CRAYON Painting. This method of painting, or more properly drawing, with coloured substances or chalks in a dry form, was first practised by the French painters in the time of Louis XIV., and then, and for some considerable time subsequently, was much in use in the painting of portraits. But the liability of crayon pictures to injuries by exposure to the light and the decomposition of their colours, with the consequent defect of their original lustre, and by their proneness to collect damp and dust, has rendered this art less in reputation than it was half a century ago. At the present time we are not aware of any artist of reputation in this country who practises it. The American naturalist Audubon has lately shown, however, by his drawings of ornithological subjects, that crayons, together with a judicious admixture of water-colour paints and black-lead hatchings, are admirably adapted for giving the peculiar appearance to the feathers and the brilliant lustre of the beautiful birds of his native forests. But unless it be this accomplished foreigner, we do not know of any other individual who has made much use of these means for the production of works of art. But we would not on this account be warranted in omitting to detail a few particulars as to the management of the art of crayon painting.
Crayon paper is of a peculiar quality, and is manufactured with colour in its fabric. It is well known, and may be had in all the stationers' shops. It should be pasted upon linen or cotton cloth stretched tight upon a wooden frame in the same manner as canvass to be painted upon. When completely dry, the outline of the object is first to be drawn, afterwards the shadows laid in with the crayons in a broad manner, and then the colours of the draperies and the tints added.
It is not the proper place here to enumerate the various modes of mixing colours so as to produce certain tints or shades. This will be detailed at length under the article PAINTING; and it is by practice alone that any approximation to excellence can be attained in this as in every department of art. All we think requisite to mention is, that too many mixtures of various crayons are carefully to be avoided, as they tend greatly to injure the brilliancy of the colours.
Crayons are to be procured in sets; but if prepared, care must be taken not to admit any of the white leads into the composition of the various tints of which the sets are made up. The white should be prepared chalk, or zinc white, or any other white substance not liable to deterioration by age or exposure to the light. All the pigments made use of in painting, properly ground up with water, and reduced to the necessary tints by the proper admixtures with one another, or with whitening prepared in the manner afterwards explained, may be used for making the
pencils or crayons, and which are applied to the surface of the paper in the same way as chalks, and these may be blended into one another with the finger, or left pure, just as occasion requires.
Generally speaking, to keep the colours and shades broad and clear of each other, is the practice to be preferred here, as well as in oil painting. Too much tinting and blending at first will be sure to produce heaviness and want of brilliancy in the end. Therefore, the purer the tints are laid in at the beginning, the better will be the result; for if the nostrils or the lips, for example, be done with pure carmine at the commencement, it will be easy to tone them down with other shading colours, and thus produce and preserve the greater clearness.
After the whole subject is laid in in a broad manner with carmine, black, and white, and with such colours as the draperies or back-ground may be composed of, but without attention to minutiae, or, as the process is termed by artists, after the picture is "dead coloured," the whole must be softened and blended together with the finger, or with an instrument called a stump, which is a piece of chamois leather rolled up in a cylindrical form, and shaped to a point.
In performing this process, care must be taken not to mix the colours improperly, and on this account the finger or stump should be wiped often on a towel; and care must be taken not to soften and rub in the tints too much or too often, which will deteriorate that richness of effect which the dry pigments produce when the crayons are laid on in a rough manner.
When the picture is thus laid in with the dead colour, it will have the appearance of being composed (if the subject be a portrait) of three colours, carmine, black, and white, which is the best preparation for the reception of the tints of which the painting should consist when finished. The back-ground and the hair should next be completed, or nearly so, as the chalk dust in the progress of painting these would otherwise injure the face and the lighter parts.
In every case the highest lights are to be left out till the last. In painting over the forehead for the last time, begin the highest light with the faintest vermilion tint, in the same place where the faint carmine was first laid, keeping it broad in the same manner. In the next shade which succeeds the highest lights some light-blue colours must be worked in, intermixing them with richer tints of vermilion, softening them carefully together, and at the same time adding some warmer yellow colours very sparingly. Strong verditer tints intermixed with greens will be serviceable in the shadow at the roots of the hair, and in other places where necessary; and cool-coloured crayons composed of black and white should succeed these, and blend with the hair.
In finishing the cheeks, or any other parts where pure colour obtains, this should be amongst the last of the touches; and it should be done with lakes and bright vermilion intermixed with a little orange-coloured crayon, all with great delicacy, and sweetened and softened with the finger cautiously, to avoid producing that heaviness incident to over much mixing of the one colour with the other, as the beauty and excellence of crayon painting consists in one colour showing itself through, or rather between the other.
When a very smart touch is required to be made, such as the spark of light on the eye, or the light on the point of the nose, a small piece of the crayon should be chipped off, and the touch effected with the fragmented angle.
Draperies. Dark blue, purple, black, pink, and all shades of red draperies, should be first laid in slightly with carmine, which, in the end, will produce much more brilliant
colours than can be done by any other mode. Over this preparation should be laid the middle tint, which is the medium colour between the light and dark shades, and which should extend over the spaces occupied by the lights and middle tints. The shadows should be kept clear of all these lighter mixtures from the commencement, as they will have most clearness if not allowed to partake of them, and the whole are to be softened together with the finger in the manner already described, and the highest lights superinduced upon the middle tints at the last. Reflected lights should partake, of course, of the colour of the reflecting medium, whatever it may happen to be composed of.
Materials. The excellence of crayons consists in a great measure in their softness. To obviate the tendency of crayon pictures to change their colour, great pains and care should be used in preparing the whiting with which the shades of the colours are made up. This should be done as follows: Take a vessel of water, put the whiting into it, and mix them well together. Let this stand for half a minute, then pour off the top into another vessel, and throw the gritty sediment away; let what is prepared rest about a minute, and then pour it off as before, which will purify the whiting, and render it smooth and free of gritty particles. When this is done, let the whiting settle, and then pour the water off, after which lay it upon a plate of stucco to dry, and it will answer either for pure white, or for mixing up with all the other colours; and the whiting thus purified may be used to mix with all the colours, either while in the wet or dry state. The crayons are made by rolling them out into convenient lengths upon a marble slab, or piece of plate glass, while the paste is in a wet state.