For Figures in Body Colors, take up with a brush some lemon yellow
and lay it on your palette ; mix with it a touch of vermilion, which pro-
duces a flesh color ; add a little Chinese white which gives the color
more consistency ; let it dry ; it will be on this first wash very evenly
laid, that you will finish the little heads, either of children or of adults.
In a group, the same complexion is not to be given to all the persons
alike ; the flesh must therefore be varied. The features which you have
only indicated in the tracing, are done with grayish brown for the eyes,
and with carmine and vermilion for the lips and nostrils. These
features are generally so small and so little marked, that without mak-
ing a tint expressly for them, you will always find enough color on your
palette to furnish you with what is necessary for details of the kind.
Fair hair is primed with a tint of lemon yellow mixed with a little brown
and yellow ; but these colors must always be mixed with Chinese white.
Dresses, draperies and ribbons are begun with the different shades of
color decided on ; white is used at first always, so that they may present
a certain surface and solidity to admit of high finish. Lay the tints in
graduation when beginning; the lights are placed (always) on after-
wards ; care must be taken not to exaggerate the thickness of the color,
for then it would peel off in scales. Landscapes should be begun by
the skies, then the distance, and so on, always coming nearer to the
IMPRESSIONS OF LEA VES. 301
more intense planes. Skies are done with a very pale blue, beginning
from the top ; the tint softened by graduation down to the horizon is
tinged either with yellow or pink, according to the situation of the sub-
ject ; the yellow tinge for morning and the pink tinge for evening.
Trees on fans do not resemble the trees painted after the laws of
nature ; the combination of the colors must be in harmony with the
effect of light; for this reason trees in the distance are done with
emerald green and pink, almost lilac ; those in the middle distance have
most frequently autumnal tints ; those in the foreground only are green,
but of a very subdued green. Moreover, the amount of space in height
which the fan affords always causes landscape to be sacrificed to the
figures. The representation of water looks well on a fan ; it is always
done horizontally, excepting when it is a water-fall or spring. A lake,
a pond, or a running stream brings to the front those beautiful water
plants, that are so well done in body color and fill in the foreground so
conveniently. For the water use nothing but blue-green mixed with
white and grissailed here and there for the reflections. For clear water
and glints of light, use Chinese white pure, used very lightly.
Temples, Ruins, Foimtains, all that form the distance of fans, require
only delicate tints of lemon yellow or Naples yellow, with a greyish mix-
ture, including raw sienna and burnt sienna, but all this is to be used
lightly. You must succeed in making a nondescript neutral tint. It is
important when you have grouped together the figures in one of your
•compositions, to study the effect of the colors you have to give their
dresses. You must remember that certain colors advance and that
others retire.
Page 267
Presented as published in 1886. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
For Figures in Body Colors, take up with a brush some lemon yellow and lay it on your palette ; mix with it a touch of vermilion, which produces a flesh color ; add a little Chinese white which gives the color more consistency ; let it dry ; it will be on this first wash very evenly laid, that you will finish the little heads, either of children or of adults. In a group, the same complexion is not to be given to all the persons alike ; the flesh must therefore be varied. The features which you have only indicated in the tracing, are done with grayish brown for the eyes, and with carmine and vermilion for the lips and nostrils. These features are generally so small and so little marked, that without making a tint expressly for them, you will always find enough color on your palette to furnish you with what is necessary for details of the kind. Fair hair is primed with a tint of lemon yellow mixed with a little brown and yellow ; but these colors must always be mixed with Chinese white. Dresses, draperies and ribbons are begun with the different shades of color decided on ; white is used at first always, so that they may present a certain surface and solidity to admit of high finish. Lay the tints in graduation when beginning; the lights are placed (always) on afterwards ; care must be taken not to exaggerate the thickness of the color, for then it would peel off in scales. Landscapes should be begun by the skies, then the distance, and so on, always coming nearer to the
IMPRESSIONS OF LEAVES. 301
more intense planes. Skies are done with a very pale blue, beginning from the top ; the tint softened by graduation down to the horizon is tinged either with yellow or pink, according to the situation of the subject ; the yellow tinge for morning and the pink tinge for evening.
Trees on fans do not resemble the trees painted after the laws of nature ; the combination of the colors must be in harmony with the effect of light; for this reason trees in the distance are done with emerald green and pink, almost lilac ; those in the middle distance have most frequently autumnal tints ; those in the foreground only are green, but of a very subdued green. Moreover, the amount of space in height which the fan affords always causes landscape to be sacrificed to the figures. The representation of water looks well on a fan ; it is always done horizontally, excepting when it is a water-fall or spring. A lake, a pond, or a running stream brings to the front those beautiful water plants, that are so well done in body color and fill in the foreground so conveniently. For the water use nothing but blue-green mixed with white and grissailed here and there for the reflections. For clear water and glints of light, use Chinese white pure, used very lightly.
Temples, Ruins, Foimtains, all that form the distance of fans, require only delicate tints of lemon yellow or Naples yellow, with a greyish mixture, including raw sienna and burnt sienna, but all this is to be used lightly. You must succeed in making a nondescript neutral tint. It is important when you have grouped together the figures in one of your •compositions, to study the effect of the colors you have to give their dresses. You must remember that certain colors advance and that others retire.