Luminous colours

Notice the colours in Lindsay’s illustrations, still luminous after almost 100 years. Lindsay’s skill in creating these striking colours came from his exacting technique. After transferring his sketched image to the watercolour paper using a pencil-blackened sheet of tissue paper and an etching needle so that he kept the paper as clean as possible, Lindsay wrote out in precise order a list of the colours he planned to use, and then dropped them into the preliminary wash in an exact succession while the wash was still wet. This required great rigour, skill and speed, but the reward was an image of vibrant and unparalleled colour.