Chapter 2
The strainer, on which crayon paper or any kind of photographic enlargement is to be mounted, should be the same size as the intended picture. The frame is made of four strips of pine wood, two inches wide, one inch thick on the outside, and three quarter inch on the inside, making a quarter inch bevel on the inside edge of the face; these are nailed together and glued. To this, tack a piece of bleached muslin, free from knots and rough places, which has been cut two inches larger each way than the frame. Use six ounce Swede upholsterers' tacks, placing one in the centre of the outside edge of one side and another directly opposite, stretching the muslin as firmly as possible with the fingers. Then place a third tack in the centre of the outside edge of the top, and a fourth in the centre of the bottom of the frame, stretching as before. In finishing, use the pliers in addition to the fingers, and remember that you must always stretch from the centre towards the corner or you will have wrinkles in the muslin. As this process should be thoroughly understood, I will give minute directions for completing the operation. Having already placed the four tacks as above, stand the strainer on its bottom edge on the floor, with the back towards you, and put in the fifth tack two inches to the right of the third, that is, the one on the top previously mentioned. Instead of stretching the muslin directly back in a straight line towards you and at right angles to the fourth tack, you must draw it with the fingers towards the right hand corner. Then finish stretching, and tacking this edge to the right hand corner of the top, placing the tacks two inches apart and taking care to only draw the cloth sufficiently to have it perfectly smooth and straight on the edges, leaving the stretching to be done with the pliers; then turn the strainer on the side edge and tack at two inch intervals from the centre of the other (that is the upper) side to the right hand corner, same as before, and then tack half of the bottom edge and half of the other side in the same way. You will observe that you now have only one half of the muslin tacked--that is, one half on each edge--and you then complete the tacking, using the pliers to thoroughly stretch the muslin. This method has the advantage that you can stretch the muslin on the strainer and get it on better and in less than half the time required by the old method; also that you stretch the whole surface of the muslin with the pliers, and do it with only half the work.
MOUNTING CRAYON PAPER AND PLATINUM AND SILVER ENLARGEMENTS.
Wet in clean water a piece of muslin about two inches larger each way than the paper you intend to mount, and lay it on the mounting board or table, removing all the wrinkles with a wet brush; then place the paper on this cloth, face down, and with some water and a brush, wet the back of the paper, continuing to use the brush until all the wrinkles are entirely smoothed out and the paper lies down perfectly flat. Any number of pieces of paper can be wet at the same time by placing one over the other, provided the larger sizes are laid down first and each is brushed out flat before another is placed over it. Let the paper soak for about fifteen minutes.
After having removed the surplus water from the paper with a cloth, sponge or squeegee, apply starch paste to the paper with a paste brush, going over it thoroughly, until it has received an even coat of paste free from lumps. Then lay one of the back-boards on a table and, having placed the strainer down on it face up, give the cloth of the latter a coat of paste, using the same care you did in going over the paper, taking pains to have the edges of the cloth well pasted, and to remove, by passing your finger all around the outside edges of the strainer, any paste which may be there. Now pick the paper up and place it on the pasted surface of the strainer, which an assistant should hold tipped towards you. (The help of an assistant will be found almost indispensable in mounting). After the paper is in the proper place, lay the strainer down and secure each corner of the paper, by first lifting it slightly and then rubbing it down with a clean cloth from the direction of the centre towards the corner you have lifted up. With a sharp knife trim off the edges of the paper and set it away to dry, but neither near a fire nor in too cold a place. You can very often save the remounting of a paper by occasionally glancing at it as it dries and by gently rubbing down a little with the fingers any places that look as if they would not stick. Very often the paper will be all right with the exception of this difficulty at one edge or corner. This is invariably the lower part, and is caused by the water settling there. It is therefore advisable to change the position of the strainer two or three times as it dries, letting it stand on different edges.
After the paper is dry, if there are any places that have refused to stick fast to the cloth, it will be impossible for you to remedy the matter, and you must remount it. You proceed, therefore, to remove the paper from the cloth. This you do by turning the strainer face down and filling the back of it with warm water, allowing it to remain there until you think that the paste has become thoroughly dissolved; then turn the strainer over and carefully remove the paper. If it should not come off readily, fill the strainer again with water, and soak it until it will come off. After you have removed the paper, lay it on a wet cloth, and with a case knife clean off the starch, using care not to injure the surface of the paper, and also clean off the starch from the strainer; then proceed to remount as before. When you once understand that you cannot spoil an enlargement on account of defective mounting, you will work more confidently. After you have tried three times to remount, and the paper still insists in not sticking, you must take a new strainer, as too many wettings will have spoilt the cloth and wood. Sometimes there seems to be a difference in the stretching qualities of the enlargement and cloth, which makes it impossible to produce a perfect cohesion. When, therefore, it has been remounted three times and does not come out perfect, your best course is to mount a piece of crayon paper on a new strainer, and after it is thoroughly dry to then mount the enlargement on that. This you do in the manner described for mounting in the first instance, directly on the strainer, except that you do not coat with paste the crayon paper already mounted.
It sometimes happens, that after the paper has been mounted and dried, it is discovered that lumps in the paste have caused defects to appear on the face of the paper in the shape of raised surfaces that unfit it for the intended purpose. These can be entirely removed by wetting the back of the strainer with some clean water immediately behind where the lumps of paste are, and with a knife scraping the cloth a little at these places; the surplus paste will work itself out through the cloth.
The starch paste used in mounting should not be made very thick; on the contrary, it should be as thin as is consistent with still retaining all its adhesive qualities. Should you fear that it is too thick or lumpy, strain it through a piece of cheese cloth. In a former edition of this book I advised adding to the paste a little white glue dissolved in warm water, but I do not now consider this necessary for crayon paper or photographic enlargements, and do not recommend its use except for mounting paper of unusual thickness.
The foregoing directions for mounting apply to platinum or silver enlargements, crayon or other kinds of paper, but not to bromide enlargements. The bromide paper requires a different method of handling on account of the gelatin surface, which when wet is destroyed by contact with any dry substance, as the latter removes the gelatin.
For determining the proper position of photographic enlargements (bust pictures) on the strainer, the following scale will be useful as a general guide. When the size of the strainer is 16×20, 20×24, 22×26, or 25×30 inches, the distances from its top to the top of the head of the portrait should be respectively 3-1/2, 4, 4-1/2 and 5-1/2 inches.
MOUNTING BROMIDE ENLARGEMENTS.
The first requisite for this is a water-tight tray, large enough to hold the enlargements. A hard rubber tray can be purchased, or a wooden one that will answer the purpose may be made. I use one of my own construction that is cheap and serviceable. It is simply a wooden box, 27×32 inches and 4 inches deep, made of 1/2 inch grooved material and lined with black oil cloth, not cut at the corners, but folded in. In this, when about half full of water, lay the enlargement face up, and let it remain in the water fifteen minutes. It should then be laid face down on the wet cloth (which should be all ready) as described in the preceding chapter, for mounting crayon paper. Care must be exercised to have the cloth wet all over, for if there should be any dry spots in it they would ruin the gelatin surface. With a cloth or squeegee remove the water from the back of the enlargement and also from the cloth around its edges, for if there is too much water on the edge of the cloth it will work up into the paste and prevent it from sticking when mounted. Now paste the enlargement and strainer according to the directions given for mounting crayon paper, place the enlargement on the strainer and rub it down by using the fingers wet in a little water, or the squeegee can be used; and then trim off even with the outside of the strainer. Avoid rubbing too hard along the edges, as by so doing you will press out all the paste and it will not stick.
You can remount a bromide enlargement as often as necessary in case it does not come out perfect, only bear in mind that you must not allow anything dry to touch the surface when wet. But I should not advise you to try more than three times directly on the strainer. It would be better to mount a piece of crayon paper on a new strainer, and after it is dry to remount the bromide enlargement on that.
OUTLINES--NEGATIVE OUTLINE.
After the crayon paper has been mounted on the strainer and dried, the next step is to obtain the outline. I will first treat of free-hand crayons, taking it for granted that the reader is not able to produce crayons from life, but works from a photograph. There are five different methods of making an outline, from which the reader can make his own selection.
Make a negative from the photograph that is to be enlarged, and construct for a room that is entirely dark, with the exception of one window, a dark inside shutter, with an opening in it the size of the negative you intend to use. Place a cleat on each side and at the bottom of this opening, so that the negative may be made to slide in front of it. Having removed the ground glass from your camera box, fasten the latter against the shutter so that the opening comes in the centre of the box. You can fasten it with four hooks and eyes, or arrange cleats on the shutter and pieces on the box, so that it will slide into place. Be sure and have the box come tight against the shutter so that the light will be entirely excluded. Place the negative over the small opening in the shutter and adjust the camera box; then stand the easel with the crayon strainer on it at the proper distance to give the required size of the enlargement and focus the image sharp on the crayon paper. The strainer must stand at the same angle as the shutter; that is, if the shutter is perpendicular then the strainer must stand perpendicular also. Then go over the outline and shadow lines with the charcoal, after which open the shutter and examine the outline and see if it is right. As you are working in the dark you are apt to overlook some lines. If you have done so you can close the shutter again and make them. If it proves to be all right go over it with the crayon point No. 2.
MAGIC LANTERN OUTLINE.
This is the method I am using at present in my own free-hand crayon work, and prefer because it does not require a negative. I use a McAllister Magic Lantern, No. 653, with a wonder camera attachment. This attachment enables you to make an enlargement from a cabinet or card photograph, and to dispense with a negative. If you intend to do very much free-hand crayon work I should advise you to get one, as it will soon pay for itself. The lantern should be put in working condition according to the printed directions that come with it, and placed on your table. I use a table six feet long, sixteen inches wide, and thirty inches high. Nail to one side of the table, four inches from the end, a stick six feet long, one inch wide, and one-half inch thick, using two two-inch brads. One end of the stick should rest on the floor, care being taken that it stand perfectly perpendicular, a square being used if necessary to secure this result. The stick will have a length of 42 inches above the table, which will be ample for the use of a 25 by 30 strainer. Place the strainer, with the crayon paper mounted on it, facing outward on its bottom edge on the table and nail it fast to the stick with two brads, letting it stand at right angles with the edge of the table with its back towards the lantern, which is at the other end of the table. The object of placing the strainer with the back towards the lantern is that the image must show through the strainer or the outline would be drawn reversed. Draw a charcoal mark on the back of the strainer vertically through the centre, and mark the proper distance from the top of strainer horizontally where the top of the head should come. Now move the lantern until you have it the proper distance from the strainer to make the head the size desired, and afterwards focus the features sharp and distinct, using the charcoal marks for the proper place to make the head, the vertical line coming through the centre of the face; then, seated at the end of the table, in front of the strainer, make a charcoal outline as in the former method.
Of course the magic lantern can be used for producing an outline only at night, or in a perfectly darkened room.
The following table will prove a safe guide to follow in determining the size of the head for bust pictures. The distance from the roots of the hair on the forehead to the bottom of the chin should be:
For 14 by 17 inch pictures, 4 inches, " 16 " 20 " " 4-1/2 " " 18 " 22 " " 5 " " 20 " 24 " " 6 " " 22 " 27 " " 6-1/2 " " 25 " 30 " " 7 " " 29 " 36 " " 7 " showing the hands.
TRANSFER OUTLINE.
For this method an enlargement made from the photograph is required, but it needs to be an enlargement of the head only--that is, a 11×14 inch enlargement of the head will answer for a 25×30 inch crayon portrait, and serve as a guide to work from in making the crayon.
Transparent tracing paper (made of fine tissue paper, oiled with clarified linseed oil and then dried,) is laid on the enlarged photograph, and the outline gone over with a soft lead pencil. The tracing paper is then turned and its back is rubbed all over with charcoal, when it is laid charcoal side down on the mounted crayon paper, and carefully fastened with four thumb tacks. The lines first made are then gone over with a sharp pointed lead pencil. When the tracing paper is removed a perfect outline in charcoal is found to have been made. This should then be gone over with the crayon point No. 2. The rest of the portrait is sketched in from the original picture.
THE METROSCOPE
Comprises a series of squares accurately engraved upon the finest plate glass by machinery. The two plates of glass (of which one form of the instrument consists), are ruled for convenience with squares differing in size. These are framed and held together by thumb screws, allowing sufficient space between them for inserting and securing a picture the size of a cabinet photograph. The lines are thus brought into such perfect contact with all parts of the photograph so that they appear to be drawn on it. One feature of this instrument which renders the square system very practical, consists of the division and sub-division of the squares by dotted lines and dash lines. The eye naturally divides a line or space into halves and quarters, and for this reason the dash lines have been designated for quartering the main lines, and the dotted lines for quartering the squares thus formed. This gives sixteen times as many squares for use as are drawn upon the photograph.
A method based on the same principle as the metroscope, but not requiring the use of that instrument, may be pursued, as follows: Fasten the photograph to a board, mark the space at the top, bottom and sides into one-quarter inch divisions, and drive sharp pointed pins in each of the division marks. Taking a spool of white thread run it across vertically and horizontally from each pin to the one opposite, and you will then have the photograph divided into one-quarter inch squares; then, if your enlargement is to be six times the size of the photograph, take the mounted crayon paper and divide the sides and top and bottom in 1-1/2 inch squares, run thread across the same as for the photograph, and then proceed to draw the outline, first in charcoal, and afterwards with the crayon. The spaces marked on the crayon paper should in each case, of course, be as many times greater than those marked on the photograph as the intended enlargement is greater than the photograph.
THE PANTOGRAPH.
This instrument for enlarging or reducing a picture was invented about the year 1603. It consists of four metallic or wooden bars or rules, which are perforated by a series of holes (numbered from 1 to 20), and connected together by means of an adjustable thumb screw. The instrument is provided with a tracing and a marking point, and a screw or point which is forced into the drawing board to hold the instrument in position. A good pantograph will cost about two dollars; those of a cheaper grade are entirely worthless for practical use, while a good one will last a life time. A little experience will enable any one to learn the use of the numbers.
To employ the instrument select the number on the bars corresponding to the number of times the subject is to be enlarged, and connect the adjustable ends of the bars so that they intersect at this number; secure the pantograph to the drawing board at the left hand side; place a piece of manilla paper at the other end of the board and secure it with thumb tacks, taking care to smooth all the wrinkles out. Next adjust the marking point in the centre of the paper; and secure the photograph to the board so that its centre shall be directly under the tracing point, which should always touch it. If it does not do so at first, place a little weight on the instrument over this point heavy enough to bring it in contact with the photograph. Now guide the instrument, by taking hold of the tracing point while at the same time you watch the marking point. In this manner go over the entire photograph, putting in all the details necessary, after which you can transfer this outline to the crayon paper by means of the tracing paper according to the former method given for transferring an outline.
These are all the best methods of producing an outline. In each of them you fasten the charcoal lines with the No. 2 crayon points, and then, having brushed off the charcoal, proceed to put in the background for your portrait. This you do by any one of the methods given in the following pages.
FOUR METHODS OF MAKING THE BACKGROUND.
The background can be made first, with the crayon sauce and the use of the large gray stump and rubber eraser; second, with the cotton and rubber, by using the cotton in applying the crayon sauce to put in the dark places in the background, and then finishing with the rubber; third, by the use of the line effect; and fourth, by the stipple effect, produced by the use of pumice stone. This last I consider far superior to any of the others, as it changes the appearance of the surface of the paper entirely, and produces an effect altogether different from that ordinarily shown in a background. It is also free from the mussy, dirty appearance which is produced by the use of the cotton and crayon sauce alone. I have been repeatedly asked by both amateurs and professionals what kind of paper I use in free-hand crayons. The inquiry arose from the fact that treating the paper by the fourth method changes the appearance of the surface of the paper and also its color. I have never before, however, given to the public, nor even to my pupils, the secret of this process. When the pupil has mastered it so as to once produce the satisfactory effect of which it is capable, he will find that it has all the advantages I claim for it and is a secret well worth knowing, in fact, what would be termed one of the tricks of the profession, and a very valuable one. I must confess, however, that I discovered it by an accident. I had been experimenting for years in making backgrounds in order to produce an effect that was entirely satisfactory to me, and had failed to reach just what I wanted. One day, however, I was at work on a portrait that I was very particular with, but the background of which proved quite unsatisfactory to me. In despair I threw on a handful of pumice stone, intending to entirely remove the background by its aid, when, to my surprise and delight, I found I was producing the very effect that I had been seeking for years, namely, one rendering the background of a different color from the face and giving it a clear, transparent appearance, so that the eye seemed to penetrate it, quite different from the opaque, almost dirty backgrounds, resulting from the use of other methods.
I will treat each of these methods in separate chapters further on.
FREE-HAND CRAYONS AND THOSE MADE FROM PHOTOGRAPHIC ENLARGEMENTS.
The principal difference between the appearance of free-hand crayons and those that are made over a photographic enlargement, is that in the former the shadows are lighter and more transparent. In the matter of feeling, however, the free-hand crayon is much more satisfactory to the artist for he knows it is all his own work, and that he has not depended on the photographic enlargement to help him make the portrait.
After the outline has been drawn, in making a free-hand crayon, the portrait is still not yet in the same state of advancement as a silver, platinum or bromide enlargement; for the reason that the latter not only has the outline, but also the faint impression in light and shade of the rest of the portrait. I will, therefore, in the next chapter, give instructions for filling in the free-hand crayon up to such a degree of light and shade as shall put it in the same condition as the enlargement. From that point on the same directions (to be subsequently given) for finishing the portrait will apply equally to both the free-hand crayons and the enlargements, except that the bromide is understood to require special treatment.