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,



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