ART. II.
Of the crayons their preparation and use.
Preparation.There is no particular or uncommon preparation or composition required for encaustic, all crayons hitherto commonly used may be employed; some great lights only will be wanted for every set of tints; for what has been said on colours, and their growing deeper when fixed with wax,penciling system Art. II.page 29,30. holds equally here; therefore every artist, that may be inclined to make a trial in this manner, will dowell to make an essay of all his tints, by preparing a piece of cloth as directed in the foregoing article, and giving a few strokes of each crayon and fixing it, this will immediately shew what new tints will be wanted.
In composing any new tint it will be well to leave out fullers-earth, pipe-clay, chalk, and other calcarious matters13which are generally used in the common way; the former—to bind thelooser colours; the latter—to keep up the flake-white and white-lead, which otherwise would turn black; in encaustic those matters are wanted for none of the above ends; flake-white and white-lead will not change, and both together will make a body sufficiently connected to bind the lighter tints.
All colours used in oil and mentioned in the foregoing list, are good for crayons, and no others.
Note.What has been said at the end of the list of colours, that a few more colours, not commonly employed in oil,might be used for crayons, was a mistake of the author’s upon his experimental table; there are but two more that may be used for crayons, viz. bice and verditer.
The use of the crayonsin encaustic is the very same as commonly practised, there is no difference; you must work and paint upon the waxed ground as you do upon the bare paper. Encaustic has the advantage over the common way as to expedition. The fine grittiness procured by the particles of the chalk mixed with the ground you work upon, willfileoff more colour from thecrayon than the grain of the unwaxed paper; and the wax diffused through the ground will retain the colours better; so that when you sweeten your tints with your finger there will be no waste; for in working, the particles of the colour will intrude themselves into the body of the wax, which yields to them; which paper, bare or prepared with a ground tempered with gum or size, does not.