Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-05-07
A NEW CRAZE.
Progress of the Fashion OF Painting on
Brown Paper

! Progress OF the fasnion OF Painting on
Brown Paper.
London Queen
Among the greatest treasures of the
! Turner drawings exhibited at the National
Gallery are the two called " Angry Swans,
painted in white on common brown paper
which has been round a parcel Turner,
seizing the first thing that came to hand as
a background to the white. painted
them with half dozen strokes apiece.
The body color is thinner IN places
where the plumage is to be semi
transparent, thicker where the highest
lights fall on the snowy white: and
there are, in the power and majesty of
their anger, the stateliness of their sailing,
the chaugeful curving of their necks, the
sweep of their spreading wings, and the
snow of their breasts, like ruf1ed velvet.
Half a dozen strokes of brush, . little
white and black paint, and 4 bit OF waste
paper have set them all before Us with
Turner's unrivaled skill. Even to think
of such work as this in comparison with
our own may inspire us with emulation or
fill us with despair, it depends in measure
upon what is born with us-whether the
led anch 10 son pittore" be teeming
promise or an empty boast.
Brown paper of the darkest shade and
thiekest texture and gray paper Of a cool
granite tint are just now much in demand
as materials for painting upon for dados,
panels, cornices, and book covers and other
things They give background on which
the light and shade are at once relieved
and, while gray paper is the soitest, brown
paper partly by the contrast of the rough
surface, givesN the most relief The
best brown paper for the purpose
is the stout, continuous kind used
by paper hangers and upholsterers for
backing, which can be had at all the car
pet warehouses in any quantity. The col.
ors ale oil paints in tubes or water colors,
well ground with Chinese white, used with
fine bristles or red sable brushes. Another
method is to lay on the Chinese white,
well ground to the consistence of thin
cream, and when it Is dry to paint over it
with ordinary water colors. Red sable
brushes are also the best for both the latter.
Minute finish is out OF character with the
kind of work the effects should be put in
broadly, and the designs be distinct and of
few large objects.
Brown paper will not bear much india
rubber, and in laying on the Chinese white
it is better, If possible, to do so without
any outline at ALL Ii one is necessary, it
should be either transferred or sketched in
with charcoal, which can be busted off if
mistake is made Neither paper requires
sizing previously or vanishing afterwards.
All water color painting, on whatever ma
terial, can be removed, and therefore
smudged, with water therefore, door
panels, book covers, or anything else TO be
painted, must be carefully cut out, fixed
in place with embroidery paste, and left to
dry thoroughly before the coloring is be-
gun. A dado can only be properly put up
by the paper-hanger. Book covers
should be turned over the edges and
faced with colored paper. A good de-
sign for door panels is four water plants,
one in each, standing up Immediately from
the bottom, with few horizontal lines be-
hind them, to give the ides of water, the
actual line of the iorizon being an exae::
level in all four, The left hand upper
panel may be the arrow head, with blue
green and gold dragon-hies. The right
hand lower one can have bulrushes, with a
blue butterfly, and the left the Towering
rush, with white butterflies again. A
brown screen would look well with sun
MOWERS ana DulEusntS, With Dite butterflies
on alternate panels, the yellow and the
brown shading into the color of the ground.
For gray paper, flights of swallows, with
peach and plumb and cherry blossoms here
and there, would be suitable.
Flat conventional flowers, like those in
loaded glass, are adapted for painting of
this kind, and when they are employed the
may be diapered with darker
shade of the same color, using sepia or
vandyke brown for the brown paper,
Payne's gray for the other tint Studies
of flowers, to be afterward combined
and painted from for designs, are easily
and quickly made on brown and gray
paper, and it is excellent practice to copy
casts on it in white, leaving the paper
itself for the deepest shade, using thin
white for the half lights and thick for the
highest. Borders can also be painted in
white, shaded with vandyke brown or
Payne's gray. Brown paper may be gilt
by using Judson's or Bessemer's gold like
ordinary paint The color of the gold will
be much richer if the design is previously
gone over with vermillion and it must be
outlined with black, the darkest shade Of
brown II vermilion on tie right sides. As
letter. is particularly easy of execution
and ctive in this work. it is suitable for
motto and Inscriptions.