List of the Colours
To be USED for
Painting in Encaustic;
AS ALSO FOR THE
Composing of the Crayons.
WHITE.
Flake-white, and white-lead, or ceruss.
For painting in encaustic, I mix always both together half and half; flake-white alone is subject to raise too much little bubbles in employing it with water, which the admixture of the other prevents; besides, both together make a better and more solid body; tho’ flake-white is the whitest of the two, to use either alone I should prefer the second. The Venetian or Dalmatian white-lead is by far the best for all manner of painting; being prepared with a purer and subtler acid it is whiter and purer than any other whatsoever, and preferable to flake-white; next to it is the German or Dutch; French or English ceruss are in general but indifferent, in experiments I frequently found the latter to have one third of marle or chalk in its composition; which is the cause of its growing so soon yellow, dull and dirty in oil.
In composing of the crayons it will be well to observe the above mentioned proportion of half and half, as by the doing so, much pipe clay will not be required to bind them.
YELLOWS.
- Naples-yellow,
- Light-oker,
- Brown-oker,
- Yellow-orpiment, or,
- King’s-yellow,
- Red-orpiment,
are all perfectly good and necessary for our purpose.
Naples-yellow is the only colour that ought to be used in composing the tenderer flesh tints of women; it proves a very tender, bright and beautiful lasting colour for all manner of painting, if properly prepared and managed, if not, a dirty, weak and treacherous one, and particularly in oil. It is a mineral compound of lead, antimony, sulphur, and some arsenic, which latter is the cause of its changing, and hurting other colours, and particularly the white, so much complained of by the painters.
Though this yellow fixed with wax will not change; yet it will not be amiss to insert a method to clean, and purify it, so as to render it beautiful and lasting for oil and other uses. To clean it do as follows.