CXIII. Directions for the mixture of colours.

Valuable Secrets concerning Arts and Trades:
or Approved Directions, from the best Artists, for the Various Methods...
Printed by Thomas Hubbard,
Norwich, 1795Chap. V. Secrets concerning colours & painting.

§ VIII. Preparations of colours of all sorts for oil, water, and crayons.


1. The pale yellow, for the lights, is made with white massicot. The chiaro oscuro, with the massicot and umber. The dark shade, with umber alone.

2. The orange colour is made with black lead for the lights, which you shade with the lake.

3. The lake is used very clear, for the lights, in draperies; and thicker, for their shades.

4. The purple is made with blue, white, and lake, for the lights; blue and lake only for the clear shades, and indigo and blue for the darker ones.

5. The pale blue is used for the lights, and for the clear shades a little thicker; but, for the darker shades, mix the indigo and blue together.

6. The gold-like yellow is made with yellow massicot for the lights; and the clear shades with a mixture of black lead and massicot; the darker shade, with lake, yellow ocher, and very little black lead; and the darker of all, with Cologn earth and lake.

7. The green is of two sorts. The first is made with massicot and blue, or blue and white; and for the shades you make the blue predominate in the mixture. The other is made with calcined green, and French berries' juice, mixed with calcined green; and you may form their shades by an addition of indigo.

8. For trees you mix green and umber together.

9. The grounds are made in the same way; where-ever there is any green, you take calcined green, with French berries' juice.

10. For the distances, you mix green and blue together; and mountains are always made with blue.

11. The skies are likewise made with blue, but you must add a little yellow to them, when it comes near the mountains; and, to make the transition between that and the blue, mix a little lake and blue together to soften it.

12. Clouds are made with purple; if they be obscure, you must mix lake and indigo together.

13. Stones are made with white and yellow mixed together; and their shades with black.