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 Another Random Document on
Scribd Without Any Related Topics
 We first note the general proportions. Is his body as thick as it is
long? Is his neck as long as his body? Are his legs nearest the head
or tail? Is the head as long as the neck? What part reaches the
highest, or what part the lowest? We hastily but carefully consider
these questions and determine in our own mind the answers, for we
must get an idea of the proportions before we begin our sketch.
Now we draw a horizontal line along our paper, and then hold up
our pencil horizontally, so that it will answer for a straight line drawn
across the body of the real goose (Fig. 148). This will represent the
horizontal line on the paper. Noticing then the directions the outlines
of the goose take from the horizontal line (represented by the
pencil), we sketch them in on the paper, remembering that one of
the most important things is to get the right directions of the lines.

Observe that in Fig. 149 the line G is directed to too high a point,
and makes the body too thick and out of proportion.
 In sketching it is best to make all lines straight instead of curves,
for in this way we are more likely to get the right directions. Our first
rough sketch of the goose ought to have something of the
appearance of Fig. 150, and as we work it up more carefully it will
become as nicely rounded as we could desire.
One of the most common faults a beginner is apt to commit is to
try to do too much, either by choosing too great a subject, such as a
large landscape, or by putting too many little things into the
composition. Take care of the large things, and the little things will
take care of themselves.
If our subject be a clump of trees at some distance, we should
not attempt to draw in separate leaves, but endeavor to get the true
shape of the tree, simply indicating the leaves by a few lines. Neither
must we attempt, in our first sketches, to put in all the shadows we
see; the strong principal ones are all that are necessary. A
background of hills and trees should be merely suggested by a few
lines, because the light striking upon them gives a very light
appearance.
Draw as simply as possible. Ten pictures are spoiled by putting in
too much work, where one is spoiled by too little.
Don’t be discouraged. Every effort will show improvement, if you
really put your mind and heart in your work. As for
 Materials,
a sheet of drawing-paper, a No. 2 lead-pencil, and a piece of soft
rubber are all you really need to commence with. Later it will be well
to have a drawing-pad and several more pencils.
 CHAPTER XXII.
HOW TO PAINT IN WATER-COLORS.

HERE is a certain charm in water-color painting—a

charm distinctly its own—which lies, as Penley says,
“in the beauty and truthfulness of its aerial tones.”
Without this quality a water-color, as a water-color, is
a failure.
This transparency of effect does not depend alone
upon the manner of painting or the colors employed, but much rests
with the paper we use. In the days when our mothers and
grandmothers were taught painting at school, the finest, smoothest
cardboard was thought necessary; but we have since learned that
the flat, smooth paper tends decidedly toward producing a flat,
smooth effect in the picture painted upon it, while the rough, uneven
surface of the paper now in use helps to produce depth and
atmosphere. Therefore it is always best to have rough paper to paint
upon. We give below the

Materials for Water-Color Painting.

1. A block of rough drawing or water-color paper.
It is better to buy it in blocks than by the sheet, as it is much
more easily handled, and is always ready for use.
2. Brushes. The best brushes are made of sable, and although
costing more to begin with, it is really more economical to purchase
them than to choose the less expensive camel’s-hair; for the sable
are by far the most satisfactory, and will last much longer. Three or
four brushes are sufficient. As Devoe & Co. number them, they
should range between No. 3, which is small enough for ordinary
painting, and No. 19, for clouds, backgrounds, etc.
3. Colors. A tin sketching-box of moist colors, which also contains
a palette, is very useful, but the colors can be bought separately in
tubes or pans.
Water-color painting seems by its qualities to be especially
adapted to flowers and landscapes, and as this is to be a chapter,
not a book, on water-colors, we will confine ourselves to the
principal points to be observed in these two departments, and will
commence with the

Flowers.
Few oil-paintings, however well executed, give the delicate,
exquisite texture of a flower as nearly as water-colors. The
semitransparency of a rose-petal, the juicy, translucent green of the
young leaf, it is difficult to truthfully represent in other than these
colors, whose essential quality is transparency. To preserve this
transparency of color, everything about the painting must be kept
exceedingly neat. The brushes must be thoroughly washed before
using them for a different tint from that already upon them, and
plenty of water, changed frequently, is necessary.
Having arranged your materials conveniently upon a table, place
your paper so that it will lie at an angle slanting toward you, not
perfectly flat upon the table; this can be done by putting books
under the edge farthest from you, thus raising it up. Stand the
flowers you wish to copy in such a position that the light will fall
upon them only from one direction and produce decided shadows;
the effect will then be much better than when the light is more
diffused.
 Always arrange your model exactly as you want to paint it, and
leave nothing to your idea of how it ought to look. If you do not
intend to have any background other than the white paper, place
something white behind your flowers. If you want a colored
background, arrange the color you have chosen behind the flowers,
and paint it as you see it. Commence your work by sketching lightly,
as correctly and rapidly as you can, the outline of your flower. Try
something simple at first; say a bunch of heart’s-ease or pansies,
and when drawing them try to get the character of both flower and
leaf. Observe how the stem curves where it is attached to the flower,
and at what angles the stems of the flowers and the leaves join the
main stalk. Given character, an outline drawing painted in flat tints
will closely resemble nature; without it, the most beautifully finished
painting will not look like the flower it is intended to represent.
When your outline is drawn in, dip your largest brush in clear
water, and go over the whole surface of your paper, then place a
piece of blotting-paper over the paper to soak up the water, leaving
it simply damp, not wet.
If you are using tube colors, have ready on a porcelain palette, or
ordinary dinner-plate, these colors: crimson lake, cobalt blue, indigo,
Prussian blue, and gamboge. Put in your lightest tints first, leaving
the white paper for the highest light; then paint in your darker tints
and shadows, and get the effect.
If your flower is what we call the johnny-jump-up, the lowest
petal will be yellow. Paint this in with a light wash of gamboge,
leaving, as we have said, the white paper for touches of high light.
The two upper petals will probably be a deep claret-color; this is
made by mixing crimson lake and cobalt blue, the crimson lake
predominating. The two central petals may be a bluish lavender, and
this color is made by mixing a little crimson lake with cobalt blue.
Use plenty of water; but do not let it run, and keep the colors of the
petals distinct.
Paint the stems and leaves, where they are a rich green, with a
mixture of gamboge and Prussian blue, and where they appear gray
as the light touches them, a pale wash of indigo will give the desired
effect.
Keep your shadows broad and distinct, and your tints as flat as
you can. Leave out details altogether in your first paintings, and add
them afterward only when you can do so without spoiling the effect.
When a tinted background is desired, put it in quickly in a flat tint,
before commencing the flowers. It is best not to bring the tint quite
up to the outline, as a narrow edge of white left around the flower
gives a pleasant, sketchy look to the painting.

Landscapes.
In your first studies from nature keep to simple subjects, and
treat them simply, without any attempt at elaboration. Choose, for
instance, a picturesque corner of an old fence, with perhaps a bit of
field and sky for the background. Sketch in the principal features in
the foreground in outline, and indicate the horizon, if it comes in the
picture.
Penley says, in his “System of Water-Color Painting,” “White paper
is too opaque to paint upon without some wash of color being first
passed over it,” and he recommends a thin wash of yellow ochre and
brown madder, which should be put all over the surface of the paper
except on the high lights in the foreground, which are best left crisp
and white.
Notwithstanding what Penley says in this matter, it must be borne
in mind that some artists do not believe in successive washes, but
claim that the color desired should be put upon the white paper at
once.
If the yellow tint is used, let it become quite dry and then wash it
over with a large brush and clean water; then, as in the flower
painting, soak up the water with blotting-paper; the blotting-paper
must also be quite clean. While the paper is damp, not wet, begin
with a blue tint—a light wash of cobalt will give it—and put in the
sky in a flat tint; bring the same color down all over your sketch
except in the high lights. The blue tint gives atmosphere and
distance. Let your paper again become quite dry, and then wash it
over as before, in clear water.
The process of laying on color and lightly washing over it
afterward should be repeated several times, “and the result will be a
transparent aerial tone.”
Keep your extreme distance bluish, your middle distance warmer
in tone, but not too strong, and the principal objects in your
foreground strong.
Leave out small objects, and with light and shade seek to obtain
the effect.
 Keep your colors pure or your sketch will be dull.
Contrast has much to do in producing strength and character.
Phillips says that, “in aiming at opposition of color, we must select
that which gives force to the foreground, and consequently
communicates the appearance of air in the distance. Thus, if the
general tone of the light be warm and yellow, we should have blues
and purples in the foreground; if the lights be cool, reds and yellows
in the foreground give atmosphere to distance, as neither of these
colors in a positive state is found in the middle or remote distance.”
The three principal contrasts are blue opposed to orange, red to
green, and yellow to purple; and “a good first lesson in sketching in
color will be to put in your shadows with color opposite to the object
in light; and by carrying out this principle of opposition throughout
the scale you will obtain an endless variety of contrasts.” It is the
general rule in most painting to have cool shadows to warm lights,
and warm shadows to cool lights. We all know that a green picture is
very disagreeable, and although a green field is green, it must not
be made intensely so. An untrained eye will not see how nature
tones down the vivid color with shadows, and softens it with the
atmosphere; but when the eye has learned to look at nature in the
right way this difficulty will be overcome. Howard says, “green must
be sparingly used, even in landscapes, whose greatest charm
consists of vegetation.”
Foliage in some form will present itself in almost every landscape,
and it is therefore necessary to have a few general principles to
guide you in this important feature. In sketching trees be sure to get
the character of their trunks, limbs, branches, and general form; also
the texture of the bark, rough or smooth. You will see that the
foliage appears in layers, one above another. Sketch in the outlines
of the principal layers, where they are tipped with light; then go over
the whole tree with a local color, and afterward separate the light
from shadow. Each mass is edged with light, while its base is in
shadow, as a rule. Omit details, and keep to your masses of light
and shade. If your tree is in the foreground, leave the white paper
for crisp touches of high light. The tone of your fence will probably
be gray, but do not take it for granted that it is all gray; look for
other colors, and you will find brown, blue, green, and sometimes
red. Put these in as you see them, letting the edges melt into each
other, as they will do when the paper is damp; but have each color
pure, and do not try to mix them.

Painting from Notes

is not as difficult as one might imagine. With a little practice it is
easily learned. The following directions will tell how to paint a sunset
on the meadows, from notes made at sunset on the meadows on
Long Island.
 How to Paint a Sunset in Water-Colors.

Take a piece of Whatman’s rough drawing-paper, or a kind that is

termed egg-shell cartoon, the size decided upon for your picture.
Have ready a large dish of clean water, brushes, and paints. Draw a
pencil-line along the centre of your paper for your horizon, Fig. 151;
then directly on the line paint a streak of vermilion. Put the color on
quite damp, and make it about half an inch broad, extending one-
fourth of an inch on either side of the horizon-line, Fig. 152. Next,
quickly paint a yellow streak above and below the red one, making
each streak of the same size and parallel, and leaving a little white
paper between the different colors, Fig. 153. With a clean brush
dipped in clean water carefully moisten the paper between the
streaks, and allow the edges of the colors to mingle, Fig. 154. Before
this has time to dry, paint a blue streak above and below, about half
an inch from the yellow, Fig. 155; then with the clean brush dampen
the white paper between, being careful not to get it too wet; there
should be just enough moisture to enable the colors to flow and
mingle at the edges, Fig. 156. This may be aided by holding the
paper first one side up and then the other, until the edges are evenly
blended. Now, before the horizon is quite dry, while it is still damp
enough to cause the paint to spread, fill a brush with Payne’s gray,
which should be rather dark and not too wet, touch the point of your
brush here and there along the horizon, now a little above and now
a little below, and you will find that the paint will spread and make
excellent trees for the distance, Fig. 157.

When your work is dry enough to paint over without spreading

the color, mix some green and black, and green and brown; paint in
the meadow, using the color made of green and black for the
extreme and middle distance, the color made of green and brown for
the foreground, leaving spaces for streams and ponds, and your
sunset upon the meadow is finished. A pretty little sketch it is, too,
Fig. 158.
 Leaf from an Artist’s Note-Book.

A different composition can be made by proceeding as directed as

far as Fig. 156 and then, instead of putting in trees on the horizon,
hills running to points in the water can be painted in a flat tint with
the Payne’s gray, and a vessel with masts painted in the foreground,
as in Fig. 159. This also makes a pretty and effective little sketch.
Fig. 160 shows sunset notes taken while aboard a ferryboat in the
winter of 1886-87. From these you can see just how the notes are
made; but you must make your own notes, because what is
perfectly intelligible to the writer of the sunset memoranda is an
enigma to another person. For example, in Fig. 160, “Rose-tinted
sky” may mean almost any shade of red, or blue and red mixed, but
“Rose-tinted sky” no doubt brings before the mind’s eye of the writer
of the notes the exact color of the sky at the time the notes were
made.
A Study in Oil.
 CHAPTER XXIII.
HOW TO PAINT IN OIL-COLORS.

HE difference between oil- and water-color painting

lies in the fact that, although especially well
adapted to the portrayal of some subjects, water-
color has its limitations, while with oil-colors any
subject, from the simplest study in still-life to the
grandest conception of a great artist, can be
represented, and no limit has yet been reached in its possibilities.
But there are first steps to be taken in all things, and the greatest
artist who ever lived had to make a beginning and learn the
preliminaries of painting before he could produce a picture. To these
steps, then, we will turn our attention, and the first will be the
necessary

Materials.
The following list of colors, with their combinations, will be found
sufficient for most purposes.

YELLOWS. REDS. BLUES. GREENS.

Permanent
Yellow Ochre, Vermilion, Terre Verte,
Blue,
Naples Yellow, Light Red, Cobalt, Emerald Green,
Light Zinnober
Light Cadmium, Indian Red, Antwerp Blue.
Green.
Orange Venetian
Cadmium. Red,
 Burnt Sienna, Rose Madder.
Silver White, Raw Umber, Vandyke Brown, Ivory Black.

Winsor & Newton’s colors are acknowledged by most artists to be

the best, but the writer personally prefers German white, as in her
opinion it is not so stiff, and mixes better with other colors than the
Winsor & Newton.

The Easel
may be simply a pine one, which can be purchased from any dealer
at the cost of about one dollar. More elaborate easels are, of course,
more expensive; but as the merits of a picture do not depend upon
the easel which holds it, a common pine one will do.

The Palette
should be light in weight and not too small; oiled and not varnished.
A very light-colored wood is not desirable; one of walnut or cedar,
about eighteen inches long, is the best to use, and will cost from
thirty to sixty cents.

Brushes,
both of sable and bristles, are used, but we would advise a beginner
to work with bristle brushes only, for the first attempt should be to
obtain a broad style of painting, without the finished details which
the sable brushes are used for.
About four different sizes of flat bristle brushes are needed to
commence with; there should be two of each size, the largest one
inch wide, and the smallest not more than a quarter of an inch in
width.
 The Palette-Knife
is used for taking up color on the palette, for cleaning the palette,
and sometimes for scraping a picture after its first painting. It should
be flexible, but not too limber. The cost will be from twenty-five
cents upward.

Oil-Cups
are fastened on to the palette, and are used for oil and turpentine.
The double ones range in price from eight cents to twenty. The
single ones, without cover, can be bought for five cents.

A Paint-Box
for holding colors, palette, and brushes will cost from one dollar and
twenty-five cents up. It is convenient to have one, and necessary
when going out sketching, but for painting at home any kind of tin
box will answer for the paints. The palette can be hung up, and the
brushes put in a vase or jar, handles downward, which will keep
them nicely.

Mediums.
Boiled linseed-oil or poppy-oil, siccatif Courtray, and turpentine.

Canvas.
In selecting canvas choose that of a warm-gray or creamy tone,
for it is difficult to give warmth to a picture painted on a cold-gray
canvas. The German sketching-canvas is quite cheap, and does very
well to commence on. It is best to buy it on the stretcher, as a girl’s
fingers are seldom strong enough to stretch the canvas as tight as it
should be. A very good sketching-canvas, 18 × 24, can be bought in
New York City for twenty-five cents.
Several clean pieces of old white cotton-cloth are necessary for
wiping brushes, cleaning knife and palette, etc.

The Light
in the studio, or room in which you paint, should come from one
direction only, and fall from above. This can be managed by covering
the lower sash of the window with dark muslin, or anything that will
shut out the light. A shawl will answer for a temporary curtain.
Most artists prefer that while painting the light should come from
behind over the left shoulder.
Our advice to beginners in all the departments of art is the same:
commence with simple subjects.
Your first study should be from still-life (which means any
inanimate object used for artistic study), and let the object selected
be of a shape that requires but little drawing; for your aim now is to
learn to handle your colors, and it is not desirable to have your mind
distracted by complicated drawing. A vase placed on a piece of
drapery, which is also brought up to form the background, is a good
subject; the drapery should be of one color, and of a tone that will
contrast agreeably with the vase and give it prominence.
Arrange whatever object you have decided to paint so that it will
show decided masses of light and shade; place your easel at a
sufficient distance from it to obtain the general effect of shape and
color without seeing too much detail; arrange your canvas on the
easel so that you will neither have to look up nor down upon it, but
straight before you; then sketch in the object you are about to copy
in outline. Observe the edges of the heaviest shadows, and draw
them also in outline. Charcoal is better than a pencil for sketching on
canvas, as it can be easily rubbed off with a clean cloth if the
drawing is incorrect. When the sketch is finished, dust off the
charcoal lightly and go over the lines again with a camel’s-hair brush
and India ink.

Setting the Palette

is a term used for arranging the colors in a convenient manner upon
the palette. The colors should always occupy the same position, so
that, the places once learned, you will never be at a loss to find the
color you want. Fig. 161 shows a convenient arrangement of colors,
as well as the position of the oil-cans.
Fill
one of
your oil-
cans
one-
third full
of
turpenti
ne, to
which
add
enough
siccatif
Courtra
y to
turn it
the
Fig. 161.—Manner of Arranging Colors on Palette.
color of
strong
coffee. Dip one of your good-sized brushes in this mixture and
scrape it off on the edge of the can, that the brush may not be too
wet; then take up some burnt sienna on the brush and put it on
your palette about an inch or so below the terre verte, add some
terre verte, and mix the two with your brush. Lay in all the shadows
of the vase, or whatever object you are about to paint, in a flat,
even tone with the color thus formed, keeping it thin with the
turpentine and siccatif.
Mix a tint as near the required color as you can, and go over the
whole background without regard to light or shade; cover all the
background; do not leave any white or bare canvas showing.
The general effect being thus obtained, it is easier to see what
colors are needed for further painting.
Select a medium tint between the high lights and half-tones, and
paint in the lights of the vase in a flat, even tint; then go over the
shadows again with a medium tone, still keeping them in one flat,
even mass. Should you lose the outline at any time, dip a rag in
turpentine and wash off the paint that covers it.
Having progressed this far, the painting should be left to dry.
The turpentine and siccatif Courtray have such drying properties
that by the next day you may work again on the study.
Begin the second painting by putting in the half-tints. These unite
the decided light and shade, and should be dragged over their
edges, but not blended with them. Once more go over the shadows,
strengthening them and putting in the reflected lights.
Add more color in the lights where it is needed, and put in the
high lights with clear, crisp touches. Work on your background in this
second painting. Indicate the shadows, but do not make them
strong, except the one which will probably be cast by the object;
that can be strengthened, as it helps to set the object out from the
background and gives the idea of space. Do not make the
background strong; keep it toned down, that it may not become too
prominent. Drag the background a little over the edges of the vase,
or whatever it may be you are painting, and then paint over it again
with the colors of the vase. Do this while working around the edges
of the vase, or object, to prevent its looking flat, as if it were pasted
on.
These directions are to be applied to painting any subject; but
after you have learned how to manage the colors and wish to really
paint a picture, the medium must be changed from turpentine and
siccatif Courtray to oil, either linseed or poppy, using the turpentine
only for the first effect of shadow.
When oil is used it will require two or three days for the picture to
dry. Many advise the use of but little oil, and there are artists who
dissapprove of any medium at all.
Before commencing the second painting, a coating of poppy-oil
should be put all over the canvas with a large, flat camel’s-hair
brush. Every bit should be covered without touching the brush twice
to the same spot. This softens the first coat of paint sufficiently to
allow of its blending with the next. If a raw potato be cut in half and
rubbed over the painting before the oil is put on, it will prevent the
oil from crawling, or separating into drops on the canvas.
Do not use the same brushes for dark and light tints, but keep
them separate. Mix your tints on your palette, the dark tint below
the dark colors, and the light tint below the light colors.
In putting away your work after painting, be sure that the tops
are screwed on to all your color-tubes, and arrange them neatly in
their box. Clean your palette with the palette-knife, and then wipe it
off with a rag. Dip your brushes, one by one, in turpentine and wipe
them on a rag; this removes most of the paint and makes them
easier to wash. Warm, not hot, water should be used for washing
the brushes. The best way is to hold several brushes in the right
hand, their sticks being in an upright position, dip them in the water,
rub them on a piece of common soap, and then scrub them round
and round on the palm of the left hand; rinse them in clear water,
and wipe dry with a clean rag.
 Our limited space will not allow of our going more fully into the
details of painting; but we hope that these directions will give some
idea of how to make a beginning as a painter in oil-colors, and after
you have made a start you will find two good professors at your
elbow to help you along and encourage you—Prof. Judgment and
Prof. Experience.
 CHAPTER XXIV.
HOW TO MODEL IN CLAY AND WAX.

N eminent artist once remarked within the writer’s

hearing that, should he bring into his studio the
first dozen boys he happened to meet on the
street, taking them as they came, he would
probably be able to teach at least half of them to
model within six months, whereas there might not
be one of them who could be taught to paint at
all. Possibly none of these boys would ever become great sculptors,
but they could learn to model moderately well. If that is the case
with boys, who are apt to be so awkward and clumsy, how quickly
could a girl’s deft fingers learn to mould and form the plastic clay or
wax into life-like forms. In some of the institutions for the blind, deaf
and dumb, modelling is taught with great success. Quickly the
sensitive fingers of the young inmates run over the object to be
copied, and skilfully they reproduce in their clay the form conveyed
to them by touch alone. It is pleasant to think that these silent little
workers have this new pleasure added to their somewhat limited
stock; but at the same time the fact puts to shame some of us who,
having all our faculties, the use of all our senses, and not
infrequently artistic ability in addition, do so little with the talents
intrusted to our care.
Let us to work then, girls, and see if we cannot accomplish at
least as much as our unfortunate sisters, who have neither sight nor
hearing to guide them.
The great difficulty we encounter in learning to draw—which is
representing things as they appear, not as they really are—will not
trouble us in this other department of art, for in modelling it must be
our aim to do
precisely the
reverse, and
reproduce an
object exactly as
it is, not as it
appears.
Modelling,
besides its own
worth, is of value
as an aid to
drawing, for it
teaches form,
and the shadows
on an object can
be drawn more
intelligently and
correctly when it
is known just
what formations
produce them.
A great deal
can be done in
modelling
without the aid of
Modelling in Clay.
a teacher. So, not
waiting to look
up a professor, suppose we commence by ourselves and see what
we can do. It is very fascinating work, and if a few failures are the
result of our first attempt, we need not be discouraged, for what
others can do, we also can accomplish.
The writer has lately been initiated into the mysteries of this art,
and since, as they say, the person just graduated from a primary
department is best fitted to teach in that department, perhaps the
hints given here may be better suited to the understanding of
beginners than if they were written by a great sculptor, who might
forget that everyone does not know, as well as he does himself, the
preliminary steps necessary even in accomplishing the grandest
results.
Instead of entering into the later and more
artistically finished processes we will confine
ourselves to the prelude or introduction to
modelling; and then, girls, with the object
before you, your only guide and instructor, you
must work out the rest for yourselves.
The first thing to do is to provide your

Materials,
and here is a list of all you will need:
1. Clay, such as is used by potters, perfectly
Modelling Tools free from grit.
2. Modelling-tools. These can be bought at
any artists’ material store, and the simplest ones might be made at
home of hard wood. Only a few tools are necessary for a beginner;
Fig. 162 shows those most useful. The fingers and thumbs are the
best of all tools, and a great deal can be done with them, though for
fine, delicate modelling tools must be used.
3. Modelling-stand. A regular modelling-stand with rotary platform
will cost from eight to twelve dollars and the expense may be an
objection; but the writer has found that an ordinary high office-stool
with revolving seat makes a good substitute. If the stool is not high
enough it can be raised by placing on the seat a drawing- or pastry-
board, and on top of that a square wooden box about one foot high
and broad enough to allow sufficient room for a good-sized head
and bust.
 4. Basin of water and towel for washing and drying the hands.

How to Manage Clay.

Clay costs, near New York, from one to three cents per pound,
and about fifty pounds will be required. If possible buy it moist, but
if dry, put it into an earthenware jar, or anything that will hold water,
and cover with clear water. Let it remain until thoroughly moistened;
then with a stick stir the clay around as, when a small girl, you did
the mud while making mud-pies, until it is free from lumps and is
perfectly smooth; clear away from the sides of the jar and pile it up
in the centre.
When it is dry enough not to be muddy and is still pliable, it is in
a fit condition to work with. It is necessary to keep your hands
perfectly clean and conveniences for washing them should be handy.
Do not use muddy water or a dusty towel.
Use any tools that will produce the result desired with the
greatest ease; a little experience will soon determine what they are,
but as a rule the largest are best.
When leaving unfinished work cover it with a damp cloth to keep
it moist. If you are working on a head, and the features have been
commenced, stick a small wooden tool in the head just above the
forehead to hold the cloth away from the face, for it is liable to
soften the nose and push it out of shape if it rests upon it.
A frame made of laths (Fig. 163) covered with oil-cloth or rubber
(an old gossamer water-proof will be just the thing), placed over the
modelling, will keep it better than the cloth, as it excludes the air
and prevents its drying (Fig. 164). When using the frame, sprinkle
your work by dipping a clean whisk-broom into water and shaking it
over the clay. Remember, the clay must always be kept moist and
pliable and never allowed to dry. If it does become dry and hard
 there is nothing to do but to put it back into
the jar, and go through the process of
damping it again.
Keep your tools
clean, and do not
allow the metal ones
to become rusty, as
they will if carelessly
left on the modelling-
stand when not in use.
To avoid trouble of this
kind it is best to put your tools in a box where
they will be perfectly dry. Unless you wish to
go through one of the writer’s first
experiences, when she was obliged to let her tools lie in a pan of
kerosene oil for two days, and then clean them with knife-brick.

How to Preserve Modelled Clay.

If terra-cotta clay is used, it can be baked in a kiln, which will,
while hardening, turn it a fine buff terra-cotta color, and make the
object, if well modelled, ornamental enough for almost any use.
From the other clay, plaster casts can be taken, and the article
reproduced in plaster as many times as desired.

Hints for Modelling a Head.

Always work from a model, and it is best to try copying plaster
casts before attempting to model from life.
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