he same way as has been
used, time immemorial, for getting out hubs for wagon wheels.--EDS.
AMERICAN ARCHITECT.]

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BOOKS IN WATER-COLOR PAINTING.

SPOKANE FALLS, WASH., December 11, 1889.

TO THE EDITORS OF THE AMERICAN ARCHITECT:

_Dear Sirs_,--Will you kindly advise, through the columns of your paper,
what is the best self-instructing work on architectural water-coloring,
and oblige.

INQUIRER.

[The best drill for the eye and hand that we know of can be obtained in
the shortest time by getting Buskin's "_Elements of Drawing_," and doing
faithfully and exactly all the exercises which he prescribes, including
both those in black-and-white and color. Many people, however, do not
care for this drill, but prefer to make a few bad imitations of simple
chromos, and consider that equipment enough for architectural work. For
those, Penley's large work, the "_System of Water-Color Painting_" is
the best for copying from; or the aspirant may get some of the little
Winsor and Newton "_Handbooks on Sketching in Water-Colors_," to show
him how to choose and mix his pigments, and use as models to copy from
some of the colored prints of architectural subjects which are to be
picked up in the stores. There is a good deal of choice among these. We
have ourselves published one or two, from originals by Mr. Botch, which
will answer as well as anything we know, being admirable in color and
architectural feeling, and just sketchy enough. Pains should generally
be taken _not_ to make an elaborate picture of an architectural sketch,
and the processes preliminary to making a highly-finished water-color
painting, such as laying a ground-color of neutral orange, and sponging
it partly out, cutting out foreground lights with a knife, and so on,
are best dispensed with. Chinese white, also, should be used very
sparingly, and only where the scale is so small that it appears in the
form of dots. A good lesson on the importance of keeping color subdued,
for the sake of heightening architectural effect, can be derived from
any of Front's works, which, by the way, might with great advantage be
used to copy from. These will show the value of what most students
consider beneath their notice--work in two tints and give the best
models possible of artistic distribution of light and shade.--EDS.
AMERICAN ARCHITECT.]

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[Illustration: NOTES AND CLIPPINGS]