Before going on to the art of painting in full oil colors it may be as well to give some details of a medium which lies between water-color painting and oil-color painting proper. This is a medium which has many interesting possibilities. In many ways it is an easier technique than water colors. I myself find it most ad­mirable for quick studies—preliminary tryouts before embarking upon a full oil-color picture.

EQUIPMENT AND MATERIALS

You will need a set of tubes of oil color. I should sug­gest starting with a very limited palette of the follow­ing colors: flake white or titanium white, yellow ocher, burnt sienna, cadmium yellow, rose madder, viridian green, cobalt blue, ultramarine blue, and deep burnt umber. If you are doing figure studies or groups of people in or out of doors you can have, in addition, Naples yellow (to be used with caution), and a strong red—say vermilion.

figure 13. Palettes for oil or oil and turpentine.

You will need some sort of wooden or cardboard palette on which to squeeze the paints (see Figure 13) . The same order should always be kept on the palette (and the paint put right at the top, not in little scat­tered squeezes all over the place)—a definite order of arrangement starting from white and going through the yellows, reds, blues, to the deep brown. It is most important that these be set out right at the top edge of the palette, to give all the room possible for mixing the paints. The palette can be just an oblong of wood or cardboard, not less than 10 inches by 8 inches, pre­ferably a little larger, which has been given a surface consisting of two or three coats of size, and then a thin wash of a gray neutral tint, such as white and yellow ocher, mixed with viridian green and rose madder. Use will soon give this wood or board a lovely surface, for each time after working when you clear off the paint with turpentine and rag you will add to the agree­able surface on your homemade palette. The bought palettes from the shops with a hole for the thumb are very good, of course, but the thumb often gets numb and the strain on the hand is greater than if you just bal­ance the homemade oblong described above, almost without noticing it, in the center of the outstretched palm, with the elbow well bent and kept in to the side.

PAPER

With this method of painting it is very important to use suitable paper. It should have a glazed surface that will absorb the turpentine immediately, but must not be too shiny. You may be able to get a good quality shelf paper that is strong and yet has the. right absorb­ent surface. This may need some searching out. If it cannot be found, there are many printing papers that would answer your purpose. You might call on a local printer and ask him if he could oblige by sparing you a few sheets of "matt" (or dull) art paper or else—as this is unlikely—of heavy imitation art or cylinder-coated or perhaps even photogravure paper.

If you cannot get any of these glazed papers you will find that some of the heavily rolled artists' papers will answer to the purpose, but they are expensive and it is only as a last resort, if you have failed elsewhere, that these sheets should be indulged in, and then used sparingly.

TURPENTINE

This is the medium which you use, like water in water-color painting, so you need plenty of it. It is not neces­sary to get the expensive, specially prepared, artists' turpentine. You can get excellent pure turpentine at a drugstore or art supply store. It is wise to get a fairly large bottle and to fill a smaller one from it, so that you need not carry the large one around with you.

EASEL AND PORTFOLIO

These can be the same as your water-color ones. All you need do is to cut your paper to fit the size of your portfolio, when closed up, and then have six stout clips —paper clips of the really stout sort are just the thing; place your paper on the outside of the portfolio, hav­ing tucked the tapes inside, and then clip with two at the top, two at the bottom and one at each side—so you have your paper securely fixed to your portfolio. This medium dries instantly and therefore does not crinkle up the paper. That is why it need not be strained and secured as in water-color painting.

BRUSHES

You can use hoghair oil-color brushes with this me­dium—two or three round-shaped ones, sizes 3, 6, and 8, and two or three flat-shaped, with one large one, size 12. These can be the usual long-handled type of brushes. They should be kept carefully and washed well with first turpentine and then soap and water after use (see Figure 14). They should be kept in a long round tin if you can find one.

You could do with a strong ex-army knapsack to hold your tin of paints and your tin of brushes, your bottles, large and small, of turpentine, and plenty of soft rag. You will also need a tin dipper, a fairly good big one with a turned-over clip at the base to clip on to your palette (see Figure 15).

With your knapsack over one shoulder, your port­folio with paper and palette inside and the clips outside, under your arm, and the easel in your hand, you are ready to go anywhere and start painting with this medium of oil paint and turpentine on paper.

figure 14. Brushes for oil or oil and turpentine.

METHODS OF USE

The chief point to remember is that now you are not dealing with a water medium which runs downhill and takes time to dry—you have the knowledge that almost as soon as your brush touches the paper, your paint will "stay put," you have no need to guide washes of color to the right place, and no need to wait for drying because the color dries almost at once. But it is not wise to put one wash over another as in water color—you have to get the full force of your color straightaway.

figure 15. Dippers.

The mixing of colors is just about the same as with water colors. The difference in use is the important thing. You do not mix up a lot of color, you dip your brush slightly into the turpentine in the "dipper" fixed to your palette, find the tint on your palette, and then take only the minimum of paint. Then, with very little of the required color on your brush point, you dip it well into the turpentine and rapidly apply it to paper. You aim at a full tonal effect from the start, for your colors will be fuller and stronger than in water-color paint.

One of the things to remember is that as you are using a more expensive medium than water to dilute your colors, you must keep the amount of turpentine in your "dipper" as clean as possible by liberal and constant use of your rags. Should your "turps" become really dirty, however, do not hesitate to pour it away and put out some more.

TECHNIQUE

Directness, rigorous selection, emphasis, and simplici­ty, are essential for using this medium, for once a brush stroke is on the gleaming white paper, it is there finally: no subsequent overlaying with other tints is going to help—in fact, this will spoil the result at once. It spoils the effect if any preliminary drawing in pencil is made on the paper; therefore it is as well to take your smallest round brush and dip it slightly in your cobalt or ultramarine blue and, with a good jab into the turpentine, start off to draw your subject in a blue outline. Or if you consider blue is too definite a color for your drawing you can use a mixture of mad­der and viridian green. This, mixed with plenty of turps, will give a nice soft warm gray tint, that will make a pleasant start to your work.

After the outline is put in you can start with your darks because you are not working now from light to dark but in a direct full-toned medium. Your dark colors—ultramarine blue, rose madder, and umber-can be used, alone or mixed, for the deepest notes; you can then work in your medium tints of green and yel­low and brown, with any reds or blues, in full strength straightaway.

SNAGS

The snags have been indicated to some degree. It is so easy to put on too much paint with this mixture of oil color and the volatile turpentine. And then you find yourself resorting to the use of opaque white and getting a thicker and thicker surface, which will prob­ably lead to a turgid mess in the end. So always keep to the more linear aspect of your subject, choosing very carefully what you will put in and what leave out. Leaving out is more important than putting in. And remember to let the white paper do a lot of work. With this medium, as with water colors, the paper you work on is of paramount importance—I do not mean the quality of the paper but a constant awareness that the white paper is your ground and that it must not be cluttered up with any unnecessary lines or colors. This medium teaches above all the art of selection.

SUBJECTS TO LOOK FOR

This is not an atmospheric medium; it is for quick summary effects which need a full range of color and strong contrasts of dark and light. It is stronger than water colors but it essentially depends on calligraphy, the swift drawing of the outline of things. It is there­fore suitable for such things as farm carts or imple­ments against barns, or colored fields, groups of people sitting or lounging at the seaside, for any subject that has linear interest and plenty of strong contrasts of color. Boats on the river or sea, houses, streets, animals, children, all can be sketched in with this quick me­dium which does not need the pauses and waits for drying, or the slow working up from light to dark by overlaying one tint upon another. Quick judgment and a carefree fluency are necessary for the best results. Put on too little rather than too much, keep always to the most simple aspect of the subject, whatever it may be, from an elephant in a circus to a group of fruit on a table.

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