APPENDIX. COLORS AND COLORING: THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL. COMPRISING DESCRIPTIONS OF A GREAT VARIETY OF ADDITIONAL. PIGMENTS- TO WHICH ARE ADDED DRYERS, AND MODES AND OPERATIONS OF PAINTING. COLORS. COLORS we distinguish into Inherent and Transient. Of the first kind are all material colors, more properly called pigments and dyes; of the second, or transient kind, are the colors of light and the eye, such as the rainbow, halos, prismic and ocular spectra, etc.; all of which are formed by the concurrence of the elements of light and darkness, which elements, in the language of the chemists, are oxygen and hydrogen, both of which enter inherently into the matter of solid pigments. and constitute the transient light of our atmosphere and of day. Hence, paintings, etc., excluded from light and air, in many cases become dark, and in other cases, when exposed to light and air, they bleach and fade, or variously change color, according to their chemical constitutions. as will be further noted of individual pigments. We have employed the terms Oxygen and Hydrogen to denote the more properly Photogenic and Sciogenic elements of light and shade, not for their fitness, but beCause they have been adopted in an analogous elementary signification in chemistry. It would, however, be beside our purpose here to discuss the elementary doctrine of the physical causes of light and colors, having spoken thereof inore at large in other works. * Selected and edited from "Rudiments of the Painter's Art; or a Grammar of Coloring." By GEO. FIELD, Londou. We proceed, therefore, in the next place, to detail the powers, properties, and preparations of the materials employed in the various practices of painting, among which pigments, or paints are principal, and respecting which it is to be remarked generally, that the variety of lightness and darkness in colors is called Shade; the varieties of gradations in the mixtures of colors are called Hues, and the various mixtures of hues and colors with white and shades are called Tints. We preface these and other distinctions as necessary to the painter, for the better understanding and compounding of his materials, with which it is the object of this part of our work to make him acquainted. QUALITIES OF PIGMENTS. The general qualities of good Pigments, technically called Colors, are: 1, beauty of color, which includes pureness, brightness, and depth; 2, body; 3, transparency or opacity; 4, working well; 5, keeping their place; 6, drying well; and 7, durability; but few piginents possess all these qualities in equal perfection. Body, in opaque and white pigments, is the quality of covering and hiding a ground well; but in transparent pigments it signifies richness of color, or tinting power; working well depends much on sufficient grinding, or fineness of texture; keeping their places and drying well belong principally to the vehicle, or liquid, with which they are tempered, and chiefly on the oil with which they are employed. Of all which and other particulars we shall have occasion to speak elsewhere, and in respect to individual pigments;-as we have more at large in our "Chromatography." All substances are positively or negatively colored, whence the abundance of natural and artificial pigments and dyes with which the painter and colorist in every art are supplied, and the infinity of others that may be added to them. As, however, it is durability that gives value to the beauty and other qualities of colors or pigments, and those of nature being for the most part adapted to temporary or transient purposes, few only are suited to the more lasting intentions of art, and hence a judicious selection is essential to the practice and purposes of artists. And as the present inquiry is concerning the employment of solid colors in painting, properly called Pigments, it is our express business to form such selections from those in use as are best adapted to the various requirements of painting in oil, in distemper, fresco, etc., and to denote their habits, mixture, and best modes of manipulation of each, and this we purpose in the proper order of the colors. In mixing colors the painter should avoid using a greater number of pigments than necessary, to afford the tints required, as such mixtures are usually fouler than the colors used, and their drying and other qualities are commonly injured thereby. Nor do we advise him to purchase ready-made compositions, and tints that he can produce better by mixture, for this is to submit his own skill and knowledge to the inferior skill, and for the gain of others: yet we by no means counsel the painter to lose his time in the manufacturing of original pigments, which he can obtain of better quality in the shops. Old pigments are also more to be depended on than new ones for drying, standing, etc. We proceed to speak of colors and pigments individually. OF WHITE AND ITS PIGMENTS. WHITE Is the basis of nearly all opaque painting designed for the laying and covering of grounds, whether they be of woodwork, metal, stone, plaster, or other substances, and should be as pure and neutral in color as possible, for the better mixing and compounding with other colors without changing their hues, while it renders them of lighter shades, and of the tints required; it also gives solid body to all colors. It is the most advancing of colors; that is, it comes forward and catches the eye before all other colors, and it assists in giving this quality to other colors, with which it may be mixed, by rendering their tints lighter and more vivid. Hence it appears to throw other colors back which are placed near it, and it powerfully con trasts dark colors, and black most so of all. The ter color is, however, equivocal when attributed to the neutrals, White, Black, and Grays, yet the artist is bound to regard them as colors; and in philosophic strictness they are such latently, compounded and compensated; for a thing cannot but be that of which it is composed, and the neutrals are composed of and comprehend all colors. White is the nearest among colors in relation to Yellow, and is in itself a pleasing and cheerful color, which takes every hue, tint, and shade, and harmonizes with all other colors, and is the contrast of Black, added to which it gives solidity in mixture, and a small quantity of black added to white cools it, and preserves it from its tendency to turn yellow. White inixed with Black forms various Greys and Lead-color, so called. From the above qualities of white it is of more extensive use in painting than any other color, and it is hence of the first importance to the painter to have its pigments of the best quality. These are abundant, of which we shall here notice those only of practical importance to the painter and decorator. Notwithstanding white pigments are an exceedingly numerous class, an unexceptional white is still a desideratum. The white earths are destitute of body in oii and varnish, and metallic whites of the best body are not permanent in water; yet when properly discriminated, we have eligible whites for most purposes. WHITE LEAD, Or ceruse, and other white oxides of lead, under the various denominations of Philadelphia, London, and Nottingham whites, etc., Flake white, Crems or Cremnitz white, Roman and Venetian whites, Blanc d'argent or Silver white, Sulphate of lead, Antwerp white, etc. The heaviest and whitest of these are the best, and in point of color and body are superior to all other whites. They are all, when pure and properly applied in oil and var nish. safe and durable, and dry well without addition: but excess of oil discolors them, and in water-painting they are changeably even to blackness. They have also a destructive effect upon all vegetal lakes, except the madder lakes, and madder carmines; they are equally injurious to red and orange leads or minium, king's and patent yellow, massicot, gamboge, orpiments, etc.; but ultra-marine, red and orange vermilions, yellow and orange chromes, madder colors, Sienna earth, Indian red, and all the ochres, compound with these whites with little or no injury. In oil painting, white lead is essential, in the ground, in dead coloring, in the formation of tints of all colors, and in scumbling, either alone or mixed with all other pigments. It is also the best local white when neutralized with black, but must not be employed in water-color painting, distemper, crayon painting, or fresco, nor with any pigment having an inflammable basis, or liable to be destroyed by fire, for with all such they occasion change of color, either by becoming dark themselves, or by fading the colors they are mixed with. Cleanliness in using these pigments is necessary for health; for though not virulently poisonous, they are pernicious when taken into or imbibed by the pores or otherwise, as are all other pigments of which lead is the basis. A fine natural white oxide, or carbonate of lead, would be a valuable acquisition, if found in abundance; and there occur in Cornwall specimens of a very beauti ful carbonate of lead, of spicular form, brittle, soft, and purely white, which should be collected for the artist's use. Adulterations.*—All the white lead which is manufactured into paint is more or less sophisticated, and chiefly with barytic compounds. The practice is carried on to such an extent, in some cases, that more than three-fourths of the mineral constituents of the paints are adulterated. This is invariably done at the manu factory, and unless specially required, the white lead is never ground per se with the oil; and therefore the varjous qualities of white lead are, in some respects, synonymous with the extent of spurious matter incorporated * Chemistry, Theoretical, Practical, and Analytical, as applied to the Arts and Manufactures, by Dr. Sheridan Muspratt, 2 vols. 8 vo., Glasgow |