The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-10-11
MAKING FASHION PLATES.
A Kind Of Art That Supplies = Living to
Young Girl Artists.

A girl who paints watercolor heads very
well, but does not always get orders for
them, paints heads for fashion plates
in the intervals of waiting. 1t is very easy
and not uninteresting.
She works in one OF the many establish
mems in New York where the making or
fashion plate pictures goes on, those pct
ures OF the sWlshing skirts and the deucate
draperies that are scattered broadcast over
the country This is how the WORK Is
done.
A girl who is an excellent artist visits
the openings, wherever they are held She
carries with her surreptitiously little pad
about the size OF her palm and Il pencil.
She studies gown, takes out her pad and
jots down her notes OF 1t before watcMul
eyes can see her
Or If the fates are propitious and nobody
interferes she draws the entire gown III
miniature. Then she brings it back to the
place OF working which is, as often as not,
the two parlors OF some downtown board
Ing house. There she enlarges the drawing.
There arc sometimes other girls In the
same room with her; but oftener the girl
who paints the heads and this particular
list who does the original sket Oh from
the real gown sit in the front room
! alone; as, being superior artists, by rights
| they should.
Then in the next room gather the others,
Ii
sketch. One, nimble with her pen, inks in
| the original drawing another colors 1t,
another paints in raised splot ches which
! when finished constitute the decoration OF
I the gown, another sketches in the lace,
! while still another finishes out the picture
with bit of landscape calculated to give it
atmosphere.
are b,,silv engaged all day long in tracing
copies of the original drawn by the girl
| in the front room. If the sun shines, that
| is good: it brings the lines out better for the
ewes. but If the day is gray the tracing Is
more difficult and hard on the eyes. The
arms, too. constantly raised up to the lght
| in the drawing room, soon tire. But com
m red with the drudgery of machine work
While the girl who paints the water-color
heads ia at work at this place-she works
| there only when orders are scarce and she
m,st-all sketches are finished in the second
room without the head. No profane hand
Is allowed to approach the task set apart
! for her.
Figures are sketched and painted IN old
| rose in mauve and in blue, but no face
adorns them. That is left for the fingers
| OF the genuine artist.
When the gown is quite , finished eo,ot the
| coloring laid on, the decorations touched
up with high lights and the bit OF Landscape
added. then is the picture forwarded to this
GIRL who sits in a nook of her own by the
Front window, where the light Is best
PAINTING heads, some with dreamy eyes,
bhle. black and brown: some with saucy
| look. and some calm, as BELTS the splendor
~ The gowns to which they are attached,
| but all very beautiful.
And the girl does it contentedly. too. for
she has learned sense. II this pedestal is
not nnt one OF the highest. she is set upon it.
She is praised, and she has learned by ex *
perience more or less bitter. that 1t is better
| to do work that is praised ana PAID ior,
work Of the work day world. than to sit
| In her studio and starve.