The Painter in Oil Part 3

=Yellows.=--_Cadmium_ is permanent in all three of its forms. It is a color the permanence of which is of great importance; for its brilliancy is quite essential to modern painting, and if it were not permanent, the picture would soon lose the very quality for which the color was used. _The chromes_, which are of similar color-quality, are less permanent, and are almost sure to turn to a h.o.r.n.y sort of yellow; and a green, which by their use was bright and sparkling, will, in a few months, lose its freshness--this cadmium will not do. Cadmium is also to be preferred to chrome, because it is of a much finer tonality. Greens and yellows made by the admixture of chrome are apt to be crude as compared with those in which cadmium was used.

_Strontian yellow_ is a permanent and most useful light yellow, much to be preferred to all other citron yellows except the pale cadmium, and can be used in place of that if necessary. They are both expensive colors of about the same cost.

_Naples yellow_ was a very prominent pigment with the older painters.

It is still very much used, but in the simplification of your palette you may as well leave it out, as you can get the same qualities with cadmium and white. It is durable and safe, but adds another tube to your palette which you can well dispense with.

_The ochres_ are among the oldest and safest of pigments. You can use them with any colors which are themselves permanent. There are several of them,--_yellow ochre_, _Roman ochre_, _transparent gold ochre_, and others. They are all native earths, and though they contain iron, they are sufficiently inert to be thoroughly sound colors.

_The siennas_, burnt and raw, are like the ochres, native earths, very old and permanent colors, and may be used anywhere.

_The umbers_ are in the same cla.s.s with the siennas and ochres. They should all rank among the yellows. The browns of umber and sienna will make greens with blues.

_Indian yellow and yellow lake_ should both be avoided as fugitive.

_Aureolin_ is a rich, warm golden yellow of the greatest permanence, and should be used when Indian yellow and yellow lake would be used if they were permanent.

=Reds.=--The _vermilions_ are permanent when well made. They are of great body and power, as well as delicacy. They are of two kinds,--_Chinese_, which is bluish in tone, and _scarlet_ and _orange vermilion_, which have the yellow quality. Both kinds are useful to the palette because of the practical necessities of mixing.

_Light red_ is a deep, warm red earth, made by calcining ochre, and has the same permanence as the other ochres. It is a fine color, of especial value in painting flesh, and mixes with everything safely.

_The madders_--_rose_, _pink_, _purple_, and _madder carmine_--are the only transparent reds which are permanent. Whatever the name given them, they should not be confounded with the _lakes_, which are absolutely untrustworthy. By reference to the plates you will see that the madders are practically the same as the lakes in color when first used. But the lakes fade and the madders do not. The madders cost about twice as much as the lakes; but you must pay the difference, for the lakes cannot be made to stand, and you must have the color. There is nothing for it but to pay twice as much and buy the madders.

_The lakes_--_scarlet_, _geranium_, _crimson_, and _purple_--are all bad. The madders and lakes are all slow dryers; but unless carelessly used with other colors which are not yet dry they need not have a bad effect on the picture from cracking.

Distinguish the so-called _madder lakes_ and the _lakes_; and between _carmine_, which is a lake, and _madder carmine_, which is a madder.

=Blues.=--The _ultramarine_ of the old masters is practically unused to-day because of its cost. But the artificial ultramarines, while not quite of the same purity of color, are equally permanent, and are in every respect worthy to be used. Of these the _brilliant ultramarine_ is the nearest in color to the real lapis lazuli. The _French ultramarine_ is less clear and vivid, but is a splendid deep blue, and most useful. The so-called _permanent blue_ is not quite so permanent as its name implies, but permanent enough for practical purposes.

_Cobalt blue_ and _cerulean blue_ are two pigments, one very light and clear, the other darker, which are made of the oxide of the metal cobalt. In oil they are permanent, and do not change when mixed with other colors. For delicate tints, when the tones are to be subtly gray yet full of the primary colors, the cobalts are indispensable. You should always have them on hand, and generally on your palette.

Cerulean blue is of less importance than the other, but in very clear, delicate blue skies it is often the only color which will get the effect.

_Prussian blue_ possesses a depth and power and a quality of color which make it unique. The greenish tone gives it great value in certain combinations _as far as its tinting effect is concerned_. But it is not reliable as a pigment. It changes under various conditions, and fades with the light. It is not to be depended upon. _Antwerp blue_, a weaker kind of Prussian blue, is even more fugitive. It is a pity that these colors will not stand, but as they will not, we must get along without them.

_Indigo_ has a certain grayish quality which is useful sometimes, but it cannot be placed among the even moderately permanent colors.

_The blacks_ may be cla.s.sed as blues, because they will make green if mixed with yellow. Considered as blues, they are, of course, dense and negative, and should not be too freely used. But they are all permanent. The only ones we need speak of are _ivory black_, which has a reddish cast, and _blue black_, which is weaker, but lacks the purplish note, which is often an advantage.

=Greens.=--We need mention only a few greens. There are numerous greens, of various degrees of permanence, but it is not necessary to speak of all the colors on the market. You could not use them all if you had them, and we may as well confine ourselves to those we really need.

_Veridian_, or _emeraude green_, is the deepest and coldest of our greens, and is permanent. It is too cold, and looks even more so at night. In use it needs the addition of some yellow which holds its own at night, such as yellow ochre, or the painting will be impossible in gaslight, and even worse under electric light.

_Emerald green_ is the same as the French _Veronese_ green, and is generally permanent. It is said to turn dark, and does lose some of its brilliancy with time and the effect of impure air. But there are places where one needs it, especially in sketching, and it is well to use it sometimes. But bear in mind that it is not absolutely permanent, and as the quality that it gives, brilliant light green, is the very one it will lose should it change, don't expect too much of it.

_Terre verte_ is a very weak color. But it is most tender in its quality, and is permanent to all intents and purposes. It may get slightly darker in time, but will not lose the qualities for which it will be used. It is very useful to use with ivory black or elsewhere, to slightly modify a reddish tendency, and is a fine glazing color.

_The chrome greens_, by whatever name, Brunswick green, or the better-known Cinnabar or Zinn.o.ber greens, are all bad. They are useful colors as color, but they will not stand, and you will even get better color by mixing certain yellows and blues than these will give you, so you had better lay them aside, tempting as they are.

=Other Colors.=--You will notice that I have said nothing about the various browns and olives and purples. It is simply because it is better for you to make all these colors than to get them in the tubes.

The earths and the browns of madder are all good, and the mixing of madders and good blues will make all the shades of violet and purple you can possibly want in their purity.

=Palettes.=--We have, then, a number of pigments which are solid and safe, of each of the primary colors, and of such variety of qualities that the whole range of possible color is practicable with them in combination. To recapitulate, let us make a list of them.

THE PERMANENT COLORS.

ZINC WHITE. (LEAD WHITE ENOUGH SO.) CADMIUM YELLOW.

CADMIUM ORANGE.

CADMIUM YELLOW, PALE.

STRONTIAN YELLOW.

YELLOW OCHRE.

ROMAN OCHRE.

TRANSPARENT GOLD OCHRE.

RAW SIENNA.

BURNT SIENNA.

RAW UMBER.

AUREOLIN.

CHINESE VERMILION.

SCARLET VERMILION.

ORANGE VERMILION.

LIGHT RED.

ROSE MADDER.

PINK MADDER.

PURPLE MADDER.

MADDER CARMINE.

RUBENS MADDER.

ULTRAMARINE BLUE BRILLIANT.

ULTRAMARINE BLUE FRENCH.

PERMANENT BLUE.

COBALT.

CERULEAN BLUE.

IVORY BLACK.

BLUE BLACK.

VERIDIAN.

EMERALD GREEN.

TERRE VERTE.

Here is a list of colors which will work well together, and with which you can do as much as is possible with colors as far as our present materials go.

Most of these colors, I am aware, are among the more expensive ones.

This I am sorry for, but cannot help. The good colors are at times the expensive ones, but as there are no cheaper ones which are permanent to take their places, it would be the falsest of economy to use others.

=Palette Principles.=--In making up your palette, you must so arrange it that you can get pure color when you want it. There is never any trouble to get the color negative; to get richness and balance is another matter. If you will refer to the color plates, you will see that in each of the three primary colors there are pigments which lean towards one or the other of the other two. The scarlet red is a yellow red. The Chinese vermilion and the rose madder are blue reds. The same holds with yellows and blues, as orange cadmium is a red yellow, and strontian yellow is a greenish yellow. This is, in practice, of the utmost importance in the absence of the ideal color, for when we deal with the practical side of pigment, we deal with very imperfect materials which will not follow in the lines of the scientific theory of color. If we would have the purest and richest secondary color, we must take two primaries, each of which partakes of the quality of the other. To make a pure orange, for instance, we must use a yellow red and a red yellow. If we used a bluish red and a bluish (greenish) yellow, the blue in both would give us a sort of tertiary in the form of a negative secondary instead of the pure rich orange we wanted.

This latter fact is quite as useful in keeping colors gray without too much mixing when we want them so, but nevertheless we must know how to get pure color also.

These characteristics have a bearing on the setting of our palette, for we must have at least two of each of the three primary colors--red, yellow, and blue--and white. There may be as many more as you want, but there must be at least that number.

But the character of the work you are doing will also have an influence on the colors you use. You may not need the same palette for one sort of picture that is essential to another. You can have a palette which will do all sorts of work, but a change in the combinations may often be called for in accordance with the different color characteristics of your picture.