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- Browns And The Cold Semi-neutral Grays Marrone Is Practically To
- Also Called Scarlet Chrome Is A Bright Chromate Of Lead Of An
- Black Chalk
- Composition Chemical Analysis Has Shown Several Of The Blues To Be
- Burnt Verdigris
- Belong The Dutch And Flemish Schools; The Sensible Which Aims At
- Less Known As English Red Prussian Red And Scarlet Ochre True
- Olive In Dark Green; Russet And Citrine In Dark Orange The
- Known Likewise As Raw Sienna Earth Terra Di Sienna &c Is A
- Root Of The Anchusa Tinctoria Commonly Known As Alkanet A Plant

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- Sometimes Called China Or Chinese Ink Is Chiefly Brought From
- Red On The One Hand And Of The Middle Tertiary Russet On The
- Distilled Verdigris Or More Properly Refined Verdigris The Best Is
- Molybdenum Green
- Secondaries Orange And Green Of Both Which Yellow Is A
- Uniform Colour Thus Composed Is The Citrine Colour Of Fruit And
- Or Lamblack Is A Smoke Black Being The Soot Procured By The Burning
- While We Avoid The Compounding Of Contrasting Colours That Is The
- Only That Of Extreme Light Objects Opaque It Follows That White Is To
- And By Mixing Colours Or Tints With Black He Gets Shades It Is A

Liquid Sepia Seppia Or Animal Aethiops Is Named After The Sepia

or cuttle-fish, also called the ink-fish, from its affording a dark
liquid, which was used as an ink and pigment by the ancients. All the
species of cuttle-fish are provided with a dark-coloured fluid,
sometimes quite black, which they emit to obscure the water, when it is
wanted to favour their escape from danger, or, by concealing their
approach, to enable them with greater facility to seize their prey. The
liquid consists of a mass of extremely minute carbonaceous particles,
intermixed with an animal gelatine or glue, and is capable of being so
widely spread, than an ounce of it will suffice to darken several
thousand ounces of water. From this liquid, brought chiefly from the
Adriatic, but likewise obtainable from our own coasts, is derived the
pigment sepia, as well as, partially, the Indian ink of the Chinese.

Sepia is a powerful dusky brown, of a fine texture, transparent, works
admirably in water, combines cordially with other pigments, and is very
permanent. It is much used as a water-colour, and for making drawings in
the manner of bistre and Indian ink; but is not employed in oil, as it
dries therein very reluctantly. Extremely clear in its pale tints, and
perhaps the best washing colour known, sepia must be used with caution,
or otherwise heaviness will be engendered in the shades, so strong is
its colouring property. Mixed with indigo, or, preferably, Prussian blue
and black, it is eligible for distant trees, for a general shadow tint
in light backgrounds, and for the shade of white linen or white
draperies. With madder red it forms a fine hue, somewhat resembling
brown madder, and with crimson lake and indigo gives an artistically
excellent black. Sometimes alone and sometimes in combination with lamp
black, or madder red and Prussian blue saddened by the black, it will be
found useful in dark foreground boats, rocks, near buoys, sea-weed, &c.
Compounded with aureolin, sepia yields a series of beautiful and durable
neutral greens for landscape; and mixed with Prussian blue, affords low
olive greens, which may be deepened into very cool dark greens by the
addition of black. For hills and mountains in mid-distance, sepia
combined with cobalt and brown madder is of service; or, for the dark
markings and divisions of stones in brooks and running streams, the same
compound without the cobalt. Mixed with purple madder, it furnishes a
fine tint for the stems and branches of trees; and with French blue and
madder red gives a really good black. Compounds of sepia and yellow
ochre, gamboge, raw Sienna, or cobalt and aureolin, are severally
useful. A rich and strong brown is formed by the admixture of madder
red, burnt Sienna, and sepia; a tint which may be modified by omitting
the sepia or the Sienna, or reducing the proportions of either. For
Dutch craft, this tint and its variations are of great value. A wash of
sepia over green very agreeably subdues the force of the colour.

TTITLE WARM SEPIA

is the natural sepia warmed by mixture with other browns of a red hue,
and is intended for drawings where it would be difficult to keep the
whole work of the same tint, unless the compound were made in the cake
of colour.

TTITLE ROMAN SEPIA

is a preparation similar to the preceding, but with a yellow instead of
a red cast.

TTITLE VANDYKE BROWN.

This pigment, hardly less celebrated than the great painter whose name
it bears, is a species of peat or bog-earth of a fine, deep,
semi-transparent brown colour. The pigment so much esteemed and used by
Vandyke is said to have been brought from Cassel; an assertion which
seems to be justified by a comparison of Cassel earth with the browns of
his pictures. Gilpin in his Essays on Picturesque Beauty, remarks that
"In the tribe of browns--in oil-painting, one of the finest earths is
known, at the colour shops, by the name of Castle-earth, or Vandyke's
brown." The Vandyke brown of the present day is a bituminous ochre,
purified by grinding and washing over. Apt to vary in hue, it is durable
both in water and oil, but, like all bituminous earths, dries tardily as
a rule in the latter vehicle. Clear in its pale tints, deep and glowing
in shadows, in water it has sometimes the bad property of working up:
for this reason, where it is necessary to lay on a great body of it,
the moist tube colour should be preferred to the cake. With madder red,
the brown gives a fine tint, most useful as a warm shadow colour; and
with Prussian blue, clear, very sober neutral greens for middle
distances. In banks and roads, Vandyke brown is the general colour for
dragging over the surface, to give roughness of texture: compounded with
yellow ochre, it affords a good ground tint, and with purple madder a
rich shadow colour. In sunrise and sunset clouds, a mixture of the brown
with cobalt yields a cold neutral green, adapted for those clouds at the
greatest distance from the sun. For foliage tints, aureolin, French
blue, and Vandyke brown, will be found of service; or as a glaze over
such tints, the yellow and the brown. With raw Sienna, brown madder,
Payne's gray, gamboge, and Roman ochre, this brown is useful. In a
water-colour winter scene, when the trees are denuded of foliage, the
net work of the small branches at the tops of them may be prettily given
with cobalt and Vandyke brown, used rather dry, and applied with a brush
having its hairs spread out either by the fingers or by drawing them
through a fine-tooth comb before working. Grass is likewise represented
readily by this means, and so are small trees on the summit of a cliff
or in like positions.

The Campania Brown of the old Italian painters was a similar earth.

TTITLE VERONA BROWN,

a pigment peculiar to oil painting, is a native ferruginous earth. A
citrine brown of great service in tender drab greens, it forms with
terre verte and the madder lakes rich autumnal tints of much beauty and
permanence.

TTITLE YELLOW MADDER,





Next: Cory's Yellow Madder Or Cory's Madder Is Classed Among The Browns
Previous: Mummy Brown Or Egyptian Brown Is A Bituminous Product Mixed With

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