MIXING STRIPING COLORS.
This comprises a difficult and skilled feature of the art of striping. Colors which are worked and controlled easily and dry reliably, are important aids to good striping. Therefore, in order to insure speed, shapely lines, and satisfactory color effects, the striper will find it greatly to his advantage to closely and intelligently study the composition of pigments. Some colors have the defect of being "short." In other words, they do not naturally work freely from the point of the pencil, blotching and flowing out in patches. It is not within the province of the painter to cure this ailment, but it is possible for him to remedy it somewhat. And how? By abstaining from the use of oil altogether, and depending solely upon a mixture of japan, varnish, and turpentine, the proportions of these liquids being governed by the liquids in which the colors were ground. Oil colors in carriage painting are restricted to a narrow margin of use. This specially applies to colors employed in striping, as, save in purely lead colors, the oil has a bad habit of working to the surface of the pigment. When, to meet a certain requirement or emergency, it is found necessary to use oil in the striping color, it is advisable to also add a few drops of quick rubbing varnish as a means of holding the oil in place. White, black, and some of the yellows are usually found under the head of short colors. Flake and cremnitz white are invariably designated as short colors. If such colors are to be used for fine lining, mix with a little rubbing varnish and tint the white slightly with drop black. This furnishes a fairly free working white which shows no laps.
Black may best be described as a riotous, wild-running color, strongly in need of a sturdy steadying liquid. In thinning black to a working consistency, add, say 1/4 rubbing varnish. Balanced with this proportion of rubbing varnish, a finely-ground tube black usually works handsomely. The writer would advise mixing all striping colors to the right consistency in the cups, instead of using them on the palette in a thick paste and thinning down under the pencil as fast as used. Colors furnished with the right ingredients, properly proportioned, the whole being thoroughly united and incorporated, constitute a fine working basis for effective striping.
