152 
OIL PAINTING WITHOUT A MASTER. 
[Nature and Art, October 1, 1863. 
However, if you do wish to attempt this, rub it 
with a silk handkerchief dipped in drying oil. 
Where you have no wet glazing, you can wipe out 
the paint as often as you please before it is dry. 
Should the paint be sticky and seem to harden too 
much on the palette and be difficult to work, it is 
either ropy from age or it requires more oil. If the 
addition of a little drying oil fails to make it work 
well, discard it and get a new tube of colour, for it 
is only waste of time to work with it. Flake 
white is often in this state when old. The 
background should now be finished by glazing and 
painting into it as in the other parts of the picture. 
If, after any glazing, you find that the painting into 
it has not been sufficient, but that another glazing 
would not be required, the picture being dark 
enough in tone, glaze with copal varnish alone, and 
paint into that. 
Should any of the lighter parts of the picture be 
too dark, they may be painted thinly over again 
with lighter colour, without glazing first. This is 
scumbling, but it is better to do this only in a back- 
ground, such as the sky, or to give a distant effect 
to trees, distance, &c., as it is not so good for near 
objects. Some artists rub it on with the side of 
the thumb and say it gives a better surface, but if 
used in the face or figure, &c., it should be glazed 
again and painted into as before, and not rubbed 
in, but painted with the brush. Of course, it is 
quite impossible to make any rules as to how 
much must be done at one painting. It depends on 
the subject and the time the pupil can give to it ; 
only, if it can be avoided, no glazing should be left to 
dry untouched by the opaque colour to be painted 
into it. Therefore, if there is but little time for the 
work, it would be better not to glaze, say the hair 
and dress at one sitting, or the background and 
any other part. The face and neck should be done 
at the same time if possible, or it will be difficult 
to make the colouring of each part harmonize : only 
I know the trials of amateurs, their interruptions 
and want of time for a long day’s painting, and 
I therefore recommend them to consider well, before 
they begin their day’s work, how much they can 
do in the time allowed them, and to put on no 
more glazing than they have time to paint into. 
There is nothing else now that need be said 
about the finishing of the picture. Of course the 
pupil will go on as I have directed until it is 
worked up to the finish of the copy, or to what is 
considered sufficient, if painting from Nature. 
(Instead of painting the ground brown, a piece of 
smooth brown millboard may be used, but it does 
not work so easily). There is one thing that almost 
all amateurs, even those who can draw well, are 
apt to forget, and that is, that every throat, even 
that of a baby, shows more or less of muscular 
development, and it is a very common thing to see a 
well-drawn face with a throat as if turned in a lathe 
or as flat as a plank ; accordingly some faint indica- 
tion of muscles must be shown ; aud even the 
palest grey tint will often give shade enough to 
show that the throat is not an eVen polished sur- 
face. Therefore the anatomical form of the throat 
and neck should be learned in order to see where, 
in the beautifully rounded throat of a woman, or in 
the little fat dimpled one of an infant, the muscles 
and bones are indicated, although perhaps almost 
imperceptibly to an unpractised eye. The ear 
also is often left very sketchy, instead of every part 
being carefully drawn, and to the eye of an artist 
this has a very unpleasing effect. It is a curious 
fact, but a true one, that the ancient sculptors left 
the ears of their statues very unfinished, and conse- 
quently many people who have learned by drawing 
from casts do not know how an ear is really formed, 
although they can draw a face perfectly. The 
corners of the eyes, too, are seldom drawn properly; 
generally the upper and under lids meet in a point 
at each end, and the canthus (as it is called) at the 
inner corner is left out altogether. This is just the 
shape of a doll’s eye, and is frightful to look at ; one 
eye is also frequently drawn larger than the other 
and not parallel to the mouth and nostrils ; this 
should be carefully attended to, as no colouring, 
however good, will make up for such defects. 
In drawing the outline, it should not be 
done with smoothly curved lines, but with bold 
angular strokes, which will become rounded in the 
painting, although the squareness of this outline 
should not be quite smoothed away, or the picture 
will have a weak and poor effect. These last few 
hints are only intended for those who have taught 
themselves to drawp of course the pupils of a good 
master will not need them. If any one should object 
to the effect of burnt sienna as a flesh tint, and should 
desire to have a more rosy colour, light red may be 
substituted : but this is according to the taste of the 
amateur or the colouring of the copy, and it will 
most likely need more yellow in the glazing, or 
perhaps yellow ochre and white must be painted in 
with the flesh tint. Should the pupil find great 
difficulty in painting on the dark ground (which, 
however is the best, as it gives softness and harmony 
of tone), the raw umber may be rubbed on very 
thinly like a mere glaze, just to tinge the white 
ground, and then the shadows must be painted in 
with raw umber before putting in the flesh tints ; 
and nearly all the greys must be made with blue, 
white, and raw umber ; but, as before, they should 
not be put in till the picture has proceeded some 
way, for fear of making it black and dull from the 
blue getting too much mixed with the other colours. 
By this method it will be more difficult to get the 
grey pearly tint produced by the flesh tints and the 
white on the dark ground. I omitted to mention, 
that in cleaning the brushes most people wash those 
of hog’s hair in soap and water; but it is a bad plan, 
it spoils the shape of the brush, and, if the soap 
should not be perfectly washed out, it will injure 
the colours. In about ten or twelve months the 
picture should be varnished with mastic varnish. 
I will conclude by reminding those who are 
anxious to succeed in oil painting, that they must 
not be discouraged by a few failures at first. There 
is no royal road to painting in oils ; but a little 
practice will soon overcome any difficulties that 
may be experienced at first by a beginner. 
