The magic lantern and its management

There are many amateur photographers nowadays who can produce fair transparencies for the lantern, but at the same time there are many possessors of a lantern who know nothing about the ‘black art.’ Luckily for these, first-class pictures can be bought cheaply, their average price ranging from eighteenpence to two shillings each. Any optician’s catalogue will show what an immense variety of subjects there is to chose from; not only can we obtain landscapes of nearly every part of the world, but we can purchase figure studies, copies of various pictures from books, maps, diagrams of scientific matters—micro-photographs and statuary. These slides if coloured are double the price of plain ones, and if very well coloured their price is quadrupled.

It would therefore be serviceable to many if they could learn how to colour such pictures for their own use, and I give simple directions how this can be accomplished. At the same time it is only fair to state that the work is really difficult, and anyone to attain even slight proficiency in slide-painting must devote a great deal of time and patience to the subject.

The photographic slide as sold consists of two glasses, one of which bears the photograph. This is separated from the cover-glass by a paper mask, the whole being bound round by a fillet of gummed paper. After carefully cutting round this fillet the two glasses may be separated, and the one bearing the picture is placed, varnished side upwards, upon the glass easel, ready for colouring. Some colourists speak in favour of water-colours for glass-painting, others prefer oil-colours, while some, I understand, employ both on the same picture. I have tried each system, and most certainly recommend oil-colours as being both easier to work with, and doing more satisfactory work into the bargain than water-colours.

The materials required comprise ordinary oil-colours in tubes, of which the following are perhaps the most useful that can be employed for the purpose:

It is curious to observe that the suitability of these colours for the particular purpose of glass-painting varies with the method of manufacture. I find by experience that one maker’s Prussian blue is better than another’s, while for a suitable crimson lake I have to go to quite a different shop, and so on.

The brushes used must be of the best, the majority of them being camel-hair, a few fine sables being kept for special touches. It is also necessary to provide some good large bushy camel-hair brushes to be used as softeners.

A flat porcelain palette is better than one of any other material, for the strength of the tints is seen well, and the surface can easily be cleaned with a little turpentine. A flexible palette knife must also be provided.

Dabbers to soften down skies and other flat masses of colour can be made by wrapping a ball of cotton wool in fine wash-leather. The leather should be first thoroughly washed with soap and water, and it will be better if a little of the soap be left in it as it dries, for this renders it soft and pliant. Both dabbers and brushes should be kept in a dust-tight box, for dust is the greatest enemy of the slide-painter.

It will be noticed that the list of colours given includes those only which are transparent, many others used in ordinary oil-painting being omitted. It is obvious that opaque colours like Naples yellow or chrome yellow would simply appear black on the sheet. The tyro who is used to other methods of painting, and has some idea of the harmony of colours, will, of course, have an immense advantage over anyone without artistic knowledge or feeling; and when he has once mastered the technicalities of the new work, will soon be able to produce passable pictures. The list of colours given is necessarily limited for the reason already given, but their number can be increased indefinitely by judicious blending one with the other. Let me give a few instances.

There is no green in the list given, simply because I do not know of a good transparent one. But various tints of green suitable for foliage can be easily made up with the colours named. Prussian blue mixed with any of the yellows will at once give a crude green, but it will not be suitable for use without the help of some other tint, such as burnt Sienna, or one of the reds. Italian pink and indigo make a fine green. Italian pink, brown madder, and Prussian blue is also another useful combination. Brown pink, indigo, and Vandyke brown will be found admirable for the shadows in foliage; indeed, the combinations for this purpose are endless. Again, there is a difficulty generally found in obtaining any approach to scarlet. The best I know of is a mixture of Italian pink, crimson lake, and Chinese orange. For browns, Vandyke brown, Chinese orange, ivory black, and burnt Sienna, will give any range of tints, from the coldest to the warmest. The reader will soon find by experiment the right proportions for mixing these colours to produce the desired effect, and he will be much assisted in the work by studying any good manual of water-colour painting. I recommend a water-colour manual in preference to one dealing with oil-colours, because the first deals more with transparent tints, which depend for their effect upon the white ground upon which they are laid. In like manner a lantern picture depends much upon the white surface upon which the tints are subsequently exhibited.

Our first attempt at glass-painting shall be an open landscape with figures in front—and we will suppose that the scene is laid in Britain. This would seem to some an unimportant point, until they remember that the skies and atmospheric effects seen in some other lands would require an altogether different treatment. I once coloured an Egyptian scene for a friend, and he admired my work, with one exception. ‘You have given me an English sky,’ he said. The sky will be the first thing to see to, and we will endeavour to give it a flat tint of blue slightly darker at the zenith than it is at the horizon. We squeeze out from its tube a little Prussian blue upon the palette, and dipping a good-sized camel-hair brush into a small cup of turpentine, we take up a little of the colour and work it about on the palette until it seems of the right strength. Before applying it to the glass we add to it a very small quantity of McGilp medium. Having mixed this last addition with our brush-load of colour, we can apply it to the glass, painting it in broad bands from side to side until the sky is all striped with blue. If the subject comprises a range of distant hills, let them too partake of the blue tint. When this is done, lay aside the brush and let the coloured glass rest for a minute, so that some of the turpentine will dry off. Now proceed to dab it carefully with one of the leather dabbers. With a very light touch bring the dabber down over and over again, and avoid anything like a rubbing action. The movement must be vertical, and not in the least horizontal. By bearing a little more heavily on the dabber as the horizon is approached, the tint will be sensibly lightened.

When this sky-colour has been uniformly dabbed in we may proceed to put in, or rather wipe out, some cloud effects. A little piece of soft kid wrapped round a pointed pen-holder is a good tool to use for the purpose, but a leather stump will answer the same end. This part of the work requires a little judgment and artistic taste. In a picture full of detail and which only has a small portion of sky exposed, it is best coloured simply blue. But where there is not much detail in the landscape, as in the case for instance of a mill on a bleak moor, the sky can be worked up with great advantage to the general effect. The clouds are wiped out by a rubbing action combined with a dabbing movement, so that the edges of the clouds formed remain quite soft. If they appear too hard they can be corrected by a few gentle dabs with the top of the finger. Before the leather is laid aside, it may be employed for wiping off any portions of colour which have accidentally been placed where they should not be. But if there is water included in the subject, such as a lake or river, it will when the sky is reflected in it partake of the same colour, and should be dabbed in at the same time.

We must now consider how we are going to treat the rest of our picture. If there is some expanse of foreground it will make the best contrast with the sky if we use a warm sandy colour. Chinese orange, raw Sienna, and brown pink mixed in various proportions to suit the lights and shadows of the picture will give the tint required. At this stage, too, the middle tints of the composition lying between the sky and the foreground can also be laid in. These will mostly consist of subdued greys, made up of Prussian blue, burnt Sienna, purple madder, and crimson lake. When these tints are all dabbed in, and the whole picture has been carefully gone over with the leather point, so as to remove truant colour, the slide may be laid aside to dry. I find it a good plan to have a tin box containing grooves for this purpose. The slides when grounded in in the way just described are placed in the grooves, and the open box is turned towards a fire. In an hour or so the colours are dry enough for further treatment.

We can now once more view our work on the easel, and most probably we shall see much to amend. The trees in the middle distance are too yellow, or too blue. They are easily corrected by a touch of the tint in which they fail. But at this stage of the painting we must use a different medium for our colours. We have done with dabbing, and must now lay the colours on as smoothly as possible with the brush alone. Canada balsam in turpentine, of the consistence of very thin varnish, is perhaps the best medium to use. It should be mixed with every colour as it is taken upon the brush.

The beginner will find some difficulty at first, particularly if oil-colours are new to him, in keeping his brushes in order. He need not have a brush for every tint. Let one be kept for skies, but only two or three others are necessary. When I commence to paint a batch of pictures I put on my table, after carefully dusting it all over with a damp cloth, a sheet of newspaper. In the centre stands my easel. On the left hand my colour-box, and on the right my palette. Close to the palette is placed a double thickness of clean white tissue paper, and a small pot of turpentine. When I wish to clean my brush, it is simply dipped in turpentine, and drawn over the surface of the white paper until I see that it leaves no trail of colour. By this simple means one brush can be used for any number of tints, for the cleansing of it does not occupy more than ten seconds.

It is in the foreground of a picture that the artist must be lavish with his bright colours. If the figures in the subject will allow of bright colouring, so much the better; but it must be remembered that if these colours are not put in with some regard to contrast, their effect is much diminished, if not altogether lost. Let the painter remember that the principal colours have their complementary colours, and that wherever we can place one of these tints against its complementary, we are bound to have harmony. Thus the complementary of blue is orange; of red, green; and of yellow, purple. But for further particulars of this nature, the aforesaid ‘Manual of Water-Colours’ must be studied.

When the picture is apparently finished, it will, most likely, require some finishing-touches. And here a new tool comes into use, namely, the etching-needle. Take a pointed piece of wood, about the size of a penholder, and bind upon it, by means of waxed thread, a good strong sewing-needle, leaving not more than a quarter of an inch of the point exposed. A few judicious touches with this needle will make a vast difference in the effect of a picture, but anything like coarse scratching must be avoided. The beginner will do well to view his work in the lantern as it gradually progresses, for what may look very well on the easel, will look very different when all its imperfections are magnified on the screen. The art of slide-painting is one which requires constant care and practice before anything like proficiency is attained.

In case some of my readers should be well acquainted with the use of water-colours, and may be deterred from trying the art of glass-painting because oils only are recommended for the work, I will briefly describe how water-colours are utilized for slide-painting. At the same time, I hold to my previously expressed opinion, that oil-colours are the more suitable pigments to use.

The varnished surface of a glass picture does not take kindly to water-colour, and as the brush is applied to it there is a repellent action which would make the painter despair if some means were not at hand to obviate the difficulty. By mixing each colour with a certain proportion of prepared ox-gall the difficulty vanishes, and it is a wise precaution to rub a little ox-gall and water over the surface of the picture by means of a tuft of cotton wool, before any colour is applied at all.

The same transparent colours as those recommended for oil-painting may be employed, besides a few more transparent tints which are commonly not ground up in oil. But the dabbers are of a different description. Procure two or three good thick camel-hair brushes, and cut the hair off straight with a pair of scissors, so as to leave the ends of the hairs like a flat stump. Now carefully turn the brush round and round in the flame of a spirit lamp, or candle, so as to just singe the point of each hair. When this is done, rub the ends of the hair on the finest glass-paper until every trace of singeing has disappeared. This treatment will leave the brush with a flat woolly head like a mop, which makes an excellent dabber.

When the sky-colour has been applied as evenly as possible, and has been allowed to dry, the surface may be worked over with the dabber. But, before doing this, gently breathe over the colour. The dabber will remove little particles of the pigment, and will reduce the general strength of the tint, so that this loss should be provided for when the colour is first applied. Clouds, etc., can be wiped out with the leather, after the breathing operation, and in many other respects the two modes of colouring agree.

When the general tints have been laid in, the colours may receive a coat of mastic varnish, and this again can be worked over with colour to strengthen those tints which may require it. The varnish also confers a transparency upon the tints that they do not possess without it.