Our last two chapters have prepared the way for an account of the appliances used in lithographic drawing and writing, which we now proceed to give.

26. For drawing upon stone and transfer-paper, the artist will need all the usual appliances of the draughtsman's office, but he will require to have the ruling and circle pens in more than usually good condition. In addition, he will require brushes and pens of a finer character than those required in any other kind of drawing.

27. lithographic Brushes are good red sable crow-quill pencils, with a portion of the hair cut away all round, so as to allow only the central part to be used. If any single hair protrudes beyond its neighbours, the brush will not be good, but this may in part be remedied by wetting it and passing it rapidly through a gas flame to burn it off, the wetting protecting the rest and exposing the single hair only to the flame. It is not every pencil that will make a good brush, so that when one is obtained it should be treasured. It is well to possess some half-dozen or more, as a brush that will not do for one purpose may do very well for another. Brushes are made that are intended to be used without cutting, but they are generally made of too fine hair, and are not sufficiently springy and elastic. Some artists make up their own brushes by cutting off portions of a larger red sable pencil and tying them to suitable pieces of cedar-wood and then mounting them by any convenient means.