The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-01-20
ART ON THE STAGE.
The Peculiar Labors of the Scene
Painter.
HOW HIS WORK DIFFER FROM THAT
OF THE ARTIST IN OIL AND WA
TER COLORS-HIS MATERI-
AIS AND METHODS.
On. Y. Tribune

marine work, architectural or fresco. He Is
not permitted to cultivate any particular
branch of his art, nor any favorite style. He
must be able to produce at any time the wild
mountainous passes of Switzerland or the fiat
meadows of Holland; the green lanes of home
like England or the winding valleys of roman
tic Spain. In his architectural work he can
not devote himself to the Gothic or the Roman.
esque, but must be equally master of the Moor
ish, the Greek and the Oriental He may to-
day be called upon to paint the Temple of Mi
nerva, and tomorrow the Mosque of Omar:
this week the Windsor Hotel, and next week
the Palace of Versailles. His art knows no
boundaries, and his scope is confined by no
limits. The uni rerse must be at his command
and things unseen must live in his imagina-
ton. The methods by which he works and
many of the materials he employs are alto
gether different from those EMPLOYED bv the
ordinary oil Or water-color painter. They ap-
proach more nearly to those of the latter. Yet.
even here certain qualities of the colors used
by the scene painter constitute a sharp. diyid-
ing line.
In the first place, the ordinary W. aser-color
painter works upon paper. The scene painter
uses canvas. He first makes pasteboard
model of his scene and gives it to the stage
carpenter, who builds the framework and
pastes the canvas upon it. 1t is then ready for
the paint Frame" This is a huge wooden af-
fair hung upon ropes with cou nterweights at
tached. 1t is usually placed against the wall
at the back or side of the stage, and has
windlass attached by which it may be hoisted
and lowered. The artist works upon a bridge
built in front of this frame and at its top when
the bottom is touching the stage. By hosting
or lowering the paint frame he is enabled to
reach any part of his scene. He is provided
with plenty of brushes, ranging from heavy,
two.pound brush, such as is used by hou Sc
painters, to small, sharp one for drawing
fine lines. In addition to these he has several
whitewash brushes for laying in fiat washes
and skies. His colors are kept in buckets, tin
cans and earthenware vessels. His palette is
long table with partitioned compartments on
the top to hold small quantities of color Give
him now his palette knife, his rule, plenty of
twine and sticks of charcoal, and he is ready
to go to work. His first duty is to prime" his
scene. This is done with plain coat of white
This color and all others used by him are
mixed with sizing, which is simply weak Sc.
luton of glue. Working with colors mixed
in this way is called painting in distemper and
has certainadvantages which will be spok en-
OF further on. The priming coat is laid on
with heavy whitewash brush, care being
taken to drive the color we'll into the canvas.
Sometimes heavy unb.eached muslin is use d:
but the usual material is duck.
After the canvas is primed and dry, the ar.
tist is ready to draw. Most scenic painters do
their first drawing in very sketchy manner.
After the charcoal outline is finished, it is
gone over carefully with an ink prepared es-
peclaliy for the purpose, and not used In any
other branch of art. In architectural drawing
this part OF the work is necessarily done with
the greatest care, as regularity of outline and
accuracy of detail are absolutely necessary. A
scene painters outline for a landscape, howev-
er, looks very m lch like the off-hand outline
production hastily done by an old hand at
sketching from nature. The scene painter
must be master of perspective; for street
scenes and palace corridors are frequently pro-
duced by him. The method of drawing in per-
spective on large scale is curious, though
substantially the same as that usually en-
ployed: The artist selects his vanishing
point" usually outside of his scene and at
taches to it by pin long piece of twine. Be-
ginning at the top of the scene he marks off in
the foreground the distances between his lines
laying the loose end on his first mark, draws it
tight and maps it upon the scene, making
line In the same manner as q carpenter does
on loEg board. These lines are afterwards
gone over with ink and ruler. In this way ne
Is aDie TO produce perfect perspective. Ex-
terror scenes in which castle or other lar ge
building appears, often have the perspecti We
increased in effect by continuing wall or
rampant down the stage upon a separate piece
set exactly in the line of perspective.
SECRETS OF THE SCENE PAINTER
The next step is tfe laying of the ground
work. The sky is, of course, the first point.
This is done with whitewash brushes, the
painter being absolutely free from all restraint
in his method of putting on the color. The
principal point is to get it on quickly. And
here the great advantages of painting in dis
temper become thoroughly plain. These ad
vantages are two in number: the first Is. that
the color dries verv quickly, thus affordinp
the artist high rate of speed in working: sac,
ondly, all the colors retain when dry precisely
the same tint as they had before being mixed
The addition of the sizing makes each color
several shades darker than it is when simplv
in the powdered state. The knowledge of this
fact and thorough understanding of the effect
the tints will produce after drying is one of
the great secrets of the art. Oil painters of
high standing have been known to try the dis
temper method with utterly disastrous results.
Colors mixed with oil always darken several
shades and remain dark. Colors mixed with
sizing always dry out to their original shade.
Different painters have different methods.
and there is as much variety in the schools OF
scene painting as in other branches of art The
German, French and American artists use
opaque washes, or, as it is usually expressed.
work in "body color" The English school. in
which the greatest advances have been made.
use thin glazes. This, in scene painting. is
the quickest and most effective. Morgan.
Marston, Fox and Voegtlin are among the
laod fnrr .fottr ~ h. IL
lea, and their method is gradually spreading
among the artists of this country. Its rapdity
may be judged from the fact that one of these
artists lately painted scene measuring twen-
ty by thirty feet in four hours.
One of the greatest differences in scene
painting from ordinary water-color painting is
that while the colors of the latter are trans
parent, those of the former are OPAQUE For
instance. the water-color painter can lay in
wash OF yellow oohre, and by covering it when
dry, with light coat of madder lake, can
transform it to a soft orange. In distemper
however, the coat OF madder lake would not
allow the yellow to show but would completely
hide it, and the tint presented would be pure
pink. From this fact results total difference
in the painting of foliage. The water-color
painter lays in his light tints first and puts in
his shadows afterward. The scene painter
may do this or not as he pleases. He may put
his light tints over his dark ones and they will
not lose any of their brilliancy. The advant-
age OF thls In regard to speed may readily be
seen. Ii the water-color painter wishes to put
a high light in the middle of shadow he must
first erase with sharp knife a portion of his
dark tint. or else put in heavy spot of Chi
nese white. Over the spot thus erased or
whitened he puts the required tint. The dis
temper painter is relieved of this roundabout
process, for he simply dots in his light color
wherever he needs it over the darker shade
and it shows with perfect brilliancy Again,
in painting skies the scene painter works by a
method OF his own, not unlike that adopted by
oil painters The water-color painter must
leave all the broad light of his sky when put.
ting in the main color, and is obliged to work
with his tints wet. The scene painter may Law
on the entire sky with blue and paint his light
yellowish clouds over afterward If the ordi-
nary water-color painter were to do this, his
clouds would be green. Some scene painters,
however, work their entire skies wet. The
effect Of a sky painted thus is always very
fine; but only an artist thoroughly conversant
with the values of his several pigments can do
this. For the colors, it will be remembered,
present very different appearance whep wet
from that which they have when dry.
Scene painting has become so important an
| art that one large firm in this city makes a
| great specially of important materials. There
| is a long list OF colors and other things used