Practical Carriage and Wagon Painting / A Treatise on the Painting of Carriages, Wagons and Sleighs, Embracing Full and Explicit Directions for Executing All Kinds of Work, Including Painting Factory Work, Lettering, Scrolling, Ornamenting, Varnishing, etc., with Many Tested Recipes and Formulas

by M. C. Hillick

Four-hour size.—Gold size japan and fat oil, in proportions of 2/3 japan to 1/3 oil.

Over-night size.—Fat oil with a few drops of gold size japan added.

The slow drying size works better and affords a more satisfactory job of gilding than does the quicker mixture, the gold invariably taking a fine burnish over the slow, fat oil size.

The best obtainable fat oil is made by confining boiled linseed oil in a bottle and exposing for a long time to the sun.

To paint relief scrolls in colors is, in some respects, more difficult than doing them in gold or aluminum leaf, and while the radiant combinations of pigments furnish striking effects, there is lacking in the painted scroll a richness, an elegance, an aristocratic display, that constitute distinctive attributes of the gilded scroll. The color of the surface upon which the scroll is to be painted should, of course, govern the color in which the scroll is to be laid. For example: If the ground be a light canary color, first fill the outlines of the scroll with a pale shade of brown. Then deepen the brown fully three shades, and begin the shading of the scroll, blending the deeper color into the lighter so that a gradual melting away from dark to light is the result. Next deepen the brown a shade or two and place the darkest shades, blending them carefully into the lighter ones, but taking care not to extend the blending into the parts previously blended. Next take a little black and run a rather fine line of the color as a shadow to the scroll, the shadow usually being placed to the right of the scroll and at the bottom. This shadow line, to be properly developed, should increase and diminish as the curves and twists are defined. A thin, fine glaze of asphaltum is then placed inside the black to shade and modulate it. Some lights of medium chrome yellow are next thrown in, and the high lights following are but a shade or two removed from white. To lend piquancy and a bit of warmth to the scroll, a few touches of vermilion, flicking the spirals here and there but invariably well removed from the lower edge of the pattern, are added. Instructions, however carefully they may be worded, are of but comparatively meagre helpfulness to the novice in painting scrolls in colors. Correctly colored illustrations of scrolls done by such masters as Weber, Kuenzel and Redmond, should be diligently studied.

The harmony of colors is the controlling factor in the art scheme of a color-wrought scroll. Once perfectly familiar with this, the ambitious student should encounter no insurmountable hindrances to success as a scroll worker in colors. Referring to the relief scrolls which illustrate the text of this chapter, we would call attention to [Fig. 1]. If this be executed in gold it may, as previously suggested, be shaded with asphaltum, or asphaltum and yellow lake can be used, and the high lights done in a light tone of Naples yellow. Perhaps the workman may wish to impart to the deepest shading a look of remoteness. This can be done by giving the dark shades a thin wash of some transparent glazing color, as, say, carmine, purple, and crimson lake, or ultramarine blue of the different shades. In [Fig. 2] we have a panel design composed in small part of the original Roman scroll and in large part of the more modern style. Lay this scroll in gold, and then apply a coat of clear rubbing varnish over the ornament before shading, high-lighting, etc. A scroll of this pattern, cast in somewhat delicate outlines, must be very carefully shaded, and if the shading be done over the rubbing varnish, the tendency to cloud and blur will be overcome. In shading, care should be taken to preserve the form and outlines of the design, and this can best be done by making the shade color decidedly semi-transparent. To high-light this scroll, cream, orange, canary chrome, or pure white may be used to advantage. An ornament of this style looks very catchy and handsome done in aluminum leaf. It is strikingly neat on almost any dark ground, with the single exception, perhaps, of black; and it is especially pleasing against the numerous yellows so popular nowadays. Used on the pale yellow grounds, however, it is seen to the best advantage with portions of the design glazed with a wash of verdigris, ultramarine blue, or carmine. The fine line is then done in orange or Tuscan red. [Fig. 3] is a rather showy design, of easy form, having for a small space none of the heavy appearance of the Roman scroll. This scroll is intended for the panel of a business wagon. If done in gold, the directions for its execution have already been advanced. The broad line striping environing the scroll gives an admirable effect if done in aluminum. The distance fine line can be drawn in the high-lighting color used on the scroll, or it affords an illuminating effect done in orange and glazed with carmine. The size of the panel should govern the size of the broad stripe here shown. It may run from 3/8 inch to 5/8 inch. [Fig. 4] illustrates a corner ornament for a large business vehicle or omnibus panel. It can be laid in gold and shaded and lighted as per directions above. If upon a deep yellow, orange, or buff ground, it can be done to the charm of a rich effect by casting it in aluminum, shading with gold, and picking out with dainty flicks of black. [Fig. 5] looks effective on the ends of small panels. On yellow or creamy grounds the fine lines may be drawn in orange glazed with carmine, and the ornaments in aluminum. Shade with burnt umber and burnt sienna, and the shade side of the shading splash lightly with deep blue and the high-light borders with light blue. On dark grounds the fine lines may be done in orange, carmine, blue, aluminum, etc., and the relief ornaments in gold. [Figs. 6 and 7], ornaments for panel ends, and [8] and [9], corner ornaments, all light up a surface radiantly placed in gold or aluminum, or they render a pleasing effect done in colors. Ornaments of the order of Figs. [7], [8], and [9] display a dashing appearance done in three or four shades of green against pure white, gold color, light sulphur yellow, Naples yellow, or canary yellow grounds, black shadings being used to touch off the correct effect. Such ornaments, to be sure, when painted in colors should properly be made to respond closely to the laws of harmony and contrast. Too glaring colors or tints used upon goodly sized surfaces are violently detrimental to artistic decorative effects. [Fig. 10] is chiefly of the flat ornament style, the center shell only being thrown in relief. This corner piece is done in gold with the shell shaded and lighted, or, as is frequently the case, the shell may be done in aluminum, and washed out with the proper relief colors.

FLAT SCROLLS.

The flat scroll is distinguished from the relief scroll in that it is lacking in all forms of relief ornamentation. The flat scroll is vastly more simple in its working out; hence many workmen essay the flat scroll who under no circumstances would attempt to execute a relief design. The flat scroll is almost invariably first placed upon the surface through the medium of the pounce pattern, and it is then filled in. The design of the flat scroll once laid out on paper, the painter used to manipulating a lettering or striping pencil can readily fill in the outlines. The designing of the flat scroll can best be done upon manilla paper, the tracings being executed with a lead pencil. Then lay the paper over a double thickness of, say, railway car plush and pick out the lines with a small awl. On wagon work the flat scroll put on by means of stencils is not often seen. In the railway car paint shop the flat scroll is usually stenciled on.