MODE OF USE—MIXTURES—CONCORDANCE OF ENAMEL WITH MOIST AND OIL COLORS,
AND THEIR USUAL TECHNICAL NAMES.
Whites, belonging to the first group. White is obtained by _permanent
white_, (for high lights), and _Chinese white_, a color of very limited
use in painting, it being preferable to keep the white of the china when
possible.
Permanent white, alone or mixed with other colors for heightening, which
is called _high light_, or _relief_, requires perfect grinding. It
should be tried by repeated and well fired tests before using it for
important works. It is lifted up with the point of the brush, and laid
without spreading. It could not bear two firings; it is put at the
second firing, which is always less powerful.
BLUES. (First group.) In his character as a chemist, M. Lacroix gives
us, in his work already quoted, the general reason for excessive care in
using blues. “All the blues, with very few exceptions, derive their
color from cobalt.... As the mixture of cobalt and iron produces,
proportionably, tints varying from light grey to black, it is well to
take great precautions in painting when blues are used with reds,
fleshes, browns and ochres. It follows as a natural consequence, that
when you wish to have some beautiful shades of blue, you must avoid
using brushes which have already served for one of the iron colors, and
have not been properly cleaned.”
Blues are laid on in very thin coatings, particularly blue green.
Ordinary oil medium.
The first painting is but little loaded, and is shaded with the same
tint in a second coating, added to grey in the last firing for the
darkest parts.
Here are some notes on the concordance of enamel colors with oil colors
and their usual names.
Sky Blue—sky blue.
Light Blue—light sky blue.
Blue Verditer—two-thirds ultramarine blue; one-third deep blue green.
Slight oiling.
Barbeau Blue, or Smalt—Victoria blue.
Marine Blue (in oils)—half Victoria blue, half carmine No. 2.
Cobalt—deep ultramarine.
Prussian Blue—one-third dark blue; one-third Victoria blue; one-third
ultramarine; a touch of grey No. 2; a very little touch of purple.
Indigo—dark blue; a touch of raven black.
CARMINES AND PURPLE. (First Group.) Carmines must be used very thin,
lest they should turn yellow in the firing. You must put but little oil
to avoid shrivelling. Never touch them with a knife; the brush must be
sufficient. It is also recommended, when using purple, to fill the brush
well and to turn it round and round to dissolve the little gritty lumps
generally found at the opening of the tubes. When a pink color has had
an addition of purple to it, spirits of lavender with a drop of oil of
turpentine should be preferred to turpentine only.
All the carmines are shaded with the same tint. Purples are also used
for strong shadows, and blues for reflected lights. If light tints or
pinks are made with light yellows, these colors must not be spread one
over the other, but side by side, otherwise the carmine tints would be
injured. In the first painting, carmines and purples are to be laid on
very light; it is only in the second firing that strengthening touches
are made.
“When carmines are fired in the muffle at too low a temperature, silver
takes the upper hand and the color has a dirty yellow tint; if, on the
contrary, the temperature is too high, the silver shade is completely
destroyed, and the carmine becomes lilac or violet, which explains the
difficulty in firing carmines. The same thing takes place with purples,
but in a considerably less perceptible degree, because of the shade
being much darker and cassius being in a larger quantity.”—_A. Lacroix._
ENAMEL CARMINES AND PURPLES are equivalent to the oil colors of the same
name.
Light Pink—Carmine A and carmine No. 1.
Deeper Pink—Carmine No. 2 with carmine No. 3.
Laky Red—Crimson lake.
Purple Lake—Carmine No. 1 and a touch of purple.
Peony Pink—Half ruby purple; half carmine No. 1.
Chinese Pink—Carmine No. 3; touch of ruby purple.
Lakes (in oils)—Carmines.
Crimson Lake (in oils)—Purples.
Red Purple—Deep purple.
Crimson—Crimson purple.
LILACS AND VIOLETS. (1st group, except the violet of iron, which belongs
to the 3d group.) The same precautions are required in using lilacs as
for carmines.
Lilac—Half carmine No. 1; half sky-blue; a touch of carmine No. 3.
Mauve—Half carmine A; half ultramarine.
Magenta—Two-thirds carmine No. 3; one-third deep ultramarine; a touch of
ruby purple.
Violet—Light violet of gold.
Deep Violet—Deep violet of gold.
Light Pansy—Light violet of gold, with a touch of deep ultramarine.
Deep Pansy—Deep violet of gold, sustained more or less and with an
addition of ultramarine.
REDS. (3d group, except the purples.) Red, a predominant color, is
nearly always used alone. Thus, the reddish tips of green leaves are
obtained by placing the red next the green, but not by putting it over.
With the dark colors, on the contrary, it is red that disappears.
Chinese vermilion in oils has an equivalent tint in coral for porcelain
applied thin; backgrounds are made of it, but it would be risking a
great deal to use it in painting, on account of its extreme sensibility
in firing; besides, it suffers no mixing. Scarlet vermilion is
approached by adding a touch of flesh No. 1 to capucine red, and laying
on this mixture in a moderate thickness.
Capucine Red—Capucine red.
Poppy Red—Half capucine red; half deep purple. A satisfactory result is
obtained only at the third application of this mixture, which loses at
each firing.
Madder—Capucine red; a touch of purple and of carmine No. 3.
Gules (in heraldry)—Capucine red and a touch of purple.
Venetian Red (in oils)—Violet of iron (third group).
YELLOWS. (Second group.) Certain yellows greatly destroy the colors
mixed with them, and even make them disappear entirely. This
disadvantage is perceived when too much ivory yellow is mixed with red,
or when that yellow is placed abundantly over other colors.
“The yellow called silver yellow contains no silver; it is composed of
jonquil yellow and orange yellow. Yellows that contain no iron (yellow
for mixing and jonquil yellow) are generally preferred for making fresh
greens. On the other hand, for mixing with iron colors, yellows that
contain already this metal are used.”—_A. Lacroix._
Light yellows scale very easily; the dark yellows, being less fusible,
need to be used moderately thin in the first painting, for the first
fire develops them; at the second firing they increase in depth, and if
they are too heavily loaded they cannot be made lighter again.
Avoid using yellows next to blues, which would produce a green tint. For
the centers of blue flowers, which necessitates some yellow, the place
must be well scraped before putting the color.
Permanent yellow, (half white and half yellow for mixing), serves for
placing lights in drapery and yellow flowers, as well as high lights in
ornaments.
Lemon Yellow—Yellow 47 of Sevres, with a touch of silver yellow.
Golden Yellow—Half silver yellow; half jonquil yellow.
Saffron Yellow—Two-thirds ivory yellow; one-third flesh No. 1; a touch
of capucine red.
Salmon—Two-thirds ivory yellow; one-third flesh No. 2; a touch of
carmine No. 3.
Straw Color—Yellow for mixing, used very lightly.
Yellow Lake—Yellow for mixing.
Dark Chrome Yellow—Silver yellow; a touch of jonquil yellow.
Light Chrome Yellow—Jonquil yellow.
Indian Yellow—Half jonquil yellow; half ochre.
Naples Yellow—Ivory yellow.
Orange Yellow—Orange yellow.
Maize—Half ivory yellow; half orange yellow.
GREENS. (Second group.) For foliage it is well to remember that dark
tints placed in advance of light ones destroy the latter in the firing.
All the greens, whether in foliage or in drapery, can be shaded with
browns, reds, and carmine tints.
By painting over for the second fire, foliage can be made purple or
bluish.
Dark green, being very powerful, should be used with caution.
The blue-greens are used for the distance, but then excessively light;
they are tinted with capucine red for the horizon.
Emerald-stone Green—Emerald-stone green.
Water Green—Half apple green; half deep blue-green.
Veronese Green—One-third apple green; one-third chrome green; one-third
emerald-stone green.
Malachite—Apple green; a touch of emerald-stone green.
Blue-green—Deep blue-green.
Dark Green—Two-thirds chrome green 3 B; one-third dark green.
Bottle Green or Sap Green—Sap green.
Emerald Green—Two-thirds blue-green; one-third emerald-stone green.
BROWNS. (Third group.) The artistic browns for china which steady
painters prefer, are vigorous browns, fresh when mixed, and resisting
well the action of the fire, but which have not the brilliancy of the
less coloring browns.
The warm browns in oils exist for china. The deep red brown and mixtures
of violet of iron and of laky red correspond to the red browns.
Golden Brown—Golden brown.
Vandyke Brown—It is impossible to obtain it exactly. The nearest
approach would be by mixing brown 108 with violet of iron.
Raw Sienna—Sepia.
Orange Mars—Uranium yellow and a touch of purple.
BLACKS. (Third group.) The blacks in oils are represented in the palette
for pottery by raven, ivory and iridium black, which answers all
purposes.
If these blacks fail, others can be composed by mixtures of simple
colors, as dark reds and dark blues. It would be better to operate in
two firings to avoid crazing.
The use of iron reds is not admitted on soft paste; the blacks are to be
made with iridium black, which is ready made, or with purple and dark
green. It is rare that black is needed for subjects painted on soft
paste. It is sometimes used in decoration for surrounding ornaments with
a line, but seldom for backgrounds, excepting on decorative vases of a
certain style.
GREYS. (Third group.) A grey of some kind is always obtained by mixing
complementary colors; reds with greens, or yellows with violets, violet
being a combination of carmine and blue.
The greys obtained by mixing greens, ready made or composed, with
carmine or purple, as required, are very frequently used by flower
painters.
Experience on this subject can only be acquired by continual trials.
Dove Color—Dove color.
Ash Grey—Light grey used lightly, and a touch of sky blue.
Pearl Grey—Pearl grey No. 6.
Russet Grey—Warm grey.
Brown Grey—Grey and sepia.