Brushwork

“ Add a little water to a color when it is being softened down, but with very great care. Two shades on a leaf or petal can be softened into each other by brushing the leaf with the hard brush the way in which the pile runs most easily, and then the contrary way. Sketch in the stamens, veins and fine lines of the design with a crow-quill pen after the painting is dry. When all the work is done, take a smooth, soft hat brush and brush it gently over the work so as to raise any part of the pile that may have been flattened. ”

“ The direct touch with the full brush—to cultivate this is of enormous advantage to all artists, whatever particular line of art they may follow, since it may be said to be of no less value in design than it is in painting pure and simple. We can all feel the charm of the broad brush washes and emphatic brush touches of a master of water-colour landscape such as De Wint. This is mastery of brush and colour in one direction—tone and effect. A Japanese drawing of a bird or a fish may show it equally in another—character and form. ”

“ The design having been drawn upon the surface with a lead pencil, the ground, if it is to be colored, may be laid on with some color, or mixture of colors, which will harmonize with the decoration. As it is impossible to paint it smoothly with a brush, or to do it by any of the methods in use for over-glaze painting, the ground must be “dabbled” on, either with a small blending brush, or better, a sponge, which has been cut to the proper shape and size, and which may be fastened in a quill and used as a brush. ”

“ Boss's relief hand-stipple paper is also well adapted to many kinds of brush drawings as well as to its primary use for producing stippled effects. Very delicate gradations of color or light and shade can be produced on its surface with brush and lampblack or with india ink, and high lights can be made by scraping off the chalky surface.
The draftsman who is preparing brush and pencil drawings should have first of all a knowledge of the principles of light and shade, of reflected light, and (for drawing specimens) of shadow perspective. ”

“ But many schools of art affect for the most part one kind of texture only, and a vast quantity of the art of all ages depends for great part of its power on texture produced by multitudinous lines. Thus, wood engraving, line engraving properly so called, and countless varieties of sculpture, metal work, and textile fabric, depend for great part of the effect, for the mystery, softness, and clearness of their colours, or shades, on modification of the surfaces by lines or threads. Even in advanced oil painting, the work often depends for some part of its effect on the texture of the canvas. ”

“ For instance, if we are applying a broad wash of colour we should hold the brush with freedom, and fairly high on the shaft. One with a fair point, full and firm, will be necessary for drawing, A long hairy point will give a feeble line, and one too short and blunt no line at all.
A brush that is at its thickest the size of an ordinary lead pencil is a useful tool. A very small brush will prove inefficient, for in drawing with a brush a fairly bold drawing is aimed at. ”

“ Anyone can wash a brush clean; any one can keep the colour on his palette neat; can grind it all up each time it is used; can cover it over with a basin or saucer when his work is over; and yet these things are often neglected, though so easy to do. The painter will neglect to wash out his brush; and it will be clogged with pigment and gum, get dry, and stick to the palette, and the points of the hair will tear and break when it is removed again by the same careless hand that left it there. ”

“ The smaller kinds of brushes are called tools or fitches, and are used for small surfaces, such as ornaments and mouldings round panels, when the colour is generally taken from a palette—a round slab of wood, with a hole through which the thumb of the left hand passes in order to hold it. The brushes must never be allowed to get dry, but when not in use must be kept in water: it is always best to keep a brush for each colour. Another part of the Painter’s business which requires more skill, is graining and marbling ”

“ Rub the chalk on a piece of waste paper, and on one side only; that will give a flattened side for sharp and decided drawing.
Drawing with the Brush Drawing with the brush is more difficult than with the pencil, but you should accustom yourself to the use of both.
It is far better to paint a picture from the very beginning with a brush. Drawing first with a pencil and then with a brush necessitates changing one's tool, and readjusting one's mind. We look at a model, pencil in hand, very differently from the way we regard the same object when holding a brush. ”

“ Though granting that the technique of weaving makes it impossible to represent a design as perfectly as can be done with a brush, they would claim that the drawing of dainty vines, scrolls, and arabesques was often represented by lines that in abstract beauty of form are unsurpassed, and that no artist had ever produced from his palette colours which equalled in brilliant sheen and marvellously changing hue those of the woven masterpieces. ”

“ Pick out a brush that has a good even edge. A “ragged” brush is useless for heavy strokes. And when you find a brush that will work well, leaving the perpendicular and ends of the vertical lines even and neat, KEEP SUCH A BRUSH FOR THIS STYLE LETTERING, and use it for nothing else. In contrast to the “Egyptian”—a brush for the Roman alphabets must be pliable and of a “texture” to permit of light and heavy lines being made alternately.
In forming the “Egyptian” the brush must hold its “chisel” edge, and keep an even stroke; therefore the necessity of using the right brush. ”

“ Wipe the dirty oil off your palette and then rub it with a little clean oil. Put brushes and palette safely away from the dust.
If possible, paint from nature; take simple objects at first which will await your time, as flowers and landscapes will not. A bit of drapery is excellent practice. If you are at fault in drawing get a good copy of a flower, and by it learn how to draw the real flower, but copy the color from the natural object. ”

“ In architecture, again, we should be very badly off without the painting-brushes, the whitewasher’s brush, and the paper-hanger’s brush; not to mention the exceeding variety of brushes used by artists both in oil and water colours. ”

“ Drawing lines with the brush requires great practice. A straight-edge is placed upon the chalk lines, with the edge next the line slightly raised, and the brush, well filled with colour, drawn along it, just touching the wall, the pressure being never increased, and the brush refilled whenever it is near failing; but great care must be taken that it be not too full, as in that case it will be apt to blotch the line, or drop the colour upon the lower portions of the wall. Drawing lines in colour overhead upon a ceiling is even more difficult, and is beyond the capabilities of most amateurs. ”

“ And in painting the shadows, the darkest part of your stroke will be where the brush first touches the canvas; and it will gradually lighten as the paint in your brush gets less and therefore more affected by the tone you are painting into. If your brush is very full it will not be influenced nearly so much. And if one wants a touch that shall be distinct, as would be the case in painting the shiny light on a glazed pot, a very full brush would be used. But generally speaking, get your effects with as little paint as possible. Thinner paint is easier to refine and manipulate. ”

“ And then you will find, as the plaster sucks in the colour which you have first laid on, that there will be—it may be in the course of half-an-hour, it may be an hour, that depends upon the temperature of the atmosphere—a pleasant suction from your brush, the colour going from it agreeably, and you will find that it will cover better. Now is the time to paint rapidly, and complete the work you have in hand. When the colour leaves your brush as though the wall was thirsty for moisture, you should cease painting ”

“ The brush is the handmaid of the artist's soul and must be responsive to his inspiration. The student is warned to be as much on his guard against carelessness when handling the brush as if he were a swordsman standing ready to attack his enemy or to defend his own life; and this is the reason: Everything in art conspires to prevent success. The softness of the brush requires the stroke to be light and rapid and the touch delicate. ”

“ I believe—the treatment of the sky and foreground shows careful repainting, and while the mechanical process of the brush, shown by the over and under painting, the dragging of opaque color over transparent, may produce certain translucencies which the more forcible and direct stroke of the brush—one touch and no more—fails to give, still the whole composition lacks that intimacy with nature which one [32] always feels in the smaller and more rapidly perfected canvases. ”

“ Dogs leaping and jumping, dogs running—the jog-trot of the terrier, and the easy gallop of the deerhound—here are interesting subjects for your pencil and brush. We might take up a brush fairly full of paint and sketch a little fresco of dogs in action. I say advisedly 'brush.' We can't stipple with a full brush. We must make up our minds, and draw, without hesitation, the thin or plump body, the long or thick legs, the short or pointed nose, the flowing or stunted tail. The fresco may not be very true to Nature but it will certainly teach us a good deal. ”

“ Useful and extensive as is its use, the broom does not compare in variety and wide application to the brush. The human body, cloth, leather, metals, wood and grains, everything that needs rubbing, cleaning, painting and polishing, meets the acquaintance of the brush. Nearly a hundred species of brushes might be enumerated, each having an especial construction for a particular use. ”

“ The painter needs a set of at least three brushes, 1 in., 1 1/2 in., and 2 1/2 in. in size, for varnishing the inside surfaces of bodies, these to be used for no other purpose. Then, properly, he should have a set of brushes for putting on first rubbing varnish coats, consisting of a 1-inch chiseled badger hair brush, and a 2 1/2 in. and one 3-in. bristle brush. ”

“ If you accustom yourself to the use of the brush you will soon find it an adaptable tool.
The artist holds the brush in the same way as he holds the pen or the pencil, and he shifts the position according to the demands of the subject. ”

“ BUYING AND SELECTING BRUSHES—CARE OF THEM—SOFTENING HARD BRUSHES—BRUSH KEEPERS—PRESERVING LIQUIDS—BRUSHES USED IN VEHICLE PAINTING, ETC. One conspicuously famous brush maker has declared the art of brush making to be "an art preservative." ”

“ Painted with a bristle brush, a camel’s-hair brush, a sponge, a rag or your thumb, as the case may require; painted on glass and then printed on paper, with a clothes-wringer for a printing-press; can anything be more enchantingly unconventional? Yet the finished monotypes are truly artistic and beautiful. If you can paint at all, be it ever so little, you can make some kind of a monotype, and you will always have the feeling that you can do better next time. ”

“ A is a regular wire-bound bristle brush which can be had at a paint or hardware store in several sizes; B is known as a “sash tool”; C is a flat floor or varnish brush; D is a sizing, kalsomine, or whitewash brush; and at E a round-liner or stipple brush and a flat tool are shown. For light work the tin-ferruled, cedar-handle flat bristle brush can be had in sizes ranging from one to six inches in width.
Fig. 1. Fig. 2.
There is nothing that freshens up a room so much as repainted wood-work, newly papered or tinted walls, and kalsomined ceilings ”

“ The crossing of the brush work in every direction, giving a look of atmosphere, is naturally often used in painting backgrounds and also such things as the plane surfaces of sky and mist, &c.
It is often inconvenient to paint across the form when softness is wanted. It is only possible to have one colour in your brush sweep, and the colour changes across, much more than down the form as a rule. For the shadows, half tones and lights, besides varying in tone, vary also in colour ”

“ Should paint, varnish, leather-bound whitewash or wall brush be found that has become loose from shrinkage, take a tablespoonful or so of water, open the brush and pour the water into the center. This will swell the parts and make the brush as firm as when first made.
New brushes when first put in work are apt to shed any loose bristles that have not been fastened when made, and while such loose bristles are always cleaned out before the goods are put up for market, not all such loose bristles or hair can be cleaned out, and such are sure to come loose when the brush is first used. ”

“ When about to be used, they are dissolved in water, on glass or a glazed surface. The application in painting, is made by means of a camel's-hair pencil.
11. Painting in distemper is used for the execution of works on a large scale, such as stage scenery, and the walls of apartments. The coloring substances are mixed with water, rendered tenacious by size or solutions of glue, or by skimmed milk, increased in tenacity by a small quantity of thyme. Linseed or poppy oil often serves as a vehicle for the colors, in this kind of painting. ”

“ To soften and blend your tints take a full brush and flood the water on the paper and let the colours mingle on the paper.
Should you have an unpleasingly harsh effect, do not tinker at your painting. Let it dry. When it is quite hard and bone-dry take a brushful of clear water and pass it over your drawing, and work on the drawing when it is moist. ”