CHAPTER XV

PAINTING IN COLOUR DIRECT FROM LIFE- PREPARED AND DIRECT PAINTING COMPARED

IT will be as well now to proceed to indicate to you the painting of flesh in direct colour (à prima); and that done I shall endeavour to compare the two systems. A better lesson may be learnt from a comparative criticism than from a separate elaboration of either.

There is indeed little to add to the instructions given in the chapter on painting from the life in monochrome. You have but to substitute toned colour for uncoloured tone.

Set your palette with two whites, yellow ochre, light red, vermilion, rose madder, cobalt, emerald, oxide of chromium, raw and burnt umber, and ivory black, with spirits of turpentine and linseed oil. For the first painting turpentine alone is perhaps preferable. I will explain why. Much oil darkens the colour and renders the surface after a few paintings somewhat soapy; turpentine dries "dead," and leaves the paint slightly absorbent, so that subsequent paintings with oil or varnish are less apt to shine unduly.

[116] After drawing and so on, and then outlining with a thin pencilling of raw umber, lay in the background thinly, but of the colour and tone of the existing setting in nature. This first layer you will scrape off with your palette knife, with perhaps all the rest, should the pores of the canvas be filled up and the study not to your satisfaction. You need not be disheartened if you are told that it is hardly likely to be completed, if a serious study, at a first attempt; knowledge of your sitter will have been gained, and the tone and colour approached more nearly with each succeeding day's work. Now mix up on your palette the middle flesh colour. If slightly toned with grey-that is to say, something less pure than the clear carnation, as is so often the case- be careful not to overdo the greyness at the outset, or the purity of the colour will suffer. You will probably not "hit" this middle colour closely enough on the white canvas ; it may be either too pink or too yellow. Persevere with it, and then leave it for a few minutes and come back to it with a fresh eye, the better to judge and correct any false note in it. It is the key to the whole colour scheme, and therefore of the utmost importance.

Next, or better still, about the same time, paint the mass in its general colour of the hair, and any white note that occurs about the neck, and very thinly over the rest of the canvas. Then take up the darkest shadows, thus securing the [117] salient passages of the drawing and the higher lights. In doing this, think less of the fact that you are indicating features than that you are modelling the head as a whole in its protruding and receding planes. These three tone colours should roughly suggest the main modelling of the face. In taking the hair further do not attempt to separate hairs ; treat the whole simply as you would silk or satin, just shapes of shadows, middle colour and lights, matching them in their absolute relation to the flesh. Then the lower flesh tones, preserving the shape of masses, and model the features, keeping all wet together.

Having thus covered the whole face, before elaborating, look to the colour-quality of each part. You may find some difficulty in deciding the colour tendency of the flesh shadows. Compare them with the shadows of the hair. The quality and tendency of colour, whether determined or undetermined, is but the outcome of proximity to others ; or, to put it more simply, every colour mass is the complement of its neighbour.

Soften the hair into the forehead, the outline into the background, and so on, but very sparingly, or freshness and the character of the brush-work may go. The frank touches are of great value ; they give vitality, and like ruts in a road are evidence of moving life.

The main thing to remember in painting is [118] never to put down two touches where one would suffice. The student invariably loses valuable time and wastes his energy in looking for little nothings and subtleties that will not repay him, and which make for "smallness" and an overlaboured result. Use brushes that are awkwardly large ; practice will enable you to manipulate them. They will sweep up the unnecessary detail and influence your selection of really telling touches. Above all, assure a homogeneous effect-the appearance of one skin.

In between the sittings, go and look at heads by Velazquez and Van Dyck; and from Frans Hals learn the force of shorthand strokes and vivacity of handling.

PREPARED AND DIRECT PAINTING COMPARED

In comparing the two methods of which I have just written, we must remember that the "grisaille " method has endured throughout the ages ; that painting à prima is comparatively modern, and was rarely resorted to by painters of old for elaborate work.

A rich impasto, variety of texture, the beauty of underlying grey tones, a lasting luminosity, a sense of oneness, are the distinguishing characteristics of the "monochrome." Vitality and spontaneity are perhaps more closely associated with direct painting.

Titian, in his portraiture, makes his appeal to [119] the lovers of the reposeful and the dignified; Frans Hals's portraits teem with vitality.

The qualities of each master, like their methods and their temperaments, are diametrically opposed.

Let us analyse the technical difficulties of the two manners.

The tendency in colouring the white and grey preparation is to under, rather than fully, colour the carnations.

Owing to this tendency, we see in many of Gainsborough's finest portraits a certain lack of colour fulness. To avoid this effect, many masters in some way gilded their pictures finally with a glaze of rich yellow or coloured varnish. Titian is said to have warmed his flesh with asphaltum, which is of a golden hue when applied thinly.

The main difficulty in painting direct is just to "hit" the general colour which may tend to yellow or pink, or look chalky where the lights are not sufficiently warmed. Then, too, the greys, except in the ablest hands, cannot equal the transparent quality of prepared work. They are frequently either too violet or too green; and, when much insisted on, too leaden. The grey tones are by far the severest test of a colourist's capacity. The one great advantage of monochrome is, that one may play with the warm glazes over the dry preparation until the desired general hue is obtained; and in case of failure the glazes can be removed, whilst the preparation is left intact for a more favourable opportunity. [120] Moreover, should it be found necessary to paint solidly over it, the drawing and tone values are already found, and the body of white and light greys will help to keep the overpainting fresh and luminous. In such a case, varnish slightly diluted with linseed oil is effective as a medium.

Beautiful qualities are, of course, obtained by the direct method in capable hands. But these hands must be very capable, for any retouching will mar the essential characteristics of this method ; and it is given to few to achieve a result which implies swiftness, dexterity, sureness, and just observation of colour, tone, and character in every touch. For this reason, among others, the student will be well advised to prepare for his final effort by stages, and to overcome by degrees the intricacies of his art.