Page:Cyclopedia of Painting-Armstrong, George D (1908).djvu/313



The processes of plain oil painting are in themselves extremely simple, and depend so much on manipulative skill that a description of them must be taken only as a general guide, not by any means sufficient in itself to make a good painter. This result is not arrived at by theoretical knowledge alone, however sound, but by long-continued and earnest practice.

On the other hand, it must be urged on the attention of painters the fact that practice alone will not accomplish the end desired; a painter who can only spread a quantity of paint over a given surface is little better than a machine, and it is hoped by the instruction given in the following pages, to awaken the interest of the painter, and to show him that his occupation is not merely manual, but that each branch of the trade, if properly understood, will afford scope for the exercise of mental acquirements and for the application of knowledge.

Before the painter can commence the absolute process of painting new work, it is necessary that he should clear it from any drops of glue or whitening which may have fallen on the surface, or which may have been accidentally left by the carpenter.

In this operation he uses the stopping knife. This knife is held so that a large portion of its edge may touch the surface, and it is slanted so as to be nearly horizontal, and thus the edge works as it were under the pieces of glue and putty and lifts rather than scrapes them off. Care must be taken that the knife is not held so that its surface would be perpendicular to the wood, and that only the smallest possible pressure is used, otherwise indentations might be made, and thus more harm than good would be done.