“By this simple process any person unaccustomed to painting, and ignorant of art, may color photographs, and produce with rapidity and little trouble, effective, permanent, and beautiful pictures, so soft and delicate as to closely resemble painting on enamel; may render the treasured family portrait doubly valuable by adding the warm tints of life to the faithful but cold and deathlike production of the photographer, and produce a pleasing as well as a truthful representation. The largest and the smallest work may be painted with equal facility, the life-size portrait or a miniature for a locket, the only qualification for success, even in very elaborate pictures, being taste in the arrangement of the colors. An objection to coloring photographs, as coloring has hitherto been practiced—that the delicate truthfulness of nature’s drawing was injured, and sometimes a likeness wholly destroyed, through being obscured by the colorist in the working, that the only guarantee of fidelity was the talent of the artist—in the beautifully simple process under consideration with which all the softness, lights, and shadows of the photographs are preserved.”
THE ART OF
COLORING PHOTOGRAPHS
IN WATER COLORS.
Select a well-defined Photograph, one of light color is preferable, and the background free from spots; it is also well to have a duplicate copy to refer to in case of necessity—a copy of two different sittings. Always select a good subject, as a good portrait depends much on a good model. In sitting for a photograph, take your own natural and easy position several feet in front of the background, with your eyes a trifle above the camera. Avoid all superfluous surroundings, such as fancy chairs, table covered with books and other objects, making your face a secondary affair in the picture.
Preparing the Photograph. Take a piece of White Glue about the size of a hickory nut, and about one-half the quantity of pulverized alum; dissolve in half a wine-glass of warm water and it is ready for use. Apply the mixture with a flat camel-hair brush to the photograph; cover the entire face of the picture, care being taken not to get it too wet. When dry, wash it in clean cold water with a sponge to remove any superfluous matter that may rest upon it. It may be necessary to go over it a second time, as it is essential that the paper be well hardened to work upon. You may test it by applying a drop of the color to one corner and if it washes off and leaves no stain the paper is in good condition for the work. Albumen paper can often be worked without using this preparation, but should be sponged off with cold water.
The colors used are in cakes: Dry Carmine, Rose Madder, Crimson Lake, Venetian Red, Indian Red, Vermilion, Chrome Yellow, Indian Yellow, Roman Ochre, Gamboge, Cobalt, French Blue, Emerald Green, Indigo, Prussian Blue, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Sepia (Brown), Vandyke Brown, Madder Brown, Ivory Black, Chinese White, Constant White.
Burnt Umber, mostly used for the hair; Vandyke Brown is one of the most used of browns, although Sepia may be said to be the most useful in black silk and satin, when mixed with Lake, Indigo and Gamboge; Sepia and Lake for the eyebrows and hair; Sepia and Indigo form a gray, very nice for background. Of Red, Carmine is the most brilliant; Rose Madder the most useful in flesh, especially in youths; in elder persons add Vermilion; Crimson Lake is very useful for flesh tints; Light Red, Venetian and Indian Red can be used for nearly the same purpose.
Coloring. Commence upon the face with the flesh tints, using for this a good size Sable brush; go over the entire face and wait till dry. Use for the lips a little Vermilion and Lake. Now go over the background, and then the draperies. Deepen the Carnations, touching the eye and mouth with Lake; also the hair with the proper color. Touch the under lip with Rose Madder enough so as it may look natural. The white of the eye in youth is nearly blue, in old age it becomes yellow, in middle age it is white. You must vary your tints to correspond.