_How to retouch or paint over any part after the colours are fixed._
Put upon your pallette such of your tints as will be fit for the place or
parts you want to alter or paint over, temper and employ them with a
little spirit of wine;[10] repaint, and bring the picture to the fire
as often as required, and those retouched parts will become fixed like
any other part of the picture.
_Observations on article the first._
As linen cloth is the material most commonly and preferably used, as
the fittest and most convenient to paint upon, I chose to give under
Article the first, directions for that purpose only; for though the
wax and colours may be applied to cloth and other materials in several
different manners, I, not to bewilder the beginners in multiplicities
on a first setting out, gave and recommend that, which besides its
being the likeliest to be most practised, is the best for solidity,
and will prove to every practitioner the easiest, most agreeable,
expeditious and convenient for execution.
But not to deprive the artists and curious of the several means and
methods that may be practised for and towards the same end, I shall
here give some of the principal ones, as well for painting upon canvas
as upon wood, plaister, &c. but first of all I shall consider and treat
Count CAYLUS’S system a little more at large, and shew why I have
deviated from it in this particular, and leave the artist at liberty
to adopt and practise which suits him best.
The Count’s method for preparing the cloth consists, in stretching it
upon a frame, and holding it horizontally over, or perpendicularly
before a fire (at a distance convenient and proportionable to the
degree of heat it casts) and rubbing it with a piece of wax; which,
melting gradually as it is rubbed on, diffuses itself, penetrates
the body, and fills the interstices of the texture of the cloth,
which when cool, is fit to paint upon; but, as water colours will not
adhere regularly flowing and connectedly to the wax, He, to remedy
this inconveniency, makes use of an intermediate body, viz. chalk or
whitening, with which he rubs over that surface of the waxed canvas he
intends to paint upon, and then the colours will easily flow over and
adhere to it.
Now, though this way of proceeding is very simple and successfully
practicable for small subjects;--for instance,--such as the head
of Diana, mentioned in the Abbé’s letter, or any other that may be
finished in a couple of hours, and while the colours upon the canvas
retain moisture; yet, to execute pictures of a larger size and
composition, which will require many a day’s labour and application,
and whereof no part can be finished positively at the first onset, this
manner of managing it will not answer so well, as that given under Art.
the first, for the following reasons.
_First._ In painting upon the wax by virtue of the whitening, you
will not have that conveniency of retouching or altering of any part,
and before the colours are fixed, so well, as painting upon the raw
and bare canvas will afford you; because the texture and fibres of
the cloth being thoroughly invaded by the wax, there remains nothing
for water colours to fix or adhere to, capable to retain them; those
colours once dry, the slightest touch of a moist pencil will, as it
were, attract them, and frequently make and leave a bare spot; so
that in attempting to retouch, instead of adding fresh colours, you
will fetch off the old ones: for though the rough edged particles of
the chalk facilitate to the first colours an adhesion upon the smooth
body wax yet, water the vehicle of the colours, being the menstruum of
chalk, by discomposing it destroys part of its power and virtue, and
renders it incapable to perform the first service a second time.
_Secondly._ Upon canvas fully imbibed with wax, you can neither use so
great a body of colours, nor employ them with such freedom, boldness,
or delicacy as you may upon cloth, whose texture is not pre-occupied
with wax--the reason is obvious--the one has its pores and interstices
filled up with wax; the other’s you must fill up with colours. Cloth,
a firm spungy body or substance, in sucking in the water attracts the
colours along with it into its pores, and thereby facilitates the
firm and delicate strokes; and the colours mixing and adhering to its
numberless fibres, will not come off on retouching, before the picture
is fixed; you may cherish or leave your work at pleasure without
detriment or inconveniency arising from that. Advantages that cloth
pre-occupied with wax is incapable of.
_Thirdly and lastly._ By painting on canvas prepared according to
the directions of Art. the first, your works will be more solid and
lasting, because the colours will not simply lay upon the surface of
the wax, but cloth, wax and colours will make but one individual
body.--Thus much on my deviation from Count CAYLUS’S system, in regard
to the preparation of the cloth.
For painting upon walls or plaister where the wax cannot be applied on
the back, the Count’s system must be practised; it will succeed well;
the rough and gritty grain of the plaister will take and retain a
sufficient quantity of colours to insure solidity; the only difference
between painting upon cloth and plaister consists in this; painting
upon canvas you can finish your picture entirely before you fix it;
in painting upon plaister, you must proceed as you do in painting with
oil-colours, viz. first, dead colour your subject and fix it, and then
paint it over again and finish it, either by virtue of the chalk, or
by tempering and employing the colours with some spirit, or oil of
turpentine. You may too paint and retouch with crayons.
Upon wood, stone, and metals,--you must proceed as you do upon
plaister; but as there is no grain you must procure an artificial one,
after your board is waxed, by laying on a ground of any colour mixed
with half chalk and fix it[11]; upon this you may paint with water
colours or crayons, as sweetly as upon canvas.
To paint upon paper;--you must have a smooth board, or copper-plate of
a convenient size, and well waxed; upon this you fasten your paper by
the corners and paint upon; the colours dry, present it to the fire,
and the wax underneath the paper melting, will soak and penetrate
through and fix the colours; this method may be successfully practised
with cloth.
There are two more methods remaining to be practised on cloth and
paper; but as they make part of the system for painting with crayons,
and will be described under that head, I omit to mention them here.
_Observations on Article the second._
In grinding the colours upon the stone, and managing them upon the
pallette, care should be taken not to use an iron knife, the steel
or iron that grinds off, in mixing with the colours spoils their
brightness and vivacity; flake-white and white-lead, yellow-oker,
lacque and light-red, suffer greatly by it, it gives them a dull and
dirty cast; Naples-yellow suffers most of all from it; its vivacity
is entirely destroyed by the iron’s touching it. Horn, ivory, or
tortoise shell knives, or wooden spatulas are fitter for all manner of
painting; they will affect no colours; iron knives have destroyed many
a tender complexion in oil-colours; for, the oil once dry, the iron
ground off from the knife and mixed in the colours will be converted
into rust by the moisture of the air.--Tho’ this little hint is foreign
to our present subject, it will perhaps not be unacceptable to my
brethren.--It is an essential point in an architect to be acquainted
with the qualities and properties of the materials he builds with, if
his plan and stile, dispositions, proportions, &c. be ever so good,
noble, grand and graceful, yet if his fabric falls down as soon as
built, we are but little beholden to his skill.--Vandyke, I believe,
never used an iron knife, if he had he would not have painted a spatula
of horn in one of his pictures, wherein all the utensils of a painter
accompany his own figure.--
* * * * *
The expedient recommended under Art. the second, for establishing a
standard for all the differing principal tints that may be required for
any subject, will be of use to them who are not much acquainted with
painting in water colours; and to ladies and gentlemen, who painting
only now and then for their amusement, cannot have so thorough a
knowledge of the value of each colour, and might therefore be at a loss
how to retouch, after the colours are fixed.
To make the directions given for that purpose more intelligible, and
to point out the use of such a standard--let us suppose--the annexed
copper plate figure A. B. C. D. to be a piece of cloth, about a foot
long and three or four inches wide, waxed on the back, as directed
under Art. the first, and the divisions a. b. c. d. e. f. g. h. &c. be
the tints painted, according to their order and degradation, across
the whole width of the cloth A. B. these tints dry, cut the piece of
cloth across all the tints from top E. to bottom F. in two equal parts,
bring the one half A C near the fire, and by melting the wax fix it,
the other half B D you keep as it is unfixed.
Now, the half A C being fixed, will shew you at one glance what
strength every tint will acquire; and if you moisten again the other
half B D, or paint the same tints upon a fresh piece of cloth, you will
see which are the colours that grow deeper still, fixed with wax than
they appear when only moistened with water, and the references 1 2 3 4
5 &c. telling you what each tint is composed of, you will be enabled to
amend any one that might be amiss. Farther, when your picture will be
fixed and it should want retouching, and you should be at a loss for
hitting of the tint or hue required for that purpose,--bring only the
fixed half A C upon the picture and compare them, and you will easily
find what you want; again, if you want to renew any tint that is spent,
find that tint upon the picture, with the fixed half A C, when found
compare it to, and moisten its fellow upon the unfixed half B D, and
that will give you again the original hue, and the references 1 2 3 4
&c. will tell you what that tint is principally composed of.
[Illustration]
Tho’ professed artists (whose long experience enables them to judge
of the value of each colour) will not have absolute occasion for the
comparative use of such a standard, yet they will not do amiss to make
an essay of their tints before they employ them.
_Observations on Article the third._
The being able to work and retouch at pleasure, and at any time,
without fatiguing the colours, or any other detriment arising from it,
is an advantage peculiar to encaustic only; for, the new colours will
unite with the old ones without making spots, as is the case in common
size-painting; nor will there be that inconveniency of rubbing the
places to be retouched over with oil, as is the case with oil pictures;
the only seeming difficulty to a beginner, will consist in the colours
growing paler and weaker in drying, but as a picture is easily kept
wet, by moistening it now and then as above directed, the difficulty
vanishes. Pictures of any size may easily be kept wet for several days,
by applying a double wet cloth on the back; but a little practice will
render that precaution unnecessary.
Every body in the least acquainted with colours, knows that water
colours, tempered or employed either with gum or size, grow paler and
lighter in drying, and that they acquire their true tone only when
dry;--in encaustic they grow paler and lighter too in drying, but
they recede from and lose their true tone.--Encaustic is the reverse
of size-painting as to effect, while you are at work and the colours
wet;--of the latter you cannot judge positively until the colours are
dry; of the former you can only judge while the colours are wet, or
which is the same, when fixed with the wax.
_Observations on Article the fourth._
The most essential point in encaustic--the fixing of the colours--is
the simplest and easiest for paintings of any size, moveable or
immoveable. A surface of forty feet may be fixed as conveniently as
a picture of twelve inches; for if the painting be too large to be
brought near the fire, or immoveable on a wall, bring that agent to the
painting;----a square copper or iron chest, or box, such as commonly
used for warming or airing of beds, with a red hot iron or lighted
charcoal in it, will do the business admirably well, by passing it in
a direction parallel to and before the painted surface, at a distance
proportionable to the degree of heat it casts,--a _brasier ambulant_,
with a cover to prevent the ashes from flying about, with charcoal
well lighted, will answer the end too, by inclining the picture over
it,--an instrument of iron like a baker’s shovel, with a long handle
and made red hot, will perform the same service, if waved in a parallel
direction before the painted surface; and by heating it again, when
grown cool, with such an instrument one may fix paintings of the
largest size; it matters not if the whole be fixed at once, or in parts
at different times.
The directions for rectifying of any defects arising from too small a
quantity of wax, are so clear, simple and sufficient, that they want
but little explanation or addition; only, you may instead of wax simple
use wax dissolved in such a quantity of oil of turpentine, as to make
it when cool, fluent enough to be employed with a brush on the back of
the picture, which, when brought to the fire, the wax will settle with
the colours, and the turpentine will fly off.
My saying under the above article that the sudden action of the fire
might disturb some of the colours, must not be understood in regard
to the wax, but in regard to the nature of the colours, which, if the
picture be brought too near the fire at once, will be scorched before
the wax can melt and penetrate the texture to screen and secure them.
_Observations on Art. the fifth and last._
The facility and conveniency for retouching a picture after the colours
are fixed, without the new colours differing from the hue of the old
ones, is an advantage no other manner of painting is possessed of.
In oil painting you cannot do it so well except you paint over large
parts, because the colours in drying acquire a yellower hue, than they
have while fresh; there will always be a difference between the very
same tints; besides, oil pictures are frequently greasy-like and refuse
the new colours, so that you are obliged to rub those parts with oil,
to make the new colours adhere to and flow over the old ones, which
rubbing with oil very often makes a dull and yellow spot when the
colours are dry; in size-painting it is worse, retouchings there in
general appear hard, and in large masses of a uniform colour,--such
as sky’s--produce spots.----Encaustic is free from all that; you may
glaze with a body of colours as thin and as transparent as you please,
without your colours changing of tone. By retouching with crayons upon
the fixed colours, the sweetest effects may be produced in landscapes
and figures; nay, for retouching only here and there, I should prefer
crayons. For instance--to finish a head,--and give the decisive
strokes about the eye, mouth, hair, and sharp folds of linen, &c. in
landscapes--for the extremities of trees, &c. the smart touch of a
crayon will be preferable to the pencil.
When your picture is entirely finished, and you should want to give
the canvas more solidity, you may paint it over on the back with any
colour or tint, and bring it again and for the last time to the fire,
to fix that colour; if you apprehend there is not wax enough, apply a
little dissolved in spirit of turpentine, as mentioned in the foregoing
observations on Art. iv. this fixed take your picture off from the
frame, and stretch it upon that whereon it is to remain.
Having now done with the process for painting in encaustic with the
pencil, which notwithstanding its simplicity might appear to some
beginners intricate, because I pointed out all the difficulties that
possibly may occur in the execution,--to comfort and encourage those
that might think the task hard, I shall recapitulate, and reduce the
whole within this compass.--_Stretch a piece of cloth upon a frame, rub
the back of that cloth with wax, paint your subject on the other side,
with colours prepared and tempered with water, and when dry bring the
picture near the fire, and by melting the wax fix the colours._
N. B. I might have said much more, and dwelt longer on several
particulars; but as the only aim of this treatise is to communicate the
discovery to artists, and others already acquainted with the management
of colours, and not to form pupils from beginning, I omitted saying any
thing of composing the tints and disposing the colours on the pallette,
&c. Every artist may go on in his accustomed method; the use of all the
colours is in encaustic as in oil, as may be seen by the following list.
The direction for painting with crayons will illustrate some passages
of the foregoing process, and what other advantages encaustic painting
will have over oil and size-painting will be shewn by conclusions drawn
from the experiments.
_The end of the first part._