TO “FIX” DRAWINGS.
Charcoal will of course rub off, and drawings become smeared and defaced if left unprotected. For that reason it is customary to “fix” the drawing by the application of some preparation to its surface.
This should be done with much care, and only the very best materials should be used for this purpose. Amateurs and students sometimes endeavor to manufacture fixative for themselves out of shellac and alcohol. This may succeed in fixing the drawing, but will be very liable to turn the paper yellow in time. Artists, therefore, prefer to buy an imported fixative, which is made by a reliable manufacturer. That most generally in use, and which we have found by experience to be in every way satisfactory, is the Fixatif Rouget, which comes in good-sized glass bottles, costing at retail fifty cents each.
There are two methods of fixing drawings. First, that in which the fixative is applied to the back of the drawing. This is preferred by some artists; and the French students, who are only anxious to preserve their drawings, without regard to the changing of color in the paper, use milk, with which they wash over the back of the drawing.
In cases where a large design or cartoon is made in charcoal for temporary use, this way will answer perfectly, being very much less expensive than the other. The fixative Meusnier, which is imported by all dealers, is also applied to the back of the paper with a large brush.
The other method, and that generally preferred, is to apply the fixative to the front or surface of the drawing.
This process should of course be managed with care, as too much fixative will cause the charcoal to run down in streaks, while too little will cause it to come off in spots.
The fixative for applying to the surface of the drawing is sprayed through a glass atomizer by blowing through one tube while the other rests in the bottle containing the liquid.
These atomizers are now sold by all art dealers, and may be had from the simplest and most inexpensive kind up to those represented by quite a costly apparatus. The cheapest consist of two small tubes of glass, pointed at one end and straight at the other. These are connected by two bands of metal, which in turn are fastened together by a small hinge or pivot.
This is so arranged that the two tubes of glass meet at a right angle, the small pointed ends coming in contact, but so as to leave both orifices open.
One end, as already mentioned, is now placed in the fixative, while through the other the breath is blown. This causes the liquid to mount in the lower tube and dissolve in a cloud of spray which is so light as not to dislodge the delicate particles of the charcoal and yet will attach them firmly to the paper, so that ordinary rubbing will not efface the drawing.
Great care should be taken in blowing through an atomizer to make the breath as steady as possible, avoiding short, unequal puffs. The atomizer must not be held too near to allow the particles to vaporize sufficiently, or else the fixative will run down in streams and ruin the drawing. Again, if held too far off, it will vaporize too much, and will fail to fix the charcoal at all.
The more expensive vaporizers, while conducted on the same principle, are supplied with air from one or sometimes two rubber globes or balls, which have the advantage of transmitting the air in a regular stream, and one is thus saved the fatigue of blowing with the mouth, which, in case of a large drawing, becomes very tiresome.
These atomizers are generally made with metal tubes, which will become clogged and useless unless washed out after using each time, with warm water. The simple glass atomizers must also be kept clean in this way, for they are very easily broken if a pin is used to clean the openings, and the slightest break at the joints renders them useless.