Transparencies were not long since ex tremely fashionable, as blinds for win dows, and substitutes for painted glass; indeed authors and artists hare been known to venture quarto volumes on the subject. Their effect is certainly pleas ing, when the lights are clear and bril liant,and the shades judiciously contrasted with them ; but those, like every product of the fine arts under the same circum stances, become contemptible, when in correctly executed. The choice of the subject is of great importance in each branch of drawing, and none more so than those for transparencies, for which moon-light and fire-light scenes are ge nerally adapted, as both are capable of producing great richness in the tints, and when introduced with ruins are more particularly attractive : for instance, e court of an ancient feudal castle, sur rounded by fragments of walls, pierced with windows of magnificent mould, through which the foliage of the ivy hangs to grand festoons, grouping with the aspiring ash, the branches of the lat ter silvered by moon-light, gleaming be tween various towers retiring each be yond the other, and waving over the deep shades of the former, at the same tittle faintly illuminating the gliding fi.
glares of:midnight plunderers, seen pass-. ing through the gateway.
Having excited attention to the nature of the best subjects, it will he necessary to say how they should be treated._ Fix the intended for this purpose in d ' straining frame, draw the design, and colour it in the usual manner ; then plac ing it against a window, examine where the shades require strengthening, which will be sometimes necessary on the back of the drawing, and with the opaque sub stances of ivory or lamp-black, mixed with gum water ; having completed it to the clue elect, the brightest parts, as the moon or a fire, are to be impregnated with spirits of turpentine on each side of the paper, and the next lights on one side only ; those must be covered again with a varnish, composed of two .equal por
tions of spirits of turpentine and Canada balsam, but with great care, lest it spread beyond the desired' limits. The moon must not be coloured, but fire and flame will require red lead and gamboge.
There is one other process, which will be entertaining to a studious mind, desti- 1 tote of any particular partiality for the arts, which is, preparing a sheet of thin white-brown paper, by passing a brush filled with oil of turpentine; thus made transparent, it is to be strained upon a frame, and placed against any object that may be preferred ; then take a per. forated board suited to the eye, and look ing through it, draw the outline observa ble on the transparent paper with a black lead pencil ; the shading of the object may be obtained very correctly by this means, with a little attention ; but it should be clone rapidly, as the position of the shadows continually vary with the motion of the sun : to facilitate this part of the operation, it would be well to make several degrees of colour, and number them as they appear on the in der to finish the drawing at more leisure..