We will begin with gall-stone, which is one of the finest and brightest
in the world, and it very lasting color, although in face painting it
should be sparingly used, its wonderful brilliancy being apt to drown
all the other colors, and make the work it is used in too warm in its
tints.
_Of Terra Sienna_, it is unburnt, a bright yellow-brown earth, and is
used by some miniature painters as a warm yellow; but burnt it is a
beautiful color, and partakes of three tints, yellow, red and brown.
_Yellow Ochre_ is a bright yellow earth, and comes from France, is
semi-opaque, and works well. Much used by artists, but must be used with
caution. It is a lasting color, and of service in the fleshy face tints.
_Roman Ochre_ is a reddish yellow earth of a very great body, and used
by some with success in miniature painting. Used with gum water it works
well, and being a warm color, it communicates that quality to the tints
it is worked on.
_Naples Yellow_ is an earth found near Naples, and is a soft, bright and
durable color. A great proportion of that used is composed of lead,
alum, sal-ammonia and antimony. This color is not very much used by
artists, as it does not stand well. Is a pale, gritty yellow. It absorbs
all colors that are worked on it or mixed with it.
_Gamboge_ is the concrete juice of various trees in Ceylon—is a
transparent color, and consequently useful as a glazing color.
_Yellows_ have their base in iron, lead, quicksilver and arsenic.
BLUE. Of all blues in use none can equal ultra-marine—its wonderful
brilliancy and permanency excelling all others. But it is often
adulterated after reaching this country, and the genuine is not common.
Put a small quantity on a case knife, and hold it over a candle, keep
the smoke from touching it; if adulterated it will appear in grey spots,
and if genuine it will remain brilliant as at first. It was formerly
made from lazulite, the beautiful variegated blue mineral, worth at one
time in Italy twenty-five dollars an ounce. A greater part of that used
now is composed of carbonate of soda, sulphur and kaolin, colored with
cobalt.
_Prussian Blue_ is a good color, it is a ferrocyanuret of iron, produced
in different ways. There is no substitute for Prussian blue for
miniature painting on account of its strength of effect and
transparency. The best and purest is that which is dark color.
_Indigo_ is beautiful on account of its extreme depth of color, nearly
approaching to black; the best is called the rock indigo.
_Cobalt_ is another fine blue, much used in sky grounds, and in the
delicate parts of faces and necks.
_French Ultra._ A beautiful bright blue; it is adapted for ladies’
drapery—rather too powerful for pearly tints or flesh.
_Permanent Blue, Cerulean._ Useful in draperies and backgrounds; also in
landscape and flower painting. Not good for flesh tints.
_Sap Green_ is the juice of buckthorn berries, and has proven to be a
highly useful color when judiciously mixed with other colors, producing
warm fleshy tints which cannot be made without it.
_Copper_ is the base of most blues, though some are formed from iron and
cobalt.
REDS. Carmine is a fine bright crimson, inclining to scarlet, and rather
an opaque color. From it a variety of fine tints may be made, but it
being a very high red, renders it unfit for delicate subjects; in this
case use rose madder. There are various kinds of it prepared of other
reds, but the deep kind is the best, the lighter being made so by
adulteration, commonly made of alum and cream tartar, colored with
cochineal, but it fades rapidly by out door exposure. The genuine is
made from kaolin, or China clay, colored with cochineal, prepared with
much difficulty, which makes it expensive.
_Crimson Lake_ is a beautiful crimson color, inclining toward the
purple, making it useful for the carnation tints in painting delicate
subjects.
_Chinese Vermilion_ is a bright red, and useful in miniature pictures,
though too freely used, its opacity renders it dangerous to mix much
with other colors, but by itself, in touching the lips and other parts
that require extreme brightness, it is of good service. It comes from
China in small parcels, fourteen ounces each.
The native, or _Mineral Cinnabar_, or vermilion, is very fine in Spain;
the French have mines of it in Normandy.
_Light Red._ Useful in almost all flesh colors, and the ground upon
which all the finer tints are made.
_Venetian Red._ Nearly the same as light red, and used almost for the
same purpose. It is an earth, found in many parts of the world.
_Rose Madder_, indispensable for carnation lips. This, with cobalt, and
almost any transparent yellow, forms all sorts of pearly and grey tints.
_Indian Red_ is of a deep purple cast, and a most excellent color for
touching the deep red parts, and the fleshy tints. Also useful in bright
backgrounds and draperies.
BROWNS. Umber is a yellowish brown, and mixes well with water colors.
Useful in backgrounds. When properly burnt it is a charming reddish
brown, very useful in hair. Works extremely well.
_Terra de Cassel_, or Vandyke brown, so called from the very great
estimation the inimitable painter of that name held it in, is the finest
rich brown in the world, in itself producing a more beautiful color than
can be formed by the junction of any colors whatever. It is in general
use, and is, in its natural state, rather coarse and sandy, but when
prepared, it amply repays the artist for his labor; good glazing color
for hair shadows.
_Lampblack_ is the smoke of burning resin, and is useful for marking the
pupil of the eye, and in painting draperies. It is a good color when
burnt, stands and works remarkably well. The smoke of a candle, received
on a plate, is found the best, being blacker than the common lampblack.
Ivory black is preferred by some.
_King’s Yellow_ is a fine bright opaque color, and is admirably
calculated for painting lace, gilt buttons, etc., but should be
cautiously used, as it is a rank poison.
_Chinese White_ is permanent, and works remarkably well; it is freely
used on every part of a picture in water colors.
_Flake White._ This is the only white adapted for oil colors. Chinese
white is never used.
MIXING COMPOUND TINTS FOR THE FACE. Purple is formed of either
ultra-marine, Prussian blue, smalt or indigo, mixed with either carmine
or lake. Ultra-marine, although the most beautiful and brilliant of
colors by itself, loses that perfection in any mixture, but it still
retains a sufficient share of brightness to render it a desirable tint
in the purplish-grey tints of the face. Prussian blue, mixed as before
mentioned, makes a bright or dark purple, according to the quantity of
either color. Indigo makes a still darker purple, owing to its great
natural depth of color. French ultra and carmine, or lake, forms nearly
the same tint as ultra-marine, and may be used nearly for the same
purpose.
_Olive Tints._ A very fine olive tint is formed of gall-stone,
Nottingham ochre and carmine, or lake; and another of sap green and lake
only.