Or More Correctly Semi-neutral Tint Is A Compound Shadow Colour Of

: ON THE SEMI-NEUTRAL, GRAY.

a cool character. It is permanent, except that on exposure the gray is

apt to become grey, a change which may be prevented by a slight addition

of ultramarine ash. So protected, it becomes serviceable in landscape

for the extreme distance, which, it may be laid down as a general

principle, should be painted rather cold than otherwise. Blue being the

principal compound of atmosphere, it is of the utmost importance to

ob ain this in the first instance, particularly as, from its being only

of a blue tint, not blue colour, it is so immediately altered and acted

upon by subsequent washes; whereas, the blue tone once lost, it will be

found very difficult to be recovered. Wherever a picture is wanting in

air effect, the cause will, upon examination, be seen to rest entirely

upon the absence of pure grays, bordering upon a bluish tone, not

tending, be it observed, to brown or purple. A bluish gray, then, of

rather a cold tone, such as the neutral tint, is recommended as the

prevailing hue with which to begin the extreme distances; and, as a

rule, it is better to pass with this over as much of the landscape as

possible, and thus lay the foundation for a general atmosphere.



TTITLE PAYNE'S GRAY



resembles the preceding in being a compound colour and liable to assume

a grey cast by time, but differs from it in having more lilac in its

hue, and being therefore of a warmer tone. Giving by itself a clear

violet shadow, it may be rendered more neutral by a small portion of

burnt Sienna, an admixture which, whether the gray or Sienna

predominates, affords useful tints. Compounded with light red or Vandyke

brown, the gray is good for shipping and sails, or the stems and

branches of trees; while with gamboge or aureolin it is suited to glossy

leaves in high light, also to very cold tones in foregrounds, herbage,

&c. Yellow ochre, light red, and Payne's gray form a mixture for banks

and roads; the ochre, gray, and sepia, a most beautiful tint for stones;

and brown madder and the gray, a fine shade for the black head and feet

of cattle. Alone, the gray is serviceable for slate; and compounded with

light red, for bricks or tiles in shadow.



TTITLE ULTRAMARINE ASH



is obtained from the stone after the richer and more intense blue has

been extracted. Although not equal in beauty, and inferior in strength

of colour to ultramarine, it is a valuable bye-product varying in shade

from light to dark, and in hue from pale azure to cold blue. With a grey

cast, it affords delicate and extremely tender tints, not so positive as

ultramarine, but which, as water-colours, wash much better. It furnishes

grays softer, purer, and more suited to the pearly tints of flesh,

skies, distances, foliage, shadows of drapery, &c. than those composed

of other blues, with white and black, which the old masters were wont to

employ. Ultramarine, however, produces the same effects when broken with

black and white, and is thus sometimes carried throughout the colouring

of a picture. The ash, compounded with lamp black, gives a soft cold

gray for dark louring clouds, or for twilight away from the sun's

influence. Alone it is adapted to very remote hills or mountains, and

with orient yellow or aureolin to distant foliage.



* * * * *



The native phosphate of iron, which has been already described in the

tenth chapter under its name of Blue Ochre, might have been classed

among the grays, being similar in colour to the deeper hues of

ultramarine ashes. Powdered slate, slate clays, and several native

earths, likewise rank with grays; but some of the earths we have tried

are not durable, being apt to become brown by the oxidation of the iron

they contain. It may be proper here to mention those other pigments,

known as tints, which, being the result of the experience of accredited

masters in their peculiar modes of practice, serve to facilitate the

progress of their amateur pupils, while they are more or less eligible