Zinc.
In churches where the walls are damp, or otherwise unsuited for receiving colour, it is found that zinc is an excellent material for illuminating texts from Holy Scripture, to be fixed to the wall when completed. This method is much less expensive than painting in fresco.
Foundation Coat of Paint.
Zinc can be procured of any ordinary plumber, at an average price of 10d. per square foot; it requires no particular preparation for illuminating, excepting a foundation-colour (or ground), which can be laid on by any house-painter far better than by the amateur. This should be done at the workshop, as the smell of so large a body of paint would be very injurious to those unaccustomed to it.
Tints to match or contrast.
The foundation-colour should either match the tint of the wall to which the scroll will be affixed, or present a decided contrast. Care must be taken in matching the colour of a plastered wall, that the paint should be lighter in tint, as it has a tendency to darken, while the plaster is likely to become rather lighter, especially in new buildings.
Foundation-colours, &c. suitable to particular seasons of the Church will be enumerated at the end of this article.
Size of Letters.
The size, shape, and length of a scroll must, of course, vary with the position it is intended to occupy. In a text composed entirely of capitals, the size of the letters should be about half the depth of the zinc: the latter being 6 inches, including the border, the capitals would be 3 inches high. Small letters would bear, of course, their usual proportion, as in other illuminations. | Distinctness.| It is quite a mistaken idea that the larger the printing, the plainer will be the text; clearness is rather attained by keeping the letters close to each other, and leaving a sufficient space between each word. It will be found, as a general rule, that, with the exception of the letter I, all capitals are contained in a square—if 3 inches high, 3 wide. It is very useful to bear this in mind in calculating the number of words to be printed in a given space, especially when it is difficult to judge of the effect till complete. Texts for large churches, to be placed round arches, or at any great height, are generally printed in capitals.
Outlines to be traced.