In beginning the painting of flesh and draperies on the wet plaster, or indeed in any other kind of wall painting, it is important to commence with a kind of modified outline. This, of course, applies also to any other prominent objects in the design or composition. It is therefore advisable that, before laying in the first masses of colours, the main features of the drawing should be outlined firmly with a sable brush, even if you modify or half-obliterate the outline when afterwards painting within it. Having outlined the portion selected for painting on the prepared light or cream-coloured ground, supposing it to be a head or other part of the human figure, a very good way to begin is to lay in the shadows first, using a soft or half-worn hog-hair brush, the shadow colour to be of a warm greenish tint, of a mixture of emerald oxide of chromium, raw sienna, and light red, used thinly to get transparency. Immediately after the shading, or modelling of the shadows, is accomplished a general flesh-coloured tint is made, of a medium tone, and is swiftly brushed over the parts where the lights and half-tones would be, taking care that it is worked very thinly or sparingly into the shadows. This flesh-coloured tint ought to have a very little quantity of lime-white to render it semi-opaque. As soon as this is done the carnations of the cheeks and lips and colours of the eyes should be painted in. Then on the top of the general flesh tint the colours of the forehead, cheeks, and neck should be worked in, according to the colour of the sketch, gradually brightening the lighter parts and strengthening the shadows as required. For this second painting of the flesh the shade colour, modified of course according to the complexion and position it is to occupy, may be made of a mixture of raw sienna, light red, burnt sienna, and a very little emerald oxide. The same colours, with vermilion and lime-white added, may be used for lights and half-tones, and the transition tones between lights and half-tones may be obtained by lightly dragging the lighter tints over the half-tones, which operation usually produces the natural greyness required in these parts. For the darker markings of the nostrils, lips, eyes, and eyebrows, or any dark accentuations of the flesh tints, burnt umber used alone or mixed with a little vermilion, or burnt sienna, may be employed. Black may also be used for the same purpose if mixed with burnt sienna or vermilion. At this stage the flesh-coloured

parts may be left to dry in a little and get firmer before finally finishing these parts, when attention may now be directed to the painting of the hair, head-dress, or any small accessory. These portions of the work may be laid in at once with an almost flat tint of strong local colour, and the lights and shades modelled into it. On coming back to the flesh portions it may be found necessary to do a considerable amount of retouching; this can still be done near the end of the day’s work, as long as the touches are small and delicate, and provided there is no serious repainting attempted. As regards the general question of retouching a word of warning is necessary; and that is, it often happens that some touches which are intended to dry out lighter than the colour on which they are superimposed will appear actually darker than the underneath colour when they are freshly laid on; this generally happens when the colour which is being used contains some lime-white in its mixture, and it is owing to this capricious behaviour of opaque or semi-opaque tints that some artists have preferred to work almost entirely in transparent washes on the lime-white ground. It stands to reason, however, that the work will be more luminous and more permanent if the colours are all mixed in some degree with lime, and also there will be more complete incorporation or cohesion with the colours and the plaster ground.

It may be mentioned that if a general tone of colour is to be given to any large surface, or if the same colour is to appear in different parts of the fresco, as in draperies, skies, buildings, etc., a few shades of the colours required should be mixed and preserved in closed jars for future use, as it is almost impossible to match shades of a colour with any degree of accuracy where lime is one of the ingredients of the mixture.

The simplest way to paint drapery in fresco is to first outline the work, and also indicate the principal folds in outline, then prepare three shades of the general colour so that the darkest or shadow tint will not be so dark as the final darkest shade, nor the lightest so light as the finished lights are intended to be. Paint in the shades and shadows first, the middle tints or half-tones next, and always finish with painting the lights; each tint, of course, in the operation must be lightly or delicately modelled into its neighbouring tint. This will constitute the first painting, and when finished it should be allowed to remain for ten minutes, or more, to sink properly into the plaster. For the second painting a darker shade than the darkest used in the first is prepared, and the darkest accents and depths of the folds are delicately expressed; and with a still lighter tint than the lights of the first painting, used in a fairly thick consistency, and with a full brush, the higher lights of the drapery are then painted in. The piece of work ought now to present the appearance of a monochrome study in light and shade, but it may be necessary to indicate reflected lights in some portions of the shadows, and the lights may want a blush of some other colour to make the study a more truthful representation of drapery texture, or of the accidental lights, and also reflections from surrounding objects. These extra tints should be put in their proper places after the second painting is done; and care should be taken to mix them of a purer or brighter colour than they appear in the coloured sketch, so that, when they are glazed lightly over the work, the underpainting, which is of a different colour, will slightly show through and modify these bright glazings to the required tones. It may be necessary to glaze over more than once in order to get the desired effects, but that will not matter, provided that the glazing is done with a light hand, so that the underpainting is not disturbed.

When painting foliage, flowers, fruit, ornament, or architecture, the same method of working will also apply, but the treatment of such objects would be simpler, and will be found less difficult, than the painting of drapery.

We have gone somewhat into detail in giving this description as to the methods of painting in buon-fresco, but we have done so because we believe it to be the best and highest form of wall decoration, and we are convinced that if a dry wall is obtained, properly prepared, and none but the best and safest colours used, it is a perfectly possible medium for wall decoration, even in this climate of ours.

As a proof of this we wish to mention that the fresco painted in this method, and with colours similar to what have been described as suitable for buon-fresco, by Sir Edward J. Poynter, P.R.A., in the chancel of St. Stephen’s Church at Dulwich, about thirty-five years ago, is at the present moment in a perfectly sound condition, and is almost as fresh looking and bright as when first painted. It is exposed to the effects of condensed vapour and moisture in the winter months, when the church is heated, and it is subjected to the fumes of the gas that lights the church, yet it shows no signs of deterioration; on the contrary, the surface looks, and feels to the touch, more like terra-cotta, or of the texture and firmness of biscuit porcelain, than anything else one can think of.

When one hears of frescos perishing in this country, like some of those in the Houses of Parliament, we may be sure that the causes are not always due to the damp climate, nor altogether to sulphur gases, but either to a badly prepared wall surface, or, what is more than likely, the use of one or two doubtful colours, that in perishing will even loosen or destroy other sounder colours when juxtaposed to or mixed with them.