The American Girl's Handy Book

by Lina Beard

  Flowers.

  Few oil-paintings, however well executed, give the delicate, exquisite texture of a flower as nearly as water-colors. The semitransparency of a rose-petal, the juicy, translucent green of the young leaf, it is difficult to truthfully represent in other than these colors, whose essential quality is transparency. To preserve this transparency of color, everything about the painting must be kept exceedingly neat. The brushes must be thoroughly washed before using them for a different tint from that already upon them, and plenty of water, changed frequently, is necessary.

  Having arranged your materials conveniently upon a table, place your paper so that it will lie at an angle slanting toward you, not perfectly flat upon the table; this can be done by putting books under the edge farthest from you, thus raising it up. Stand the flowers you wish to copy in such a position that the light will fall upon them only from one direction and produce decided shadows; the effect will then be much better than when the light is more diffused.

  Always arrange your model exactly as you want to paint it, and leave nothing to your idea of how it ought to look. If you do not intend to have any background other than the white paper, place something white behind your flowers. If you want a colored background, arrange the color you have chosen behind the flowers, and paint it as you see it. Commence your work by sketching lightly, as correctly and rapidly as you can, the outline of your flower. Try something simple at first; say a bunch of heart’s-ease or pansies, and when drawing them try to get the character of both flower and leaf. Observe how the stem curves where it is attached to the flower, and at what angles the stems of the flowers and the leaves join the main stalk. Given character, an outline drawing painted in flat tints will closely resemble nature; without it, the most beautifully finished painting will not look like the flower it is intended to represent.

  Painting in Water-Colors.

  When your outline is drawn in, dip your largest brush in clear water, and go over the whole surface of your paper; then place a piece of blotting-paper over the paper to soak up the water, leaving it simply damp, not wet.

  If you are using tube colors, have ready on a porcelain palette, or ordinary dinner-plate, these colors: crimson lake, cobalt blue, indigo, Prussian blue, and gamboge. Put in your lightest tints first, leaving the white paper for the highest light; then paint in your darker tints and shadows, and get the effect.

  If your flower is what we call the johnny-jump-up, the lowest petal will be yellow. Paint this in with a light wash of gamboge, leaving, as we have said, the white paper for touches of high light. The two upper petals will probably be a deep claret-color; this is made by mixing crimson lake and cobalt blue, the crimson lake predominating. The two central petals may be a bluish lavender, and this color is made by mixing a little crimson lake with cobalt blue. Use plenty of water; but do not let it run, and keep the colors of the petals distinct.

  Paint the stems and leaves, where they are a rich green, with a mixture of gamboge and Prussian blue, and where they appear gray as the light touches them, a pale wash of indigo will give the desired effect.

  Keep your shadows broad and distinct, and your tints as flat as you can. Leave out details altogether in your first paintings, and add them afterward only when you can do so without spoiling the effect.

  When a tinted background is desired, put it in quickly in a flat tint, before commencing the flowers. It is best not to bring the tint quite up to the outline, as a narrow edge of white left around the flower gives a pleasant, sketchy look to the painting.

  Landscapes.

  In your first studies from nature keep to simple subjects, and treat them simply, without any attempt at elaboration. Choose, for instance, a picturesque corner of an old fence, with perhaps a bit of field and sky for the background. Sketch in the principal features in the foreground in outline, and indicate the horizon, if it comes in the picture.

  Penley says, in his “System of Water-Color Painting,” “White paper is too opaque to paint upon without some wash of color being first passed over it,” and he recommends a thin wash of yellow ochre and brown madder, which should be put all over the surface of the paper except on the high lights in the foreground, which are best left crisp and white.

  Notwithstanding what Penley says in this matter, it must be borne in mind that some artists do not believe in successive washes, but claim that the color desired should be put upon the white paper at once.

  If the yellow tint is used, let it become quite dry and then wash it over with a large brush and clean water; then, as in the flower painting, soak up the water with blotting-paper; the blotting-paper must also be quite clean. While the paper is damp, not wet, begin with a blue tint—a light wash of cobalt will give it—and put in the sky in a flat tint; bring the same color down all over your sketch except in the high lights. The blue tint gives atmosphere and distance. Let your paper again become quite dry, and then wash it over as before, in clear water.

  The process of laying on color and lightly washing over it afterward should be repeated several times, “and the result will be a transparent aerial tone.”

  Keep your extreme distance bluish, your middle distance warmer in tone, but not too strong, and the principal objects in your foreground strong.

  Leave out small objects, and with light and shade seek to obtain the effect.

  Keep your colors pure or your sketch will be dull.

  Contrast has much to do in producing strength and character. Phillips says that, “in aiming at opposition of color, we must select that which gives force to the foreground, and consequently communicates the appearance of air in the distance. Thus, if the general tone of the light be warm and yellow, we should have blues and purples in the foreground; if the lights be cool, reds and yellows in the foreground give atmosphere to distance, as neither of these colors in a positive state is found in the middle or remote distance.”

  The three principal contrasts are blue opposed to orange, red to green, and yellow to purple; and “a good first lesson in sketching in color will be to put in your shadows with color opposite to the object in light; and by carrying out this principle of opposition throughout the scale you will obtain an endless variety of contrasts.” It is the general rule in most painting to have cool shadows to warm lights, and warm shadows to cool lights. We all know that a green picture is very disagreeable, and although a green field is green, it must not be made intensely so. An untrained eye will not see how nature tones down the vivid color with shadows, and softens it with the atmosphere; but when the eye has learned to look at nature in the right way this difficulty will be overcome. Howard says, “green must be sparingly used, even in landscapes, whose greatest charm consists of vegetation.”

  Foliage in some form will present itself in almost every landscape, and it is therefore necessary to have a few general principles to guide you in this important feature. In sketching trees be sure to get the character of their trunks, limbs, branches, and general form; also the texture of the bark, rough or smooth. You will see that the foliage appears in layers, one above another. Sketch in the outlines of the principal layers, where they are tipped with light; then go over the whole tree with a local color, and afterward separate the light from shadow. Each mass is edged with light, while its base is in shadow, as a rule. Omit details, and keep to your masses of light and shade. If your tree is in the foreground, leave the white paper for crisp touches of high light. The tone of your fence will probably be gray, but do not take it for granted that it is all gray; look for other colors, and you will find brown, blue, green, and sometimes red. Put these in as you see them, letting the edges melt into each other, as they will do when the paper is damp; but have each color pure, and do not try to mix them.

  Painting from Notes

  is not as difficult as one might imagine. With a little practice it is easily learned. The following directions will tell how to paint a sunset on the meadows, from notes made at sunset on the meadows on Long Island.

  Take a
piece of Whatman’s rough drawing-paper, or a kind that is termed egg-shell cartoon, the size decided upon for your picture. Have ready a large dish of clean water, brushes, and paints. Draw a pencil-line along the centre of your paper for your horizon, Fig. 151; then directly on the line paint a streak of vermilion. Put the color on quite damp, and make it about half an inch broad, extending one-fourth of an inch on either side of the horizon-line, Fig. 152. Next, quickly paint a yellow streak above and below the red one, making each streak of the same size and parallel, and leaving a little white paper between the different colors, Fig. 153. With a clean brush dipped in clean water carefully moisten the paper between the streaks, and allow the edges of the colors to mingle, Fig. 154. Before this has time to dry, paint a blue streak above and below, about half an inch from the yellow, Fig. 155; then with the clean brush dampen the white paper between, being careful not to get it too wet; there should be just enough moisture to enable the colors to flow and mingle at the edges, Fig. 156. This may be aided by holding the paper first one side up and then the other, until the edges are evenly blended. Now, before the horizon is quite dry, while it is still damp enough to cause the paint to spread, fill a brush with Payne’s gray, which should be rather dark and not too wet, touch the point of your brush here and there along the horizon, now a little above and now a little below, and you will find that the paint will spread and make excellent trees for the distance, Fig. 157.

  Fig. 151

  Fig. 152

  Fig. 153

  Fig. 154

  Fig. 155

  Fig. 156

  Fig. 157

  Fig. 158

  How to Paint a Sunset in Water-Colors.

  Fig. 159

  When your work is dry enough to paint over without spreading the color, mix some green and black, and green and brown; paint in the meadow, using the color made of green and black for the extreme and middle distance, the color made of green and brown for the foreground, leavingspaces for streams and ponds, and your sunset upon the meadow is finished. A pretty little sketch it is, too, Fig. 158.

  Fig. 160.

  Leaf from an Artist’s Note-Book.

  A different composition can be made by proceeding as directed as far as Fig. 156, and then, instead of putting in trees on the horizon, hills running to points in the water can be painted in a flat tint with the Payne’s gray, and a vessel with masts painted in the foreground, as in Fig. 159. This also makes a pretty and effective little sketch.

  Fig. 160 shows sunset notes taken while aboard a ferryboat in the winter of 1886–87. From these you can see just how the notes are made; but you must make your own notes, because what is perfectly intelligible to the writer of the sunset memoranda is an enigma to another person. For example, in Fig. 160, “Rose-tinted sky” may mean almost any shade of red, or blue and red mixed, but “Rose-tinted sky” no doubt brings before the mind’s eye of the writer of the notes the exact color of the sky at the time the notes were made.

  A Study in Oil.

  CHAPTER XXIII.

  HOW TO PAINT IN OIL-COLORS.

  THE difference between oil- and water-color painting lies in the fact that, although especially well adapted to the portrayal of some subjects, water-color has its limitations, while with oil-colors any subject, from the simplest study in still-life to the grandest conception of a great artist, can be represented, and no limit has yet been reached in its possibilities.

  But there are first steps to be taken in all things, and the greatest artist who ever lived had to make a beginning and learn the preliminaries of painting before he could produce a picture. To these steps, then, we will turn our attention, and the first will be the necessary

  Materials.

  The following list of colors, with their combinations, will be found sufficient for most purposes.

  Winsor & Newton’s colors are acknowledged by most artists to be the best, but the writer personally prefers German white, as in her opinion it is not so stiff, and mixes better with other colors than the Winsor & Newton.

  The Easel

  may be simply a pine one, which can be purchased from any dealer at the cost of about one dollar. More elaborate easels are, of course, more expensive; but as the merits of a picture do not depend upon the easel which holds it, a common pine one will do.

  The Palette

  should be light in weight and not too small; oiled and not varnished. A very light-colored wood is not desirable; one of walnut or cedar, about eighteen inches long, is the best to use, and will cost from thirty to sixty cents.

  Brushes,

  both of sable and bristles, are used, but we would advise a beginner to work with bristle brushes only, for the first attempt should be to obtain a broad style of painting, without the finished details which the sable brushes are used for.

  About four different sizes of flat bristle brushes are needed to commence with; there should be two of each size, the largest one inch wide, and the smallest not more than a quarter of an inch in width.

  The Palette-Knife

  is used for taking up color on the palette, for cleaning the palette, and sometimes for scraping a picture after its first painting. It should be flexible, but not too limber. The cost will be from twenty-five cents upward.

  Oil-Cups

  are fastened on to the palette, and are used for oil and turpentine. The double ones range in price from eight cents to twenty. The single ones, without cover, can be bought for five cents.

  A Paint-Box

  for holding colors, palette, and brushes will cost from one dollar and twenty-five cents up. It is convenient to have one, and necessary when going out sketching, but for painting at home any kind of tin box will answer for the paints. The palette can be hung up, and the brushes put in a vase or jar, handles downward, which will keep them nicely.

  Mediums.

  Boiled linseed-oil or poppy-oil, siccatif Courtray, and turpentine.

  Canvas.

  In selecting canvas choose that of a warm-gray or creamy tone, for it is difficult to give warmth to a picture painted on a cold-gray canvas. The German sketching-canvas is quite cheap, and does very well to commence on. It is best to buy it on the stretcher, as a girl’s fingers are seldom strong enough to stretch the canvas as tight as it should be. A very good sketching-canvas, 18×24, can be bought in New York City for twenty-five cents.

  Several clean pieces of old white cotton-cloth are necessary for wiping brushes, cleaning knife and palette, etc.

  The Light

  in the studio, or room in which you paint, should come from one direction only, and fall from above. This can be managed by covering the lower sash of the window with dark muslin, or anything that will shut out the light. A shawl will answer for a temporary curtain.

  Most artists prefer that while painting the light should come from behind over the left shoulder.

  Our advice to beginners in all the departments of art is the same: commence with simple subjects.

  Your first study should be from still life (which means any inanimate object used for artistic study), and let the object selected be of a shape that requires but little drawing; for your aim now is to learn to handle your colors, and it is not desirable to have your mind distracted by complicated drawing. A vase placed on a piece of drapery, which is also brought up to form the background, is a good subject; the drapery should be of one color, and of a tone that will contrast agreeably with the vase and give it prominence.

  Arrange whatever object you have decided to paint so that it will show decided masses of light and shade; place your easel at a sufficient distance from it to obtain the general effect of shape and color without seeing too much detail; arrange your canvas on the easel so that you will neither have to look up nor down upon it, but straight before you; then sketch in the object you are about to copy in outline. Observe the edges of the heaviest shadows, and draw them also in outline. Charcoal is better than a pencil for sketching on canvas, as it can be easily rubbed off with a clean cloth if the dra
wing is incorrect. When the sketch is finished, dust off the charcoal lightly and go over the lines again with a camel’s-hair brush and India ink.

  Setting the Palette

  is a term used for arranging the colors in a convenient manner upon the palette. The colors should always occupy the same position, so that, the places once learned, you will never be at a loss to find the color you want. Fig. 161 shows a convenient arrangement of colors, as well as the position of the oil-cans.

  Fig. 161.—Manner of Arranging Colors on Palette.

  Fill one of your oil-cans one-third full of turpentine, to which add enough siccatif Courtray to turn it the color of strong coffee. Dip one of your good-sized brushes in this mixture and scrape it off on the edge of the can, that the brush may not be too wet; then take up some burnt sienna on the brush and put it on your palette about an inch or so below the terre verte, add some terre verte, and mix the two with your brush. Lay in all the shadows of the vase, or whatever object you are about to paint, in a flat, even tone with the color thus formed, keeping it thin with the turpentine and siccatif.