For the handkerchief on the head mix emerald-green with fat-oil and turpentine; put it on in a light tint, so that the handkerchief can be shaded, when dry, with the same color.
When the plate is dry, it is ready to be fired. After it has been fired touch up the shading on the face and neck with two parts of carnation No. 2 mixed with one of brown No. 4, using clove oil and turpentine while mixing; and for the deepest shadows mix two parts of brown and one of ivory-black together with clove oil and turpentine. This must be put on carefully, so that the shadows will not be too dark. Use the stipple to blend the shadows; then give the hair a wash of yellow ochre all over, and touch up the handkerchief on the head with emerald green, the same you used before.
For the background of the head mix light coffee, turpentine, and capavia oil; make it an even tint with the blender (Fig. 175); the brush must be clean and dry, and used in the same manner as the pad in tinting, then, for the outer border, mix celestial-blue with capavia and turpentine, and with your large flat brush paint the border and blend it to an even tint with your pad. When this is finished wipe off the paint around the edge as evenly as possible, so that the bare china may be left to receive a band of gold. Roll up a piece of white cotton cloth into a small point and with this remove the paint around the inner edge of the blue border, making an even narrow white band; this is also to be gilded.
On a clean tile mix the mat gold with turpentine, and using the slender, fine, long-haired brush, carefully cover the white bands of china with gold; when this is finished the plate is ready for the second and last firing. If a fairer complexion be desired, make the flesh-tints of the same colors, only lighter in tint; try the paint on the edge of the tile until the tint is correct. Always try your colors this way when painting any design. For blue eyes use sky-blue shaded with black; the high light of the eye may be left the white of the china. If you wish the hair very light, take ivory-yellow and shade with sepia and black.
Once more we say, be very careful in tracing not to get the head or features out of drawing, as so much depends upon the correct outlines. Before sending china to be fired, paint in small figures the date on which it was decorated and add your name or initials.
How to Paint a Carp, Sea-weed, and Fish-net on China.
Having traced in your design very carefully, mix one part of neutral gray with two parts of sky-blue, some clove oil, and turpentine; with this paint the upper edge of the back of the fish dark, graduating to white along near the centre of the fish; stipple this so that it will look even, soft, and rounding, keeping it dark on the edge and tinting down to the white china; paint the tail and dorsal fins a flat tint of gray No. 2 mixed with fat oil and turpentine; then mix carnation No. 2 with fat oil and turpentine for a flat tint on gills, mouth, and ventral fin; shade the mouth with the same color and paint the anal and pectoral fins a flat tint of carnation No. 2 mixed with sepia; when dry shade with the same color, and also shade the gills and fins painted carnation with carnation, and the dorsal fins and tail shade with ivory-black mixed with fat oil and turpentine; try the paint with your brush until you get rather a gray tint instead of black, and use this for the shading; now paint the rows of spots along the back of the fish ivory-black, making the dots smaller as they approach the tail; and with your eraser take the paint off of the eye, leaving a clean white spot of china; paint a fine circle around this in ivory-black; then paint a portion of the eye black, leaving the white china for the high lights; in painting the scales and lower part of the fish use gray No. 1 as it comes from the tube, mark an outline of gray along the lower edge of the fish and stipple it off in the white, remembering this gray must occupy only a narrow line along the lower edge of the fish.
