The Painter in Oil - A complete treatise on the principles and technique - necessary to the painting of pictures in oil colors

Daniel Burleigh Parkhurst

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• Publié par: choip
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 41
• Langue: English

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Project Gutenberg's The Painter in Oil, by Daniel Burleigh Parkhurst This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Title: The Painter in Oil A complete treatise on the principles and technique necessary to the painting of pictures in oil colors Author: Daniel Burleigh Parkhurst Release Date: January 6, 2010 [EBook #30877] Language: English *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PAINTER IN OIL *** Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Ritu Aggarwal and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net Cover Page. November Beechwood. November Beechwood. D. Burleigh Parkhurst. THE PAINTER IN OIL A COMPLETE TREATISE ON THE PRINCIPLES AND TECHNIQUE NECESSARY TO THE PAINTING OF PICTURES IN OIL COLORS BY DANIEL BURLEIGH PARKHURST PUPIL OF WILLIAM SARTAIN, OF BOUGUEREAU AND TONY-FLEURY, AND OF AIMÉE MOROT; MEMBER OF THE NEW YORK WATER COLOR CLUB; FORMERLY LECTURER ON ART IN DICKINSON COLLEGE; AUTHOR OF "SKETCHING FROM NATURE," ETC. "La peinture à l'huile est bien difficile; Mais beaucoup plus beau que la peinture à l'eau." BOSTON:LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO. Copyright, 1898, by Lee and Shepard All Rights Reserved The Painter in Oil TYPOGRAPHY BY C. J. PETERS & SON PRESSWORK BY BERWICK & SMITH, NORWOOD PRESS NORWOOD MASS. TOA. M. P. THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED. September 4th, 1897.PREFACE Books of instruction in the practice of painting have rarely been successful. Chiefly because they have been too narrow in their point of view, and have dealt more with recipes than with principles. It is not possible to give any one manner of painting that shall be right for all men and all subjects. To say "do thus and so" will not teach any one to paint. But there are certain principles which underlie all painting, and all schools of painting; and to state clearly the most important of these will surely be helpful, and may accomplish something. It is the purpose of this book to deal practically with the problems which are the study of the painter, and to make clear, as far as may be, the principles which are involved in them. I believe that this is the only way in which written instruction on painting can be of any use. It is impossible to understand principles without some statement of theory; and a book in order to be practical must therefore be to some extent theoretical. I have been as concise and brief in the theoretical parts as clearness would permit of, and I trust they are not out of proportion to the practical parts. Either to paint well, or to judge well of a painting, requires an understanding of the same things: namely, the theoretical standpoint of the painter; the technical problems of color, composition, etc.; and the practical means, processes, and materials through which and with which these are worked out. It is obvious that one cannot become a good painter without the ability to know what is good painting, and to prefer it to bad painting. Therefore, I have taken space to cover, in some sort, the whole ground, as the best way to help the student towards becoming a good painter. If, also, the student of pictures should find in this book what will help him to appreciate more truly and more critically, I shall be gratified. D. B. P. December 4, 1897CONTENTS PART I.—MATERIALS CHAPTER PAGE I. Observations 3 II. Canvases and Panels 6 III. Easels 15 IV. Brushes 20 V. Paints 33 VI. Vehicles and Varnishes 61 VII. Palettes 65 VIII. Other Tools 69 IX. Studios 76 PART II.—GENERAL PRINCIPLES X. Mental Attitude 85 XI. Tradition and Individuality 95 XII. Originality 103 XIII. The Artist and the Student 107 XIV. How to Study 110 PART III.—TECHNICAL PRINCIPLES XV. Technical Preliminaries 123 XVI. Drawing 126 XVII. Values 138 XVIII. Perspective 146 XIX. Light and Shade 151 XX. Composition 166 XXI. Color 184 PART IV.—PRACTICAL APPLICATION XXII. Representation 209 XXIII. Manipulation 224 XXIV. Copying 236 XXV. Kinds of Painting 242 XXVI. The Sketch 245 XXVII. The Study 254 XXVIII. Still Life 260 XXIX. Flowers 280 XXX. Portraits 286 XXXI. Landscape 309 XXXII. Marines 335 XXXIII. Figures 347 XXXIV. Procedure in a Picture 371 XXXV. Difficulties of Beginners 389LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE November Beechwood Parkhurst Frontispiece Stretchers 11 Canvas Pliers 13 Double-Pointed Tack 13 Easel 16 Easel 17 Sketching Easel 18 Sketching Easel 19 Brushes.— Red Sable, Round 22 Red Sable 23 Red Sable, Flat 24 Round Bristle 26 Flat Bristle 28 Flat Pointed 29 Fan 30 Brush Cleaner 31 Oil Colors 54 Oval Palette 65 Arm Palette 67 The Color Box 70 Palette Knife 71 The Scraper 72 The Oil-Cup 73 Mahl-Sticks 73 Three-legged Stool 74 Sketching Chair 74 Sketching Umbrella 75 Drawing of Hands 134Dürer Eggs. White against White 154 The Canal 156Parkhurst Bohemian Woman Franz Hals 159 Sewing by Lamplight 161Millet Descent from the Cross 163 The Golden Stairs 174 The Sower 175Millet Return to the Farm 178Millet The Fisher Boy Franz Hals 217 Boar-Hunt 221Snyders Good Bock Manet 227 Sketch of a Hillside 246 The River Bank Parkhurst 250 Study of a Blooming-Mill 257Parkhurst Still Life, No. 1 265 Still Life, No. 2 266 Still Life, No. 3 267 Still Life, No. 4 269 Still Life, No. 5 270 Still Life, No. 6 271 Sweet Peas 282 Dürer 289by Himself Portrait of his Mother Whistler 291 Portrait of Himself 293ValasquezPortrait 297Parkhurst Haystacks in Sunshine Monet 307 On the Race Track 314Degas Willow Road Parkhurst 317 Entrance to Zuyder Zee 337Clarkson Stanfield Girl Spinning 345Millet Sketch of a Flute Player Parkhurst 355 Milton Dictating "Paradise Lost" 363Munkacsy Buckwheat Harvest Millet 368 Study of Fortune 373Angelo Ébouch of Portrait 379Th. Robinson Landscape Photo. No. 1 394 Landscape Photo. No. 2 395PART I MATERIALS THE PAINTER IN OILCHAPTER I GENERAL OBSERVATIONS There is a false implication in the saying that "a poor workman blames his tools." It is not true that a good workman can do good work with bad tools. On the contrary, the good workman sees to it that he has good tools, and makes it a part of his good workmanship that they are in good condition. In painting there is nothing that will cause you more trouble than bad materials. You can get along with few materials, but you cannot get along with bad ones. That is not the place to economize. To do good work is difficult at best. Economize where it will not be a hindrance to you. Your tools can make your work harder or easier according to your selection of them. The relative cost of good and bad materials is of slight importance compared with the relative effect on your work. The way to economize is not to get anything which you do not need. Save on the non-essentials, and get as good a quality as you can of the essentials. Save on the number of things you get, not on the quantity you use. You must feel free in your use of material. There is nothing which hampers you more than parsimony in the use of things needful to your painting. If it is worth your while to paint at all, it is worth your while to be generous enough with yourself to insure ordinary freedom of use of material. The essentials of painting are few, but these cannot be dispensed with. Put it out of your mind that any one of these five things can be got along without:— You must have something to paint on, canvas or panel. Have plenty of these. You must have something to set this canvas on—something to hold it up and in position. Your knees won't do, and you can't hold it in one hand. The lack of a practical easel will cost you far more in trouble and discouragement than the saving will make up for. You must have something to paint with. The brushes are most important; in kind, variety, and number. You cannot economize safely here. You must have paints. And you must have good ones. The best are none too good. Get the best. Pay a good price for them, use them freely, but don't waste them. And you must have something to hold them, and to mix them on; but here the quality and kind has less effect on your work than any other of your tools. But as the cost of the best of palettes is slight, you may as well get a good one. Now, if you will be economical, the way to do it is to take proper care of your tools after you have got them. Form the habit of using good tools as they should be used, and that will save you a great deal of money.CHAPTER II CANVASES AND PANELS You should have plenty of canvas on hand, and it would be well if you had it all stretched ready for use. Many a good day's work is lost because of the time wasted in getting a canvas ready. It is not necessary to have many kinds or sizes. It is better in fact to settle on one kind of surface which suits you, and to have a few practical sizes of stretchers which will pack together well, and work always on these. You will find that by getting accustomed to these sizes you work more freely on them. You can pack them better, and you can frame them more conveniently, because one frame will always do for many pictures. Perhaps there is no one piece of advice which I can give you which will be of more practical use outside of the principles of painting, than this of keeping to a few well-chosen sizes of canvas, and the keeping of a number of each always on hand. It is all well enough to talk about not showing one's work too soon. But we all do, and always will like to see our work under as favorable conditions as possible. And a good frame is one of the favorable conditions. But good frames are expensive, and it is a great advantage to be able to have a frame always at hand which you can see your work in from time to time; and if you only work on four sizes of canvas, say, then four frames, one for each size, will suit all your pictures and sketches. Use the same sizes for all kinds of work too, and the freedom will come, as I say, in the working on thos