Pompeians with their house-tops massed against their blue skies were prompted to use orange-red largely in their decorations which were lavishly applied in their gardens and other surroundings.
THE CHINESE USED COLORS SIMILAR TO THE POMPEIANS and their decorations give brilliant notes to their buildings creating pleasing effects. The Chinese medium has been one largely of lacquer which has been used over their gold and painted color, producing transparent qualities making it difficult to know where the actual surface begins.
COLOR ON OUTSIDE BUILDING SURFACES exists on many of the Italian cathedrals and enriched color facades were used on many houses during the Gothic period of which there remains examples at Heldesheim and Nurenberg and other cities.
COLOR IN AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE IS POSSIBLE with the use of color cement and with careful analysis of the colors used and methods of hardening, the patient worker can accomplish much toward realizing this much sought possibility.
THE FIRST STEP TOWARD SUCCESSFUL USE OF COLOR CEMENT in the open is to realize that color used at all times must be protected from drying too rapidly. If it does so, it will disintegrate and chalk away gradually. The drying of color cement should be retarded as much as possible and kept moist as long as the hardening process has not completed. It is impossible, of course, to apply water to the face of a working surface without destroying the glaze of the color, or the surface setting layer once the surface commences to dry. Water applied at this time will cause the surface to float in sections and ruin the entire surface. Therefore the best way is to arrange for the water to be absorbed from the back and this can be done easily where the panel or mural decoration is a separate section to be applied to the building surface afterwards.
WHERE THE MURAL IS TO BE APPLIED TO THE WALL the surface must be first roughened, next thoroughly dampened with water, then a layer of wet neat cement placed upon it. The bed of cement or sand and cement is next applied and the subject then applied onto this surface all at one sitting. This is necessary to avoid any part drying, as it will be impossible to dampen the surface for postponed work.
BETTER RESULT ON WALL DECORATION is possible where the color cement can be applied before the wall mass has dried out. If the forms or board walls can be removed before the cement has thoroughly set, whatever color cement or cement underlayers necessary to the color surfacing are placed upon it, will stand greater chances of remaining as a permanent part of the whole structure.
TO PROCEED WITH A MURAL PANEL a pan of metal two inches larger each way than the panel dimensions should be made from galvanized sheet metal. This is to hold the mural cement slab onto which the subject is to be painted.
THE CEMENT SLAB IS MADE by surrounding an oiled surface (wood or glass) with wooden retaining walls similar to those used in making tiles. These walls should be oiled and otherwise made proof against leakage of water as it is necessary that all water in the cement be retained to perfect the hardening. The mixture of sand and cement (one part cement and two parts sand or gravel) is next poured into this space and permitted to set for several hours. Over this surface a thin layer of neat cement may be spread or dry neat cement sprinkled through a sieve and worked into the moist surface with the flat side of a palette or other knife.
THE COLOR IS THEN APPLIED by mixing up the colors to be used into a paste form and these can be applied with a brush or with a palette knife shaping and forming the subject as if painting in ordinary colors.