The amateur artist; or, Oil and water color painting without the aid of a teacher; a complete self educational treatise, giving thorough instructions in nine branches of decorative art ... etc., etc

Front matter

F. DELAMO'

OIL AND WATER COLOR PAINTING WITHOUT THE AID OF ATEACHER

A SELF-TEACHING MANUAL

Preface

The aim of this book is to instruct the student in the fundamental principles underlying those branches of art of which it treats and to teach the application of those principles in a clear and concise manner. The knowledge it contains is available, alike to the amateur whose only desire it is to beautify the home and to pass pleasant hours at agreeable work and also to those talented ones who lack the opportunities afforded by art schools and teachers who are out of reach. To the latter, this work contains elements that will quicken the germ of talent or genius into life and send it well on its road to success.

This very late and most complete work on amateur art gives thorough instructions in nine branches of decorative art. Each part is the product of the pen of a famous teacher and lecturer who has made that branch his especial life study.

Unlike other works on the market, it is brought up to date — no obsolete branches being dragged in, to fill out space.

Each chapter contains a complete list of materials and equipment, and instruction enough to develop natural ability to a point where the student may continue, independent of further aid, and trusting to his own individuality of style.

Flower and landscape paintings in water-colors and oils are treated most comprehensively and entertainingly by masters of the art.

That portion devoted to the art of pastels on paper and on hide is from an eminent English authority.

Material is found in the pen and ink section to equip a Gibson or a McCutcheon. And no branch of art pays so well to-day as that of the illustrator and the caricaturist.

The latest ideas of the best American teachers of China decorating are embodied in the chapter on this subject. And there is more instruction in it than one can receive in several lessons under our great “ ten-dollar-an-hour ” teacher.

That charming branch of home decoration known as pyrography or burnt-wood etching is fully dwelt upon.

And the latest designs and methods in repousse and cut out brass work lead the pupil into the field of the most fascinating of the popular crafts of the day.

Chapter I. The Art Of Landscape Painting In Oils

The following pages treat of one branch of the Art of Oil Painting — that of imitating upon canvas, with fidelity and truth the varied aspects of Nature, as they present themselves to the eye in Landscape. It is taken for granted that the pupil is so far acquainted with the general principles of Drawing and Perspective, as to be able to apply them with facility and certainty, to the representation, in outline, of a given view or subject.

IMPLEMENTS AND MATERIALS.

The Implements and Materials absolutely necessary for Oil Painting are neither numerous nor expensive.

Oil and varnish, a few colors and brushes, a palette, a palette-knife, an easel, a rest-stick, canvas, and a little chalk, will suffice to enable the beginner to make his essay.

It is best for him to buy one of the usual tin oil-painting boxes, fitted completely with the necessary articles. It will contain, besides colors, a set of brushes — comprising hog-hair, sable, and badger brushes; a palette, a knife, porte-crayon, chalk, oil, and varnish. Besides these, there must be an easel, a mahl-stick, a glass slab and muller, and canvas.

Palettes. — Palettes are made of mahogany, and of satin and other light-colored woods; they are also made of papier mache, prepared with white enamel surface — very useful when pale and delicate tints have to be mixed. Palettes should be light in weight, and thin, and so perforated for the thumb as to rest well-balanced on the hand.

Wooden palettes should be prepared for use by rubbing into them as much raw linseed oil as they can be made to imbibe. If this dress-

I ing with oil be thoroughly effected, and the palette then be suffered to dry till it becomes hard, the wood will subsequently not be stained by the absorption of color. A palette thus prepared is easily cleaned, and presents a hard and polished surface, exceedingly agreeable for the preparation of tints.

The Dipper is a small tin cup, made to contain oil, varnish, or other vehicle used.

The Palette-knife. — The palette-knife is the implement with which the colors are manipulated on the palette. It is used to mix tints and arrange them. It should be thin and flexible, tapering towards the end.

Two or three flat China tiles, about eight or ten inches square, will be found extremely serviceable for the purpose of keeping the tints clean and apart from each other (the series, for instance, of cold tints from the warm ones). They are also useful to preserve such tints as may be mixed, but not used in the day’s work; for the tiles can be immersed, with the colors on them, in dishes of water, and so reserved for the next painting.

The Easel. — The easel is a frame which supports the painting during its progress. The most convenient is the rack easel, which allows the painter to raise or lower his work with speed and convenience, as occasion may require. The commoner and cheaper kind is supplied with pegs for this adjustment of the height of the work. It is desirable that the easel should stand firmly.

The Rest, or Mahl-Stick. — This is used to rest or guide the right hand or arm when particular steadiness is required, as is the case in the painting of small objects and minute details. It should be light, yet Arm. The lower end of the stick is held in the left hand, while the upper extremity, which is covered with a soft round ball or pad of leather, to prevent injury, rests on the canvas or some other convenient support.

Brushes. — To paint with effect, it is of the first consequence to have the brushes well selected, and of the best quality that can be procured. The most useful are the hog-hair, sable, and badger brushes.

Hog-hair Tools. — These brushes are made both round and flat. Flat hog-hair are generally more useful than round ones ; they are preferred, as assisting in giving a squareness and crispness of touch.

In selecting them be sure that the hair has not been cut at the points, for this is sometimes done with inferior brushes; but such brushes have an unpleasant and coarse touch, laying on the color in a scratchy manner. It will be found to be a good test if they are made of very fine silky-looking hair, and very soft to the touch.

They should, however, be firm, yet elastic, springing back to their form after being pressed laterally upon the hand. '

Lastly, their shape should be flat and wedge-like, without straggling or diverging hairs.

It may here be remarked as an important principle, that it is of the greatest use to a beginner to paint with as large brushes as his subject will admit of ; for whoever begins with large brushes cannot easily fall into an insignificant petty style.

Sable Brushes . — The observations regarding hog-hair tools will apply to the sable tools; but these latter should have the additional property of coming to a fine yet firm point.

Be careful in choosing those sable brushes, the hair of which is of a pale yellowish cast ; and especially see that it is firm, and that it springs well to its point.

The round sable tool is as serviceable as the flat one, and is used in working the finishing parts of a painting. Round brushes in quills, known by the name of sable pencils, are also applicable to the same purpose. Pencils that bag or swell where the hair is inserted in the quill, or the hairs of which diverge and form several points, are worthless.

Badger Tools. — These are known by the significant names of “ softeners ” and “ sweeteners.” They are of various sizes ; and the hair, instead of coming to a close end or point as in other brushes, diverges or spreads out, after the manner of a dusting brush. When good, their hair is long, light, and pliant, of a reddish brown, or black, with clean white ends.

The chief use of the badger tool is to “ soften ” or “ sweeten ” (as it is termed) broad tints such as skies, water, distances, and the like.

If the badger tool be much employed on a large surface of color (as skies), the points of the hair frequently become so loaded with color, that it is necessary to clean it often as you proceed. This is best done by pinching up the brush rather tightly at the ends, and wiping it on a clean rag. The brush is thus kept free from color during the progress of your work, which might otherwise be sullied and deteriorated in the purity of its tones.

Cleaning Brashes .— All brushes, after being used, should be carefully cleaned. This is best effected by immersing the hair of the brushes in a little raw linseed oil ; the oil should afterwards be washed out with soap and warm water, till the froth, which is made by rubbing the brushes on the palm of the hand, is perfectly colorless. The brushes should next be rinsed in clean water, and the water pressed out by the application of a clean towel. The hair should then be laid straight and smooth, and each brush restored to its proper shape, by passing it between the finger and thumb. Care should be taken not to break the hair by too violent rubbing.

Canvas. — This is the general material used for painting. It is kept prepared in rolls of various widths, and is sold also strained on frames of any required size. The ground or preparation of the canvas should be thin, yet completely covering the threads of the fabric; and it should be free from projecting lines and knots.

Academy Boards. — These are thin millboards. It is the material on which most of the studies made at the school are painted.

They are much used in sketching in oil colors from Nature, to which purpose they are particularly adapted, and are cheaper than canvases.

Grounds. — Much diversity of opinion has existed respecting the color of the surface of the prepared canvas.

The white, or pale cream-colored, and pale, warm, drab-colored grounds, seem to surpass all others. The reason is obvious; they throw a light, and consequently a transparency, through the work.

Upon the whole, a white ground is to be preferred, as soon as the learner has acquired some knowledge of the subsequent effect of his colors ; but it will be advisable for the beginner to take the usual light stone drab that is generally given to canvas ; for it furnishes him with a middle tint or tone to start from.

COLORS.

Flake White. — Flake White is a preparation of white lead. The best kind possesses great body and permanency, and is of a dazzling whiteness. That called Cremnitz White is sufficient for every purpose.

Aureolin. — This superb yellow possesses a rare combination of invaluable qualities — purity, brilliancy, transparency, and permanence : it ranks in importance with Genuine Ultramarine.

It mixes well with all other colors, forming, with blues, an extensive range of greens of unrivalled brilliancy. Delicately pure and clear aerial greys, suitable for atmosphere, are produced from a combination of Aureolin with Cobalt, Rose Madder, and White, and also from Aureolin, Cobalt, Brown Madder, and White. By substituting Genuine Ultramarine for Cobalt, the tints are still clearer and more delicate.

Reds and Browns, with Aureolin, yield a most exquisite range of tones.

It is of importance to note that, by the side of Genuine Ultramarine and Madder Red, Aureolin completes a triad of brilliant, transparent, and permanent primitive colors.

Naples Yellow. — French Naples Yellow is of an orange-yellow hue, affording light, clear, sunny tints, when combined with white.

Yellow Ochre. — This is a yellow earth of very extensive use. It affords, when combined with Antwerp Blue or Indigo, a fine range of quiet greens.

Transparent Gold Ochre. — The ochre known by this name is a variety of the above, but brighter. It serves for strong vivid semi-transparent greens, and affords bright sunny tints and pure clear greens.

Roman Ochre. — This resembles the last, but it is more opaque.

Raw Sienna. — This is of great service in landscape. It is of a rather impure yellow.

Brown Ochre. — It is a dark brownish yellow, affording, when unmixed, a rich mellow tint, and, when mixed with other colors, a series of rich yet sober tones of extensive use. It is of great service in sandy foregrounds.

Cadmium Yellow. — It is a splendid glowing yellow, invaluable for such subjects as gorgeous sunsets.

It works and dries well, and passes readily into agreeable tints, when combined with white lead.

Pale Cadmium. — Varies from a straw color to a lemon or primrose hue. The very pale varieties are not permanent, but furnish light warm tints of great clearness and beauty.

Chrome Yellow. — There are several varieties of this pigment — pale, deep, and orange.

Lemon Yellow. — This is a beautiful light vivid yellow, chiefly adapted for points of high light.

Indian Yellow. — A rich pure yellow, forming full rich greens.

Yellow Lake. — A bright, transparent, vegetable yellow; a difficult drier, and liable to be destroyed by light. It affords beautiful foliage tints.

Italian Pink. — A stronger and richer kind of Yellow Lake, possessing similar properties.

Vermilion. — A durable pigment.

There are several varieties of it manufactured, ranging from a crimson hue, through scarlet to orange. The scarlet hue is most useful for landscape painting. Very tender aerial greys are formed by adding a minute portion of Vermilion to a mixture of Cobalt, or French Ultramarine and White. It is a slow drier.

Indian Red. — This is permanent and a good drier. It ought to be of a purple-lake tone.

Light Red. — It possesses a somewhat orange hue, and is an excellent drier.

Venetian Red. — This has a more scarlet hue than the Light Red.

Cadmium Red. — Is a powerful orange red, of a rich mellow and agreeable quality of tone, most serviceable where rich and clear warm tints are required.

Madder Lake. — Ranges from pink to the deepest rose color, under the names of — Pink Madder, Rose Madder, Madder Lake and Madder Carmine. They are the only permanent transparent reds known. Rose Madder is chiefly used ; it possesses great richness and transparency.

Cappah Brown and Burnt Umber sadden Madder Lakes to the rich tones adapted for general use in shadows.

Crimson Lake. — Occasionally used in mixing tints to impart richness ; but it has no durability, and is a bad drier ; hence to be avoided as much as possible.

Scarlet Lake. — This is never required by the landscape painter. Madder Lake and Vermilion make all the necessary colors of this class.

Purple Lake. — Is used to enrich shadow tints.

Lac Lake , or Indian Lake. — Being rich, transparent and deep, it is of great power.

Ultramarine (Lapis Lazuli). — This exquisitely beautiful blue is transparent in all its shades, and pure in its tints, drying and working well, and carrying light and air into all colors. It has depth also, and remains pure when mixed with white.

Ultramarine Ashes. — They vary in color from dull grey to blue, affording greys much purer and more tender than such as are composed of black and white, or of other blues ; they are suited to the pearly tints of foliage, the grey of skies and the shadows of landscapes and buildings.

French Ultramarine (French Blue). — Extremely powerful in tone, and nearly transparent. It is a good substitute for the more expensive Genuine Ultramarine.

Cobalt Blue. — This is a pure light azure, affording clear bright tints in skies and distances. With Light Red it gives beautiful cloud tints, with Madder Brown a range of fine pearly neutrals. It dries well and is nearly transparent.

Prussian Blue. — A deep and powerful transparent blue, drying and glazing well. It borders slightly on green. Its chief use is in mixed tints, of greens, purples, and other such colors.

Antwerp Blue. — A lighter-colored and brighter Prussian Blue.

Indigo. — Not so bright as Prussian Blue. It dries well, and works and glazes satisfactorily.

Ivory Black ( Calcined Ivory). — Is the richest and most transparent of the blacks.

Blue Black (Vegetable Charcoal ). — Of weaker body than Ivory Black, and better suited for the greys and general mixed tints of landscape painting.

Lamp Black. — Is occasionally used in mixed greys.

Burnt Sienna. — A rich transparent brown orange, affording a range of valuable landscape tints of rich greens, in combination with blues, and of sunny tones when used with white. Permanent and dries well.

Mars Orange. — An artificial iron ochre, of a clearer tone than Burnt Sienna, but not so transparent. It affords bright warm tones with white, but does not answer for greens.

Orange Chrome. — This is the most durable of the chromates of lead.

Field's Orange Vermilion. — It is of glowing warmth, and yields with white, pure and delicate carnation tints that are generally serviceable, and especially in delicate sky tints.

Vandyke Brown (Bituminous Earth). — This is a rich transparent pigment of great durability, but a bad drier.

Cologne Earth. — Resembles Vandyke Brown, except that, in combination with white, it furnishes a range of cooler brown tints.

Cappah Brown. — Is transparent, rich, and deep in color ; dries rapidly.

Bone Brown (Ivory Dust roasted). — This is a bad drier, and is not greatly used, but may be applied in forming clear, silvery warm greys in combination with white.

Asphaltum (A solution of Asphaltum in Turpentine) . — Its fine brown color and perfect transparency are lures to its free use. It dries rapidly, and when used in excess is liable to crack. Its great transparency causes it to be much used for shadows and for glazing.

Bitumen. — This is Asphaltum ground in strong drying oil, by which treatment it is more eligible for the painter’s use.

Madder Brozvn. — This affords the richest description of shadows, and the most delicate pale tints. With French Blue, or with Cobalt and White, a set of fine warm or cold greys may be obtained. With blues and bright yellows, it gives fine autumnal russet greens.

Raw Umber. — A yellowish brown, of great service in light shadow tones and delicate greys.

Burnt Umber. — A quiet brown, affording clear warm shadow tints. It may be occasionally substituted for Vandyke Brown. It is a quick drier.

Terre Verte. — A sober-toned green earth. Its combinations with Indian Red and Naples Yellow form a series of mild russet greens of much use in middle distance.

Green Oxide of Chromium. — This is a deep-toned green. It is occasionally employed with great effect by admixture with yellows and white. Being very dense it must be used with great care, to avoid heaviness.

When used with a large quantity of white, these cold greens possess a silvery luminous quality, and impart the effect of atmosphere.

Emerald Green. — A brilliant green. Occasionally of value, if discreetly used, in the drapery of a foreground figure ; or in a touch on a gaily painted boat or barge.

Brown Pink. — A rich transparent olive, inclining sometimes to green, and sometimes towards the warmth of orange. It is of great depth, and works well, but is a bad drier.

Verona Brown. — An olive brown of great service in tender drab greens, and in combination with Terre Verte and Lakes ; forming, with the latter, rich, autumnal tints of great beauty.

OILS AND VARNISHES.

Vehicle. — The fluid used to temper and thin the colors for the purpose of bringing them to a proper working state.

Vehicles are hardly of less importance than the colors themselves. They are extremely diversified, to suit the various purposes and fancies of the artist; we, however, need treat of those only which are fittest to be employed.

Oils. — The linseed and poppy oils are the fixed oils, used as vehicles ; turpentine, and occasionally spike-lavender.

Linseed is in most common use. It should be of a pale amber color, transparent, and limpid ; and, when used in moderately warm weather, it should dry in a day. The most valuable qualities of linseed oil as a vehicle, consist in its great strength and flexibility. It is by far the strongest oil, and the one which dries best and firmest under proper management.

Poppy Oil is inferior in strength, tenacity, and drying, to linseed oil ; but it has the reputation of keeping its color better ; and it is on this account generally employed in grinding white, and most of the light pigments.

Oils are all more or less influenced, in their drying, by the colors with which they are combined ; some of which greatly accelerate, while others retard it. With certain colors some oils will scarcely dry at all, unless means are employed to cause them to do so.

Drying Oil is employed with those colors which do not drv well without being forced.

Two kinds are prepared — a dark or strong drying oil, and a paler and less powerful kind.

Japanners ’ Gold Size is sometimes employed as a powerful means of drying dark and transparent colors, which are in general comparatively bad driers.

The Volatile Oils are destitute of the strength of the fixed oils, having scarcely more cementing power in painting than water alone. Turpentine is a very useful addition to linseed oil, for preserving the purity of light and bright pigments from the change of color to which this oil is subject. Owing to their extreme fluidness, the volatile oils are generally useful diluents of the thicker oils, varnishes and vehicles ; but the thin essential oils thus introduced often weaken the body of the vehicle, and occasion it to flow so much, that the colors used therewith will not keep their place, rendering the touch of the pencil spiritless and uncertain. These properties give occasion for the introduction of resin and varnish, which communicate a body to oils. These vehicles have been compounded under the name of “ Megilps.”

Megilps. — Possess a gelatinous texture, which enables them, while flowing freely from the pencil, yet to keep their place in painting and glazings.

Megilp may be purchased ready prepared.

A compound used occasionally in combination with megilp, and consisting of one part of copal varnish, one part of linseed or poppy oil, and one part of turpentine, will furnish one with a pleasant and serviceable vehicle for general use. Let him take care, however, to force its drying by the addition of ground sugar of lead, when employed with slowly-drying pigments. In painting skies and other very lighttoned masses, drying oil and megilp must be carefully avoided.

Mastic Varnish. — An indispensable requisite in the modern practice of oil painting, in which it is employed not only as a varnish, but as a component part of many of the vehicles in common use.

Copal Varnish. — This greatly assists the drying of colors ground in oil. Employed as a vehicle, when diluted with turpentine. It has the defect of cracking, when used without sufficient drying or other oil to temper it.

THE ART OF LANDSCAPE PAINTING IN OILS n

PROCESSES AND MANIPULATIONS.

In the production of a painting in Oil Colors, there are certain modes of operation, an explanation of which is necessary. These operations are distinguished by the technical names of —

Glazing.

Impasting.

Scumbling.

Handling.

GLAZING.

A glaze is a thin transparent film of color, laid upon another color to modify the tone, or to aid the effect of the latter.

This process of glazing is effected by diluting proper transparent colors with megilp or other suitable vehicle. Thus diluted, these colors are laid upon portions of the work, either in broad flat tints or in touches partially and judiciously distributed.

The object of this process is to strengthen shadows, and to give warmth or coldness to their hue ; to subdue lights that are unduly obtrusive, or to give additional color and tone to those that are deficient in force and richness, or to produce particular effects, such as representations of smoke, dust, mists, and the like. It must, however, be carefully observed, that extreme caution is necessary in glazing with opaque colors. The student is earnestly recommended to great caution in his first essays in glazing. In no case must glazing be attempted before the colors over which it is laid have become perfectly dry and firm.

IMPASTING.

In oil painting, the shadows or dark portions of the picture are painted thinly, while the lights are laid on or “impasted” with a full pencil and a stiff color.

None, however, but the most experienced hands should attempt this most difficult and dangerous process.

SCUMBLING.

Scumbling, the opposite process to that of glazing, is done by going lightly over the work with an opaque tint, generally produced by an admixture of white. For this purpose a hog-hair brush is usually employed, charged with color but sparingly; and with it the tints are drawn very thinly, and somewhat loosely, over the previous painting, which, be it observed, should, as in the case of glazing, be dry and firm. Scumbling is used to modify certain effects, by rendering the portion to which it is applied cooler, greyer, and less defined than it was before, and to give air and distance to objects that seemed too near.

HANDLING.

By “ Handling ” is meant the mechanical use of the pencil, or brush ; exhibiting the artist’s power of adapting certain modes and processes in the expression and representation of the different textures of objects, such as foliage, wood, water, and so on.

Every painter falls into a manner or style of painting, as peculiar to himself as is his handwriting.

The young artist should not, however, be led away by his desire to display spirit, so as to leave the marks of his pencil everywhere visible. Distant objects, by too much pencilling, and to accurate drawing, lose the effect of distance.

BREADTH.

As breadth is one of the great principles of art, and without it no picture can be agreeable to the eye, it is necessary that this quality be secured. By breadth is meant a treatment that suppresses or generalizes unimportant details, which, if made too conspicuous, would enfeeble the proposed effect of the work. Thus it is not the omission of detail that in anywise promotes breadth, but the proper method of dealing with minute material. A picture painted with truth and freedom does not importune the eye with its detail, but it presents an effective and well-harmonised whole, unbroken by the crude spottiness of detail to which too much importance may be given ; yet there may appear in it the rust on the head of a nail, or the most minute characteristic of any small object, without disturbing the breadth of the work.

The finish of a picture means a treatment which gives proper attention to all the details of the composition, whether in light or shade. But it is positively essential that this finish should not disturb the breadth. Every object must keep its place, but pre-eminence must be allowed to the principal features of the picture.

LIGHTS AND DARKS, GRADATIONS AND FOCUS.

The principal light in the picture, whether bright or subdued, should always maintain its precedence in tone and size — so necessarily all other lights are subordinated. The shape and size of principal lights may be varied, but the inferior gradations must never be allowed to interfere with the principal. Those pictures in which the dominant form is light are more grateful to the sense than those in which the principal form is dark. As the dispositions of the lights and darks in a picture constitute so much of its value, too much attention cannot be given to this part of the study. It is from the shade that the lights acquire their brilliancy. The light passages are those in which the full force of color prevails ; whereas the best characteristic of shade is repose, which must not be disturbed by violent contrasts.

TO PAINT LIGHT.

Sunlight must be painted by tints slightly prismatic, composed of red, yellow, and blue, that obviate coldness and realize aeriel effects. A judicious use of the three primary colors will always produce harmony, whatever be the subjects to be treated ; thus from the following tints may be produced the brightest sunlight with gradations to the lowest compounds in the scale.

1. Naples yellow or cadmium, vermilion and cobalt, for the higher lights.

2. Raw sienna or brown ochre; vermilion, madder lake, and French blue or ultramarine.

3. Light red or Indian red, brown ochre, and indigo with ultramarine.

4. Raw umber, madder brown, and indigo with a little burnt sienna.

5. Burnt sienna, madder brown, and lamp-black.

6. Burnt umber, madder purple or burnt lake, and black.

PRINCIPLES AND RULES FOR LANDSCAPE PAINTING.

ON THE MODE OF COMMENCING AND CONDUCTING A PICTURE.

There is no exact system upon which a landscape should be painted, for results equally good arise from various modes of proceeding.

H

There are, however, certain rules which must, in a greater or less degree, be observed; and in detailing these rules a mode of proceeding is selected, which is not only easiest to the beginner, but practised by some of the best landscape painters of the present day.