Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1903-04-04

PaintinE Them Requires Iittle Skill,
but Iin;Iicit Obedience.

IuAUfintF Ath ~ rf~''h' 't~>-sf
but implicit Obedience.
Wien Il man walking along the side
walk sees another man suspended fifty
feet above him painting nostril six
feet long or an eyciash five feet long,
the chances are ten TO one that the
pedestrian will stop Il moment to won
der how the painter, with his face so
close TO the picture. can get the exact
proportions of tie human face, says
the New York Times. If any one
should tell the spectator that never in
his life until today lad the man up
there tried 10 paint Il human face, the
information would be received with a
laugh of scorn. Yet it Is 10 uncommon
thing for an ordinary sign painter to
be employed TO paint picture of jim
Dumps or William Penn or any other
face used for advertising purposes.
Why is this? Simply because it Is
merely Il matter of measurements and
accuracy and requires no artists skill.
The pedestrian on the pavement doesn't
see ii, but the whole wall on which the
picture is being painted is laid off into
a number of squares. made by inter
secting chalk lines. The exact spot In
each of these lines where the tip of the
nose or the toe Of the foot shall be Is
as fixed as is the day for the next
eclipse of the sun.
A visitor asked the head designer in
an outdoor advertising firm if il wasn't
hard TO get men slillful enough to
paint these exaggerated pictures.
"The other day" replied the design
er, Il got man who had never painted
anything but letters in his life to put
face twenty feet high on Il wall, ANA
he did it as well rs il could he done"
Then he showed how tie only part
that took any skill was done in his
own office. First he or some other de
signer drew small picture, about
quarter life size, on piece of square
cardboard. When this was done, the
piece of cardboard was divided by pen
Gil lines into siXty-four squares, 50 That
its form was just like that of checker
board. This was given to a painter
and it was told him that each square
on the paper meant one fifteen feet
square on the wall.
Then it was easy for the painter to
lay Off with colored chalk squares of
the required size on the wall. When
he began to paint, he took the design
er's drawing with him. There were
explicit directions as to colOrs and the
kinds of brushes to be used. Then ii
was only matter Of proportion. II
the nose occupied half square on the
paper, it occupied half the correspond
ing square on the wall, and if the but
ton Of the coat was at the intersection
of two pencil lines, it must be at the
same intersection Of the chalk lines.
The designer said that it was a very
common occurrence for him to send
one man to finish a picture that an
other man had begun. Once he had
three men painting the same figure,
taking turn about until the job was
complete.
Its purely mechanical" he said. 'Tf
we catch a man using his own ideas or
trying to display any originality, we
get rid of him Immediately. Suppose
a man took notion into his head to
try a few fancy strokes and we had to
put another man at it the next day.
Wouldn't that picture be a pretty
mess?"
The average painter of large pictures
earns about $50 a week. A larger sal
airy is very rare. 1t is never hard to
get the man you want, the designer
says, because anybody that is used to
a paint brush and can make measure
ments is able to do the work.