PAINTING IN WATER-COLOUBS. 



17 





PAINTING IN WATER-COLOURS. IV. 



AFTER our pupils have accustomed thomuclvon in some degree 

 1o huinlliiii,' tli.> I. rush, and, from the use of sepia, have gained 



.riiniiiiitiiig and representing tii 



in. in thn inmimtirable and ever-varying effects caused bj 

 li^'lit ami Mhade, wo now recommend them to apply to colour 



rn-iploa we have endeavoured to explain. Here we reach 

 a point whore many of our difficulties begin. It is not an easy 

 taak to lay down ruloa by which we are to be guided in conducting 



.re through all its stages of progress, and enumerate and 

 HjMM-ify its colours, tones, and tints, for if it were possible to 

 give a rocipo for painting one picture, it is more than probable 

 that it would not be found equally applicable to another. When 



the object which the student desire* to acoompluh. Bat oar 

 difficulties are greatly diminished by baring the colour-box 

 supplied with modifications of these colours under distinct 

 names. Independently of the many different reds, bines, and 

 yellows, from which we derive so much assistance on account 

 of their diversity as one red in some oases is preferable to 

 another, and one blue to another we have in addition to tbess 

 a great variety of browns, which famish numerous tints of the 

 greatest service, and still farther when we combine them with 

 one or other of the primitive colours. Let the pupil unite bla 

 with burnt sienna, or with brown pink, or with sepia, and be 

 will find that he produces greens much more sombre and deeper 

 in tone than the composition of blue with any of the yellows. 

 The latter are more serviceable in the lights, the former in the 



Fig. 5. TREATMENT OP FOREGROUND, MIDDLE, AND EXTREME DISTANCE. 



we reflect that there is no restriction to the changes which are [ 

 continually passing over the same object, and add to this, in 

 many cases, the multiplied varieties of that object, it will be 

 readily acknowledged that the attempt to write special rules for 

 all cases, or even for a few, would be a failure ; consequently, 

 we must again make our starting-point from first principles, 

 and endeavour to unite them with much that is generally 

 practical, that our pupils may be led to make their own 

 deductions, and thus carry their experience beyond the point 

 where specific rules have little advantage. 



Ther,o are but three primitive colours red, blue, and yellow; 

 all others are but proportionate combinations of these three : 

 for example, red and blue mixed make purple, blue and yellow 

 make green, and red and yellow make orange. These, again, 

 which are called secondary colours, may be respectively united 

 and further neutralised ; and this art of neutralising and com- 

 bining in accordance with the colour of the object to be imitated, 

 and the apparent change of that colour as it yields to the light, 

 or is acted upon by reflection from another adjacent colour, is 

 130 N.E. 



shadows ; but this will engage our attention again in some 

 practical application. 



We shall very frequently have occasion to use the terms 

 warm and cool in reference to colour, therefore it is necessary 

 to explain them, and show how these changes are effected. 

 The warm tones are obtained by adding a greater proportion 

 of red or yellow, whilst the cool ones are produced by an 

 increase of blue ; but even these, the primitive colours, have 

 their gradations of tone. Light red, which is nothing more 

 than burnt yellow ochre, is warmer than some of the lakes. 

 Of the yellows, cadmium yellow is more intense than gam- 

 boge, and it will be seen that when each of these yellows 

 is separately mixed with blue to produce green, the latter 

 will make a much cooler green than the former. All these 

 combinations, and many more of like character, will from 

 an important study for the pupil, and it will be his policy to 

 make himself fully acquainted with them, for, as he proceeds, 

 experience will teach him that the more he is familiar with 

 the capabilities of colour, or, in other words, what his colours 



