JF Science Books Post 1880
All material quoted below is from the magnificent The Newton Project website, which contains transcriptions of Newton's writing in science, alchemy and religion, and also contains much correspondence.
There isn't quite a complete alphabet here, but I think it is close enough, and it does organize (for my mind) some early thinking on color-making by Isaac Newton (1642-1727) when he as 17 years old. There's much of interest on the construction of color here, not the least of which is some prosaic methods for coloring dead people and a general color for clouds. Things would get more involved, of course, as Sir Isaac would later write perhaps the most important books ever written on optics (in 1704).
After the half-alphabet there is an installment of Newton's mechanisms of art, containing instructions on the instruments of drawing, and how to do emblem work, prepare bases, how to shadow, how to enlarge and copy work, how to draw a landscape, and more.
But first, here's his list of how to make color.
How to prepare your colours
Such colours as have need of grinding you must grind them with faire water, then put them on a smoth chalk stone, & let them dry. then grind them againe with Gum water & reserve them in muscle shels for your use.
B is for Blood
A blood red colour.
Sinaper, lake, & vermillion make a good red.
Another
Take blew Inde & steepe it in water & put to it a little Verditer.
Another
Take some of the clearest blood of a sheepe & put it into a bladder & with a needle prick holes in thebottom of it then <6r> hang it up to dry in the sunne; & disolve it {i}n allum water according as you have need.
Charecole black & seacole black
Grind charcole very small with water, let it dry then grind it with oyle. thus make seacole black.
Blew.
Verditer, Azure or Bice, blew Inde.
A bras colour.
This is made of Masticot, & umber.
A browne blew
Take 2 two parts of Inde baudias, & a third of Ceruse
C is for Crane
A Crane colour.
It is of black lead & ground with gum water.
A Crimson
Cynaper tops: Cynaper-lake: or vermilion.
D is for Dead
A colour for dead corpes.
Change white leade with the water of yellow berrys & wash the picture all ouer then chang it with blew Indie & shaddow it in the single hatches, & leanest places then take sut, yellow berrys & whit{e} lead & with that shadow the darkest places
F is for Faces
A colour for faces
Lay on thecheekes little spotts of lake or red lead then come all over it with white, & a little lake, shaddow it with Lamblack or umber, & white lead.
flesh colour.
Take white lead grind it with oyle, lake, & vermilion so you may make it pale or high coloured at your pleasur.
G is for Green
A green.
Take privet berry water, & chang it with yellow berry water, & it giveth a perfit greene for the ground.
Another greene.
Take spannish greene cleane pickt & steeped in Rhenish wine, straine it & put unto it a little honey or white suger candey & it will make a good greene.
A light greene.
Temper Verdigrease, & white lead 2 Verdigrease as much yellow berrys & a little white
A colour for gold.
Take Lake umber red lead & Masticot.
To lay gold on any thing.
Take red lead ground very fine temper it with Linseed oyle, write with it & lay leafe gold on it, let it dry, & pollish it.
H is for Hare
A Haire colour.
Take umber or spanish browne grind it & temper it with gum water.
L is for Landscape
Colours for Landskip
Lay verditer, blew, white, & greene; or first goe all ouer it with saffron & whit{e} then put a little sut to it & goe over it againe.
Or first take greene & white lead & goe ouer it shaddow it with a little more greene, then with white & last of {all} with greene, a little white & yellow berryes.
A lyon tawney.
This is made of red lead & Masticot.
M is for Marble
A marble or ash colour.
This is black & white.
N is for Naked
Colours for naked pictures
Take white leade & a little Vermilion temper them & lay them on, shaddow it with bolearmonick in the middle & adde a little sut to the utmost double hatches.
P is for Purple
A purple colour.
Take log wood, & seeth it in vinegar & small beare in an earthen pot, & put a little allum therein till it tast strong.
A peach colour.
This is of ceruse & Vermilion.
R is for Russet
A russet colour.
Take the fattest sut you can get & p{ut} it into a pot of cleare water so that it be covered two or 3 fingers & let it seeth well which don straine it through a cloth set it on thefire againe to thiken (but take heed you set it not on too hot a fire for feare of burning it) & so let it boyle gently till it bee as thick as you would have it.
A red colour.
Boyle brasill as you did the log-wood. but if you would have it a sad red mingle it with pot ash water, if a light red temper it with white lead.
S is for Sea
A sea colour.
Take privet berries when the sun entreth into Libra, about the 13th of September, dry them in the sunn; then bruise them & steepe them in Allum water, & straine them into an earthen poringer that is glazed
A colour for silver.
Take charecole blacke & white leade
W is for Walls
Colours for building.
Lay black & white leads for the walls of churches, conduits, & greater buildings Bolus for the pillars & less houses red lead for tiles, for the leads blew & white, for cottages sut alone
A White colour.
White lead ground with nut oyle.
Y is for Yellow
A yellow colour.
Take yellow berrys, & bruse them & steepe them a quarter of an hower in allum water then strain them if you will or let them stand in liquour.
Yellow colours
Orpiment & saphron, Mastirol, Gambugium either of these giv a good yellow.
Also, Newton 's meteorlogical colors are interesting:
Sky colours
Brasill & white lead is the lightest, then light purple & white, then Inde blew & white, the darkest is Inde blew.
Clowd colours
The lightest is whitelead & Inde blew a like quantaty of each, the next a deale of Inde & a little white, then purple & white with a little brasill, then whit lead & yellow berrys.
Colours for the sone beames.
Lay yellow berrys with a little white shaddow it with saffron & red lead.
As are the instructions for writing with gold:
To write gold with the pen or pensill
Take a shell of gold, & put a little gum water into it, & work with it.
How to write a gold colour.
Take a new laid egg, make a hole at one end & let out the substance then take the yolk without the white, & four times soe much quicksilver in quantitie as of theformer grind them well together & put them into the shell stop the hole thereof with chalk & the white of an egg then lay it under a hen that sitt with 6 more for the space of 3 wekes, then break it up & write with it.
On the Mechanics of Drawing
Instruments of drawing.
Pens made of Raven quils. thick & smooth paper. & light coulored blew paper. fine parchment. a flat thin bras ruler. a paire of compasses. a wing. & sundry plummetts. & pestells to draw with=all.
Of plummets.
Ther are naturall plummetts not made. as blacklead. black chalk. charecole {split}. red stone. white chalke. & there are artificiall plummits. Thus made.
Take a great chalk stone & make furrows in it 2 or 3 inches long & so wide as you may lay a quil in each of them. Then take a proportion of white chalke ground verry fine, temper it with aile, or wort & a little new milke, & soe make pap thereof: then power it into the furrows of the chalke. you may soone tak them out & role them up, or let them lie in the chalk till they be quite dry & then take them out & scrape them into a hansome forme.
You may temper Lake with burnt Alabaster for a red. &
Alabaster burnt & bice for a blew. & so for others: regarding some {illeg} that will bind over hard which must have a little water put on them in their grinding.
Of Drawing with the pen
Let the thing which you intend to draw stand before you, so that the light be not hindred from falling upon it. & with a pointed peice of charecole draw it rudely & lightly when you have don see if it be well don; if not wipe out with your wing & begin agine, & so draw it till it bee well. then wipe it over gently with your wing, so that you may perceive your former strokes; then with your black chalk or pensill draw it perfectly & curiously as you can, & shaddow it as the light falleth upon it. If you draw on blew paper when you have finished your draught wet your paper in fair wait & let it dry of it self. & so the drawing will hold fast on.
Of Drapery.
Draw the utmost lines of your garment, & the greater folds first which continue through the whole garment, then break the greater folds into lesse, & so shaddow them.
Of Landskip.
If you express the sunn make it riseing or setting behind some hill; but never expres the moone or starrs but upon necessity.
Of Emblem or Empresse work.
In drawing after the life sit not nearer than two yards from the partie, & sit of one height. but if the party you draw be very tall let him sit aboue you a little if {short} or a child let him sit a little below you If you draw from the head to the foot let the the party stand at the least six yards from you. let the party stand for few can sit {illeg} upright as they can stand.
ffirst, draw the stroake for the forehead, which must bee done exactly, because according to that proportion must all the rest bee drawn as if the fore head bee soe long, then must it be twice so long from the forehead to the chin. then draw the farthest eye making the circle of the sight perfectly round & placing the reflection of the sight which appeareth as a white speck, acording to the light. 3. draw the nose. forthly the nearest eye, leaving the just lenght of an eye betweene it & the other. 5. Draw the mouth. 6 The chin. 7 finish the out line of the face. & lastly the haire. having finished the head draw the whole body proportionable thereunto.
Of Shaddowing.
To shaddow sweetly & rowndly withall is a far greater cunning than to shaddow hard & darke; for it best to shaddow as if it were not shaddowed.
To take a perfect drawgh of a picture.
Take a sheet of venise or of the finest paper you can get, wet it all over with cleane salitt oyle, then wipe the sallett away so that the paper may be dry throughly. then lay the paper on the picture, & you shall see the picture through the paper, & then with a pensill draw it over, & then with a pen. Then take of the oyled paper & lay it on a cleane sheete, & with a stick pointed, or a fether of a swallow <4v> wing, draw it over againe, & you shall have it neatly drawne on the white paper.
--Another way.
Take some Lake & grind it fine & temper it with linseed oyle, & then with a pen & this mixture draw out all the great strokes of any picture & also the {mustler} Wet then the contrary side of the picture, & pre{ss} it hard upon the sheet of cleane paper & it will leave behind it al the stroks you drew.
An easy way to lesson or enlarge a picture
Make a square, & then divide it into divers equall parts with the compasses, & draw o'rethwart lines with a ruler & a pensill, so that the pictur be divided into equall squares, & so make squares on a faire paper as little or big as you will, but let ther bee soemany, as there is in the picture, then observing the order of the squares draw the pictur over with a pensill pasing from square to square.
How to make Allum water
Take a quart of mater & boyle it in a quarter of a pound of Allum, seeth it untill it be molten, & let it stand a day with this water wet over the pictures that you intend to colour for it will keepe the colours for sinking into the paper, & make them shew fairer, & continue the longer without faiding. You must let the paper dry of it selfe before you lay your colours on it or wet it againe for some paper needs four or 5 wetings.
How to make gum water
{Ta}ke cleane water & put gum Arabick a little to it, let it stand till the gum be disolved, & let it {not} bee too thick for you cannot work well with it nor {too} thin for it will not bind fast enough. with this wa{t}er temper your colours befor you lay them on.
To make lime water.
Take unslackt lime & cover it with water, an inch thick let it stand a night & power of the cleare water in the morning, & keepe it in a cleane thing for your use. with this water you must temper your sap greene when you would have a blew coulour of it.
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Even his mundane instructions have a kind of alchemical/incantatory flavour.
Posted by: Ray Girvan | 29 August 2012 at 10:02 AM