120 



DRAW I NT,. 



bur. 



*il>le : it tnurt be well wet with the ^xinge, and rolled 

 up til! 't !>< suftu -iently relaxed: it will thru In- laid Hat 

 on the Ixi.-iril. and about the l>rr.iiltii of tin inch all 

 round tin- edge folded Iwck : this will l>e covered with 

 glue or pate. and turned down and pressed firmly to 

 the board: when dry, it will become perfectly tight. 'and 

 of an even surface : for this purpose glue is l>y tar pre- 

 Irr.ihle to paste, as it can lie depended on much more 

 in keeping the paper 1'roin coining oft' in drying : l>ut 

 when the latter is made use of, it must be of rather a 

 thick consistency ; and when the paper has been rub- 

 bed clown to the lx>ard, as much of the paste as possible 

 will be brought away, by pressing it out at the edges 

 with a small flat piece of wixxl, or even with the thumb. 

 Besides the water-colour drawing which we liave just 

 or body co- treated of, there is another which is called distemper, 

 (rn dettempt,) or body colour, which differs from the 

 transparent water colour in this, that, instead of put- 

 ting on the colours in thin washes, one over the other, 

 and diluting them with water, the middle tints are 

 mixed up at once, and put on in thick opaque masses, 

 lightened by adding white, and the lights and shadows 

 touched on them till the effect required is produced, in 

 the manner of oil colours. This method was much 

 practised by the later Italian and French landscape paint- 

 ers, more particularly those who painted architectural 

 Joels and theatrical scenery. 



But us few of the colours withstand, in this way, the 

 action of light, and as the surfaces are also easily da- 

 maged, it is best fitted for ornamental purposes, such 

 .is the decorations of rooms and theatrical scenery; par- 

 ticularly as, having none of the gloss which renders oil 

 painting so unfit for this purpose, it may be seen equal- 

 ly well in whatever direction the light may come upon 

 it. The pigments commonly made use of in distemper 

 painting, are fine chalk, zinc white, yellow ochre, Dutch 

 pink, gamboge, raw and burnt sienna, light red, burnt 

 umber, lake, and indigo; to which number may be add- 

 ed, almost all those colours that are in general use, 

 either for painting oil or water. They are to be ground 

 up with water, and wrought with size. 



Drawings in this way are commonly done on paste- 

 board, made of two or three plies of paper, some- 

 times of paper pasted down on linen strained in a frame, 

 and for theatrical scenery of strong coarse canvass. Pa- 

 ptr that has rather a rough surface, and has in some 

 degree what is called a tooth, is best calculated for this 

 purpose. When the outline is sufficiently marked, 

 in order to give tlie necessary smoothness and finish to 

 the sky, which ought to be done at once, as there is 

 some risk in attempting to retouch a sky, the paper 

 must be wet all over with a hair pencil, which will keep 

 it sufficiently dump till the sky be finished. The blue 

 for this purpose is indigo mixed with white, till it be 

 of a light enough tint. Blue verditter is sometimes 

 used. A beautiful grey will be produced by the mix- 

 ture of indigo and burnt umber, lightened to the tint 

 required by the addition of white ; if it be too purple, 

 a little yellow may l>e added. But the student, who 

 must have some previous knowledge of the effect pro- 

 -duced by different combinations of colour, will soon 

 be able, without much advice, to mix tip his tints in 

 this way, as well as in oil or water colours. There N <>t:e 

 disadvantage to which this method is exclusively sub- 

 ject, namely, that the colours when wet have a totally 

 different amttarance from what they have after they 

 have dried: but this difficulty a little practice will MK.II 

 remedy. 



In painting architectural subjects, for which pur- 

 pole distemper is well calculated, the painter lias ad- 



vantages which neither oil painting nor water colour- 

 posses- : In e;m ^i\ t . ; , sharpness and precision to the 

 most minute member*, as the lights and shades of 

 which are composed of straight line-, 

 >uch as oirniecs and other moulding*, may In- ruled with 

 the square, the colour being put on either with a fine 

 hair pencil, or. when great minuteness is required, will) 

 a steel ruling pen. In the sky and distant parts of the 

 picture, in order to give the necessary effect ot'air, the 

 middle tints must be made up to such a con-isteney as 

 to cover the paper entirely ; but in the nearer objects, 

 when- this is not required, the colours may be mixed 

 up with a smaller pro|w>rtion of while, and put on thin 

 and semi-transparent: this will given depth tothetonc-. 

 of the shadows; take off that cli;dkine-s which it is so 

 difficult to avoid in^distemper painting ; and, in order 

 to increase the depth and variety of tone in the fore- 

 ground objects, so necessary to the good effect of every 

 picture, the process called gin/ing, so well known to 

 painters in oil, will be found a mo-t useful assistant. 

 It consists in this, that when the middle tints and lights 

 are put on with the opaque colour, and allowed to be- 

 come dry, transparent washes of the common water 

 colour are put over them, according to the quality of 

 tint and depth of shadow required. Thus the green 

 will receive a great accession of strength, freslme-- 

 and brilliancy, by a thin transparent wash of gamboge 

 and sepia, which may be altered or modified by the 

 addition of any other transparent colours, such as lake, 

 indigo, burnt terra di sienna, umber, or the like; and tints 

 composed of the same colours, by varying their propor- 

 tions, may be produced fitted for every sort of object. 

 As the washing over any tint with another must ne- 

 cessarily more or less impair the sharpness and spirit 

 of the touches, it may be wrought up to the proper 

 strength and firmness by dark touches of any tran -pa- 

 rent tint, best suited to the colour of the object. 



The size, which ought to be made of the best glue, 

 should be of such a strength and consistency, a* to be 

 permanently fluid at the common temperature of the 

 atmo-sphere, 6'0 ; when much stronger than this, it gives 

 darkness to the colours, and when weaker, does not 

 bind them together, so as to prevent them from rubbing 

 easily off. 



The colours when ground are to be kept in pots; and 

 to prevent their drying and becoming hard, and so re- 

 quiring to be ground again, they must be kept constant- 

 ly covered with water, and occasionally stirred up with 

 a small piece of wood. 



Sometimes drawings in distemper are varnished, 

 which gives them very much the effect of oil punting: 

 but the brilliancy of the lights is entirely destroyed by 

 this ; a defect for which the amazing depth, variety, 

 and clearness of tone which the varnishing produces 

 in the shadows, by no means compensate. By reject- 

 ing those pigments, the basis of which is chalk, such 

 as English and .Dutch pink, verditter, &c. and using 

 only those which have a good body when ground in oil, 

 the tone of the picture will not be quite so much low- 

 ered ; but it does not seem jxxssible to give a proper ef- 

 fect to a picture in this way, without touching it up 

 with oil colours. 



It has often been suspected, and that with great ap- 

 pearance of probability, that it WHS the practice of tin- 

 great masters of the Venetian school, to lay in the 

 ground work of their pictures in distemper ; and, by 

 glazing and touching them up with oil colour, to bring 

 them up to that astonishing brilliancy which, with few 

 .lions, is to be fount! only in the productions of 

 that school. (P. o.) 



I't.i- 'i, : 



