Gold colour.—Chrome yellow, with a little vermilion and white.
Violet colour.—White lead, with vermilion, blue and black.
Sage green.—Prussian blue, raw umber, and yellow stone ochre, with a little white, and thinned with boiled oil and a little turpentine.
Olive green.—Raw umber, with Prussian blue, thinned as before.
Pea green.—White lead, with Brunswick green, or with Prussian blue and chrome yellow.
Chocolate colour.—Spanish brown, or Venetian red and black, thinned with boiled oil and a little turpentine.
Lead colour.—White lead and black.
Plain opaque oak colour.—White lead, with yellow ochre and burnt umber. Plain opaque mahogany colour.—Purple brown, or Venetian red, with a little black.
Black should be ground in boiled oil, and thinned with boiled oil and a little turpentine.
it will be obvious that the proportions of the colours above mentioned must be determined by the particular tone of colour required.
Distempering.—The principal difference between oil and distemper painting is, that in the latter the colours are ground in water, and diluted with size. It is much less durable than oil painting, but is cheaper, and is not attended with much smell: it will not bear washing. Ceilings are generally distempered, and walls very frequently. There are several colours used for distempering that will not do for oil, as it would change them. The principal are,—common spruce ochre, common indigo, rose pink, brown pink, blue verditer, green verditer, mineral green, and Saxon green. Whiting is the substance mostly used in dis tempering. It should be broken and thrown into a vessel of clean water, and left to soak for a short time without stirring it—half an hour is sufficient ; the surplus water is then poured off from the top, leaving only the softened whiting, which should then be stirred, to ascertain that there be no lumps in it. To this is added hot durable size, in the proportion of one pound of size to three pounds of whiting ; it is then to be well stirred, and left to chill or congeal in a cool place. In summer weather it should stand over night, when, if it is like a weak jelly, it is fit for use. If it is to be a tinted colour, the colouring sub stance should be added to the whiting previous to the size being mixed with it. Distemper colours dry much lighter than they appear when first laid on ; con sequently, it is better, before mixing the size with them, to colour a slip of paper and dry it, to ascertain if it is of the desired tint. In distempering old walls or ceilings, it is necessary that the old distemper be first washed off with an old brush and plenty of water. The holes, cracks, and damaged places, should be made good with plaster of Paris, or distemper putty, made of powdered whiting and double size. They should then have a coat of clearcole made by adding a little more size and water to the finishing colour, and using it warm. When this is dry, the finishing colour may be laid on. For new walls, it is only necessary to clearcole and finish.
Graining.—Graining comprises the imitating of woods and marbles; the latter is distinguished by the term marbling : it is strictly an imitative art, and demands in its execution considerable judgment and good taste, united to a close observation of the peculiar characters of the different woods and marbles to be represented. It is usually done on ground prepared for the purpose, the colour of which is varied according to the kind of wood or marble to bo imitated; but as the manner of proceeding in imitating woods differs from that in the case of marbles, they will be noticed separately, beinning with— Graining in imitation of woods.—The first thing to be attended to is the ground; and, although generally laid on by the plain painter, it should receive the particular attention of the grainer, for on the colour of the ground greatly depends the excellence of the imitation. The ground should be chosen of the
same colour, but a little lighter, than the lightest parts of the wood to be imitated, sufficient allowance being made for the varnish afterwards to come upon it. Repeated trials on small patterns is, however, the beat, and, indeed, the only safe way of arriving at the tint proper for the ground. The ground may either be mixed up, just as in finishing-oil colour, or it may be a bastard flat; and it should be very carefully prepared, as the shine of the varnish will cause the rough or uneven places to be detected. The pigments employed for .graining are distinguished by the painter as transparent colours; those mostly used are raw umber, burnt umber, raw sienna, burnt sienna, Vandyke brown, burnt ochre, and lake ; these, with the occasional assistance of small portions of the opaque, or imperfectly transparent colours,—ivory black, Prussian blue, or indigo, and purple brown, or Indian red, will be sufficient to match the colour of any of the woods usually imitated. These pigments were, until within these last few years, worked in oil and spirits of turpentine; but, in consequence of the much greater facility found to be afforded by the use of water or distemper colours, oil is now seldom or never used, except for wainscot or oak graining, which is frequently done in oil. The tools employed in graining are round and flattened hog-hair brushes, of various sizes; the round ones are used chiefly for laying on the colour. Occasionally, as in very large pieces of work, large brushes of any convenient form are employed for that purpose. Of the fiat brushes, there are cutters of various sizes, from two and a half inches to half an inch wide; these are made of camel's hair, having the ends or points of the hairs cut off square, to within about three-eighths of an inch from the ferrule; the edges should be very sharp and straight : they are used for producing the mottled appearance, as in and satin-wood. Flat hog-hair brushes, of various sizes, from aix, or even twelve inches, to one and a half inches wide; these are used chiefly for graining wainscot in distemper. Flat hog-hair brushes, but of a much thinner description than the last-mentioned, are used for putting on the second grain, and for other purposes. Badger-hair tools, or softeners, of several aizes ; this tool is one of the moat necekind, and it is employed to soften the work put in with the other tools. den, of several sizes, from one and a half inch wide and upwards; they are flat hog hair brushes, having their ends cut off to within about an inch of the ferrule; they should be very carefully made, and of the best hair; every bristle should lay straight and even, and, when cut, should have a straight, unbroken edge, similar to the cutter. We shall describe the use of this tool when speaking of the particular woods in which it is employed. These, with camel and hog-hair pencils, sponges, and pieces of wash-leather, are sufficient to imitate any of the woods except wainscot in oil, which requires a particular tool, which will be noticed presently. The woods generally imitated are the following :—oak, (dark oak,) wainscot, or light oak, pollard oak, mahogany, rose-wood, maple wood, satin-wood, amboyna, zebra-wood, and yew. The general instructions given for imitating these will suffice for any other fancy woods. Wainscot, or light oak, although the most common, is perhaps the moat difficult to produce a good imitation of: it is done either in oil or distemper. The manner of pro ceeding in oil will be first described.