Contents

Sketching from Nature.—How to Make a Drawing—Linear Perspective—Materials—Terms in a Picture—Lines in Nature—Line of Beauty—Landscapes—Selecting a Position—Lights and Shades[9]
Colors in Nature.—Primary Colors—Advantages of Colors—Colors of a Spectrum—Mixtures of Colors—Transmission of Light—Pure White, Black, Gray, Green—Neutralization of Colors[23]
Pen and Pencil Drawing.—Paper Used for Transferring—Preparation of Paper—Method of Transferring—Shading by Pen—Pentagraph—How to Use it—Copying with Transparent Paper[27]
Pastel Painting.—Crayons and Pastels—Paper Used—Exposure to the Sun—Colors Employed—Colors of Paper—Mounting the Picture—Sketching In the Outlines—Applying the Crayon—Colors and Composition of Tints—Background[29]
Landscape Painting in Crayon.—Paper—Arranging the Paper—Drawing—Using the Colors—Fixing the Drawing—Materials for Pastel Drawing[33]
Monochromatic Drawing.—Directions—Materials Used—Shades—Blending—Sky—Mountains—Water—Moonlight—Old Ruins, etc.[37]
Water Colors.—Instructions—Colors Used for Sky and Distances—Hills—Trees—Foreground—Sky—Moonlight, etc.—Selecting the Paper—Different Kinds—Brushes—Other Materials—Colors Used[38]
Landscape Painting in Oil Colors.—Technical Names and Materials Used—Mixing of Tints—How to Apply Them—A Glaze—Impasting—Scrumbling—Handling—Light—Brushes—Materials Used—Canvas—Prepared Paper—Millboards—Panels—Palettes—A Dipper—Rest Stick—Knives—Easels—Vehicles—Mixed Tints[45]
Oil Photo.—Miniature or Cameo Oil—Improved Method—Treating the Photograph—Paste Preparation—The Glass Cleaning—Colors Applied—Wedges—Caution—Directions for Coloring—Second Method—Ivory Type or Mezzotint—Mounting the Photograph—Materials Used—Another Plan[55]
Photo Painting in Water Colors.—Selecting Photograph—Preparing the Photo—Colors Used—Coloring Background, Face, Eyes, Mouth, Hair, Clothing—Shadowing[60]
Russian or Egyptian Method.—To Produce First Class Picture—Applying Colors—Palette—Liquid Colors Used—Brushes[63]
Making Photographs.—Gelatine Dry-plate Process—The Outfit—Filling the Plate-Holder—Taking the Picture—Making Negatives—Chemical Outfit—Directions for Using Chemicals—Instructions Summarized—Making Prints from Negatives—Sensitized Paper Prints—Toning Process—Mounting Pictures[65]
Draughtsmen’s Sensitive Paper for Copying Drawings.—Directions—How to Use—Printing by Exposure[70]
Wood Painting.—From the German—General Preliminaries—Requisites—Colors—Transferring the Drawing on Wood—Enlarging and Reducing Designs—Divisions of Wood Surface—Tracing and Transferring Designs—Fixing Transferred Design—Coloring—Retouching—Wood Articles—Polishing Designs[71]
Transparencies.—Instructions—General Directions[81]
Crystal, or Oriental Painting.—Materials Used—Colors Used—Directions[83]
Antique Italian Landscape Painting.—Style of the Painting—Transferring—Quality of the Glass Used—Materials—Directions—Paints Used[85]
Grecian Oil Painting.—Selecting the Engraving—Applications—Method of Painting—Mixing the Paints—Eyes, Hair, Flesh—Suggestions—Colors—Brushes[87]
Ornamental Glass Sign Work.—Lettering Door Plates—Ornamenting Glass Work, Boxes, etc.—Instructions—Lettering the Glass—Holding the Letters—Next Process—Remaining Directions—Articles Used—Note[89]
Vitremanie.—Easy and Inexpensive Decoration of Windows, Churches, Public Buildings, Private Houses, etc.—Supersedes Diaphanie—Defects of Diaphanie—Materials Used in Vitremanie—Simple Instructions—Applying the Design—Removing the Paper—Arranging the Designs[91]
Diaphanie.—Similarity to Decalcomanie—Materials Required—The Application—Designs Used[93]
Painting on Silk.—Satin and Silk—Its Beauty and Popularity—Transferring—Painting Directions—Using Colors Lightly—Raised Work—Colors Used—Bringing out the Picture[94]
Staining Wood and Ivory.—Yellow Mahogany—Black, Red, Blue, Purple—Acids and Materials Used[96]
Crystalline Surfaces.—Paper, Wood, and Glass—Mixture Used—Application—Directions[97]
China Painting.—On China, Porcelain, Earthenware, and Enamel—Colors Used—Process of Burning In—Tracing and Drawing—First Method—Second Method—Third Method—Cleaning Brushes—Composition, Use, and Mixing of Colors—Classification of Colors—Tests—Fusibility—Thickness—Mediums—Conduct of the Work—Special Information Concerning Painting Colors—Mode of Use—Mixtures—Concordance of Enamel with Moist and Oil Colors—Technical Names[99]
Monochrome.—China Painting—Painting on Porcelain or Earthenware—Tints of Monochromes—Sketching In—Painting the Head—Hair—Flesh Tints—Drapery—Retouching—M. Lacroix’s Colors—Finishing the Monochrome—General Suggestions[111]
China Painting.—Painting the Head in Colors on Porcelain—Drawing and Sketching In—Highly Colored Faces—Cast Shadows—Painting the Lips—Blue Eyes—Fair Hair—Colored Draperies—The Palette[115]
China Painting.—Style of Boucher—Flowers, Fruits, Birds and Landscape on Porcelain—Retouching Leaves—Peaches—Instructions on Landscapes—The Sky—Trunks of Trees—Branches—Houses—Ground—Water—Strengthening Touches—Directions for Packing[118]
Terra Cotta Painting.—Enamel, Oil and Water Color Painting on Terra Cotta—Special Instructions—Materials and Brushes Used[123]
Burning In.—Mineral Decalcomanie—New and Beautiful Art—Transferring Pictures to China and Other Ware—Imitating Exactly Beautiful Painting—Directions, Materials Required, Designs, Numbers, Prices[126]
Natural Flowers.—Preservation—Hot Water System—Sandwich Island Process—Sand Drying Method—Last Process[129]
Paper-Flower Making.—Arrangement of Bouquets—Materials Used—Directions for Using Wire, Silk, etc.—Crimson Rhododendron—White Camelia, Rose, Pink Fuchsia—Grouping Flowers—Examples—List of Materials, Tools, etc.[134]
French Art—Decorating Wood, Leather, Silk, etc.—To Decorate Delicate Fabrics—Another Method—Decorating Dark Colored Articles—Choice of Subjects—Covered Designs—List of Subjects that can be Decorated—General Suggestions[143]
The Wax Art—Flowers and Fruit—Instructions for Making Wax and Molds—Materials Used, etc.—Molding—Preparing Wax—To Mold a Calla Lily—Painting Variegated Flowers—Directions for Sheeting Wax—Molding Wax Fruit—Oranges, Apples, Peaches, Grapes, etc.—Special Instructions—Leaf Molds, Wires, Steel Molding Pins, Moss, Miscellaneous Articles, Colored Wax[146]
Sprinkle Work.—Decoration of Wood and China Ornaments—Its Ease and Beauty—Utensils—Process—Special Directions—Varnishing and Polishing—Sprinkle Work on China—Veins—Colors Generally and Satisfactorily Used—General Suggestions[154]
Pearl Embroidery.—Fish Scales—To Prepare Them—Drawing the Pattern of Leaf—Directions[161]
Feather Flowers.—Instructions to Begin—Color of Feathers—Dyeing—Renewing Ostrich Feathers[162]
Lustral Bronze Painting.—Preparations—Instructions—Copy from Engravings—Stems of Trees—Second Shade—Figures—Parts of Mountains—Varnishing—Suggestions—Gilding[164]
Japanese Art.—Gathering Leaves—Directions[168]
Staining Glass.—Causes of Decay—Of Glass Painting—Colors Used—Classes—Process of Laying the Colors—Peinture et Apprêt—Ground or Foundation—The Vehicle—Most Suitable Oil—Palette—Pigments—Fused Colors—Illuminated Colors—New Tone of Color—Mosaic Glass Painting—Cartoons—Cutting—Over-laid Glass—Colored Pot Metal[169]
Gilding Glass.—Preparations—Cutting Figures and Ornaments—most Important Secret—General Suggestions[179]
Etching on Copper.—Heating—Dabbing—Smoking—Etching—Fluid for the Purpose—Directions[182]
Kensington Painting.—Its Progress and Popularity—Materials Used—Colors Necessary—Applying Colors—Flowers, Leaves—Instructions[185]
Arrasene Embroidery.—Novelty and Beauty—Wool and Silk Arrasene—A Wild Rose—Blind Stitch—Double Rose—Daisies—Forget-me-not—Leaves—Stems—Full Instructions[189]
Portraiture in Black Crayon.—Careful Instructions—Paper—Cutting and Trimming—Dampening and Framing—Selecting Materials—Enlarging the Photograph—Tracing—Carefulness—Features—Pupils of the Eyes—Iris—Nose—Lips—Blending Process—The Hair—The Drapery—Collar and Shirt Front—The Background—Lace Work—Finishing—General Important Suggestions[191]
Analysis of Colors.—Nature and Quality—Blues—Reds—Browns—Mixing Compound Tints for the Face—Tints and Colors—Producing them—Transparent Colors—Semi-Transparent—Contrast and Harmony of Colors[197]
Taxidermy.—Profit, Usefulness and Beauty—Skinning—Mounting in General—Preserving—Spiders and Insects—Shell Fish—Polishing Shells—Collecting Animals—Recipes—General and Special Instructions[203]

Sketching
FROM
NATURE

“God has diffused beauty, and Art has combined it.”—Houssaye.

A sketch is a graphic memorandum. “The field of labor is the wide world of nature—her beautiful truths the lessons to be learned by heart. Once fairly within her school, Art awakens to a life of sympathy with its teacher that lasts forever.” A capacity for drawing means more than producing a linear representation. The sculptor draws when he models the plastic clay into imitative or ideal creations. The painter draws when he disposes his pigments with like impulse. The stalwart smith draws when he shapes the heated metal into form. He that cannot draw a crooked line, cannot draw a straight one, and he who cannot draw a straight line, the simplest, easiest, and most comprehensible, has certainly much to learn, and should begin with it.

In Making a Drawing from Nature, we start out with one of two things in view, a desire to make a perfect copy of the scene before us, or a wish to make a choice selection from the whole, and arrange it to suit our fancy. The first is historic, from the fact of its being a true and faithful copy. The second is called poetic, as the effort is for beauty of arrangement and general make up. In the latter, the artist is generally better satisfied with his effort when the picture is complete, than if he followed closely to the laborious work of perfectly copying that which is not altogether interesting. But at the same time the first, that of picturing facts, must form the basis of the art. By it we acquire a knowledge of detail, and store the mind with true nature, which is essential in good work. A true and faithful copy is what is sought after. In following our own fancy, we go out into the field and select from a combination of objects, and make up our picture. We find a log cabin standing beside a rocky stream of rippling water, which is spanned by an ancient log bridge; in another place we find cows grazing; and again a horseman is coming down the road. We combine the three. The cattle are driven into the stream, the horse and his rider are brought into and form a part of the picture, which is now complete.

In sketching from nature it is first essential that we should be trained to some extent in a course of perspective drawing.

Linear Perspective is the application of the principles of geometry to the accurate delineation of the principal lines of the picture. Drawing on a plain surface an object as it appears, or as it would appear on a pane of glass, held between you and the object.

Perspective is absolutely necessary in drawing from nature, not only in perfecting finished work, but in all circumstances. Theoretically, as well as practically, it bears more or less upon all the great requisites of perfection in art. We can by its aid, select our own point of observation, even though it be imaginary.

Materials. Of the variety of instruments and materials for drawing and sketching, there is the lead pencil of different degrees of hardness, and tint; then there is the French crayon, tinted crayons, etc.; French sketching boards, prepared of various tints, with skies, and suggestive effects ready laid in; “solid sketching blocks,” bound as a portfolio, will be found convenient. Paper for “cartoons” can be obtained of most any size, up to six feet wide.

In a Picture we have Six Terms, the center of the picture, or center of view, the distance of the picture, the base line, the horizontal line, the perpendicular line, the point of view.

Lines in Nature. It is a remarkable fact that all the lines in nature are curve lines, the body of trees, the branches and their leaves, and the fruit that grows thereon; the blades of grass, and flowers in the field; the swells of the ocean, the hills and hollows, are all composed of curved lines. Nature is all loveliness and perfection, all her effects are true, and the desire of the student should be to realize them thoroughly, and let nature, and nature alone, be the teacher, following her faithfully, in the full assurance of the attainment of truth, whatever else he may fail to accomplish.

Then let the pencil, the servant of thought,

Copy the lessons which nature has taught;

For the skillful hand of the artist entwines,

No garland more fair than her beautiful lines.