The method of decoration[798] was usually as follows:—A preliminary sketch was made with fine grey lines, ignoring draperies (hence the lines of figures are usually visible _through_ the draperies), but not always necessarily followed when the colours were laid on. This was done as soon as the first lines were dry, the colour being applied with a fine brush and in monochrome—black, yellow, or red—following the lines of the sketch more or less closely. In the later examples red was used exclusively, and at all periods at Athens; but in the vases attributed to Locri and Sicily, a black turning to yellow is used. This combination of black and yellow is also used on the best Attic vases for various details, such as eyes and hair. The outlines also served to indicate the folds of the draperies. For the surfaces of drapery and other details, polychrome washes were employed, the colour being spread uniformly by means of a large brush. All varieties of red from rose to brown are found, also violet, light and brownish yellow, blue, black, and green. Hair is sometimes treated in outline, sometimes by means of washes. It is noteworthy that in the later examples the wash-colours were often painted right over the red lines. On the bodies of the figures these washes are rare, but in some cases shades of brown are used for flesh colour, as on the figure of Hypnos on a lekythos in the British Museum (D 58). At Athens this polychrome decoration was not indeed limited to the lekythi, but was extended to the kylix, the pyxis, and other forms, of which some beautiful examples exist in the British Museum and at Athens.[799] In these, as in the best of the lekythi, the drawing of Greek artists seems almost to have reached perfection, and arouses our wonder yet more when we reflect that everything was done merely by freehand strokes of the brush. This technique is practically limited to the period 480–350 B.C. The subsidiary ornamentation of the lekythi was put on either after the main design or before, this being immaterial. The lines above the design can be seen to have been painted on the wheel, as they go all round the vase; but the palmettes on the shoulder and maeander patterns above the design do not extend beyond it. After the colouring the vases appear to have been fired again, and in some cases the white slip was probably varnished. The details of their manufacture show that the lekythi were not intended for daily use; the shape is awkward for handling—the handles, for instance, are obviously not intended for practical use—and the delicate, lightly baked slip made them too porous for liquids. Everything tends in the direction of elegance and delicacy.