hues, but be fearless of colour; and re-
member (speaking perhaps not scientifically, but

as an artist) that of all colours, reds are most
typically " colour" as contrasted with white or
grey light.

Colour can often be toned, not by touching it at
all, but by catching the eye by some spot coloured
sharply to the complement. Thus on drapery you
may often break sufficiently the more general
colour over the whole of it by the colouring of the
pattern upon it.

In the modelling, be content to strive for
beauty of line and only large indicativeness of
shapes ; leaving for the skill of the sculptor that

MONTAGVE FORDHAM

BOOK-PLATE DESIGNED BY E. H. NEW

observance of minutely varying forms which dis-
tinguish life and reality, a development of the
modeller's art which does not bear colouring, the
use of which is better justified upon very low and
slight relief. M. W.

FROM GALLERY, STUDIO AND
MART. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.
The impression left by a careful in-
spection of the 786 exhibits of the
National Competition, 1894, now on view in
the iron building of the inner quadrangle at
South Kensington, is mildly disappointing. Nor
does a second visit remove the conviction that it
is not on the whole quite equal to last year. Yet,

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