064r - - - - - Working neatly
Never put down, if you can, two colors one on top of the other. But after you have made your design carefully, keep the space for shadows alone by themselves & for the lights & highlights individually as well, without layering a color all across & then highlighting or shading on it. And in this way, you further your work, economise your colours & work neatly, which is the reason that, the colors not being muddled nor mixed together, they do not die & you soften the colors better, since they are not so thick.
Fatty oil
It is not good for working with colors because it makes them thick, & as difficult to work as azur d’esmail. Use, then, the clearest walnut oil that you can, & the freshest.
Vermilion
One ought not to keep it in water when soaked ground with oil for it loses its color. It is better to choose whitish vermilion than dark & blackish. For vermilion is usually mixed with a little lake, without which it would hardly be different from minium. But the pale kind one casts more vivacity than the dark one. It is not desiccative, & for this reason one mixes in calcined cristallin.
Oil colors in water
Usually, after grinding them one puts a fo piece of tin leaf on top, & one puts them in water to prevent them from drying out. But this is more appropriate for ceruse, lead white, minium & massicot than for the others, for lake dies there & loses its color, as does azure vermilion.
Double layer
Verdigris does not die, & thus does not need to be layered twice. But lake & others, & especially flesh color, the require two layers. Colors hardly change when they are dry.
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** Yellow ochre **
One needs a little of it in every flesh color.
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** Softening **
One softens in the same way on oiled paper as on wood. But it is easier to soften on canvas, because the softening must be rougher on it.
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** Eye **
Every eye must follow the circle of the compass & not be flat & square.