Charcoal Liege Or Vine Black Is A Well-burnt And Levigated
:
ON THE NEUTRAL, BLACK.
charcoal prepared from vine twigs, of weaker body than ivory or lamp
black, and consequently better suited to the grays and general mixed
tints of landscape painting, in which it is not so likely to look black
and sooty as the others may do. Of a cool neutral tint, it has, in
common with all carbonaceous blacks, a preserving influence on white
when duly mixed therewith; which it owes, chemically, to the bleaching
power
of carbon, and, chromatically, to the neutralizing and contrasting
power of black with white. Compounded slightly with blue black, and
washed over with zinc white, white lead may be exposed to any ordinary
impure atmosphere with comparative impunity. It would be well for art if
carbon had a like power upon the colour of oils, but of this it is
deficient; and although chlorine destroys their colour temporarily, they
re-acquire it at no very distant period.
Alone, blue black is useful as a cool shade for white draperies; and
compounded with cobalt, affords a good gray for louring clouds.
TTITLE BRITISH INK
is a compound black, preferred by some artists to Indian ink, on account
of its not being liable to wash streaky, as the latter does: at the same
time it is not so perfectly fixed on the paper as Indian ink.
TTITLE INDIAN INK,