|
Towler, John. The Silver Sunbeam.
Joseph H. Ladd, New York: 1864. Electronic edition prepared from
facsimile edition of Morgan and Morgan, Inc., Hastings-on-Hudson,
New York. Second printing, Feb. 1974. ISBN 871000-005-9
Chapter XXXV.
THE CARD-PICTURE.
THIS picture does not differ from any other photograph in the
essential parts of its structure or preparation. No picture has ever
had so wide a sphere of action, has gratified taste so long, or has
been as productive of gain to the photographer as the card-picture.
It is the picture of the day, and has tended considerably to
simplify the photographic establishment. A few years past a number
of cameras were required, ranging from the quarter to the extra four
fourth tube; now, a single tube, either a one fourth or a
one third will be a complete outfit as regards lenses for an
ordinary practitioner, with which, Deo volente, and the war
to boot, a fortune may soon be realized. The card-picture generally
comprehends the whole figure, either sitting, standing, gracefully
leaning against a pillar or balustrade, performing some natural and
easy operation, as playing the piano or guitar, trimming a flower in
the arbor, or sailing in the yacht; in fact, the photographer, at
least the artist, aims to pose his model in the midst of nature's
charms with ease and grace, and perfectly free from all
constraint.
The size of the card-picture is a distinct characteristic from
all other pictures. The mounts of cardboard for this picture are
four inches long by two inches and one third wide; they can be had
already prepared, plain or ornamented, with gilt edges, or with a
gilt border, at any of the photographic wholesale establishments in
the city. The prints are smaller than the mounts, leaving a margin
of about one tenth of an inch on either side and on the top; the
margin at the bottom is larger, being about a quarter of an inch.
The paper on which such pictures are printed is of the finest
quality, and very uniformly and highly albumenized. It is impossible
to obtain the fine, sharp definition on plain paper as on albumen,
because of the difference of homogeneity in the two surfaces. Tinted
albumen paper, too, is now sometimes used to meet the wishes of the
fanciful, or the cravings after novelty.
Lenses for the Card-Picture.
Lenses for the card-picture are prepared with great care, so as
to produce as little distortion as possible in the complete figure.
On this account a long-focussed tube is preferred to one that is
shorter; but of two tubes, if they both produce irreproachable
pictures in a given room, the one, which is the result of the
short-focussed instrument, will exhibit more roundness, a finer
stereoscopic effect than the other. Choose therefore the shortest
tube that will perform all that is required in a card-picture, and
at the distance which your glass-house will admit of. Where the
business in this department is extensive, two tubes, or even four
tubes are mounted at the requisite distance apart for the taking of
two or four photographs at the same time. Furthermore, by an
arrangement of the plate-holder in the camera, by which it is caused
to slide either horizontally or vertically, or in both directions,
as many as eight or sixteen photographs can be taken at the same
sitting. It would be a waste of time to get up such cameras one's
self; they are manufactured very neatly and accurately by city
artisans, and are fitted up with the number of tubes ordered or
required. Each tube is focussed separately upon the sitter, and then
by a shutter the tubes are opened and shut cosentaneously at will.
After a proper number of seconds have expired, the shutter is
closed, and the plate-holder is moved a fixed distance, so as to
expose another portion of the collodion plate. In the mean while the
model remains quite still. The shutter is again opened and the plate
exposed as before.
Development.
This operation scarcely needs any elucidation; the proper
negative effect has to be attained by means of the reducing agent
and the intensifier as before minutely described. The image is by
far softer, and in other respects more agreeable, if the negative
can receive its requisite amount of density by the primary
development, or nearly so, so that, when intensified, but little
more has to be accomplished, and this little can be effected by a
weak intensifier. When the strengthening solution is very strong, it
is apt to engender a pulverulent deposit on the surface of the
collodion which detracts from softness and sharpness, communicating
to the photograph an appearance of measles or small-pox. In this
respect it is indifferent whatever may be the size of the negative,
where there is a tendency to this powdery phenomenon, whether it
arise from the collodion, or, as I have just remarked, from a
deposit of the silver, it is always advisable to intensify
slowly.
One point in the taking of negatives I have not yet adverted to.
In the wet process, if the sensitized plate has to wait long between
the time of its removal from the silver bath and its development,
the silver solution evaporates rapidly, and the plate becomes dry,
or nearly so; the consequence of this is supposed to be,
that, as the solution thus becomes stronger, it dissolves the iodide
of silver in the film, and gives rise to the phenomenon of minute
apertures. Without attaching much credit to this rationale of a
trouble which is very annoying, we do know that if the silvered
plate becomes dry the development is very irregular. Another cause
of the minute apertures alluded to is a quantity of insoluble
bromide in the collodion. It is a recommendation, therefore, to
dissolve the iodides and bromides in the preparation of collodion,
first in alcohol, and to filter the solution, after standing several
hours, before it is added to the plain collodion. Another reason,
and probably a very frequent one, is to be traced to the minute
insoluble particles in the silver bath, which settle upon the tender
collodion film, and become as it were imbedded in it. These in the
subsequent operations of developing and fixing produce either opaque
pulverulent black points, or transparent ones, just as they retain a
fixed position in or on the film, or are washed or dissolved off
Both these phenomena are exceedingly annoying. Such a cause can be
removed by filtration, or by a sort of coagulation, (if I may use
the word here instead of precipitation,) by means of a small
quantity of a solution of salt, and then by filtration. This
operation certainly weakens the bath, but it makes it at the same
time a better solvent of certain impurities that tend to cause the
trouble in question. The tendency to these horrid pin-holes
is greater when the bath is strong than when it is weak; it
would appear, however, that the insoluble iodide of silver in the
film can scarcely be a cause of the trouble; for being present
everywhere in the film, it would be uniformly dissolved as the
silver solution gradually increased in strength, and would thus
present a condition for actinism the very best that could be
desired. There is certainly no doubt that these apertures are caused
in the majority of cases by an insoluble pulverulent substance,
loosely attached to the surface of the collodion, and either
sensitive to the actinic rays or not, (which is quite immaterial to
the argument;) these, imbedded on the surface of the collodion and
opaque, prevent the rays from penetrating to the true film beneath,
and being afterward brushed off or dissolved off by the acids in the
developer or by the fixing solution, expose parts in which the
iodides and bromides have not undergone the luminous influence, and
are hence made transparent by the hyposulphite of soda, like any
other protected part.
In fine, no general rule is known by which à
priori these pin-holes can always be avoided and
accounted for.
The card-negative, next to that which is prepared for the solar
camera, must be bright and transparent, free from the slightest
trace of mistiness or fogging, and of such a depth of shade as to
preserve the whites, whilst at the same time the operation of
printing is performed quickly. That the negative must be sharp
is a sine quâ non; and in order that the negative
be sharp and well-defined to the very edge, and from top to toe,
spare no expense, no trouble in securing a reliable lens. With this,
and a moderate share of intelligence, an operator may run his career
without impediment to success; whilst his neighbors, with poor
lenses, whatever their amount of education, will roll down the hill
to perdition. The lens leads to success or to
ruin.
Fixing.
There is no difference in this department from that which will be
found in reference to the melainotype, or the ordinary negative.
Either cyanide of potassium or hyposulphite of soda is used. The new
fixing agent, sulphocyanide of ammonium, it appears has no claims of
superiority over its predecessors; it has, however, a decided
disadvantage, and that is its expense; this will always exist
comparatively, because cyanide of potassium can more easily be
manufactured. Like the cyanide, too, it has toxical properties. In
order to avoid all the poisonous effects that might arise from
contact of such substances with the broken skin or wounds, as well
as the discoloration of the skin from the silver salts during
development, I would recommend a plan which I generally adopt. I do
not hold the negative in the hand when I intensify; it is placed on
a piece of glass cut out in the form of the porcelain dipper for the
silver bath. At one end a small piece of thick glass, one inch in
width, and as long as the dipper is wide, is cemented by
melted lac; over this is cemented a second piece, projecting above
the first one, so as to form a ledge beneath which the negative is
kept in its place. At the upper end the negative is secured in its
place by means of a clothes-pin. In this way the negative can be
intensified without obscuring the light that passes through it from
below, and the hand at the same time is protected from contact with
the pyrogallic acid and silver. Stains from nitrate of silver, or
from the pyrogallate can be removed, it is true, as long as they
have not been exposed much to light, by washing with cyanide of
potassium; but this would entail upon the operator the trouble of
washing after each negative, and might entail upon him incurable
ulcers. If he does not wash his hands after each negative has been
taken, there is no alternative, they must inevitably become black.
The glass dipper will obviate this trouble. Another trouble, but not
quite so alarming, arises from the mode we practise of turning the
prints round with the hands in the toning and fixing baths. The
health of operators is much impaired, and especially in those large
printing establishments, where a number of females are employed in
this department, who, by this continual manipulation in the two
fluids, are frequently in a suffering condition Now all this can be
avoided by a dexterous use of a glass rod, well rounded off at
either end, and held in either hand. The hands have no business
in these fluids; and all parties concerned, that is, hands,
fluids, and prints, will be benefited by following the
precaution recommended. With a little ingenuity a pair of porcelain
or glass forceps might be constructed for this special purpose,
consisting of porcelain or glass legs fastened into a steel spring
arch, which would hold them an inch or so asunder. Such forceps may
be used, too, in holding the negative either during development or
intensifying. The health of the photographer has to be looked to,
and means adopted for its preservation.
Printing of Card-Pictures.
There is nothing peculiar in the printing of card-pictures,
photographically speaking, as distinct from that in other pictures
on paper, except it be the number of photographs on the same plate;
for, as was to be inferred from the manner prescribed to take the
negative, this plate may contain as many as sixteen distinct
pictures; it seldom, however, contains as many. Condensing
reflectors find their application here to great advantage when the
light is dull. Such an arrangement of reflectors might be
constructed on a movable platform, or turn-table, capable of
rotating horizontally, whilst the frustum itself, lined by the
reflectors, and supported on vertical pillars, has a vertical
motion. By the two motions combined, the frustrum can be easily
brought in front of the direct rays of the sun, whereby a great
condensation of light can be effected on any given surface. It is
immaterial how large a surface may be occupied by the negative, or
the sum of the negatives on the same plate, reflectors can be made
in accordance, possessing the advantage of the direct rays that
strike the plate, as in ordinary printing, together with the extra
advantage of the condensed light from the rays after one reflection,
as well as from those after two reflections. The size of each of the
reflectors alluded to will be proportionate to that given in a
preceding chapter. If the negative plate be sixteen inches square,
then it will be four times as large in its linear dimensions, as in
the example given; consequently, multiplying 14 78/100 and 21 56/100
by this ratio, that is 4, we obtain 59 12/100 and 85 24/100 inches
for the length of the upper or larger base, and 86 24/100 inches for
the length of the side of each plate of glass in the frustum. Such a
machine, of course, will be expensive, but like a wind-mill where no
water exists, it will soon pay for its construction by economizing
time. By such a condensation of the sun's rays, a negative will
print well in from thirty to sixty seconds.
Vignette Printing.
A vignette is a picture of a portrait, consisting of the head and
part of the bust, of an oval shape, in the middle of the card,
surrounded by a sort of halo, or shading off gradually into the
white background.
For this sort of printing the operator has to be furnished with
vignette glasses, which are manufactured specially for such
operations, and to be had of all respectable dealers. The vignette
aperture can be had of any size required; it is formed of a piece of
glass, stained on one or on either side with a metallic oxide, which
is burnt into the glass. This stain, however, is a mere film, and
can easily be ground away of the requisite shape and size by the
lapidary, and then polished. The external parts being of a red
orange color, intercept or absorb those rays of light which would
act upon the sensitized collodion film, whilst through the vignette
opening all the rays can act almost with their primitive vigor. Such
a glass, or an appendage of such glasses, is placed first on the
glass of the printing-frame; upon this comes the negative, and then
the paper, as in ordinary printing arrangements.
Vignette glasses can be made by the photographer himself in the
following manner: Take apiece of glass of the proper size, and paint
either with water or oil colors the vignette opening in orange or
black; shading off toward the edges; fill up the remaining part with
white paint, shading the edges bordering on the vignette gradually
deeper and deeper, until the layer becomes uniformly white to the
edges of the glass. This is the matrix from which an indefinite
number of negatives can be copied, which will be, when varnished,
the vignettes required.
Toning, Fixing, and Mounting.
No further observations are requisite. Instructions on these
matters are given in detail in a preceding chapter of this work, and
on the coloring of the card-picture, of the stereograph and the
photograph in a chapter specially devoted to the subject.
On the Tinting and Coloring of
Photographs.
The colors required to tint or color photographs are the same as
those employed in miniature painting, and the same amount of
artistic skill is required in the one as in the other, where
excellence and perfection are the aim of the photographer. Where
very large photographs are to be colored, the fineness of miniature
painting for hatching or stippling is not essential, in fact it
would be out of place; in such a case a knowledge of crayon-drawing
is brought to bear on the subject. Colors for such artistic purposes
exist in three forms; in cakes, in powders, in liquids, in oil, and
in crayons.
For touching up daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, melainotypes, and
ferrotypes, colors in very fine powder are employed. These are laid
on the appropriate parts, shaded off so that no sharp edges exist,
and afterward the excess is blown off with an India-rubber blower,
either before the application of the varnish or afterward, or both
before and afterward, as in the alabastrine process, where the color
is laid on sometimes three or four times, until it shows through to
the other side.
Liquid colors, that is, the new Aniline colors, are specially
adapted for the tinting and coloring of albumen pictures; these
colors flow very easily, and the albumen surf Lee requires no
preparation. For the ordinary photographic practitioner in
card-pictures they are to be highly recommended.
Where the card-picture or photograph is to be colored, hatched
and stippled to perfection in the form of a miniature painting, the
artist requires a complete outfit of Newman's photographic colors,
etc. It is remarkable, however, to see with how few colors the
real artist can execute the most finished work.
The Colors used most frequently.
Chinese white, Naples yellow, raw sienna, burnt sienna, yellow
ochre, yellow lake, ivory black, bistre, gamboge, cobalt blue,
Prussian blue, indigo, Chinese vermilion, scarlet lake, neutral
tint, sap green, carmine, rose madder, purple lake, Venetian red,
pink madder, and sepia. These are in the form of cakes. To these may
be added a few bottles of liquid colors, as of silver white, chrome
yellows, greens, etc.
Other Indispensable Articles.
Sable, fitch, and camel's hair pencils, prepared ox-gall,
brushes, shells, stumps, slabs, palettes, varnish, gum-arabic,
gelatine, penetrating varnish, eraser, basin, tumbler, and
sponge.
Coloring of a Portrait.
In regard to coloring as to photography, I shall treat the
subject of shading as divisible into three parts: lights, middle
tones, and shades. An irregular surface has always these three
gradations, not separated by distinct lines of demarkation, but
flowing gradually or irregularly into one another, according as the
undulations of the surface are gradual or. irregular. Difference of
distance in a plain surface effects what irregularity effects on an
undulating surface, whose parts are nearly all at the same distance.
Supposing then a surface of one and the same uniform color gradually
retires from the eye, it is evident that the nearest parts are the
most brilliant and light, the middle parts less so, and the most
distant parts are the darkest and least brilliant. So it is also
with undulating surfaces, the most prominent parts are the lights or
the bright parts; the depressions or cavities, the shades or darkest
parts; and the retiring or intermediate parts are the middle tones.
This is the effect of light and distance, and we have to imitate
this only in color on a plane surface, for the gradations of shade
are already impressed in the photograph. The question to be solved
then is simply this: there are three different degrees of the same
color in a given space-which is the most appropriate manner of
obtaining this collocation or rather gradation of these shades of
color? Without the slightest pretension to dictate artistically on a
subject that takes much genius and incessant labor to attain to
perfection, I recommend to the photographer, who aims to ameliorate
his photographs somewhat respectably with color, to lay on the
middle tint first over the whole surface, and then the lights and
shades afterward, in their proper places, when the first is dry. To
be enabled to do this, select three gradations of the color in
question. It sometimes happens that the white of the paper forms the
lights; in this case the dark parts may be laid on and shaded off
into the lights.
Coloring the Face.
Paste the photograph on a piece of cardboard in the first place,
varnish the surface with Newman's preparation, and then proceed as
follows: Lay on cobalt blue in small quantity in all the shades and
depressions of the face with a light hand and small pencil, as, for
instance, along where the roots of the hair commence, about the
temples, about the chin, beneath the eyebrows, and around the
eyelashes, etc. With another pencil dipped in water, so as simply to
moisten it, spread the color so as to dilute it and shade it off, so
that it becomes more and more transparent, until it finally reaches
the bright lights and merges into them. You proceed in like manner
with the interior of the eyes, that is, on the visible parts of the
sclerotic or white of the eye. The object of this operation with
cobalt blue is to give more softness to the dark shades afterward.
The veins of the band, the borders of the coat, waistcoat, etc., and
the cuffs of the sleeves where they terminate on the linen, have to
be treated in like manner, beginning with the darkest part and
shading off into the lightest. Allow this color to dry, and in the
mean while prepare the colors for the face, neck, hands, etc.
For a person of fresh complexion mix up a little yellow ochre,
with one third the quantity of vermilion and pink lake in water on
the palette or slab, and cover the face, (with the exception of the
eyes,) the arms, the hands, etc., with a thin and uniform layer of
this mixture; then tint immediately the cheek-bones and other
prominences with a very thin mixture of rose madder and vermilion,
in order to give more animation to these parts above the rest. If
the person bas a red complexion, these colors are heightened still
more; and where the complexion is very pale, less vermilion is used,
and no color on the cheeks. The upper lip, being in shade, must be
tinted with a mixture of cobalt blue and lake, whilst vermilion is
employed for the lower.
For a sun-burnt complexion, add to the colors indicated a small
quantity of bistre, and proceed with the general wash as before;
follow up with lake and vermilion for cheeks, where they are
colored, and use nothing where they are pale. Where yellow prevails
in the complexion, increase the ochre. Where a simply tinted picture
is required, the operation may stop here; but where a higher finish
is desired, you may proceed and stipple in a light tint of lake and
vermilion on the bright parts of the cheeks, lips, etc., by using a
very fine-pointed pencil, and filling up the parts with contiguous
fine dots or points of color; and by hatching over the shadows on
the forehead and the retiring parts, the temples and the chin with a
bluish-gray color, that is, fill up these parts with contiguous
short lines, and then cross them in a similar manner, so as to
produce a greater depth of shade. Use a little pink madder in the
corner of the eye next the hose; stipple the lips too, and mix a
little Chinese white with the lake and vermilion for the high
lights. The edge of the eyelids have to be treated in a similar way.
Stippling and hatching are more especially required where the colors
have not been neatly laid on in the first operations. We now proceed
to the hair.
Blonde Hair.
Wash the entire surface of the hair with a mixture of yellow
ochre and bistre in small quantity; then soften the colors down
where they border on the temples and the forehead with a pencil
dipped in water. As soon as this wash is dry, take a very fine long
pencil and proceed to introduce the dark parts with a mixture of
ochre containing more bistre. The lights are produced by adding
either a little white or Naples yellow to the original mixture of
yellow ochre and bistre. Both the lights and shades are introduced
by streaks of color in the direction of the hair, taking care to
avoid the wiry effect produced by making each hair separately.
Soften down those parts that border on the background, and stipple
up those parts along the roots of the hair with cobalt blue or gray,
lest the boundary of the hair should be too marked, and give it the
appearance of being inlaid.
Chestnut-Colored Hair.
Cover the whole with a layer of bistre; then finish up the shades
with a mixture of ivory black and bistre, the lights with Naples
yellow and bistre, and the high lights with a little white mixed
with cobalt.
Black Hair.
The general wash for such hair is ivory black diluted with water;
the dark shades are put in with ivory black of greater consistency,
and the lights with the same color, mixed with white and cobalt if
the hair is blue-black, and with white and a little pink madder if
the hair is of a pure black.
Gray hair.
Cover the whole with a mixture of equal quantities of bistre and
white; the dark parts with bistre and a less quantity of white; the
lights with bistre and more white than in the general wash, and the
high lights with cobalt, white, and pink madder.
Red hair.
Take yellow ochre and burnt sienna for the general tint; the same
and a little bistre for the shades; white, yellow ochre and burnt
sienna for the intermediate lights; white, cobalt and lake for the
high lights.
White Hair.
The general tint is that of the photograph itself; the shades are
put in with a little black, and a very small portion of yellow ochre
and cobalt, and the lights with Chinese white.
The head and face may now be considered nearly finished; all that
remains to be done is to put in the deep touches about the eyes with
sepia and pink madder, worked up with a little gum-arabic; those
about the nose are put in with sepia and gum-water. Put in the light
in the pupil of the eye with Chinese white. All these final touches
require great care and skill.
The hand, the neck, the shoulders, etc., are retouched with the
final stipplings or hatchings in the same way, in order to give
animation to the picture, observing to put in greys or cobalt blue
in the shades, and pink madder in the bright lights.
Drapery.
The handsomest drapery is black. The general wash is ivory black
of the consistency of ink. This is laid on uniformly with a full
pencil, beginning at the top and proceeding downward to the lowest
edge, the picture being inclined during this operation. All excess
is removed with a dry pencil, and the layer is allowed to dry. When
dry, the dark shades are put in with ivory black, of greater
consistency, and the lights with ivory black, mixed with Chinese
white and pink madder.
In all cases of tinting or coloring with any degree of
refinement, it is indispensable for the beginner to be provided with
two photographs of the model, one to receive the color, and the
other to serve as guide for the introduction of the shades, in case
they become obliterated in the general wash.
Blue Drapery.
The general tint consists of Prussian blue, or indigo, as the
case may require, mixed with a little black and pink madder; the
dark parts are put in with the same mixture, containing more black,
and the lights with the same, containing an admixture of white. For
light blues, cobalt blue may be used; and the lights may be obtained
by proceeding with a pencil dipped in water over the parts, so as to
remove a portion of the color.
Green Drapery.
Cover the dress with a mixture of yellow lake and Prussian blue;
and throw in the shades with the same color, mixed with a little
black and pink madder. The lights are put in with emerald green, and
the high lights with this color, mixed with a little white.
Iced Drapery.
The general wash consists of vermilion, mixed with a little pink
madder diluted with water. Add to this a little bistre or black for
the dark shades, and Naples yellow or white in place of bistre for
the lights.
Rose-Colored Drapery.
Rub up pink madder with the requisite quantity of water for the
general wash; to this add a little black for the shades, and a
little white for the lights.
Brown Drapery.
Use burnt sienna, with a small portion of black bistre for the
general tint; for the shades add a little black, and for the lights
a little white.
Pink Drapery.
Cover the dress with a dilute solution of pink madder; then put
in the shades with a mixture of pink madder, black and cobalt; and
the lights with pink madder and Chinese white.
White Drapery.
The general tint is cobalt, much diluted; yellow ochre, cobalt
and a little black form the shades, and Chinese white is used for
the lights.
Yellow Drapery.
Any of the yellows, as yellow ochre, yellow lake, gamboge, or
chrome yellow, diluted with water, may be used for the ground color;
a little bistre added to the yellow forms the dark parts; and a
little white to the yellow is used to pro duce the lights.
Pearl Gray.
Mix a little cobalt, black and pink madder for the ground color;
add to this Chinese white for the lights; for the shades use a
mixture of ivory black and cobalt.
Violet.
Take equal quantities of Prussian blue and pink madder for the
general wash; white and this mixture produce the lights; and neutral
tint is used for the shades.
Background.
The background must be secondary in effect to the real object in
the picture; as a general rule, it must be lighter than the shades
of this object, and darker than the lights. Avoid the appearance of
inlaying the object or portrait in the background. This can be done
by the appropriate use of shadow, which can be made to throw the
background far into the distance behind.
A similar uniform fiat tint is laid on as already described for
the drapery. Where defects exist in the photograph, a general wash
is first laid on and then pulverized crayon of the proper color is
rubbed on this, when dry, by means of the finger, and in those parts
in contiguity with the figure with a fine stump. Curtains, pillars,
tables, etc., are put in precisely in the same way as drapery; only
be very cautious not to make these the principal objects of
the picture by extreme definition and brilliancy of color. They must
be thrown into the background by less intensity of color, and by a
general feebleness of outline.
How to Imitate Metals, etc., with
Color.
The artist does not use the metals themselves in miniature
painting; it would be an insult to art to request their use. They
can all be imitated by color as follows:
Gold.--Take an equal quantity of yellow lake and yellow
ochre, and, a very small quantity of burnt sienna, and mix them
together on the slab, and cover the part desired with this mixture.
As soon as this foundation color is dry, use burnt sienna alone for
the shades. The lights are formed of chrome yellow, and are
completed in the high lights with a little Chinese yellow.
Silver--Mix yellow ochre and cobalt in equal quantities
together with a small portion of ivory black; this forms the
ground-work. The shades are made with a little neutral tint or ivory
black; and the lights with Chinese white laid on with a firm
touch.
Iron.--The ground-work consists of cobalt blue, with small
portions of black and yellow ochre. The shades are made with neutral
tint and a small quantity of ochre; the lights consisting of white,
tinted slightly with black.
Mother of Pearl.--This substance takes light in the
photograph; there is no ground-tone; put in a very light tint of
cobalt blue, as also of very light pink madder in two or three
places, taking care they do not come in contact; the shades are then
formed of black ochre and cobalt; and the lights with Chinese
white.
Lace, etc.--Lay on a general tint of ivory black somewhat
deeper than that of the dress; the meshes are then introduced with
white mixed with a little blue and black. The design is finished by
indicating it with Chinese white.
Precious Stones.--Rubies, sapphires, emeralds, etc.,
receive a foundation of neutral tint of considerable consistency;
Chinese white is put on the luminous part; whereas the reflection,
which is on the opposite side to the luminous part, receives the
color of the stone. The diamond alone, owing to its nature, has a
reflection of a more dead white.
As soon as the portrait is finished, pass over the eyes, the
hair, the eye-lashes. the nose, and the mouth, lightly with a
solution of gum; do the same also with satin stuffs, such as
collars, waistcoats, and robes. Used in moderation, this solution
communicates a vigor and freshness to the picture which are quite
satisfactory.
(The preceding article on tinting and coloring is extracted
almost entirely from the small work on this subject by Hilaire
David.)
|