JNO. A., BATH, - What method of oil painting is best to use for sketching out of doors?

You can paint directly on to the canvas as time is often short and one naturally wishes to get as much done in as short at a time as possible, especially when lighting and impressions are so fleeting.

One can also paint in this direct manner indoors, but if you wish to put more time and thought into the subject it is quite a good thing to make a first painting in tempera colours. This is called an underpainting and should be quite simply executed in a lighter key than the finished painting is intended to be.

Tempera colours dry quickly and you can paint directly on to them with oil paint to the desired colour and tonal values. The advantage of the underpainting is that it gives a pleasant and substantial foundation to the finished work, and that alterations to the compositions can easily be made in tempera, whereas this may not be so when using the direct method with oil colours.

Tempera colours can be wiped off with a slightly damp rag, but oil colours have to be scraped off and this is not always good for the texture of the canvas or the appearance of the finished painting.

M.D.P., OXFORD, - Can you tell me why some artist writers advise the use of colours that other writers do not recommend?

The fact that some artist writers recommend the colours that others condemn is often misleading to a beginner such as you are, and naturally you will not know which to believe, but artists vary in their opinions and use of colours.

An example is alizarin crimson which, used by an experience painter, is perfectly safe, but in the hands of a beginner can be very troublesome in that it is liable to dominate the whole colour scheme because of its intensity. It is difficult to control in its right proportions and so one is warned against it use until one’s colour sense is well developed. This applies to other colours and it is not therefore a case of not advising their use because of their quality or permanence but because of the danger o9f their being used by inexperienced hands.

Provided you use colours that are permanent or moderately permanent, you are at liberty to use all or any, but you should know something of their chemistry and manufacture because certain pigments do not mix well and one should be aware of those combinations which are to be avoided. This knowledge can be acquired by reading books on the subject of materials and their use.

The best thing is to mix your colours intelligently and only experience will teach you how to do this.

M.S., LONDON, - I enclose a painting by an artist of local repute which I bought quite cheaply, and would be glad if you would tell me what you think it is worth.

The design is rhythmic and pleasing, although the colours used are crude, and we think it would be worth no more than you gave for it.

H.O.C., CARLISLE, - I find that my wood engravings print blacker at the edges of large masses and wonder whether this is due to my inking them too heavily. I hardly think this can be so, as the centres of the masses are of a very even tone, which you can see from the enclosed print.

It often happens that a slight ridge of ink appears around a cut-out or vignetted block when printed, the reason being that the inking rollers catch the edges of the block unless they are slightly lowered by the blockmaker, or the pressman has not “made-ready” in an efficient manner.

So far as your attempt at wood engraving is concerned, you should lightly scrape the surface of the block around the edges of the drawing which may be liable to catch the ink of the inking roller, after you have made your drawing on the wood prior to engraving, or traced it down if you have drawn it on paper first.

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Alternatively, you can complete the engraving and then scrape or lower where necessary. Be careful how you do it for it only needs a fraction off at the extremities of the lines, just sufficient to avoid the ink catching and spoiling the effect of the lines merging into the white; printing with their true line value rather than thicker at the extremities.

M.B., SOUTHAMPTON, - I have been asked to do some hand written posters for both outside and interior display. Can you guide me as to the materials I should use for the former, and suggest a fairly cheap selection of materials for the latter?

Hand written posters for interior display can be painted on white printing paper or “poster paper” as it is often called.

Poster colours are used for this purpose, but you will find it cheaper to use showcard or powder distemper colours. For outside display you will have to use poster board or something similar to Essex or beaver board and use waterproof poster or showcard colours.

Window displays, backgrounds, etc., can be constructed with similar boards suitably battened with wooden strips. If the surface of the board is at all porous you will have to cover it with one or two thing coats of glue size before applying the colours, otherwise they will soak into the board and make brush work difficult.

Do not varnish over completed work.

MISS Q.L., BLACKPOOL, - I am fifteen years of age and desire to become a poster artist. I am enclosing some examples with this letter and should be glad if you would give me your opinion as to my talents, and say what would be the best way to set out on a commercial art career.

You cannot decide to take up commercial art just because you think you can draw and would like to become a professional artist. Your specimens of posters show little sense of design and no knowledge whatever of methods of reproduction. You are young enough, however, to begin studying and could do this by serving an apprenticeship as a lithographic artist or obtaining a post as junior in a commercial art studio.

Coinciding with this you should attend your local school of art for life drawing, still life painting and composition. You are only one of the many young enthusiasts who imagine that the commercial artist has only to sit down and draw something of an advertising, illustrative or publicity nature for agents and editors to accept as a matter of course. The sooner is it realised that this is not the case the better it will be. The commercial artist and illustrator is a highly trained specialist, and you must start at the beginning by training and working until you reach a state of proficiency. This will take a long time, but if you put every effort into it you have every prospect of success.

D.W., GUILDFORD, - The enclosed drawings have been refused by three editors, who all say that they are very good, but not quite up to standard. Can you tell me where they fall below the mark, as I cannot see it myself?

It is extremely difficult to lay one’s finger on the weak spot of a drawing which is almost but not quite up to publication standard. Only experience can give the necessary “polish”.

Click here to read an article on oil painting by Leoanrd Greaves, also taken from the March 1949 issue of The Artist

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