The coloring of the eyes, lips, jewelry, ribbons, edges of embroidery,
lace, neck-tie, flowers, and other ornaments, is applied directly on the
photograph after it is mounted on the glass and made translucent with
the oil.
EYES—Use small brush. BLUE EYES—Use Prussian Blue mixed with little
Ivory Black. BROWN EYES—Use Vandyke Brown. GREY OR HAZEL EYES—Prussian
Blue mixed with Vandyke Brown and Silver White.
LIPS—Use Rose Madder.
JEWELRY—Yellow Ochre for Gold, Silver White for Pearls, Emerald Green
for Emeralds, Rose Madder for Rubies.
RIBBONS—Whatever color is required. Flowers and other ornaments the
same.
The color for Flesh, Hair, Drapery and Background is applied to the
concave surface of the clear glass which is placed over the mounted
print.
FLESH—Use Vermilion, Silver White and Chrome Yellow; mix to suit. For
children use Rose Madder or Carmine in place of Vermilion. For dark
complexions dull the color by adding Vandyke Brown.
HAIR—For blonde hair, use half Naples Yellow and Vandyke Brown. For
lights, use Naples Yellow. Brown Hair, Vandyke Brown. Black Hair, Ivory
Black and Silver White, adding a little Prussian Blue. For Grey Hair,
use Silver White, Naples Yellow, Black, Burnt Sienna, and a little
Prussian Blue.
DRAPERY—Whatever color suits.
BACKGROUND—Your own judgment will suggest the proper color to use.
If you want to change the work in any way, take a small piece of cloth,
dipped in turpentine, and remove the color.
For home work and adornment it offers special attractions. The
photographs of relatives and friends can be made into Oil-Photo
Miniatures, done by your own hands, and handsomely furnished for the
mantel and wall at small expense.
We have given you the _simplest_ and _best_ process for making the
picture. It is claimed by some that when the oil is used it dries out
after a time, and produces opaque spots. Should this trouble appear, it
is easily overcome by using glycerine as previously directed. We
herewith give you another method in use, and you can adopt whichever you
see fit.
SECOND METHOD.
IVORY-TYPE OR MEZZOTINT.
FOR MOUNTING THE PHOTOGRAPH.—Isin-glass (fish glue) made in the
following proportion: One teaspoonful to half cup of water, dissolved by
boiling; strain through fine muslin, and apply the same as starch. Pure
Albumen, or white of egg, brushed over the glass and surface of the
photograph, is used with great success by some. Equal parts Canada
balsam and turpentine is also used for attaching the print to the glass.
Rubber varnish, made with pure rubber, dissolved in benzole. Some add a
little Cooper’s glue to the starch when making it. Dextrine is a
favorite with many.
After the use of the castor oil, castor oil and glycerine, poppy oil,
nut, or any of the oils, the print may be covered with a coating of
Damar varnish, which it is claimed holds the oil and preserves the
transparency. Many artists after oiling or varnishing, use water colors
mixed with ox-gall in coloring on the back of the print, then follow
with the oil colors as directed. In adopting any of the methods herein
noted, your judgment will dictate care in observing the results, and
suggesting changes that may facilitate the work, and success of the
picture. You will find this art very attractive, simple, and productive
of both pleasure and profit. Ladies are occupying leisure hours, and
making home attractive with their artistic work in producing the
Miniature.
By the first process pictures have stood for years without spotting or
cracking.
ANOTHER PLAN IS: After cleaning the photograph, blot off the surplus
water and place it in alcohol, let it remain until transparent. Old,
faded pictures can be brought out clear in this way. After placing it on
glass, cover the print with “paraffine,” and let it lie for a short time
in the sun, until crystalized, when it is ready to receive the colors.
You may use water colors on the first glass with good effect.
“By this simple process any person unaccustomed to painting, and
ignorant of art, may color photographs, and produce with rapidity and
little trouble, effective, permanent, and beautiful pictures, so soft
and delicate as to closely resemble painting on enamel; may render the
treasured family portrait doubly valuable by adding the warm tints of
life to the faithful but cold and deathlike production of the
photographer, and produce a pleasing as well as a truthful
representation. The largest and the smallest work may be painted with
equal facility, the life-size portrait or a miniature for a locket, the
only qualification for success, even in very elaborate pictures, being
taste in the arrangement of the colors. An objection to coloring
photographs, as coloring has hitherto been practiced—that the delicate
truthfulness of nature’s drawing was injured, and sometimes a likeness
wholly destroyed, through being obscured by the colorist in the working,
that the only guarantee of fidelity was the talent of the artist—in the
beautifully simple process under consideration with which all the
softness, lights, and shadows of the photographs are preserved.”
[Illustration]
THE ART OF
COLORING PHOTOGRAPHS
IN WATER COLORS.
[Illustration]
Select a well-defined Photograph, one of light color is preferable, and
the background free from spots; it is also well to have a duplicate copy
to refer to in case of necessity—a copy of two different sittings.
Always select a good subject, as a good portrait depends much on a good
model. In sitting for a photograph, take your own natural and easy
position several feet in front of the background, with your eyes a
trifle above the camera. Avoid all superfluous surroundings, such as
fancy chairs, table covered with books and other objects, making your
face a secondary affair in the picture.
=Preparing the Photograph.= Take a piece of White Glue about the size of
a hickory nut, and about one-half the quantity of pulverized alum;
dissolve in half a wine-glass of warm water and it is ready for use.
Apply the mixture with a flat camel-hair brush to the photograph; cover
the entire face of the picture, care being taken not to get it too wet.
When dry, wash it in clean cold water with a sponge to remove any
superfluous matter that may rest upon it. It may be necessary to go over
it a second time, as it is essential that the paper be well hardened to
work upon. You may test it by applying a drop of the color to one corner
and if it washes off and leaves no stain the paper is in good condition
for the work. Albumen paper can often be worked without using this
preparation, but should be sponged off with cold water.
The colors used are in cakes: Dry Carmine, Rose Madder, Crimson Lake,
Venetian Red, Indian Red, Vermilion, Chrome Yellow, Indian Yellow, Roman
Ochre, Gamboge, Cobalt, French Blue, Emerald Green, Indigo, Prussian
Blue, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Sepia (Brown), Vandyke Brown, Madder
Brown, Ivory Black, Chinese White, Constant White.
Burnt Umber, mostly used for the hair; Vandyke Brown is one of the most
used of browns, although Sepia may be said to be the _most_ useful in
black silk and satin, when mixed with Lake, Indigo and Gamboge; Sepia
and Lake for the eyebrows and hair; Sepia and Indigo form a gray, very
nice for background. Of Red, Carmine is the most brilliant; Rose Madder
the most useful in flesh, especially in youths; in elder persons add
Vermilion; Crimson Lake is very useful for flesh tints; Light Red,
Venetian and Indian Red can be used for nearly the same purpose.
=Coloring.= Commence upon the face with the flesh tints, using for this
a good size Sable brush; go over the entire face and wait till dry. Use
for the lips a little Vermilion and Lake. Now go over the background,
and then the draperies. Deepen the Carnations, touching the eye and
mouth with Lake; also the hair with the proper color. Touch the under
lip with Rose Madder enough so as it may look natural. The white of the
eye in youth is nearly blue, in old age it becomes yellow, in middle age
it is white. You must vary your tints to correspond.
The iris must be laid in with transparent color, then shaded, then
finished with Chinese White. The pupil is touched with a dark color and
the speck of white laid on last. Use the same color for black or brown
as used for the hair, viz.: Light Red and Chinese White, and neutral or
Purple tint and White for the latter. The face is now nearly finished;
it only remains to add a few touches to the eyes and mouth, and impart
life and expression to the countenance. If the person be dark, use Sepia
and Purple Lake, equal proportions; but if fair, dispense with most of
the Sepia. Next complete the background, after which finish up the hair
over the background; after the last shaded parts of the hair lay on the
high lights. Burnt Umber is most useful in brown and auburn hair;
Indigo, Sepia and Lake, or Lake, Indigo and Gamboge, are the colors used
for high lights, the lights inclining to a purple tint, the blue
predominating. Keep the hair in masses; a good sized brush is needed. In
painting cloth fabrics it will be well to use the local color at first
very light, much more so than you desire it to be when finished. A black
coat: begin by laying in a weak local wash as directed, and when it is
dry go over the folds with a thin shadow color, which will prevent them
being obscured by the next local wash. Having repeated this two or three
times, you will find the garment to be as dark as necessary, but the
shadows will be feeble; you may strengthen them with Sepia and Lake. A
good black for gentlemen’s drapery is made of Indigo, Lake and Gamboge.
When a blue-black is required, first make a purple-blue and then add the
Gamboge till the tint is changed into black. In shadowing, always carry
your pencil the way the folds run, instead of across them. The colors
for backgrounds for fair people are blue, purple and greys. Dark
complexions should have dark background. Stone is represented by a tint
formed of Carmine, Indigo and Yellow Ochre, and the more distant you
wish it to appear the more must the Indigo prevail. A background made of
Cobalt, Burnt Sienna and a little Rose Madder works well. Madder Brown
and Cobalt answers for the same. A purple cloudy ground is made of
Indigo and liquid Carmine or Lake. An opaque ground, of a chocolate
color, is composed of Lampblack and India Red.
Paint curtains over the background and put on the lights with body
colors.
RUSSIAN,
OR
EGYPTIAN METHOD
[Illustration]