The teacher of oil painting and tapestry

Chapter I PREFACE

This book is full of useful suggestions, it will save you time it will explain many points that take a long time to learn, but you must work. Practical, steady work, firstly adequate to your primary knowledge, progressing, continu¬ ous. That is your best work. Then comes the book of instructions. Begin and follow up your work step by step. Do not feel overconfident, as it generally ends bad. In speaking of books of instruction, do not forget that you are your own first book, be it in Art, in Sciences, in Music, or any other branch of work. Books show you the way, but you must do the work. Books help you in acquiring knowl¬ edge much as the hammer helps in driving a nail, but you must do the hammering.

If you wish to learn, begin in an easy manner, the same as children begin from the first grade reader, and in this way you will not become discouraged over your unsuccess¬ ful attempts. At first copy a simple object, a tree, a flower, fruit, etc., and do not have the presumption that because your will is strong and you are determined to do things you have the ability to do so. Remember that any sub¬ ject can hardly be too simple or have too little interesting materials, as it constantly happens that there is in every¬ thing enough matter for good compositions. It is better, as we mentioned before, to measure your own ability and start from the bottom, rising gradually to subjects more and more difficult. Do not consider any subject too com¬ mon foh your efforts. All intricacies and perplexity in work are hindrance to progress. Consequently, it is prudent to use the effects which obviate such difficulties. What you see and learn from copying your first easy paintings will be a great help in your future work.

The efficiency of an artist depends largely on his vivid recollections of form and effects gained during his study.

You have been taught in school that the shape of a certain state is square, and that the shape of another state is ob¬ long, etc., and you can now reproduce those shapes from memory and without any effort. The same can be said of the education in art. You will be able to draw those flow¬ ers, fruits, trees with which you are familiar with a com¬ petent knowledge of form, and the more the variety of your studies, the more general will be your ability as an artist. The result will be that the experience gained in your pri¬ mary studies will help you in understanding your present work, and you gradually will arrive at a better knowledge and feeling of art.

If you are a beginner and have no opportunity to fre¬ quent a school or receive good lessons, this little book will give you good directions for preliminary study and you will no doubt derive enough benefit for the few cents spent on the purchase. Consider that a term of lessons at an art school may cost you a good many dollars and the benefit you receive may not be much more than the knowledge you acquire from this book. The general hints, recipes and in¬ formation found here were learned by long experience and study.

Chapter II OIL PAINTINGS

Oil painting differs from water color painting in the fact that while water colors are transparent and stain only, oil colors are opaque or body colors and cover all other colors or designs underneath. In oil painting, you are able to apply a dark color over a light one as well as a light color over a dark one. You can intermix and blend all colors without difficulty and with good success.

If the features in the portrait; you are painting are not correct, the eyes too high for instance, .you can cover up the defect and paint those eyes a trifle lower. If the sky in your landscape is too dark, you may apply a lighter tone oyer the first one, etc. Such changes could not be clone with water colors unless you mixed white with them, and even with white the changes do not produce a good trans¬ parent result.

With oil colors, everything is possible, as their opaque nature will cover all former tints. White is the general color used to lighten tones, though, of course, any light shade can be utilized. If you have, for instance, a blue sky to paint, take a good blue, say, for instance, Cobalt Blue, and add as much White as necessary to attain the shade desired. If you wish to paint a pink rose, take a Carmine or Lake, and add White until you have a good color that is satisfactory for your present purpose. In other words, a dark color mixed with a light one will make a medium shade. The addition of oil or turpentine will not make the color lighter, though it will eventually make the color thinner.

Colors for oil painting are generally bought in collap¬ sible tubes, that is, tubes made of thin lead and well closed. The colors are taken out at the opening by pressing the tube with your fingers, and such tubes must be kept closed so as to preserve the freshness of the color within. If you keep the tube open the color will take on a skin and will partly dry, and clog the opening of the tube.

Oil colors applied over canvas will dry within five to ten days, according to the weather and to the thinness of the coating, and can be, dried in a day or two if a trifle of seccatif- or dryer is mixed with them while you paint. A little turpentine as a thinner will help in drying also, while by using boiled linseed oil as a thinner, the colors will keep open ten days or more.

We mention a thinner, and in order to make the matter more easily understood by students, will add that colors taken direct from the tubes are thick and oftentimes too thick to work well on the canvas. A thin medium is there¬ fore used and kept on the palette in a small receptacle.

While painting, the brush is often moistened in this receptacle and the moisture mixed in with the colors. A good many artists have individual ideas as to the kind of thinning mediums to be used, as, for instance, boiled lin¬ seed oil, poppy oil, or turpentine.

One which gives good satisfaction is even parts of boiled linseed oil and turpentine mixed together. This medium works smoothly and dries in a short time and does not give the picture such a strong gloss as the pure od would give. If a quicker dryer is desired, add a drop or two of a good seccatif or dryer, which you will find men¬ tioned in the chapter on different articles and materials used in oil painting. Having the colors squeezed out in small heaps all around the palette, the yellows with the yellows, the reds with the reds, blues with the blues, all in a row near the edge of the palette, and having your thin¬ ning medium in its receptacle well fastened to the wooden palette, you can now begin to paint.

Chapter III TECHNIC

It is stated by good authority that the old masters of four or five centuries ago were compelled to make their own colors and canvases, as in those days there was not much commerce in such materials and students or apprentices in art received their instructions from their teacher not only in drawing and painting, but also in the making of the necessary articles used for such paintings.

It is also noted that those old masters used only good materials which were the very best, and they allowed the proper time for making of their necessities. Modern manu¬ facturers have adopted new minerals, oil, etc., which are still in the experimental stage, while other dealers use sub¬ stitutes or cheaper grades of material and try in every way to do things in a less expensive way. The better quality of materials used by old masters, where everything was timed, hand-made, and properly manufactured, may account for the everlasting freshness of the old paintings.

Most of the old colors were made from natural earths found in different locations, and also from several vegetable preparations which time could not alter. Modern chemistry has found new methods in things no doubt much cheaper, but nobody dare say as yet that the materials are any im¬ provement on those used by the old artists or even as good.

In looking over old masters, we find, for instance, that the technic of Titian, Rembrandt and Raphael was so par¬ ticularly good as to produce pictures which, though four hundreds years old or more, are still now in a beautiful state of freshness and will be finely preserved for a good many centuries to come. On the other hand, paintings of con¬ temporary masters have cracked and changed to a muddy and dark tone within only twenty-five years from the time of their production. We would mention, for instance, paint¬ ings by Monchasky, by Sargent, by Bouguereau, etc., all strong representative artists of the present time, of whom the writer has seen paintings already badly altered and cracked. The ability to paint works that will be always fresh, always alike and perfect is called good technic. The word technic in art also includes the way of applying the colors, a way that may be free from mechanical appearance that may show control of color and brush without tinkering or uncertainty.

Many artists’ method of producing valuable work is by working with an abundance of color in the brush and apply¬ ing such color freely, while other artists proceed with well diluted and thin colors.

These different methods and the material used for the paintings all are included in the general meaning of the word technic. A good many artists consider the canvases sold by manufacturers to be the cause of the cracking and altering of the colors. They say that the material used to make those canvases is of a cheap quality, and therefore prepare thir own canvas.

There are also artists that prepare a few of their prin¬ cipal colors, their own oils and varnishes. They do their utmost to have their materials perfect so as to obtain dura¬ bility, freshness unaltered—in short, perfect technic.

All of these topics should be of particular interest to students in oil painting. They are useful to them in their own work and may help them also in the judging of paint¬ ings in general.

In going through an art gallery of paintings it will not be unusual to hear connoisseurs say: “This artist has a wonderful technic/’ as, for instance, was the case in Boeklin’s paintings. This aritst was very poor and was com¬ pelled to prepare most of the materials for his paintings. No doubt his knowledge in this direction helped him to produce such beautiful color effects. You may also hear of another artist having a poor technic. These expressions are nothing but the appreciation of good schooling in the handling of effects with mastering precision and the fresh¬ ness of color and brush.

Some of the modern artists have adopted a method of painting with a brush stroke, with thick touches, heaping one color over the other, making a rather rough surface over the canvas. There is no doubt that a good' picture can be attained with this or any special method or style, but such thick masses of colors are not conducive to perfect technic nor to a long life of their pictures. To work broadly is as correct as to work in a very finished style, but broad¬ ness should not mean roughness and it will be preferable for students to attempt at first the more finished style, as the other can be easily mastered later on.

The writer himself, desiring to paint a picture and finding at hand an old piece of canvas used before for sketching (having already considerable thickness of color), covered up those sketches with an even white coating of oil colors, allowed it to dry very well and painted over it portrait of a member of his family. It was a very success¬ ful picture, good in color and drawing and a much appre¬ ciated work. The colors under the painting seemed to give depth of tone to the present picture and the technic was considered very good. However, about fifteen years later a little white cross appeared over one of the eyes, and look¬ ing more closely, a number of small cracks, in a form of crosses or stars, were discovered coming out all through the canvas, and in a few months the picture was all cracked and beyond repair. It took fifteen years for the color to dry and shrink completely, causing the trouble which was the result of too great thickness of colors.

Chapter IV PAINTING

Children perceive colors more quickly than grown per¬ sons. They also show more interest in strong and bright shades, such as yellow, red or blue. At a later age they will more easily differentiate between strong and harmoni¬ ous coloring in proportion to their education and feeling. This attraction of color explains perhaps the strong desire shown by students to begin handling colors even before they have a knowledge of drawing.

In looking at nature, color undoubtedly produces the strongest impression. Let us not lose sight of the fact that form is the main thing, and though form is more closely associated with beauty than color, yet color has a greater emotional power than form.

.Students should not begin to apply colors unless they have a good drawing of the subject lightly but correctly made on the canvas. The drawing can be done with a soft lead pencil or charcoal, the former being preferred, as the charcoal often interferes with the cleanliness of the colors.

We presume the picture is to be on canvas, which should be well applied on a stretcher or well pinned on a flat wooden board. Place such a stretcher on a fairly solid easel and have the top part of the picture slightly leaning backward, as in this position the canvas will receive a more direct and proper light.

If you paint while standing, have the canvas raised to a height that may be proper to your size of person, so as to avoid exertion, and if you paint seated, place the canvas lower accordingly. Returning to the drawing of the subject to be painted, we would advice students to do their draw¬ ings on paper and transfer them afterwards on the canvas by means of impression paper or graphite paper, or even by rubbing some soft crayon behind the drawing and tracing n over the design afterwards with any sharp point. (See chapter 6.)

Of course, there are students who are able to draw directly on the canvas, but students unable to do so may follow the suggestion given, as the fine line left by the traced impression is very delicate and still sufficient to guide your color application.

If you copy from nature, as, for instance, a portrait or a still life subject, such as fruit, flowers, or any group, and are painting in the studio see that the light comes from one side only, be it from the window, door or skylight, as two or more conflicting lights coming from different directions will make it more difficult for you to understand the light and shadows.

If you are painting out of doors, this special light can¬ not be controlled. However, in both cases the students should remember that the sun is moving around and that the light changes accordingly. An out-of-door artist can¬ not work more than two hours in succession on a special effect, as after such a time the light has changed. He must return at the same time for several days in order to find the same light or atmosphere and gradually finish his canvas. Sunrise and sundown effects, of course, are much more changeable, and artists make only a number of sketches so as to familiarize themselves with color and suggestion of form: to refer to when the make up and finish their impor¬ tant pictures. Light does not change very much indoors, and unless the sunlight enters the room the student has a fairly even, uniform light for six hours or more. If possible, paint near a north window and have no strong reflection from other houses. As stated above, these advices are very essential in painting from nature, but not so necessary if you copy from another picture which is flat and needs no special light. Having your canvas placed and your proper light, you will now come to the coloring.

Have your wooden palette well balanced on your thumb. Take the colors which you deem most necessary for the picture you wish to accomplish.

In another chapter of this book we have given a num¬ ber of color cpmbinations for the painting of special subjects, but it would be impossible to guess at this moment what students intend to reproduce in colors, and of course they must use their judgment and learn by experience.

If your painting is to be a country landscape, with trees, grass, mountains, etc., it is understood that you should have a variety of greens, blues and yellows in your palette and have them well distributed, one next to the other, near the edge of the palette. Burnt Sienna, Van Dyck Brown, for trees—trunks and branches. Blues for the sky and a large supply of White on one end of the palette.

Remember that the center of the palette is always kept for the intermixing of the colors and therefore your tube colors should be away from the center and near the edge of the palette, opposite the side that you keep near your body.

If your painting is to be a figure, you must have the flesh tones, such as Terra Rossa, Vermilion, Burnt Sienna, Carmine, Naples Yellow, Terre Verte, Cadmium Yellow, Cobalt Blue, and plenty of White.

For clothes, background and accessories completing the picture, you must have colors according to need. Your colors at hand, fasten the small receptacle with the oil at one corner of the palette and pour into it a mixture of equal parts of boiled linseed oil and turpentine. This is for the dipping of your brush, when the colors are too thick, and this mixture is only used for the thinning of such colors.

The brushes needed in oil painting are considerably more than those used in water color painting, as with the latter the brushes can be easily washed in water and used again. Brushes filled with oil colors take considerable time to be cleaned, and unless strict economy is necessary, the students should have at least six or more in the same hand which holds the palette. Two half-inch brushes, two onefourth-inch brushes and two one-eight of an inch, with one small liner, is as modest a supply as can be had. By having more brushes, less time is lost in cleaning and this point alone is a strong one. Have now an arm-rest stick, one sold for the purpose or any stick ready at hand. This stick is held in the hand holding the palette and the brushes : it is always placed over the top of the painting and your working hand may rest on it. The arm-rest stick is not always a necessity, but it is very much used by all artists so as to insure a more accurate touch of the brush. Having your canvas at hand, your colors well distributed in the wooden palette, medium on the receptacle, brushes and rest-stick, you may now begin the painting.

In working indoor, or, as more generally expressed, in the studio, the students should sit so that the light may come from the left side, because with the left light, the working hand and arm will not cast a shadow in front of their work. They should also avoid sitting with their back toward the light, as their body will cast a shadow on the work. If there are two windows in the room, one should be closed. Look at the subject you are copying, straight and direct, and do not lean over to look at it from the left and right side, lest you get a wrong idea of its form.

Chapter V METHOD

Having explained in another chapter the material re¬ quired for the painting, and assuming you have the subject to be painted well drawn on the canvas, begin by applying the darkest and largest masses of colors, as those are the most seen and are also the controlling spots in the picture.

As this book is read by a good many students having no previous experience in oil colors, we shall be thorough and elementary in explaining every little detail.

If you paint a broad-sized mass of color, use your largest brush. If you paint small masses or details, use your small brushes. With the brush take the color wanted by dipping the brush into the color itself. Then stir it up in the center of the palette until your brush is properly covered with it. Should you wish to mix two or more colors together, take two colors and mix them in the center of the palette. If the color is too thick, dip your brush lightly

•14 in the small receptacle and stir up the color with it. The brush will do the mixing and in painting use the brush in a flat way and not on the side of the edge. Turn it on one side and then on the other, take more color, and if neces¬ sary more oil, and apply again on the canvas, etc.

We have mentioned above that it is more appropriate to paint the darkest and broadest colors first and to come gradually to the lighter and lighter shades. It is also ad¬ visable to begin the painting by using thin colors, that is, by using colors well diluted with a medium, so that it will dry easily. This also makes it easier to apply other shades over the first one. This method is adhered to by artists and is the easiest and best way to begin, avoiding diffi¬ culties and following the simple method, which is also the quickest.

It is necessary that the student cover the whole picture before beginning to work up the details. To be more clear, if you paint a landscape, you should sketch down not only the foreground, but also cover the background, the sky, the trees, etc., all in a sketchy way. It will be easier for you then to have a clear general understanding of the whole picture. You will see which part appears to be too dark or too light and can correct afterwards the different faults accordingly.

If, for instance, you paint and finish the foreground before you apply the background or the sky, you may find when you come to apply the background and sky that the foreground you painted before looks altogether too light or too dark. Be sure to sketch all parts and you will proceed in a much easier way when you come to the details. Paint by using your brush with a flat, downward stroke. Do not overwork these general sketches. More accurate finishing touches will come at a later application. The student will notice that fresh colors mix well together and produce a variety of tints.

When your sketch is complete, place your canvas in a dry and airy place and allow a few days for a thorough drying before you again begin to paint.

Parents do their children much harm when the speak of their wonderful talent for art, for this praise of their is ability makes the youn^ folks overconfident. At the very best, their talent is only a certain tendency toward art, much as other students take more interest in geography or arithmetic, or music or any other science. It may be true that they draw and make sketches when they are at an early age, but it is also true that a good many children at the same early age pick up a new song and play it off by ear. But these musical infant prodigies very seldom develop into anything great in the musical world. They just grew over¬ confident and careless and, though gifted for music, they lack the tenacity and perseverence necessary to learn their art thoroughly. The case is generally the same with the art students. They only show a tendency for drawing and painting when they are very young, but in most cases they do not follow studies and rules and thus develop into noth¬ ing better than very mediocre artists.

Chapter VI DRAWING

If you are fond of art and painting, you are bound to understand its difficulties, to grow more and more inter¬ ested and acquire proficiency in due time. Before the study of coloring, however, convince yourself that drawing is the main mast of art. You should give a long time to nature study—that is, the drawings from nature, figure, landscape, still life, etc. Draw in black and white and be particular about detailing individual parts of your subject, and when all details are known to you it will be an easy matter to place them together and apply the colors.

If you have attempted to draw a figure, your main attention no doubt was given to the head, while the other parts of the body were neglected. This is a fault with the majority of art students, and this carelessness of details will make the picture imperfect. Hands will be cramped, clothes will be stiff and wooden, and the general appearance will be amateurish. Hands and feet are not so difficult as the features of the head, but the latter are often carefully studied, while the former are not well understood.

If you consider the study of a nude figure, for instance, and imagine a beautiful female head with correct features, but with a short leg or large feet, shoulders not in propor¬ tion with the other part of the body, your figure will be a failure. You may have tried your best to paint all parts of the figure equally well, but your lack of practice in painting feet, hands, legs, etc., will make you blind to all those faults. It will easily escape your attention, but those faults will appear very plain to your critics, and will appear clear to you one or two years later when you have acquired more knowledge of drawing.

By drawing and redrawing, your eye will become ac¬ customed to proportions and you will work freely and, of course, more correctly. You simply must educate your eye, and this takes study and enthusiasm.

Returning to the study of details, the writer has noticed how in a good many art schools students are taught oi allowed to sketch in a broad way with charcoal and care very little for details. Students will gain very little by this method, as their work will be sketchy, will show evading of difficulties or concentration. It is safer and more satis¬ factory to have students learn all particulars in a very accurate manner in the beginning. Then they can later acquire a broader style of their own.

Chapter VII OUTFIT OF MATERIALS

In oil painting there is a large variety of colors, but not all of them are needed. While one artist may use a certain number of colors, or what is generally called a certain palette, another artist may use an altogether different va¬ riety and produce equally good pictures. In the list of colors given below we have concentrated the outfit to a limited number of shades, and in this way we hope to help the student in eliminating confustion in the selection of his colors and materials. There are several makes of oil colors. Some are made in Europe and some are made in the United States, and though the colors made in Europe are recom¬ mended by centuries of trial and success, there should be no reason for not acknowledging the qualities of American-made colors. In the writers’ opinion, the domestic colors are good matches to the imported goods and they are very reasonable in price.

We have given here a list of the colors, brushes and different items which constitute a complete outfit for a per¬ son beginning to paint in oil, and have also shown the dif¬ ferent prices according to the different qualities of mate¬ rials. The student can select the outfit according to the amount of money he wishes to spend. It cannot be said that the cheaper outfit is as good as the most expensive, but often the former is sufficiently good for a beginner to use for the purpose of sketching and learning.

SMALL

Burnt Sienna Burnt Uumber Chrome Yellow Emerald Green Flake White Indian Red

SIZE TUBES

Ivory Black Jaune Brilliant Naples Yellow Payne’s Gray Cadmium Yellow (deep) Rose Madder

Permanent Blue Raw Sienna Terra Rossa Terra Verte Van Dyck Brown Bone Brown

French Vermilion Carmine Lake Cobalt Bine Indian Yellow Cadmium Yellow (light)

BRUSHES

2 flat bristle brushes No. 12 2 flat bristle brushes No. 6

2 flat bristle brushes No. 8 2 flat bristle brushes No. 3

1 flat bristie brush No. 1 1 wood palette (about 10x12)1 rest stick

1 oil cup 1 easel

1 bottle linseed oil 1 palette knife

1 bottle turpentine 1 oil receptacle

1 canvas on stretcher or canvas panel (about 12x20)

1 wooden or japanned tin box 1 bottle varnish

A complete catalog giving list and prices of all artists’ materials will be sent free of charge, by asking this author.

Chapter VIII QUALITY OF THE MATERIALS

Having given the necessary materials for a complete outfit, we must state that in all materials sold you may find a good, a medium and a poor quality of materials.