The age-herald., 1899-03-05
FROM POSTERS
 AND ARTISTS

had started to say that a poster artist
 has to be born-not made. But this would
 be unfair to great number of young wo-
 men who would like to decorate the walls
 of their room if they only knew how
 There is nothing as decorative as poster
 work, and with a very few instructions the
 girl who has an eye for color can get up a
 very pretty wall, even though she may not
 be much of an artist herself. As a rule,
 women make better poster artists than
 men, for women are naturally attracted
 to that which is pretty, and there are very
 few of the fair sex who do not know good
 combination of color. It is seldom that a
 woman will combine shades wrong, while
 on the other hand most men find it just
 as easy to put colors together in the wrong
 as in the right way.
 In designing poster the first idea is that
 of color. Every poster artist will tell you
 that all things are sacrificed to the color
 scheme. Shape, time and place are all
 made subordinate to the color.
 have seen very decorative posters in
 which there was not a correctly drawn line.
 The women were too long in their skirts,
 too short in the face, preposterous in pose
 and utterly out of feeling with the land-
 scape Of the picture; yet the poster was good one. This was wholly due to the col
 or scheme, which was admirable. In poster work nothing is as striking as
 red. Red, green and black are the best colorS for three color poster.
 The three color combinations that one
 may use are numberless. Black and or
 ange may be worked very effectively to-
 gether. Vermilion, emerald green and |. a deep grey blue make, a very stylish pos ter if properly placed.
 You cannot secure thoroughly startling effect without black. My best colors-and by those l mean the ones which people ad mire most-are Vermilion, sage green and black. A girl with a black skirt and a red box coat and a black and red picture hat, escorted by a man in a long black coat, makes decorative a poster as you would care to see. These two figures are well Tn the foreground, with the girl most con- | spicuous. Back of them there is a street scene, a sidewalk in the distance, lamp | post, shop wndow-anything to make the people and the scene realistic
 | Many artists do no poster work, but rely | upon black for the poster effect They | draw picture and paint it and then pull | it together with black.
 | You must begin with color scheme and | follow it out, never losing sight of your | colors from the time you begin to work. | Women make good colorists from the l fact that they have had experience girl | begins in her childhood to dress up a chair | by tying flDDOn upon II. 0He puts d | necktie upon the vases and paints the foot l stools. In doing this she selects always the color which seems to her to go well 1 with the furniture, and In this way she gets | great experience-unconsciou 1t is true, 1 but none the less valuable-in color work. The girl who wants to decorate the walls | of her boudeir or other room should begin | by classifying the room. If it is library | she should select book scenes. If she se- lects the dining room let her take convivial | subjects If the. hallway, street pictures, | and if the drawing room be the scene or her | operations she can choose from any of the | landscape and out-of-door views that may | occur to her.
 l In the boudoir there is just as wide a se- | lection, although fancy turns toward fe- l male figures and flowers. pretty girl | picking a rose in tho garden makes as | cheerful a boudoir selection as could be | chosen.
 | In poster work it is perfectly allowable l to copy color schemes Indeed, would ad- | wise the amateur artist to copy by all l means If necessary let the amateur trace | A picture and retrace 1t upon the wall with | transfer paper, which leaves it's slender l lines behind it. Trace it in delicate black l lines and you have the outline of your pie | ture before you. Now all the poster artist | needs do is the color work. And this Is easily managed with the proper eye for col l or [ should say, on general principles, that | if is best to place the predominating color, | which is generally red in the poster, in the l picture first. Then lay in the green; finally l the black Work carefully with flesh tints, l and unless you are skiIlful with the brush l use very little pink. Rely upon your wall | for the white. Where you are in doubt in- | dicate, and remember that the finest art | lies in few s.>okes Do as little as possible | after you have got the big color scheme in 1 place.
 The proper use of poster work in a room | is in the frieze. As freze poster work | Is very striking. The friezc can be deep, ! and the pictures can be hung from the low