Instructions For Using Liquid Water Colors

Fill the two tumblers with water, and have all the other materials

ready and convenient to work with. If you have selected a burnished and

mounted photograph wet its surface with saliva; unburnished

photographs, photogravures and engravings do not require this

treatment, but in coloring them it will be necessary to mix a weak

solution of gum arabic with the colors to prevent their penetrating the

paper. If printed on t o thin a paper the photogravure or engraving

should be mounted. If it is found that the colors "crawl" or spread on

the photograph, mix a little acetic acid with the colors you are using,

and should this fail to remove the difficulty, rub a pinch of pumice

stone over the photograph with the fingers.



If the photograph is a portrait commence with the background, washing

it all over with a brushful of diluted color, being careful not to get

any on the face. If the background is light, use a weak solution of

blue, if dark, a brown solution. The majority of backgrounds only need

a very little tinting--just sufficient to change the color. For the

face use flesh color, diluting it to the proper shade, washing it

entirely over the face, and with a stronger solution of the same color

tint the cheeks and lips, giving them a little brighter effect than the

flesh color. Touch up the shadows in the face with the brown, and if

there are any reflected lights use a very weak solution of the yellow

color for them; then with some very weak black make the shadows around

the mouth a little darker; next with a solution of blue, also very

weak, strengthen the shadows in the forehead and around the temples;

then color the eyes, using a small brush. If they are blue, use a weak

solution of blue, if gray, use a little black, and if brown, then that

color. Next color the hair; if brown, use brown mixed with a little

black to take away the reddish color; if auburn, use brown and yellow,

with a little gray between the lights and shadows. In working on the

hair, move your brush in the direction of the lines of the hair; if

wavy, then cause your brush to follow its lines. After you have thus

gone over it, darken the shadows with a stronger solution of the same

color. After the hair, paint the eyebrows and beard, if there is any,

with the same color.