118 



DRAWING. 



Neutral 



tint. 



The iky. 



in nature, and give roch interest to a picture, may be 

 produced witli tin- utmost east- anil delicacy. 



The art of drawing in water colour*, which, till with- 

 in these few Tears, had ne\cr been considered in any 

 other light than as nil expeditions method of making 

 >kcti -lii-s slight, has Ix-cn recently carried to the greatest 

 perfection by the landscape painters of the I'.nglish 

 school. 



The method that was followed in its Ix-ginning, was 

 to make out the effect and finishing bv what was called 

 a neutnd tint, and afterwards to give each object its 

 pro|>cr colour and depth, by washes of the several tint- 

 over the original one. This mode, though not adapted 

 to give that strength, solidity, and variety, which the re- 

 cent improvements of our contemporary artists have 

 shewn that drawing in water colour is susceptible ; \ c-t 

 as the process is more simple than any other, it is on the 

 whole better calculated for Ix'ginners, who, when they 

 have acquired sufficient facility in it, and knowledge of 

 their materials, may extend their researches to the other 

 methods, which we shall afterwards take notice of. 



The neutral tint, which each artist made up, like 

 every other tint, in his own way, was by some com- 

 posed of blue, lake, and gamboge ; blue, lake, and In- 

 dian ink ; or blue, lake, and sepia. The student will 

 begin by a wash of the grey over the distance, leaving 

 out those parts which are quite light ; and as a more soft 

 and delicate effect will be produced by repenting the 

 process several times than by doing it at once, the tint 

 will be made lighter at first than the effect intended. 

 In this manner, every part of the work, from the most 

 remote distance to the fore ground, will be done; with 

 thN difference, that the proportions of the various co- 

 lours composing the neutral tint will be altered, ac- 

 cording to the distance of the several objects. Thus 

 the lake and blue, which produce the aerial tones, will 

 be increased in the distant objects, altering the tint 

 from a coolish grey for the distant to somewhat of a 

 warm brown for the nearer objects ; and the proportion 

 of the sepia, umber, or whatever it may be, will be 

 greater for the fore ground objects, leaving the paper 

 untouched in every part where clear light is required. 

 U'lieii the broad shadows have been thus laid in, and 

 the general effect of the chiar' oscuro produced over the 

 whole picture, the more minute parts will be made 

 out by darker touches of the same tint, of wliich each 

 shadow is composed. 



The student will next begin to the coloxiring of the 

 sky. The blue will be composed of Indigo, to which a 

 small quantity of lake will be added; and the tint of 

 the clouds will be made up of blue and lake, which will 

 be modified by the addition of madder brown, sepia, 

 light red, &c. according to the effect intended. In laying 

 in a flat tint of blue, or any other colour where smooth- 

 ness and equality of surface is desirable, the paper 

 should be damped with clean -water laid on with a 

 broad tin brush, and as much of the water taken off by 

 pressing the paper with a clean towel, or a piece of 

 blotting paper, wliich will leave it in a state sulliciently 

 damp for the purpose. This will be found of great 

 service, particularly when a gradation from a darkish 

 to a lighter blue, or, as in morning or evening, from 

 blue to a warm yellow, orange, or red colour, in the 

 hori/on, is required. When these colours are fixed by 

 the drying of the paper, if the warm tint is not Mifli- 

 lietitly strong, it may be increased to any depth, by 

 smother wash of the same colour, which may be blended 

 into the blue with a little clean water The clouds 

 and whole drawing may likewise get a wash of the 



5 



Building* 

 1 



Methods oi 



-'< i' 

 tllc I 



same, and the necessary \ ! hue on tht-ir difl'c- I'>acnc*l 



rent parts may be afterward- given. 



The green- will IM- made u:> . and gam' 



and may l>e diversified at pleasure, according to the 

 tint of the several object-, by the addition of indigo, 

 brown pink, or burnt terra di sienna. The buildings, 

 rocks, trunks of trees, \c. may be done with a light 

 tint of burnt umber, and thox more distant with burnt 

 sienna, which will {form a ground for any variety of 

 cold or warm colour which it may be necessary to put 

 over them ; and these may be varied to <my extent, by 

 tint- composed of blue, umber, lake, burnt si. 

 sepia, yellow ochre, and the like. 



As, by the repeated washing of the several tints over 

 the grey, the sharpness of the several parts will be con- 

 siderably injured, it will now be nei-e-s.iry to retouch, 

 with great care and delicacy, any part that may be de- 

 fective in this rc.s-]M-ct : the distance with warm or cool 

 shades of grey, according as it may be wanted, and the 

 fore ground with brown, made un with sepia, and per- 

 haps the addition of lake and blue, which will com- 

 plete the process. Hut in this stage of the process, care 

 must be taken to avoid cutting up this effect by a dark 

 and harsh mode of touching. 



In painting a sky, it is often desirable to give more 

 sharpness and decision to the forms of the lights than 

 the ordinary processes of merely leaving them out 

 permit, such as on the edges of the clouds, the form 

 of the sun or moon when they occur, or the rays of light 

 bursting from behind a cloud ; accordingly various sub- 

 stances have, at different times, been used to stop up 

 the lights, as in aquatinta engravings, and prevent the 

 tints from adhering to the part of the paper where 

 it has been put on ; and when they were finished, to 

 take off the substance employed, leaving the paper 

 perfectly free from any tinge of the colour: for this 

 purpose, the yolk of eggs, and compositions of white 

 lead and olive oil, or white lead and mastic varnish 

 have been used, the former of which may be taken 

 off by Indian rubber or the crumb of bread, and the 

 two latter with the oil of turpentine, or spirit of wine 

 rubbed over them with a brush. Hut ot all the sub- 

 stances that have been used for this purpose, there is 

 nothing that unites so well the advantages of utility and 

 convenience, as pipe clay scraped upon a plate and mixed 

 up with water to a due consistency ; the touches being 

 put in with this, by means of a hair pencil, and allow ed 

 to dry, the tints may be washed freely over it, and when 

 rubbed with bread the lights will come out with the 

 utmost sharpness, and will have more the appearance of 

 being touched over with distemper or some opaque 

 substance, than of any thing that water colour painting 

 could be supposed capable of producing. 



The preparation of the paper is also a matter of great 

 importance in water colour drawing. The best drawing 

 paper, as it is manufactured, is totally unfit for finished 

 drawings, from the smoothness of it- surface: it must 

 therefore be well damped, and the polish taken off by 

 rubbing it well with a wet spunge. By this means, the 

 paper will acquire a degree of roughness and absorbcn- 

 c\ . which will afford great assistance in giving the 

 -:iry solidity ;,nd depth; which were qualities un- 

 known to water colour drawing till this process of' treat- 

 ing the paper was adopted. 



Another method, which is next to that of the neutral 

 tint in simplicity, is, to make up the shadows of distant 

 objects with indigo and Indian red; of those thut are 

 nearer, with Indian ink ; and the foreground with shades 

 of Indian ink, and touched up in the minute parts with 





l lc l M P* r< 





Different 

 nicthixU c 

 drawing ii 



