From 1949 to 1968, Graham used his training in chemistry to research the composition of paints used by Old Masters. The resulting book was never published, but we have the text, most of the key, and the notebooks describing his experiments.
A PAINTER’S FORMULARY
GRAHAM SAWYER
AN ACCOUNT OF RESEARCH INTO THE CRAFT OF PAINTING FOR ARTISTS.
PREFACE
Pigments, mediums, and supports are our basic materials. They should be the first things we make. Instead the preparation is almost always left to the artist’s colourman and I believe this to be a mistake. Something has been lost to art – to the complete nature of the artist = by so doing. Craft and art are inextricably mixed and we lose by separating them.
But significant acts of painting are only possible for short periods of time together. Every artist can exercise painting craft. Time spent in preparation is time well spent. Many of the jobs are simple and repetitive, ideal preparation for painting. Some are difficult, and some involve the use of dangerous poisons. Doing these is a valuable exercise in care.
One or two of the materials I describe can only be obtained by the artist making them in the studio, for example lead/tin yellow. Whether obtainable elsewhere or not, personal preparation is by far the best way for us to work. Even simple iron oxide pigments are worth preparing personally. It is fun to do, and certainly not a waste of time.
INTRODUCTION
Let me begin by defining the aims of my book. It is a book of formulas and craft processes for the practising Artist Painter, and assumes some prior knowledge of the materials of the Art on his part. Basic facts about the painter’s craft are not dealt with here. They can be found in the books detailed in the bibliography.
I show first how to make certain materials. Some little known, some unobtainable in any other way. Second, the nature and use of resultant hues, made by overlaying opaque colours with translucent paint films. Third, lists and specifications of all necessary raw materials. I recommend the painter to impose standards on these and describe how to do this.
No guesses are made. Many of the methods of former Masters have been lost and it is futile to guess at them. Occasionally chemical and optical analysis are of some limited help here. But such methods cannot show all. For example, analysis of Formula GS 1 can show that it is composed of calcium hydrate and calcium carbonate. It cannot show how these were produced. The methods are known to he painter and cannot be uncovered by scientific enquiry.
There is no attempt at teaching drawing, the probity of Art, or painting. In my opinion this cannot be taught in a book if, in fact, it can be taught at all. I have written a Formulary on the Craft of Painting. This can be taught. I hope this book succeeds in doing so.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
MEDIUMS & DILUENTS
NOTES ON THE PLATES
PIGMENTS
PRIMINGS
SUPPORTS
THE PLATES
TOOLS & EQUIPMENT
GLOSSARY
Biscuit – ware which has one firing – unglazed.
Ferric Hydroxide – Yellow oxide of iron Fe (OH).
Ferric Oxide – red oxide of iron Fe² 0³
Ferrous Oxide – black oxide of iron Fe³ O4
Flux – a substance causing or promoting melting.
Levigation – refining by water flotation.
Orange Mineral – Minium, Triplumbic Tetroxide Fb3 O4
Oxidation – firing with free access of oxygen in the kiln.
Reduction – firing with reduced oxygen in the kiln.
PIGMENTS
FORMULA GS 1
HALF WHITE
A translucent pigment. Used to make glazes and scumbles. Either alone or mixed with opaque pigments and laid over toned grounds it forms resultants: that is, a combination to the eye of the underlying hue and the translucent superimposed hue. Used in my painting grounds and in developments of the ground, where needed in the work.
To prepare take chemically pure calcium oxide (this is a dangerous chemical to eyes and mucous membrane. Do not allow it to float freely as a dust in the air. It is quicklime and can be corrosive. Use the purest form prepared as a laboratory reagent). Take a quantity and spread it in a thin layer on a dry plate, or on paper, and allow it to be exposed to the air for at least a month. Rake the surface to expose the underparts so that all is weathered and wait another month.
The air will change the quicklime to a mixture of calcium carbonate and calcium hydrate. This, ground with prepared walnut oil is the pigment Half White.
NOTE
If any part of the quicklime still remains unchanged the paint film will eventually be broken and an opaque, scaly effect produced, useless to us.
FORMULA GS 2
LEAD TIN YELLOW
A beautiful, permanent yellow. In hue it should be light lemon yellow, without any trace of adulteration, and to produce this care is needed, especially in firing conditions.
Take SEVEN parts by weight of White Lead in powder, ONE parts by weight of stannic oxide, ONE parts by weight of powdered flint.
Mix these in an enamel bowl, under water to avoid danger from dry air-floating lead. Cafeful mixing is essential so that the result is a homogenous mass. Dry by evaporation and pack into white biscuit-fired thumb pots. Fire in a pottery kiln to a temperature of 1000 °c. At this temperature, the mass just fluxes and the product is of the optimum colour. Greater heat darkens the hue.
Grind with a pestle and mortar under water, and decant the finer powder by levitation. Dry and grind this with prepared linseed oil with muller and slab.
FORMULA GS 3
LIGHT RED (This is the commonly known pigment)
Take yellow ochre and spread a thin layer on the bottom of a wide shallow biscuit-fired pot. Fire gently in a pottery kiln to 12,000 – 13,000 °c just sufficient to heat to turn the mass to the well-known light red hue. Stir the ochre while firing to expose all to the same heat. Grind in prepared linseed oil with muller and slab.
FORMULA GS 4
PURPLE
Yellow ochre can be changed in hue from light red to very deep purple, by exposing it to varying heats in an oxidising atmosphere, A maximum of 1250° a very dark-hued specimen , . . . . . ° the normal light red.
The pigment GS 4 is obtained by so controlling the heat that the product, on mixture with tin lead yellow, just fails to turn greenish but remains a subtle sandy-coloured tan. This critical purple is a key pigment in my palette.
TO PREPARE
Fire yellow ochre in a biscuit-fired white clay pot to a temperature of 1120°c in an oxidising atmosphere. Powder and wash the product with pestle and mortar; levigate. Grind this in prepared linseed oil with muller and slab.
FORMULA GS 5
BLACK
To make this pigment you need an oil-fired pottery kiln heated to 1500°c in a reducing atmosphere.
Fire yellow ochre in thumb pots as before. The ochre is reduced to black iron oxide, with overtones of deep purplish red. The heat and reducing conditions are essential to the successful preparation of this pigment. Wash, levigate and grind the product in prepared linseed oil as before.
ADDITIONAL PIGMENTS
I recommend =
Blue Artists Quality Prussian Blue
Artists quality Cobalt Blue
Red Winghat letter Vermillion. Chinese Vermillion packed dry in paper envelope with Chinese characters printed on. Rather rare now.
Quinacridone purple, or madder. A now apparently faultless madder. But it should be light tested before you accept it as a permanent addition to the palette.
Yellow Yellow ochre from Perigord or Oxford. The pale variety is best. Some specimens are adulterated with dyestuffs and will not produce the pigments required by firing. Some are in other ways adulterated and low in iron; again they will not fire well. Experiment with those from good suppliers.
Selected natural earths are essential. Some ochres are artificially made and useless to us.
I find these pigments enough for my needs. Of course there are many other first-class ones available. Personal preferences will decide each painter’s choice.
LIGHT TESTS AND PIGMENTS
Make direct exposures of any pigments considered for use to daylight. A few weeks exposure usually shows fading in unreliable pigments. Remember that acidity or alkalinity of drying oils are an important factor in permanence of paint hue.
PIGMENT SUBSTITUTION
I should now draw your attention to a misleading practice among all artists colourmen – I refer to substitution. An accepted name for a traditional pigment is often used for a modern, cheaper substitute. I cannot condemn this practice too strongly. For example, cobalt aluminate is a faultless traditional pigment. It is cobalt blue, an expensive pigment. But substitutes are marketed under exactly the same name. Only price and a careful study of the small print will show that the pigment contains no cobalt at all, but an artificially produced dyestuff of similar hue.
Other examples of substitution are ultramarine, some specimens of terre verte, and some ochres. Do make sure that get what you ask for.
FLAKE WHITE LEAD
Perhaps the commonest and most fundamental pigment in oil painting. It is still the best opaque white, a mixture of basic lead bicarbonate and lead hydrate. It is dangerously toxic, but this has not prevented its use for centuries by serious painters, and should not now. Care and respect in use can prevent any harm coming to the painter. Buy it bulk, in dry white powder form from ………….
Where possible, keep it under water. Do not allow it to float as dust in the air. In use, grind white lead in about 12% by weight of prepared walnut oil. Ground in linseed oil the paint film is stronger and preferable where eventually slight darkening and yellowing is less important than the purer but softer paint film, made with walnut oil.
To Prepare
Make small canvas bags, containing white lead in powder and hang them on a line in the open air. Expose for at least six months. The frequent washing and weathering the lead receives in this process will wash out the excess Acetic Acid the lead invariably contains and make the lead ideal for our purpose. Dry and grind in the oil chosen.
TONE
Every pigment has its own tone, or position between black and white, and every pigment can be extended with white, or half white, to make a gamut of tones. I think it best to prepare these tones before beginning to paint.
Whoever saw a concert pianist tune his instrument as he played? Yet that in effect is what some painters try to do while painting. Set the palette in tone and hue before beginning to paint.
I make a gamut of eight tones for most pigments.
1. Darkest, the pigment along.
2. Next the pigment plus an equal weight of flake white lead.
3. Next (2) above and an equal weight of flake white lead, and so on -
one therefore gets -
Pigment: 1 pigments & 1 white; 1 pigment & 3 white; 1 pigment & 7; 1 & 15; 1 & 63
Finally I make the lightest by just touching white with pigment A a gamut of 8 tones; except for the yellows. Three tones in the gamut for them.
MEDIUMS & DILUENTS
LINSEED OIL
Answering the requirements of the British Pharmacopoeia, available from veterinary chemists. It is used as a cattle medicinal oil.
WALNUT OIL
Expressed in the Dordogne district of France from the kernels of the walnut and used there as a salad and cooking oil. Preferable to linseed under certain conditions as a painting oil.
I use a guaranteed virgin oil from a reputable, named Dordogne source.
DAMMAR MATA KUCHING is the best natural resin we have for the preparation of varnish.
To make picture Varnish dissolve 1 part of Dammar by weight in 3 parts of spirit of turpentine. Shake frequently and allow any sediment to settle. After all the soluble matter is dissolved, the clear portion is ready for use as a picture varnish. Use sparingly.
Retouching Varnish. Dilute one part by volume of Dammar Picture Varnish to 3 parts of Spirits of Turpentine. Use sparingly where required.
SPIRITS OF TURPENTINE
Turpentine answering the requirement of
available from pharmaceutical chemists.
PREPARING PAINTING OILS
All drying oils need preparation before use by the painter.
Linseed Oil
Have equal volumes of oil, and a weak solution of cooking salt in soft water. Mix them intimately by shaking together in a large, wide-mouth jar. Use pure linseed oil as specified and a salt solution of a heaped tablespoonful to a pint of water. Next you need an enamelled iron mixing bowl, a glass cover for it, and an open-air space in direct sunlight. Shake the oil and salt mixture again and pour into the bowl. Repeat until there is an optimum area of the mixture exposed to the air. A little excess salt solution can be added so that a wide and shallow area of oil is exposed to direct sun and air contact. Arrange by suitable weights to have the oil exposed directly to the sun and air but protected from rain by glass. Next, the oil and salt solution must be gently stirred once a month. After a few months the oil will begin to bleach and thicken. Also, a skin will form over it; this must be removed. Continue the process for at least six months. The result will be a pale coloured, thickened and partly oxidised oil. It will also have become acid which we do not want. Decant the oil into wide-mouth glass jars. Be careful not to include any salt solution with it. Finally, add a small quantity of fresh unslaked calcium oxide to the oil. A teaspoonful to a pint is enough. Stir and allow to stand for a week. The oil is now ready for use, alkaline, purified, and ideal for most purposes.
Walnut Oil
Prepared in the same way. Use a fresh specimen of oil. It can go rancid with age. The procedure is exactly similar to that for linseed oil. Use for those purposes where linseed oil is less suitable.
Spirits of Turpentine
This is ready for use. It must be fresh and is best kept in small, well-filled bottles. It can thicken with age. It is the most suitable solvent for our purposes.
THE PREPARATION OF PAINT BY THE ARTIST
It is an extraordinary fact that this subject is almost entirely untaught to students now, but it is still the only way to obtain some pigments.
A paint must protect and change the appearance of the surface on which it is used. It should not alter in appearance or character with age. It should be compatible with other materials used with it. Finally, it should be beautiful, ductile, and co-operative in every way in use. Such materials are a necessity for the painter.
I have only visited one Art School where the craft of painting was thoroughly taught. That was in Amsterdam.
When I was a student at the Slade School, a little was occasionally taught by a visiting teacher. But when I was a tutor at a Diploma Course at an East Anglian Painting School, I was discouraged from having students spend time with me. Pressure here was on the production of numerous large paintings, the Course was new and production was paramount. But I expect every reader of this book to be at least curious and open-minded on the subject of painting craft. I am afraid the amount of help such a student is likely to receive is limited, other than in written form.
I would recommend him to approach a pharmacist for advice. Their work is sometimes very similar in character to ours. Or, find that rarity, the well-trained, practical house painter. Some still have practical preparation knowledge.
To Grind Paint
Heap the levigated dry paint in the centre of the grinding slab. Form a slight hollow in this, and pour in the correct quantity of drying oil. With a spatula ‘fold’ the oil into the pigment. Next take the muller and slab and work the mass together. Keep it central on the slab, use the spatula to keep the mass under the muller. With the correct quantities it will need time. Often it a help to leave the unfinished mass for an hour or so under pressure, to help complete the process. A finished batch will come when the oil is evenly distributed, each grain of pigment oil coated, and the paint a stiff coherent mass. Avoid the use of too much oil. For record keep a note of the optimum oil content. It varies from about 10-12% to over 70% by weight according to the pigment concerned.
Finished paint can be kept for months ready for use in a greaseproof wrapping. Oil the greaseproof paper slightly first, and ensure no air is in contact with the pigment.
SUPPORTS
Closely woven flax canvas is best to paint on. Try to get “line” flax made from long staple yard, some shipwrights have it. Warp threads and weft threads being equal, this will limit the possibility of distortion when the canvas is stretched. The canvas should be “well knocked-up” so there is no discernible gap between the fibres, and the weight should be quite substantial. Use a long staple, all flax, canvas. Short staple yarns have too many knots.
Next to canvas, hardboard is good, but lacks the character of canvas. Use the smooth side, and roughen it thoroughly with coarsest sandpaper. Size it well before priming. Sundeala Board can be used as a support, but it is most useful as a base during the process of priming, being soft and resilient under pressure.
Stretcher
(blank)
PRIMING THE SUPPORT
The support must be primed to prepare the surface for work. Part of this process includes the incorporation of resultant hues - described earlier.
Where the canvas is substantial and closely woven, pin it firmly by its edges to a piece of Sundeala Board. Then saturate it with tepid water by sponge. The canvas contracts and the surface becomes taut and flat. With a dry absorbent cloth, swab off excess water until the canvas is just damp.
Have a supply of white priming ready. Either white lead, or titanium white. Never use Artists' tube colour for primings. It contains poppy oil and is too soft for a priming. Ready-mixed commercial priming is good, but it must be oil bound, and not emulsion, or water-soluble priming. There are several suitable products available.
A thin, smooth coat of one of these must be driven across the just-damp, taut canvas. It can be done by knife or a flat brush. It must be thin. Alow to dry and repeat. Between coats a light sandpapering is advantageous. Dampen the canvas between each coat of white priming until the result is a flat, knot-free, dense white surface. This is important. It acts a reflecting "mirror' under the finished work.
Allow the white priming a fortnight to dry. Next a veil of Orange Mineral must be driven thinly over the white priming. To make this, grind the lead in sun-dried linseed oil by muller and slab, to a thick cream, to use it have a flat bristle brush. Just dampen the brush with turpentine and take up a little orange mineral. Give a thin coat of orange all over the white under priming. Later a veil of a further selected priming will be laid over the orange. The strong orange lead grins through and a resultant combined hue is made and the painting ground ready for work.
If a light weight flax canvas is used it is not sufficient to rely on the method of initial damping to prepare for priming. A very thin coat of rabbit skin size must be used to isolate the canvas from the oil priming and proceed as before. A size film is necessary only with fine canvas. It is susceptible to damp and is a weak link in priming.
After the orange mineral coat referred to previously has been allowed to dry, oil out. It may have been months since that process was completed. It is necessary now to ensure the final coat should adhere soundly to the orange mineral. Carefully work over the canvas a very thin film of prepared linseed oil. Use the finger or a soft rag for this. Choose the correct tone and hue of pigment for the final coat.
Here are some useful ones:-
To make a Sand colour Ground
Formula GS 4, Purple 1 by weight: Formula GS 2, lead tin yellow (15) parts by weight apply over orange mineral as explained.
A Plum colour Ground
Formula GS 4, Purple 1 part by weight: formula GS 1, half-white (7) parts by weight apply over orange mineral.
A Green Ground
Formula GS 5, Black 1 part by weight
Formula GS 2, lead tin yellow (..) parts by weight apply over orange mineral
Other may occur to individual painters
Drive a thin even film of this over the orange mineral, and the priming is now finished. Use for painting either within a few days (when it is touch dry) or store for a period of months before working. The correct tone and hue for this veil is a matter for personal choice. Those I call "sand" and "plum" I find most useful. Green also is good. In each case a resultant hue is formed by the building up process described.
WARNING
I have mentioned the uses of lead as a pigment and as a primer. Read carefully the notes on the danger of lead poisoning which follow:
LEAD
Whenever the use of lead is recommended in this book, remember that it is an accumulative, dangerous poison, and can be fatal in some cases of careless use. It is particularly dangerous in dry powder form and must on no account be agitated and allowed to become airborne. Whenever possible dampen dry white or orange lead. It is absorbed as a "dust' through mucous membrane, and cuts and abrasions in skin. It does not penetrate whole, healthy skin layers. Take great care in handling. Drink good supplies of milk during and after working with lead, and do not be frightened of it. It should not put careful workers in any danger.
TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT
A pottery kiln. Electricity is more convenient, but to make black you need to fire in a reducing atmosphere, which requires a gas or oil-fired kiln.
Pestle and mortar.
Grinding slab and muller. Glass is good but fragile. I use a slab of white marble, and a glass muller.
Large shallow evaporating bowl. Enamelled iron, or pottery.
Several enamel bowls to weather oils in.
A pair of scales.
Grey or white clay. Red clay will discolour some pigments in firing.
Spatules, palette knives, and stirring rods.
NOTES ON THE PLATES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PAINTING MATERIALS
Rutherford J. Gettens & George L. Stout (1966)
Dovey Publications Inc. / 180 Varick St. / New York 10014
Particularly good. Exhaustive monograph on practically every known painter's material.
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THE ARTIST'S HANDBOOK OF MATERIALS & TECHNIQUES
Ralph Mayer Published by Faber at 4gns Very sound.
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THE MATERIALS OF THE ARTIST Max Doerner, Revised ed. 1969
Published by Rupert Hart Davis at £2.50
I think it draws some erroneous conclusions on methods, but the book is obligatory reading for every painter.