Whittock, Nathaniel: The Art Of Drawing And Colouring From Nature, Flowers, Fruit, And Shells: To Which Is Added, Correct Directions For Preparing The Most Brilliant Colours For Painting On Velvet, With The Mode Of Using Them, Also The New Method Of Oriental Tinting ; With Plain And Coloured Drawings (London, 1829)

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and it will be necessary to have a small piece os clean sponge at hand
to remove any false line at pleasure.
Unlike the drawings upon paper, where the white is usually left for
the ground, the flowers, sruit, or any other subject in oil, will require
to have the back ground to represent some natural object. Is the
ssowers are supposed to be placed in a china vase, standing near a
window, the sky will sorm the back ground, which may be so managed
that the grey shade of the clouds must tell against, or contrast with, the
warm tints os the group os ssowers, while blue or any other retiring
tint may be heightened by the warmer tints of the back ground. The
student will sind that his mind will be as much occupied in forming the
back ground happily, as any other part os the picture.
When the outline is correctly drawn, the student will have to pre-
pare the palette with colours sor painting the subject. He will sirst
mix a little nut oil and turpentine together, in a small cup ; then placing
about as much ssake white as he requires upon the palette, he must
take a little os the oil and turpentine on the palette knise, and drop it
on the white, mix and levigate with the knise, on the palette, till the
whole is brought to a proper degree os consistence ; then scrape the
whole srom the middle os the palette, and deposit the mass at a short
distance srom the thumb-hole. Observe that, as the transparent
colours will all require white to give them body, it will be necessary to
prepare a greater quantity os white than os the other colours. The
next colour is yellow ochre. This must be prepared in the same way