Part 15

Tint all the darker shades on the entire face in the same manner, not as dark at first as they will be required. Leave all the strong high lights perfectly white until the picture is nearly finished. In putting on these shadows the hatching process will be found the most effective, not, however, by making strong lines, but simply have the strokes of the stomp made in such direction, very soft and indistinct. If any large white spots seem to remain, thus destroying the evenness of the tone, touch them over lightly until the tone resembles in quality a wash with India ink or water color, gradually growing lighter and lighter until lost in the high lights and half tones. The beauty of the finished portrait will depend very largely upon this blending, as there must be no abrupt ending to any shadow. Leave the face for the present, and take the chamois stomp, rubbing it on the block of crayon until the end is thoroughly covered. Lay it very flat and lightly on the parts of the hair which are the darkest, commencing at the deepest part of such shades, and ending toward the high light. Leave these high lights as in the face perfectly white for the present.

Try and follow the direction in which the hair is combed, but mass it. No attempt should be made to show individual hairs. It is simply light and shade in masses. Next take the clear end of the chamois stomp, borrow from the darker shades to tint the high lights, making broad strokes. If this makes them too dark, lighten with the rubber. All rubber strokes in the hair should also be broad, not fine lines. The drapery comes next in order. A black silk dress or a broadcloth coat should be worked in the same manner. With the chamois stomp put in the darker places in the drapery first, following the same general rule of hatching only in broad strokes, not lines. Tint the higher lights in the drapery with the clean end of the same stomp, borrowing from the darker places as before. The same rule should be observed in ending the drapery as in the shadows of the face—let it become lighter and lighter, until lost entirely.

Note carefully the collar and shirt front. Generally there will be seen light shadows upon them. If so, tint lightly with a clean stomp, borrowing the color necessary from the drapery, not from the block.

If the drapery now appears spotty it must be cleaned up in the following manner. Fill up the lighter places with the paper stomp, rubbing lightly in different directions, while the spots that are too dark can be cleaned off with the rubber in light strokes. In this manner the drapery can be worked up very smoothly, and free from spots. The background should be worked up in the same manner as the drapery, only not as dark. Do not put a background around the entire head, only from the shoulders up about half the distance to the forehead. If the subject is a lady, and lace work is desired, make this with the paper stomp. Do not work for details, but in an indistinct manner, following the original design somewhat, but in soft strokes, taking out the high light with the rubber, if necessary. The drapery, background and hair are now supposed to be finished, the above directions having been followed carefully.

The finishing of the features must now be attended to. With a paper stomp, not too black, strengthen all the darkest shades in the face, borrowing color again, working the shades off upon the high lights, preserving the half tones and reflected lights. Unless the high lights are very strong in the original, tint them over slightly with a stomp fairly clean. It is hardly necessary to say the subject, or original photograph, must be studied very carefully. If this is done, and the outlines accurately made, a perfect likeness will be the result.

If the pupils of the eyes, or any very deep shadow, need a little strengthening, it can be done with the round Conte crayon, sharpened to a very fine point, and hatched lightly over such shadows.

The finishing touches must be made by using a clean paper stomp, going over the entire picture, a little beyond all the outlines, to soften them, thus producing a soft and natural effect. Last of all, take out the catch light in the eyes, with a sharp pointed knife, scratching it slightly until it is of the desired shape.

In closing these instructions, the writer wishes to impress upon the pupil or reader the necessity of working at all times, and upon all parts of the picture, _very lightly_, if not, a muddy effect will be the result. The hatching should be tolerably open, but not too much so. This produces the effect of transparency, which is very desirable.

If the above instructions are carefully studied, and patient labor put forth, any one may reasonably expect to obtain excellence in representing life-like and natural portraits.

ANALYSIS OF COLORS

THEIR NATURE AND QUALITY.

We will begin with gall-stone, which is one of the finest and brightest in the world, and it very lasting color, although in face painting it should be sparingly used, its wonderful brilliancy being apt to drown all the other colors, and make the work it is used in too warm in its tints.

_Of Terra Sienna_, it is unburnt, a bright yellow-brown earth, and is used by some miniature painters as a warm yellow; but burnt it is a beautiful color, and partakes of three tints, yellow, red and brown.

_Yellow Ochre_ is a bright yellow earth, and comes from France, is semi-opaque, and works well. Much used by artists, but must be used with caution. It is a lasting color, and of service in the fleshy face tints.

_Roman Ochre_ is a reddish yellow earth of a very great body, and used by some with success in miniature painting. Used with gum water it works well, and being a warm color, it communicates that quality to the tints it is worked on.

_Naples Yellow_ is an earth found near Naples, and is a soft, bright and durable color. A great proportion of that used is composed of lead, alum, sal-ammonia and antimony. This color is not very much used by artists, as it does not stand well. Is a pale, gritty yellow. It absorbs all colors that are worked on it or mixed with it.

_Gamboge_ is the concrete juice of various trees in Ceylon—is a transparent color, and consequently useful as a glazing color.

_Yellows_ have their base in iron, lead, quicksilver and arsenic.

BLUE. Of all blues in use none can equal ultra-marine—its wonderful brilliancy and permanency excelling all others. But it is often adulterated after reaching this country, and the genuine is not common. Put a small quantity on a case knife, and hold it over a candle, keep the smoke from touching it; if adulterated it will appear in grey spots, and if genuine it will remain brilliant as at first. It was formerly made from lazulite, the beautiful variegated blue mineral, worth at one time in Italy twenty-five dollars an ounce. A greater part of that used now is composed of carbonate of soda, sulphur and kaolin, colored with cobalt.

_Prussian Blue_ is a good color, it is a ferrocyanuret of iron, produced in different ways. There is no substitute for Prussian blue for miniature painting on account of its strength of effect and transparency. The best and purest is that which is dark color.

_Indigo_ is beautiful on account of its extreme depth of color, nearly approaching to black; the best is called the rock indigo.

_Cobalt_ is another fine blue, much used in sky grounds, and in the delicate parts of faces and necks.

_French Ultra._ A beautiful bright blue; it is adapted for ladies’ drapery—rather too powerful for pearly tints or flesh.

_Permanent Blue, Cerulean._ Useful in draperies and backgrounds; also in landscape and flower painting. Not good for flesh tints.

_Sap Green_ is the juice of buckthorn berries, and has proven to be a highly useful color when judiciously mixed with other colors, producing warm fleshy tints which cannot be made without it.

_Copper_ is the base of most blues, though some are formed from iron and cobalt.

REDS. Carmine is a fine bright crimson, inclining to scarlet, and rather an opaque color. From it a variety of fine tints may be made, but it being a very high red, renders it unfit for delicate subjects; in this case use rose madder. There are various kinds of it prepared of other reds, but the deep kind is the best, the lighter being made so by adulteration, commonly made of alum and cream tartar, colored with cochineal, but it fades rapidly by out door exposure. The genuine is made from kaolin, or China clay, colored with cochineal, prepared with much difficulty, which makes it expensive.

_Crimson Lake_ is a beautiful crimson color, inclining toward the purple, making it useful for the carnation tints in painting delicate subjects.

_Chinese Vermilion_ is a bright red, and useful in miniature pictures, though too freely used, its opacity renders it dangerous to mix much with other colors, but by itself, in touching the lips and other parts that require extreme brightness, it is of good service. It comes from China in small parcels, fourteen ounces each.

The native, or _Mineral Cinnabar_, or vermilion, is very fine in Spain; the French have mines of it in Normandy.

_Light Red._ Useful in almost all flesh colors, and the ground upon which all the finer tints are made.

_Venetian Red._ Nearly the same as light red, and used almost for the same purpose. It is an earth, found in many parts of the world.

_Rose Madder_, indispensable for carnation lips. This, with cobalt, and almost any transparent yellow, forms all sorts of pearly and grey tints.

_Indian Red_ is of a deep purple cast, and a most excellent color for touching the deep red parts, and the fleshy tints. Also useful in bright backgrounds and draperies.

BROWNS. Umber is a yellowish brown, and mixes well with water colors. Useful in backgrounds. When properly burnt it is a charming reddish brown, very useful in hair. Works extremely well.

_Terra de Cassel_, or Vandyke brown, so called from the very great estimation the inimitable painter of that name held it in, is the finest rich brown in the world, in itself producing a more beautiful color than can be formed by the junction of any colors whatever. It is in general use, and is, in its natural state, rather coarse and sandy, but when prepared, it amply repays the artist for his labor; good glazing color for hair shadows.

_Lampblack_ is the smoke of burning resin, and is useful for marking the pupil of the eye, and in painting draperies. It is a good color when burnt, stands and works remarkably well. The smoke of a candle, received on a plate, is found the best, being blacker than the common lampblack. Ivory black is preferred by some.

_King’s Yellow_ is a fine bright opaque color, and is admirably calculated for painting lace, gilt buttons, etc., but should be cautiously used, as it is a rank poison.

_Chinese White_ is permanent, and works remarkably well; it is freely used on every part of a picture in water colors.

_Flake White._ This is the only white adapted for oil colors. Chinese white is never used.

MIXING COMPOUND TINTS FOR THE FACE. Purple is formed of either ultra-marine, Prussian blue, smalt or indigo, mixed with either carmine or lake. Ultra-marine, although the most beautiful and brilliant of colors by itself, loses that perfection in any mixture, but it still retains a sufficient share of brightness to render it a desirable tint in the purplish-grey tints of the face. Prussian blue, mixed as before mentioned, makes a bright or dark purple, according to the quantity of either color. Indigo makes a still darker purple, owing to its great natural depth of color. French ultra and carmine, or lake, forms nearly the same tint as ultra-marine, and may be used nearly for the same purpose.

_Olive Tints._ A very fine olive tint is formed of gall-stone, Nottingham ochre and carmine, or lake; and another of sap green and lake only.

TINTS AND THE COLORS WHICH PRODUCE THEM.

Grey is made by combining White and Lampblack. Buff is made by combining White and Yellow Ochre, Red. Pearl is made by combining White, Black, Blue. Orange is made by combining Yellow, Red. Violet is made by combining Red, Blue, White. Purple is made by combining Violet, Red, White. Gold is made by combining White, Stone, Ochre, Red. Olive is made by combining Yellow, Blue, Black, White. Chestnut is made by combining Red, Black, Yellow. Flesh is made by combining White, Yellow Ochre, Vermilion. Limestone is made by combining White, Yellow Ochre, Red, Black. Sandstone is made by combining White, Yellow Ochre, Red, Black. Freestone is made by combining Red, Black, Yellow Ochre, White. Fawn is made by combining White, Yellow, Red. Chocolate is made by combining Raw Umber, Red, Black. Drab is made by combining White, Raw and Burnt Umber. Pea Green is made by combining White and Chrome Green. Rose is made by combining White, Madder, Lake. Copper is made by combining Red, Yellow, Black. Lemon is made by combining White, Yellow. Snuff is made by combining Yellow, Vandyke Brown. Claret is made by combining Red, Umber, Black. Dove is made by combining White, Vermilion, Blue, Yellow. Pink is made by combining White, Vermilion, Lake. Cream is made by combining White, Yellow. Salmon is made by combining White, Yellow, Raw Umber, Red. Straw is made by combining White, Chrome Yellow. Lilac is made by combining White, with Violet. Changeable is made by combining Red, Green, lightened with White. Peach Blossom is made by combining White, Red, Blue, Yellow. Bronze Green is made by combining Chrome Green, Black, Yellow, or Black and Yellow, or Black and Green.

TRANSPARENT COLORS. Burnt Terre de Sienna, Terre Verte Asphaltum, Dragon’s blood, Carmine, Rose Pink, Gamboge, Prussian Blue, all the Lakes and all the Gums.

SEMI-TRANSPARENT. Umber, Vandyke Brown, Chrome Red, Emerald Green, Indigo, Verdigris, Brilliant Ultra-Marine.

CONTRAST AND HARMONY OF COLORS. One color will generally harmonize with another when both contain the same base in different proportions. White contrasts with Black, Brown, and harmonizes with any other color. Yellow contrasts with Purple, White, and harmonizes with Orange and pale colors. Orange contrasts with Blue, and harmonizes with Red, Pink. Red contrasts with Green, and harmonizes with Crimson. Green contrasts with Red, and harmonizes with Yellow. Purple contrasts with Yellow, White, and harmonizes with Crimson. Black contrasts with pale colors, and harmonizes with deep colors. Gold contrasts with dark colors, and harmonizes with light colors.

TAXIDERMY

SKINNING, PREPARING AND MOUNTING THE MAMMALIA, OR QUADRUPEDS.

SKINNING.

When a quadruped is killed, and its skin intended for stuffing, the preparatory steps are to lay the animal on its back and plug up its nostrils, mouth, and any wounds it may have received, with cotton or tow, to prevent the blood from disfiguring the skin. The fox will serve admirably our purpose as an example. Therefore, Reynard being procured, we need not say how, lay him on his back in the same position as before recommended, and having first stuffed the mouth with cotton and tied it up, and measured his neck and body with rule and calipers, and noted them, proceed. Make an incision from the last rib nearly to the vent, but not quite up to it. Having done so, proceed to raise the skin all round the incision as far as the thighs, first skinning one side and then the other, using the flat end of the knife in preference to the blade to raise the skin. Having reached the hind legs, separate the latter at the femur or thigh-bone, close to the backbone, leaving the legs attached to the skin. Now skin the head quarters close up to the tail, and separate it from the body at the last vertebræ, taking care not to injure the skin. Pull the skin over the heads of the hip-joints, and now the carcase may be suspended by the hind-quarters, while the skin is stripped by pulling it gently and cutting towards the fore-quarters. The fore-legs are separated from the body, as the hind ones had been, close to the shoulder-bone, and the skin fairly pulled over the head and close to the nose, when the head is separated from the body by cutting through the last vertebræ of the neck. Reynard is now skinned, the head, legs, and tail being all attached to the skin, from which the carcase is separated.

The flesh is now cut entirely away from the cheek-bones, the eyes removed, the brains taken out by enlarging the occipital opening behind the cranium, the whole cleaned and supplied with a coating of arsenical paste and stuffed with tow or wool to the natural size.

The legs are now successively skinned by pushing out the bones and inverting the skin over them until the foot-joint is visible; every portion of flesh and tendons must be cut away and the bone cleaned thoroughly, and a coating of arsenical soap laid over it as well as the skin. Wrap tow, or cotton, or any other suitable material, round the bone, bringing it to its natural shape, and draw the skin over it again. Do this to each leg in succession, and the body itself is ready for stuffing and mounting.

The utmost care will not prevent accidents; the fur and plumage will get sullied, and before stuffing it is well to examine the skin, for stains and spots are calculated to deteriorate its appearance. Grease or blood-spots may be removed by brushing over with oil of turpentine, which is afterwards absorbed by dusting plaster of Paris over. Macgillivray recommends that all skins, whether they are to be put away in a cabinet or stuffed, should receive a washing of spirits of turpentine sprinkled on, and gently brushed in the direction of the feathers or fur. Not to trust too much to memory, it is desirable to measure and note the proportions of the animal before skinning, first taking the muzzle to the tail. Afterwards, from the junction of the tail to the tip. Secondly, from the middle of the shoulder-blade, or scapula, to the articulation of the femur, or thigh-bone. Thirdly, the animal being placed on its side, measure from the upper part of the scapula to the middle of the sternum—that is, to the spot where the two sides meet above, and finally from the socket of the scapula to the socket of the articulation of the femur, or thigh-bone. In addition to these, note, by measurement with caliper compasses, the size of the head, the neck, the tail, and other points which affect the shape of the animal. These measurements will serve as a guide in stuffing, and for the size of the case and length of the mounting wires. In the process of skinning, it is important to avoid penetrating to the intestines, or separating any of the abdominal muscles which lead to the intestines; any such accident would be very disagreeable, as well as injurious to the skin.

=Stuffing Quadrupeds, etc.= Let us suppose the animal which we intend to stuff, to be a cat. Wire of such a thickness is chosen as will support the animal by being introduced under the soles of the feet, and running it through each of the four legs. A piece of smaller dimensions is then taken, measuring about two feet, for the purpose of forming what is termed by stuffers, a tail-bearer. This piece of wire is bent at nearly a third of its length, into an oval of about six inches in length; the two ends are twisted together, so as to leave one of them somewhat longer than the other; the tail is then correctly measured, and the wire is cut to the length of it, besides the oval. The wire is then wrapped round with flax in a spiral form, which must be increased in thickness as it approaches the oval, so as to be nearly equal to the dimensions of the largest vertebræ, or root of the tail. When finished, it should be rubbed thinly over with flour paste, to preserve its smooth form, which must be allowed to dry thoroughly, and then the surface should receive a coating of the preservative. The sheath of the tail must now be rubbed inside with the preservative. This is applied with a small quantity of lint, attached to the end of a wire, long enough to reach the point of the tail-sheath. The tail-bearer is then inserted into the sheath, and the oval part of the wire placed within the skin of the belly, and attached to the longitudinal wire, which is substituted for the vertebræ or backbone.

Four pieces of wire, about the thickness of a crow-quill, are then taken, which must be the length of the legs, and another piece a foot or fifteen inches longer than the body. One end of each of these is sharpened with a file, in a triangular shape, so that it may the more easily penetrate the parts. At the blunt end of the longest piece a ring is formed, large enough to admit of the point of a finger entering it; this is done by bending the wire back on itself a turn and a-half, by the assistance of the round pincers. On the same wire another ring is formed in a similar manner, consisting of one entire turn, and so situated as to reach just between the animal’s shoulders. The remaining part of this wire should be perfectly straight, and triangularly pointed at the extremity.

Another method of forming the supporting wires, as practiced by M. Nichols, is to take a central wire, which must be the length of the head, neck, body and tail of the cat; two other pieces are then taken and twisted round the center piece, these extremities being left for the leg wires. After the wires are thus twisted together the central one is pulled out, and the feet wires of one side are pushed through the legs of one side from the inside of the skin, and the other two leg pieces are bent and also forced through the legs, and afterward made straight by a pair of pincers; the center piece, having been previously sharpened at one end with a file, is now forced through the forehead and down the neck, till it enters the center of the twisted leg wires which it formerly occupied, and pushed forward to the extremity of the tail, leaving a small piece projecting out of the forehead, after which the completion of the stuffing is proceeded with.

This mode is unnecessary for the smaller animals, and it should only be adopted for quadrupeds the size of deer, etc. These wires are, besides, much more difficult to insert by this than by the other method.

All the wires being adjusted, the operation of stuffing is next proceeded with. The skin of the cat is now extended on a table; and the end of the noose seized with the left hand, and again pushed into the skin, till it reaches the neck, when we receive the bones of the head into the right hand. The skull is now well rubbed over with the arsenical soap, and all the cavities which the muscles before occupied are filled with chopped tow, flax, or cotton, well mixed with preserving powder. The long piece of wire is now passed into the middle of the skull, and after it is well rubbed over with the preservative, it is returned into the skin. The inner surface of the neck-skin is now anointed, and stuffed with chopped flax, taking care not to distend it too much. Nothing like pressure should be applied, as the fresh skin is susceptible of much expansion.