PENCIL (n.)
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{Pensils.} Black Chalke Pensils draws handsomely (without the Cole) upon Blew-paper, and shadowed neatly ; being heightned with White-lead Pastils, you may practice upon several coloured papers, as the ground and shadow ; and heighten it with other Colour Pastils, as your fancy affects.
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Of Pensils.
{Pensils how to choose them.} Your Pensills must be chosen clean and sharp poynted, […].
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Chap. XIII, Of Drawing, Limning, and Painting: with the lives of the famous Italian Painters, p. 131
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Having all your colours ready ground, with your pallet on the thumb of your left hand, and pencils for every colour, in the same lay your colours upon your pallet thus : first, your white Lead, then Lake, Ivory black, Seacoale black (as you see the complexion) Lamp-black, Umber for the haire, red Lead, yellow Oaker, Verdigreece ; then your Blews, Masticot and Pink ; the rest at your pleasure, mixing them on the other side of the pallet, at your pleasure
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CHAP. I. Of Painting in Oyl, & the Materials thereof.
I. Painting in Oyl is nothing but the work or Art of Limning performed with colours made up or mixed with oyl.
II. The materials of Painting are chiefly seven, 1. The Easel, 2. The Pallet, 3. The Straining frame, 4. The Primed cloath, 5. Pensils, 6. The Stay, 7. Colours. [...] VII. Pensils are of all bignesses, from a pin to the bigness of a finder, called by several names, as Ducks quill fitched and pointed ; goose quill fitched and pointed, Swans quill fitched and pointed ; Jewelling pensils, and bristle Pensils : some in quils, some in tinn cases, and some in sticks.
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CHAP. XIX. Of Washing, and the Materials thereof.
I. By washing, here we intend nothing else, but either to set out Maps or Printed Pictures in proper Colours, or else to vernish them.
II. The Instruments and Materials of washing are chiefly six, to wit, 1. Alom-water, 2. Size, 3. Liquid Gold, 4. Pensils, 5. Colours, 6. Vernish.
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VI. Pensils are to be of all sorts both fitchd and pointed ; as also a large pensil brush to past Maps upon Cloath ; another to wet the paper with Alom water ; a third to starch the face of the picture withall before it be coloured ; and a fourth to varnish withall.
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How to choose your Pencils.
Choose such Pencils as are clear and sharp pointed, not dividing into parts ; of these you must have in readiness a several Pencil, for every several colour.
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SECT. VI. Of Pencils, and how to chuse them.
You are in the next place to furnish your self with Pencils of all sorts ; which how to chuse do thus, take a Pencil and put the hairy end between your lips, wetting it a little by drawing it through your lips, being moist, two or three times ; so that the Pencil being large will come to a point as small as a hair, which if it do, it is good ; but it it spread, or any extravagant hairs stick out of the sides, they are naught ; you may try them by wetting in your mouth, and attempt to draw a line on the back of your hand.
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2. A large, but clean, fine and dry Pencil, to cleanse your work from any kind of dust that may by accident fall upon it : such Pencils they call Fitch-Pencils.
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Pencils, what they are I need not tell you, but what sorts there are I will, because I shall have occasion to call them sometimes by their names in the Discourse following. There are of all bignesses, from a pin to the bigness of your finger.
There are several sorts, thus called :
Ducks Quill fitched.
Ducks Quill pointed.
——— —— Bristle.
Swans Quill fitched.
Swans Quill pointed.
——— —— Bristle.
Hairing, or Jewelling-Pencils.
Goose Quill fitched.
Goose Quill pointed.
——— —— Bristle.
Bristle Pencils ; some in Quills, others in Tinn-cases bigger than Quills, and others in Sticks.
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Chap. IV, What Pencils are useful for the Painting of a Face, and how to dispose them.
Every Pencil must have a stick of about nine inches long put into the Quill thereof, the farther end of which stick must be cut to a point.
When you are to begin any Face or other picture, lay together two Ducks quill fitch-Pencils, and two Ducks-quill-pointed-Pencils, also two Goose quill fitched and two pointed, two Bristles both alike ; one Swans quill fitched, and another pointed ; then a larger Pencil than any of these, which no Quill will hold, and therefore they make cases of Tinn to put them in, you must have one of these Fitched, as also a Bristle of the same bigness.
Your Pencils being in a readiness, when you are to use them, your Pallat being upon your thumb, you must take your Pencils in your right hand, and put the ends of their sticks into your left hand, keeping (when you work) the hairy ends at a distance, one from touching another, left the Colours in them intermingle.
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Chap XXVII, The Instruments and Materials us’d in Painting and the preparing Colours to the Pallat.
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Your Pencels must be Swans Quils, Goose Quills, [...].
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Touches must be Bold, by the conduct of a free and steady Pencel, with all possible Freedom : that thereby, they may Animate the work with Life and Spirit, and may appear most Finish’d at a Proportionable distance.
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I confine the Sublime to History, and Portrait-Painting ; And These must excell in Grace, and Greatness, Invention, or Expression ; and that for Reasons which will be seen anon. Michael Angelo’s Great Style intitles Him to the Sublime, not his Drawing ; ‘tis that Greatness, and a competent degree of Grace, and not his Colouring that makes Titian capable of it : As Correggio’s Grace, with a sufficient mixture of Greatness gives this Noble Quality to His Works. Van Dyck’s Colouring, nor Pencil tho’ perfectly fine would never introduce him to the Sublime ; ‘tis his Expression, and that Grace, and Greatness he possess’d, (the Utmost that Portrait-Painting is Justly capable of) that sets some of his Works in that Exalted Class ;
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The Face, and Hands, are a Model for a Pencil in Portrait-Painting [ndr : il s’agit du portrait de la comtesse Dowager of Exeter, par Van Dyck] ; ‘tis not V. Dyck’s first Labour’d Flemish Manner, nor in the least Careless, or Slight ; the Colours are well wrought, and Touch’d in his best Style ; that is, the Best that ever Man had for Portraits ; nor is the Curtain in the least inferiour in this Particular, tho’ the Manner is vary’d as it ought to be, the Pencil is There more seen than in the Flesh ; the Hair, Veil, Chair, and indeed throughout except the Black Gown is finely Handled.
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Neatness, and high Finishing ; a Light, Bold Pencil ; Gay, and Vivid Colours, Warm, and Sombrous ; Force, and Tenderness, All these are Excellencies when judiciously employ’d, and in Subserviency to the Principal End of the Art ; But they are Beauties of an Inferior Kind even when So employ’d ; they are the Mechanick Parts of Painting, and require no more Genius, or Capacity, than is necessary to, and frequently seen in Ordinary Workmen ; […] ; These properties are in Painting, as Language, Rhime, and Numbers are in Poetry ; and as he that stops at These as at what Constitutes the Goodness of a Poem is a Bad Critick, He is an Ill Connoisseur who has the same Consideration for these Inferious Excellencies in a Picture.
Contrairement aux autres passages de l'Essay on the Theory of Painting, la préface n'est pas traduite dans l'édition française de 1728.
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A Painter’s Language is his Pencil, he should neither say too Little, nor too Much, but go directly to his Point, and tell his Story with all possible Simplicity.
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The Thoughts, and Finishings are in a great Measure seen in the Prints of such Works of which Prints are made, nor is a Drawing destitute of Colouring absolutely ; on the contrary, one frequently sees beautiful Tints in the Paper, Washes, Ink, and Chalks of Drawings ; But what is wanting in some respects is abundantly recompenc’d in Others, for in These Works the Masters not being embarrass’d with Colours have had a full Scope, and perfect Liberty, which is a very considerable Advantage, especially to some of them. There is a Spirit, a Fire, a Freedom, and Delicacy in the Drawings of Giulio Romano, Polydoro, Parmeggiano, Battista Franco, &c. which are not to be seen in their Paintings : A Pen, or Chalk will perform what cannot possibly be done with a Pencil ; and a Pencil with a thin Liquid only what cannot be done when one has a Variety of Colours to manage, especially in Oil.
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HANDLING
BY this Term is understood the manner in which the Colours are left by the Pencil upon the Picture ; as the manner of using the Pen, Chalk, or Pencil in a Drawing is the Handling of that Drawing.
This consider’d in it self abstractedly is only a piece of Mechanicks, and is Well, or Ill as ‘tis perform’d with a Curious, Expert ; or Heavy, Clumsey Hand ; and that whether ‘tis Smooth, or Rough, or however ‘tis done ; for all the Manners of Working the Pencil may be Well or Ill in their kind ; and a fine light Hand is seen as much in a Rough, as in a Smooth manner.
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But the Handling may be such as to be not only Good abstractedly consider’d, but as being Proper, and adding a real Advantage to the Picture : And then to say a Picture has such, and such good Properties, and is also Well Handled (in that Sense) is as to say a Man is Wise, Virtuous, and the like, and is also Handsome, and perfectly Well bred.
Generally if the Character of the Picture is Greatness, Terrible, or Savage, as Battels, Robberies, Witchcrafts, Apparitions, or even the Portraits of Men of such Characters there ought to be employ’d a Rough, Bold Pencil ; and contrarily, if the Character is Grace, Beauty, Love, Innocence, &c. a Softer Pencil, and more finishing is proper.