The painter has
invariably made a preliminary water-colour sketch of his scene, on
paper or cardboard. Oftentimes, with the help of a miniature stage,
such as schoolboys delight in, he is enabled to form a fair estimate
of the effect that may be expected of his design. The expansive canvas
has been sized over, and an outline of the picture to be painted--a
landscape, or an interior, as the case may be--has been boldly marked
out by the artist. Then the assistants and pupils ply their brushes,
and wash in the broad masses of colour, floods of light, and clouds of
darkness. The dimensions of the canvas permit of many hands being
employed upon it, and the work proceeds therefore with great rapidity.
But the scene-painter is constant in his supervision of his
subordinates, and when their labours are terminated, he completes the
design with numberless improving touches and masterly strokes. Of
necessity, much of the work is of a mechanical kind; scroll-work,
patterned walls, or cornices are accomplished by "stencilling" or
"pouncing"--that is to say, the design is pricked upon a paper, which,
being pressed upon the canvas, and smeared or dabbed with charcoal,
leaves a faint trace of the desired outline.
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