Page 142 - The Wellington photographic handbook

PIGMENTS, BRUSHES, ETC., FOR BROMOIL.
The pigments or " Inks " are sold in collapsible tubes similar
to the ordinary oil colours used by artists. They are obtainable
from many dealers who specialize in oil and bromoil materials.
For the beginner, two tubes of oil pigment will be sufficient—
a black and a brown, say burnt umber. Later, when you get
more at home with the process and wish to secure different effects,
the colour range of your palette may be increased and other colours
included. But we do not recommend a great variety of positive
colours in any case, unless you are trying bromoil in colours
;
that is to say, endeavouring to reproduce a scene in a number of
natural colours. In the ordinary way a monochrome bromoil in
either black, sepia, brown-black, or blue-black will give as much
variation in effect as can be regarded as desirable for pictorial
purposes.
In addition to a couple of tubes of pigment, two or three
pigmenting brushes will be needed. It is as well to provide the
right kind of tools at the outset rather than endeavour to potter
along with inadequate or makeshift brushes, which under no
circumstances will give complete satisfaction. Both the process,
the resulting picture, and the temper of the bromoiler will suffer
unless the process is conducted on the right lines from the start.
The brushes that are employed are specially made of black springy
hair and are dome-shaped at the ends, with somewhat short hairs
;
that is to say, the extreme ends of the brushes are spread out
larger than the part that is fastened to the handle. This gives a
stub-ended appearance which enables them to be used with a
direct, nearly vertical dabbing action. The end or working base
of the brush should be smooth to the touch, almost like a little
round pad of velvet. Most of the brushes have the ends cut at
an angle, so that instead of the dabbing action being direct
up and down, a slight forward and downward motion can be
imparted. The brush is shaped practically like a horse's hoof,
and the action of a horse's hoof striking the ground when
walking describes, more or less, the action of the bromoil brush
when pigmenting.
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