Page:Cyclopedia of Painting-Armstrong, George D (1908).djvu/53

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CHINA PAINTING
45

Moist Oil-Colors. These, as well as moist water-colors prepared expressly for this kind of painting, can be purchased at any large paint dealer's store.

Having all the general requisites at hand we are ready to begin work. Before, however, we bring out the brushes and mix the colors, we must decide where the color is to go when it is mixed. The first concern is the design, and this whether we intend to have a background or not. Therefore, the first operations will be directed toward producing the outline.

According to the method which may be adopted for sketching the outline, there will be required a black lead pencil, HB or B, lithographic crayon, a tracing point, tracing paper, transfer paper, a pounce, Indian ink, rose pink, or lamp black, and gummed paper or modelling wax.

Lithographic crayon may be made by mixing 32 parts bees-wax, 4 parts purified tallow, 24 parts soap, 1 part nitrate of potassium, dissolved in 8 parts water, 6 parts lamp black.

The surface of the china having been thoroughly cleaned by washing and dried, the design may be marked on by either of the following plans: By marking with lithographic crayon, black lead pencil, pricked stencil pattern and pounce-bag, copying or transfer paper. The design being drawn on the ware proceed to mix the color with the mediums. Different pigments require different proportions of medium, and the same pigment requires varying proportions, according to the end sought. It may be said generally that the ordinary blues, rose, and purple take most fat and the yellows the least. More fat, again, is required when it is desired to lay color flat, as in backgrounds, either with the brush, or when the use of the dabber is contemplated, or to have the color flow to a very slight extent as in delicate shading, or to lay a very thin tint.

Powder Color. In mixing powder color, the orthodox direction is to lay a little powder on the slab, and add to