We will begin with gall-stone, which is one of the finest and brightest in the world, and it very lasting color, although in face painting it should be sparingly used, its wonderful brilliancy being apt to drown all the other colors, and make the work it is used in too warm in its tints.

Of Terra Sienna, it is unburnt, a bright yellow-brown earth, and is used by some miniature painters as a warm yellow; but burnt it is a beautiful color, and partakes of three tints, yellow, red and brown.

Yellow Ochre is a bright yellow earth, and comes from France, is semi-opaque, and works well. Much used by artists, but must be used with caution. It is a lasting color, and of service in the fleshy face tints.

Roman Ochre is a reddish yellow earth of a very great body, and used by some with success in miniature painting. Used with gum water it works well, and being a warm color, it communicates that quality to the tints it is worked on.

Naples Yellow is an earth found near Naples, and is a soft, bright and durable color. A great proportion of that used is composed of lead, alum, sal-ammonia and antimony. This color is not very much used by artists, as it does not stand well. Is a pale, gritty yellow. It absorbs all colors that are worked on it or mixed with it.

Gamboge is the concrete juice of various trees in Ceylon—is a transparent color, and consequently useful as a glazing color.

Yellows have their base in iron, lead, quicksilver and arsenic.

Blue. Of all blues in use none can equal ultra-marine—its wonderful brilliancy and permanency excelling all others. But it is often adulterated after reaching this country, and the genuine is not common. Put a small quantity on a case knife, and hold it over a candle, keep the smoke from touching it; if adulterated it will appear in grey spots, and if genuine it will remain brilliant as at first. It was formerly made from lazulite, the beautiful variegated blue mineral, worth at one time in Italy twenty-five dollars an ounce. A greater part of that used now is composed of carbonate of soda, sulphur and kaolin, colored with cobalt.

Prussian Blue is a good color, it is a ferrocyanuret of iron, produced in different ways. There is no substitute for Prussian blue for miniature painting on account of its strength of effect and transparency. The best and purest is that which is dark color.

Indigo is beautiful on account of its extreme depth of color, nearly approaching to black; the best is called the rock indigo.

Cobalt is another fine blue, much used in sky grounds, and in the delicate parts of faces and necks.

French Ultra. A beautiful bright blue; it is adapted for ladies’ drapery—rather too powerful for pearly tints or flesh.

Permanent Blue, Cerulean. Useful in draperies and backgrounds; also in landscape and flower painting. Not good for flesh tints.

Sap Green is the juice of buckthorn berries, and has proven to be a highly useful color when judiciously mixed with other colors, producing warm fleshy tints which cannot be made without it.

Copper is the base of most blues, though some are formed from iron and cobalt.

Reds. Carmine is a fine bright crimson, inclining to scarlet, and rather an opaque color. From it a variety of fine tints may be made, but it being a very high red, renders it unfit for delicate subjects; in this case use rose madder. There are various kinds of it prepared of other reds, but the deep kind is the best, the lighter being made so by adulteration, commonly made of alum and cream tartar, colored with cochineal, but it fades rapidly by out door exposure. The genuine is made from kaolin, or China clay, colored with cochineal, prepared with much difficulty, which makes it expensive.

Crimson Lake is a beautiful crimson color, inclining toward the purple, making it useful for the carnation tints in painting delicate subjects.

Chinese Vermilion is a bright red, and useful in miniature pictures, though too freely used, its opacity renders it dangerous to mix much with other colors, but by itself, in touching the lips and other parts that require extreme brightness, it is of good service. It comes from China in small parcels, fourteen ounces each.

The native, or Mineral Cinnabar, or vermilion, is very fine in Spain; the French have mines of it in Normandy.

Light Red. Useful in almost all flesh colors, and the ground upon which all the finer tints are made.

Venetian Red. Nearly the same as light red, and used almost for the same purpose. It is an earth, found in many parts of the world.

Rose Madder, indispensable for carnation lips. This, with cobalt, and almost any transparent yellow, forms all sorts of pearly and grey tints.

Indian Red is of a deep purple cast, and a most excellent color for touching the deep red parts, and the fleshy tints. Also useful in bright backgrounds and draperies.

Browns. Umber is a yellowish brown, and mixes well with water colors. Useful in backgrounds. When properly burnt it is a charming reddish brown, very useful in hair. Works extremely well.

Terra de Cassel, or Vandyke brown, so called from the very great estimation the inimitable painter of that name held it in, is the finest rich brown in the world, in itself producing a more beautiful color than can be formed by the junction of any colors whatever. It is in general use, and is, in its natural state, rather coarse and sandy, but when prepared, it amply repays the artist for his labor; good glazing color for hair shadows.

Lampblack is the smoke of burning resin, and is useful for marking the pupil of the eye, and in painting draperies. It is a good color when burnt, stands and works remarkably well. The smoke of a candle, received on a plate, is found the best, being blacker than the common lampblack. Ivory black is preferred by some.

King’s Yellow is a fine bright opaque color, and is admirably calculated for painting lace, gilt buttons, etc., but should be cautiously used, as it is a rank poison.

Chinese White is permanent, and works remarkably well; it is freely used on every part of a picture in water colors.

Flake White. This is the only white adapted for oil colors. Chinese white is never used.

Mixing Compound Tints for the Face. Purple is formed of either ultra-marine, Prussian blue, smalt or indigo, mixed with either carmine or lake. Ultra-marine, although the most beautiful and brilliant of colors by itself, loses that perfection in any mixture, but it still retains a sufficient share of brightness to render it a desirable tint in the purplish-grey tints of the face. Prussian blue, mixed as before mentioned, makes a bright or dark purple, according to the quantity of either color. Indigo makes a still darker purple, owing to its great natural depth of color. French ultra and carmine, or lake, forms nearly the same tint as ultra-marine, and may be used nearly for the same purpose.

Olive Tints. A very fine olive tint is formed of gall-stone, Nottingham ochre and carmine, or lake; and another of sap green and lake only.

Transparent Colors. Burnt Terre de Sienna, Terre Verte Asphaltum, Dragon’s blood, Carmine, Rose Pink, Gamboge, Prussian Blue, all the Lakes and all the Gums.

Semi-Transparent. Umber, Vandyke Brown, Chrome Red, Emerald Green, Indigo, Verdigris, Brilliant Ultra-Marine.

Contrast and Harmony of Colors. One color will generally harmonize with another when both contain the same base in different proportions. White contrasts with Black, Brown, and harmonizes with any other color. Yellow contrasts with Purple, White, and harmonizes with Orange and pale colors. Orange contrasts with Blue, and harmonizes with Red, Pink. Red contrasts with Green, and harmonizes with Crimson. Green contrasts with Red, and harmonizes with Yellow. Purple contrasts with Yellow, White, and harmonizes with Crimson. Black contrasts with pale colors, and harmonizes with deep colors. Gold contrasts with dark colors, and harmonizes with light colors.