Page:Embroidery and Fancy Work.djvu/123

Rh black. Never blend the hair, but try to make your strokes give direction to the masses. When shading use a fine brush, giving as much as possible the texture of the hair. The rest of the work can be more safely done if you have your work fired at this stage. Then deepen your ground by cross-hatching it with the tint already laid on, making the lines rather broad and slightly curved. Put in the features with a shadow tint formed by mixing one third ivory black, one third sky blue, and one third flesh red No. II. Vary this tint with more or less red, when you wish to lighten the shadow, or in parts where the color is particularly ruddy. Deep red brown is used for deepening the color on cheeks and lips. It must be very carefully used, as it loses a little in firing. A little violet of iron, or a little black mixed with the red brown can be used for shading the lips and nostrils. The eyebrows are painted with a tint corresponding to that used for the hair. Use sky blue or brown shaded with black according to the color. The white of the china can be left for the reflected light on the eye or it can be touched with permanent white. In painting white drapery, leave the china for the local color and shade with sky blue and black. These are very general directions. Each artist must make his own combinations, but these may give a key which will open the way for a beginner.

In giving these directions, I have several times alluded to "firing"; the process by which the colors become fixed. After china has been fired, mistakes, as a rule, cannot be remedied, although sometimes they may be painted over. People living near large cities can generally have their "firing" done at a wholesale china store or at a decorator's. The advertisements of many such firms are to be found in papers devoted to art work, and dealers in artists' materials can generally get the work done, or procure the address of some firm who will fire amateur's work. The charges for firing are, as a rule, moderate,