UC-NRLF
mmnf B
3
--
TEi
3Qc^
ENRY Blackburn.
4HIIUU
L1RRA.RV
University of California. (
;i
Ki-
OK
Received Accession No. ^(^'^y^V-^
.
.
iqa
.
Class No.
/
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION.
XB'
UHIVERSITT CALlFOS
" Nir TKlMll.] IK." (Ora-,v; hi ,Wn
ami
ink,
(SII;
from hh
[Size ofdr.-uving. 5J
by
JOHN
/•kliirc in llua^\
in.
CILIIERT, K.A.)
Royal Academy,
Plioto-zinc process.]
i83j.)
The Art
of
Illvistration,
HENRY BLACKBURN, Editor of " Academy
A'otes,^'
N N ET Y- F V E I
I
Can/or Lecturer on
I
Il/iisf ration,
LL U ST R AT O N S. I
SECOND EDITION.
W.
H. 13,
ALLEN &
CO.,
WATERLOO PLACE, 1896.
Limited, S.W.
{^c.
^
c^^
TRINTED \V
Y.MAN
AMI
1!Y
SON'S,
LONDON, W.C.
LIMITED,
DEDICATKI.) TO
SIR
JOHN GILBERT, ONE OF THE
PRlN'CTPAr.
OF POOK AND NEWSPAPEi;
R.A.
PIONEERS I
[, I.
UST K AI
S ;>()!.5
1
()
N
.
DKAWING FKOM
HIS PICTLKE,
I;Y
[Photo-zinc process
M ]
PREFACE. HE
object of this
book
to explain the
is
modern systems of Book and News[)a[)er
IHustration,
and especially the
methods of drawing
monly are
called "process,"
for
what
com-
is
on which so many
artists
now engaged.
There
is
almost a revolution
in
illustration at the
present time, and both old antl young scholars
— arc
when turning of to-day of the
is
in
want of
to the
called
a
new methods. upon suddenly
wood engraver
in
— teachers and
handbook
for reference
The
illustrator
to take the
[jiacc;
interpreting tone into line,
PREFACE.
X
and requires practical information which is
intended
The most of
important branch of illustration treated
line draxcing, as
is
competition
b_\-
practically out of reach of
is
it
the photographer, and
the kind of drawing' most printed
at
the
drawing upon
typ(t
press
grained
;
The; best instructors
how
and
whom
drawing
owe many
1
between
so
so well
There
is
a wide
artist.
strikes out a wonderful path
own, whose scratches and splashes appear
many
books and
"butterlly" order of being
of the
processes,
There
imitated.
drawing
and is
is
is
of
the
not
to
be emulated
or in
man's coat should be made
to look like straw, or the
ability
newspapers,
-a creation, so to speak,
no reason but custom why,
for process, a
a background)
No
ior process are,
who know
obligations.
The "genius" who in
modern
treated of
their treatment of "illustration"
and the so-called "pen-and-ink"
his
drawing,
the
express themselves in black and white, and to
distinction
ot
all
the painters of pictiires
all,
to
moreo\-er,
wash
but
papers,
in
is,
reproduced and
easily
appliances for re|)roduction, are
after
book
this
to supply.
background
(if
there be
have the appearance of fireworks.
on the part of the
illustrator will
these thinys tolerable in the near future.
make
There
is
PREFACE.
xi
a reaction already, and signs of a bclicr and
sober treatment a
better
ot
ilhistr:ui(in,
understaudiiig
which
of the
The modern than
A
work of the
of the best
illustrator
he imagines
— in
of the best
much
has
drawing
for
we
everything that also,
we
learn
processes there at
line
drawing
not
— or the
tell
know;
misleading as to the principles is
based.
learn everything from the past
it
is
from
interpret colour
— more
reejtiires to
upon which modern process work In painting
to
the processes.
etchers, will
student of to-day exactl)' what he for the)- are nearly all
to learn
Fortuny or Sandys
INIenzell,
work of the
equal
it
past.
study of examples by masters of
such as Holbein,
and
reijuireiuculs
make
Ihnitatmis of the proeesses, to
some
more
onl)- recjuires
into is
l)est
to
know.
tlie
past
line,
but
In engraving
the ii:
best
drawing
wa)-
to
the
for
practically no "past " to refer to
;
the .same time the advance of the photographer
into
the
domain of
importance to
artists
black and white, and
upon
art teachers to
education to this,
part.
tlie
illustration
renders
it
oi
\ ital
to
put forth their best work in
it
throws great responsibility
give a good groundwork of
illustrator
of the
education- -geiiei'di ediiiiition
future. will
In
all
take a wider
PREFACE.
xii
The Illustrations have been hands,
capable in
than
ratlier
selected to
work
possibiHties of "process"
the
any
in
toitrs
They
drawing, or exploits of genius.
show
educated, dc force
are
all
of
modern work, and are printed on the same sheets as the letterpress.
All
the
Illustrations
in
this
book
have
been
reproduced by mechanical processes, excepting nine
(marked on the
which are engraved on wood.
list),
Acknowledgments
are due to the Council of the
Society of Arts for permission to reprint a portion of the Cantor Lectures on " Illustration" from their
Journal
and
;
the
to the
Editors of the A'ational Review
Nineteenth
Century,
permission
fur
to
reprint several pages from articles in those reviews to
the
Editors
illustrations;
and
Publishers
and above
all,
to
who the
have
artists
whose
works adorn these pages.
H.
123,
Victoria .Street, Westminster. .Vr;i',
I
894.
;
lent
B.
CONTENTS. CHAPTER
I.— Introductorv
CHAPrER
II.
Diagrams ::
i
Elementary Illusikviion
— Daily
Illustrated
Newspapers-
.
15
.
i'lctorial
Verbal Description.
CHAl'Tl'^R
III.
Education Process
— Artistic
of
the
— Sketching
...
Ii,i.ustr.\tions
Illustrator fruin
— Line
Life
Drawing
40
lor
— Examples of Line
Drawing.
CHAPTER IV.— Thk "
Processes
.
.
.
.
102
— Gelatine Process — Grained Papers — Mechanical Dots — " Half-tone Process — Wash Drawing — Illustrations from Photographs--
Photo zinco
"
"
5(v/c//,
Grapliii\ &c.
— Daniel
Vierge.
CHAPTER v.— Wood
E.sgr.wing
CHAPTER VL—TuE
DiuoK.vnvE
CHAP I'ER
VII. --Author,
.... P.uie
Ii.i.u.str.vior,
197
.
cS:
182
Puui.isher
2
1
Students' Drawings
223
Appendix
233
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. skeUhed in
[T/ii copyyi^ht of all pictures
"The
Trumpeter.''
Swans.
John
Sir
this book is s'.viclly ycsei-vea.'\
R.A
Gilbert,
{Process)
\\
Charles Collins
"Ashes of Roses." G. H. Boughton, A.R Badminton in the Studio." R. W. Macbeth, A.R "A Son of Pan." William Padgett " Home by the P'crry.'' Edward Stott Man in Chain Armour. Lancelot Speed "Greeting." The Hon. iNIrs. Boyle Diagrams (5) View above Blankcnbuig "
.
'4 15
.
...
.
The Curvature
On
E.
"
30
K. Johnson
(
Walter Hunt Ellen Montalba
the Riviera."
Landscape with Trees."
An Odd Volume."
A
H.
H.
Select Committee."
R. Corbet
47
49
Marks,
S.
R
G. D. Leslie, R.A.
Finding of the Infant
St.
Ploughboy."
A
Ways.''
Fred. Hall
Willowy Stream."
Twins."
^V.
.
H. Railtun
H. Gore
65
69 7o> 71 73> 75
.
Stanley Berkeley
56
59.^1
Lane."
Maud
C. Vi. Gere
.
C. E. Wilson
0\ Body
By Unfrequented Adversity."
George."
G. Clausen
Blowing Bubbles." Cathedral, from
43
Marks, R.A.
]\L S.
Process')
44 46
.
The Rose Queen."
A
(
of the World's Surface
Tiresome Dog. Frustrated."
19-32 ll'ood) ^i ,.
Naftel
76 79
ILLUSTRATIOSS. "The Dark
"A
Alfred East
Island."
C. Gotch
T.
Portrait."
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
John Tenniel. Edwin Ward Edwin Ward Rt. Hon. John Morley. "Nothing venture, nothing have." E. P. Sanguinctti
Sir
.
.
.
{Pn
80
ess)
,
S3
,
87
The '
On
Rowe
E. A.
the Terrace."
"For
.
.
.
90 9-. 93
94
.
John Millais, Bart., R..\. "The Stopped Key." H. S. Marks, R.A. Nymph and Cupid. Henry Holiday L. Speed Illustration to ''The Blue Poetry Book."
A
the Squire."
T. Blake Wirgman.
Portrait.
" Forget
Me
" Baby's
Own."
"A
Not."
"The Miller's "The End of
Henry Ryland
97
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
G. Hillyard Swinstead
Silent Pool."
" In the
Sir
E.
W. Waite
Daughter."
"Clolden Days."
W. Rainey
.
Beadle
.
.
.
.
,
.... ..... .... 'i'.
Compion
.
.
,
M. Lindstroni Volendam. C. J. Watson "Old Woman and Grandchild." Hugh Cameron Landscape.
"An
A.
Arrest."
,
,
M. R. Corbet H. R. Millar
"
Adjutant's Love Story." from " T/ie Blue Poetry Book.'' L. Speed .
There
From
''
is
Louis Grier
the Priory."
Andersen
s
"Two's company, l\\vi%Ua.\.\on
"
A
,
.
.
.
Fairy Tales."
J.
three's none."
.
IVliite."
'3'
S
139
R. Weguclni
II. J.
[27
'34, 5-7
W. H. Wolien
Uom" Black and
Sunny Land."
.
19
129
Illustrations
"Seine Boats."
116,1
,
Melton Prior
"Sunrise in the Severn Valley."
"The
to8
Richardson
F. Stuart
"Twilight." Hume Nisbet " Le Dent du Geant." E.
107
.
P.
J.
•°5
K. Johnson
E.
the Chapter."
Pas de Calais."
i°3
Walker
141, •43
'47
.
Manton
C. G.
'49
George Wetherbee The late Randolph Caldecott
Decorative Design. Sketch in wash (part of picture) from "Sketek".
"The Brook."
.\rnold Helcke
.
.
.
.
.
157
ILL US TRA TIONS. From
a Photograph
from
By Mr. H.
Life.
Mendelssohn {'^Sketch") a Photograph from Life. By Cameron & Smith ("Studio") .
From
S.
.
{Proicss)
i6i
„
165
Messrs. .
.
From a Photograph from Life {'^Graphic") "Proud Maisie." Lancelot Speed Yrom PaUo de Segovia." Daniel Vierge Drinking Horn from ".£'w^;'/^/;/^j'M." L. Speed
.
.
.
'^
.
.
{Wood) 169 (Process)
173
„
177 181
.
„
Heading from ''Grimm s Household Stories." W. Crane ( Wood) Photograph from Life. "'The Century Magazine" "Driving Home the Pigs." John Pedder (/'fceess) (Wood) Joan of Arc's House at Rouen. Samuel Prout. ,,
.
¥{edid\nghom"Grimm''s Household Sto>-ics." W.Crane Decorative Page.
A.
Decorative Page from Title
Page of
'•'
J.
The Hobby Horse."
" Scarlet Poppies."
Spanish
Care."
.
"Ty/iT &'.v &<:'(7//.f."
Viking Ship from " Z';vV
"Take
Gaskin
W.
W.
Woman.
B.
j5;'4'-/;/
J.
.
(Process)
193 195 197
199
W.Crane (Hood) 201
Selwyn Image
^_)'«."
Muckley
Baird
.
,,
1S2
1S7
L.
,,
205
Speed (Process) 208 209 „
...
.
Ina Bidder
.
Children Reading.
Estelle d'Avigdor
Sketch from Life.
G. C. JiLirks
Bou"h of Common
Furze.
.
.
.
,,
227
.
.
.,
229
William French
CHAPTER
I.
INTRODUCTORY.
jHERE
are,
broadly speaking, two kinds
of engraving for illustration
which are widely 2,
The
relievo.
distinct first
—
books,
in
intaglio;
i,
comprises
all
engravings, etchings, and photogravures in which the lines are cut or indented by acid or other means, into a steel or
with
many
copper plate
—a
system em[)loyed,
variations of method, from the time of
IMantegna, Albert Diirer, Holbein and Rembrandt, to the
day.
French and English etchers of the present
Engravings thus produced are
modern book easily
illustration, as
on the .same
little
used
in
they cannot be printed
page; as the letterpress
;
these
planches a part, as the French term them, are costly to print
and are suitable only
In the second,
for limited editions.
or ordinary form of illustration,
the linrs or [licturcs to
lie
jirinted arc
left
in
relief;
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION. the
design being generally
made on wood
with a
and the parts not drawn upon cut away.
pencil,
This was the rudimentary and almost universal form of book-illustration, as practised century,
as
revived
in the fifteenth
England by
in
Bewick
in
the eighteenth, and continued to the present day.
The
blocks thus prepared can be
printed rapidly
on ordinary printing-presses, and on the same page as
flic text.
During the past few years so many processes have been put forward
for
producing drawings
printing witli the type, that
relief, for
a business in itself to test
The
best
least
it
known
is
process
in
has become
it
and understand them.
wood
is still
engraving, at
the best for the fac-simile reproduction
of drawings, as at present understood in England,
whether they be drawn direct upon the wood or
There
transmitted by photography. in relief
the
which has the same
same colour and
is
certainty,
brightness,
no process
which gives
and
by which
gradation of tone can be more truly rendered.
As
to
the relative value of the different photo-
graphic relief processes, that can only be decided by experts.
Speaking generally,
are six or seven
informed,
the
now
best,
in
use,
and
all
I
may
say that there
each of which
is,
I
am
of which are adapted
INTRODUCTORY. for printing in the
Improvements
same manner
in these
so rapidly that what
was best yesterday
the
best to-morrow, and
still
little
In
the
;
it
is
be
a subject which
is
book
present
is
it
proposed
more popular form of
speak
to
illustration
but the changes which are taking place
forms of engraving and illustration render
in all
necessary to say a few words
We
made
will not
understood.
principally of the (relievo)
as a wood-block.*
processes are being
have heard much
of the
;
and
to recognition as
annual exhibition of the
at the
Society of Painter-Etchers in London,
examples
in
which the
and white seemed more than to the engraver's.
it
intaglio.
"painter-etchers,"
and of the claims of the etchers original artists
upon
first
effects
we have seen
produced
allied to
black
in
the painter's art
But we are considering
engraving as a means of interpreting the work of others, rather than as an original art.
The
influence of photography
every department of
illustration.
mechanical methods of engraving,
in
nearly
The new
photo-
is
felt
riv'//^^;///
the aid
of
* All the illustrations in this book are produced by mechanical processes excepting those
and
all
are printed
marked
in
the List of Illustrations
simultaneously with the letterpress.
description of processes, see Appendix.
For
4
(
No. ''Ashes of Roses^' by G.
)
II.
H. Boughton, A.R.A.
This careful drawing, from the painting by Mr.
Boughton,
Dawson
in the
process,
Royal Academy, reproduced by the is
interesting for variety of treat-
ment and indication of is
like the picture, but
the
draughtsman,
as
textures in
it
in
pen and
ink.
It
has also the individuality of line
engraving.
Size of drawing about b\ x 3^ in.
No.
II.
A.DMINTON IN THE STIDM.'
(fKOM THE PAINTrNC DV
{Royal Academy.
1891.)
K.
\V.
MACI!
A.K..^.)
INTRODUCTORY. have rendered drawing
tlw engraver,
for fac-simile
reproduction of more importance than ever;
wonderful
the
invention
which an engraving painting,
The
made
is
and
photogravure,
called
from an
direct
in oil
almost superseding handwork.*
is
line-engraving
of
art
England, giving way to the
is
disappearing
in
" painter-etchers," the
"dry-point" etchers and the "mezzotint engravers," and, finally, to phoiogravure, a
which
method of engraving
so extraordinary, and so
is
(although
it
little
understood
has been in constant use for more than
ten years), that
may be worth
it
a few words, the
method
Boussod, Valadon
&
while to explain, in
as practised
by Messrs.
Co., successors to Goupil, of
Paris.
In the Royal
Academy
Exhibition of 1SS2, Sir
Frederick Leighton's picture called "
be remembered by
purchased
many
for Australia,
Wedded
visitors.
This picture was
and had
to
England within
a
the exhibition.
There was no time
*
One
of the
last
be sent from
few weeks of the closing of
Race," exhibited
in the
make an
J.
Poynter, R.A., called
Royal Academy, 1876.
engraving of this picture was nearly three years
hands
to
and best examples of pure line-engraving
was by M. Joubert, from a painting by E. " Atalanta's
" will
— a tardy process
in these days.
in
The
M. Joubert's
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION. engraving, or even an etching satisfactorily, and so
who
the picture was sent to Messrs. Goupil,
few weel
which we see
The
day.
\}i\^
is
a carbon print
roughly as follows
is
:
to
—
taken direct from the picture
taken from
is
the
glass,
which rests upon the surface
From
this print a cast is
by placing the glass
in
a
in
called,
is
it
windows
the printsellers'
in
operation
a photograph
photogravure, as
;
negative
this
First,
then
upon
in delicate relief
taken in reverse
in
copper,
a galvanic bath, the deposit
of copper upon the glass taking the impression of the picture as certainly as
ground upon which
seen
it falls.
" secrets "
and certain
how modern
snow takes
produce
details,
how
be
it
science has superseded
a
in
— omitting — may
of the process
the engraver's work, and
can
Thus
the jjattern of the
much
of
a mechanical process
few days that which formerly
took years.
What
the
permanent
engraving" may is
-
estimate
of
"
photo-
handwork,
a question for the collectors of engravings and
etchings.
In
public should tinct cal
art
be, as a substitute for
the
meantime,
know what
from an engraving. engraving,
in
is
it
well
a photogravure
The system
that is,
of mechani-
the reproduction of pictures,
spreading rapidly over the world
;
but
the
as dis-
it
is
should be
/XTRODCCTORV.
9
observed that these reproductions are not uniformlv
One
successful.
more
itself
pahiter's niethutl of handhnjj;- lends
readily than that of antJther to mechanical
Thus
engraving.
work of
the
the President of
llu-
Royal Academy would reproduce better than that of Mr. G. F. Watts or Mr. Orchartlson. actual
That the
marks of the brush, the very texture of the
painting, can be transferred to copper
multiplied
ad
a fact to which
The
alive.
by
infuiititiii
many English
process has
photogravure has
its
artists
limits,
present
at
to
photography
the
in
will
last
ii,
and is
are keenly
of course, and to
a
But enough
tew years to i)rove that
henceforth
handiwork as he leaves
steel,
be assisted
considerable extent by the engraver.
has been done
and
this beautiful [process,
take up the painter's
and thus the importance
of thoroughness and completeness on the part of the painter has to be
by the publishers of
A
word may be
''
more than ever
insisted
useful here to explain that the
coloured " photogravures," reproducing the of colour
in
plete,
The
washes
a painting or w;iter-colour drawing, of
which we see so many
hand
upon
engravings."
in Paris,
are not coloured by
in
the ordinary way, but are produced com-
at
one impression,
from the [)rinting-press.
colours are laid upon the plate, one by one, by
(
10
)
No. III. ".4
Son of
Example of brush.
If this
graphic chalk,
Pan"
by William Padgett.
outline drawing, put in solidly with a
had been done with pencil or auto-
much
of the feeling and expression
of the original would have been
has suffered
lost.
slightly in reproduction,
The drawing where
(as in
the shadows on the neck and hands) the lines were pale in the original. Size of drawing
1
1^ x 6^
in.
Zinc process.
No. HI.
IXTKOfWCTORV.
13
the printer, by a system of stencilling
and thus an
;
almost perfect fac-similc of a picture can
be
produced
simple
and broad
One
pure colour,
in
the original
if
Within the
mentioned.
last
tion for coating the surface of
(which can
ste(;l
necessary) structible;
renders
and
the
now
it is
importance to
and etchings should be
of engravings
a film of
b(;
few years, an inven-
engraved plates with
renewed as often as
surface
practically
injur)-
or
These modern inventions are no
loss of quality.
they
inde-
possible to print a thousand
impressions from a copper plate without
secrets,
re-
in treatment.
other point of interest and
collectors
is
have been described repeatedly
technical journals
and
in lectures,
notably
in
in
those
delivered during the past few years at the Society of
and
Arts,
published
the Journal.
in
majority of the public, and even prints
It
from one
come
why
the
is
now be taken
necessary to
it
so
is
the;
art
amateur that he should
of these things,
that scratching
much
without deteriora-
plate.
know something
why
But
collectors of
and etchings, are ignorant of the number of
copies which can tion
many
into
vogue
if
only to explain
on a copper plate has in
England
lately,
and
there has been such a remarkable revival of
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION. the art of Dtirer at the end of this century.
reason for the
when to, is
it
is
movement
will
The
be better understood
explained that by the process just referred
of "steeling" the surface of plates, the "burr," as called,
and the most delicate
lines of the
are preserved intact for a
much
impressions than formerly.
The
larger
ings
and
chiitions dc
fact
number
of
taste for etchings
and the higher forms of the reproductive spreading rapidly, but the
it
engraver
arts is
still
remains that etch-
luxe do not reach one person in
a thousand in any civilised community.
It
is
only
by means of wood engra\'ings, and the cheaper and simpler forms of process illustration, that the public is
appealed to pictorially through the press.
GREETING."
(bV
THE HON. MKS.
CHAPTER
liOVLE.)
II.
ELEMENTARY ILLUSTRATION.
HE
first
o bject of an
practical part,
is
illustration,
obviously, to illustrate
and^lttcidate the text sight
lost artistic,
and
decoration, shall
includes works
ornament,
consider the
first,
style.
in
of
the
is
to
be
imagination,
In this chapter
we
the practical part.
Nearly twenty years ago, Society of Arts
—a matter often
The second
of
the
at a
meeting of the
London, the general question
was discussed, whether
in
the matter of illustrating
books and newspapers we are
really
keeping pace
THE ART OF 1 LLUSI RATiOX.
t6
with the times
provide
to
is
whether those whose business
;
the
which
illustrations
it
tossed
are
from steam presses at the rate of several thousand copies an hour, are doing the best In illustrated newspapers,
it
work they
should be a clearer distinction between
between news and
fiction,
can.
was argued, "there and
fact
The
pictures."
exact
words may be thought worth repeating now.* " In the production of illustrations
newspapers
But our
in the world.
temptation, pictures
we have arrived
and from London are issued the best
jjroficiency,
and
when we ought
be recording
to
a
great
has led us into
artistic skill
by degrees engendered
at
illustrated
habit
of making
We
have thus,
facts.
through our cleverness, created a fashion and a demand from the public for something which
Would
it,
then, be too
is
often elaborately untrue.
much
to ask those
really create) the public taste, that they
who
cater for (and
should give us one of two
things, or rather /fee things^ in our illustrated papers,
and the ist.
manner
ideal
records of events in the simplest and truest
Pictorial
possible
;
Pictures of the highest class that can be printed in a
2nd.
new^spaper
Here
?
are two
methods of
kept distinct, each in
would be doubled. for a picture
which
*
the real
—
gallery
its
We ;
illustration
which only require
proper place, and our interest ask
and
first
for a record of
to kiiow, to use a
in
to
be
them
news and then
common
phrase,
is 2vhich."
The
quotations are from a paper by the present writer, read
before the Society of .\rts in March, 1S75.
ELEMENTARY ILLUSTRATION. At the time and
block
blocks,"
engraving,
drawing on the wood-
to,
were
almost
photography
instantaneous
"process
referred
engraving
that
is
was
in
to
say,
universal
—
infancy,
its
mechanical
was very seldom employed, and
(for
popular purposes) American engraving and printing
was considered the
The system
best.
of producing illustrations in direct fac-
simile of an artist's drawing, suitable for printing at
a type press without the aid of the is
such
ot
illustration,
value
for
and
moreover,
is,
seems wonderful
that
it
not
be better understood
cause
is
wood
engraver,
cheap and simple forms of such constant use,
in
at first sight that
We
not far to seek.
England.
in
it
should
But the
have not yet acquired
the art of pictorial expression in black and white,
nor do
many
of our artists excel in " illustration
"
in
the true sense of the word.
U
has often been pointed out that thruLigh the
pictorial
system the mind receives impressions with
the least effort and in the quickest way, and that the graphic method
knowledge.
is
Are we
the true
way
of imparting
then, in the matter of giving
information or in imparting knowledge through the
medium
of
illustrations,
simplest methods
?
I
adopting the truest and
venture to say that in the
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION. majority of cases
We
have pictures which
eye,
are
engraved, but there
we
are doing nothing of the kind.
in
abundance which delight the
which,
in
has
printing
after
art
of
but a questionable blessing on
all,
Without going
it.
as a picture
to effect
text.
account of the error and the
we may
skilfully
been suggested that the
often
is,
and
nine cases out of ten,
in
more thought given
is
than to illustrating the It
drawn
artistically
evil
disseminated by
into that question,
I
think that
find that the art of printing with
movable
type has led to some neglect of the art of expressing
and that the apparently
ourselves pictorially,
exorable
necessity
of
in-
running every word and
lines,
has cramped and limited
our powers of expression,
and of communicating
thought into uniform
ideas to each other.
Let us begin ladder,
are
at the lowest
step of the artistic
and consider some forms of
within
the press.
reach
the
With
the
of
illustration
means now
at
command
reproducing any lines drawn or written, fac-simile,
mounted on square blocks
the
and giving
type,
printer, there is
which
nearly every writer for
little
or
to
for
in perfect
range with
no trouble
to
the
no question that we should more
frequently see the hand
work of the
writer as
well
ELEMENTARY as
of
the
example or in is
to
artist
record of
tile
appearing on
happens sometimes
it
:
ILL USTRA TION.
some
paL;^.
For
work of
fictit)n,
the
in
a
accident or event, that
important to the clear understanding of the
know
the exact position of a house, say
street corner,
for arson)
Words
construction
used
But
are
beyond the
position
at
a
(as in the case of a late trial
which way the wind blew on a particular
evening.
for
because
and also
it
text,
powerless
possibility
and yet words
;
to
explain the
of doubt
are,
or mis-
and have been,
such purposes for hundreds of
it is
if it
"
years,
the custom."
were made plain that where words
to express a
meaning
easily,
those above, drawn in ink on ordinary paper,
be substituted (and, manuscript,
will
if
fail
a few lines, such
as
may
sent to the printer with the
appear
with the printed page),
in fac-simile I
think a
on the proof
new
dawn on many minds, and new melhods sion come into vogue.
light
may
of expres-
~
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION. This of
illustration
MS.)
(which was written on the sheet
one example, out of a hundred that might
is
be given, where a diagram should come to the aid of the verbal description,
now
of lines for the press
no longer
blocks
can be
revolving
produce
is
printed,
on rapidly can
duplicating)
(by
100,000 copies
night
a
and the
costly,
necessary,
which
cylinders,
in
if
that the reproduction
of
news-
a
paper.
some
Before exploring illustration,
may be
it
has been done
of
the
possibilities
of
interesting to glance at what
this direction since the invention
in
of producing blocks rapidly to
the
print at
type
press and the improvements in machinery. In
New
spring
the
started
a
daily
of
York, called
to eclipse
all
1873
illustrated
a
company
Canadian
evening newspaper
previous publications by the rapidity
and excellence of
its illustrations.
It
started with
an attempt to give a daily record of news, and
made every
conductors
effort
bring
to
But the public of apparently,
" pictures,"
into
a
New York in
1893)
in
1873
cared
its
about a
system of rapid sketching and drawing
London,
in
The Daily Graphic, which was
in
line.
(as
more
of for
and so by degrees the paper degenerated
picture-sheet, reproducing
(without
leave)
ELEMENTAR Y
ILL US TRA TION.
2
1
engravings from the Illustrated London, Ncivs, the Graphic, and other papers, as they arrived from
England. The paper was Hthographed, and survived until 1889.
The first
report of the
daily
worth
first
The
recording.
year's
newspaper
illustrated
working of the world
the
in
proprit^tors
stated
is
that
although the paper was started "in a year of great financial depression, they have abundant reason to be satisfied with their success," and further, that
they attribute
"an absence of
to
it
all
sensational
news."(!)
The
report ended
with the following intcrestino-
paragraph " Pictorial misery,
records
of crime,
executions,
scenes
and the more unwholesome phases of
social
positive detriment to a daily illustrated newspaper.
higher the tone and the better the taste appealed
we have found our
The
great
— when,
In to,
are a
fact,
the
the larger
circulation to be."
art,
daily illustrated
out
involving life,
in
it
would seem, of conductino-
newspaper fact,
to
is
to
have
know no
a
xvhat to leave
illustrations
at
all!
In England the tration in a daily litde
map
first
systematic attempt at
newspaper was the
illus-
insertion of a
or weather chart in the Tivics in
1875,
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION. and the Pall Mall Gazelle followed
with a dial
suit
showing the direction of the wind, and afterwards with other explanatory diagrams and sketches.
Times and
But, in June, 1875, the
papers
in
England were
York Tribune match
in
other news-
all
by the Ncio
far distanced
shooting
in reporting the result of a
Dublin between an American Rifle Corps
and some of our volunteers.
On
the morning after
the contest there were long verbal reports in the
English papers, describing the shooting and the results
;
but in the pages of the
New
York Tribuiic
there appeared a series of targets with the shots
of the successful competitors marked
communicated paper
in
After
by
and
upon them,
printed
in
the
America on the following morning.*
we seem
period
this
some
only
slowly,
telegraph
very
to
have
important
moved
geographical
discovery, or event, e.xtorting from the daily news-
But during
papers an explanatory plan or diagram.
the "Transit of Venus," on the 6th of December, 1882, a
gleam
of
light
readers of the Daily
was vouchsafed
Telegraph (and
to
the
possibly to
other papers), and that exciting astronomical event
from
which
"
* This system
mankind of
universal in England.
reporting
was rifle
to
obtain
contests
is
a
clearer
now almost
ELEMENTARY ILLUSTRATION. knowledge of the
of
scale
the
23
was
universe,"
understood and remembered better, by three or four lines in the
the track of
form of a diagram (showing, roughly,
Venus and
comparative size and
its
distance from the sun) printed in the newspaper on
the day of the event.
Maps and in
all
plans have appeared from time to time
the daily newspapers, but not systematically,
or their interest and
much
usefulness would have been
IMany instances might be given of
greater.
the use of diagrams in newspapers
a
;
showing the direction of the wind, better than words
and
that printing difficulties
figures, but
it
is is
little
dial
obviously only lately
have been overcome, and
that the system can be widely extended.
remains to be seen
It
how
far the
Daily Graphic,
with experience and capital at command, will aid in
a system of illustration which general.
Thus
of a large
number
is
far
it
to
become
We
may be excused
if
are disappointed in the result from a practical
point
of
newspaper that
one day
of pictures (more or less a-propos)
the popular thing to do.
we
is
would seem that the production
if
view txxq.
words
;
for as
the
functions
prima, facie to record
fail
to
communicate the
pictorial expression should
come
of a
daily
facts, it follows
right meaning,
to the aid of the
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION.
24
no matter how crude or
verbal,
inartistic the result
might appear.
me
Let
The
I.
importance of this system
we have only what
forty years)
to
mind.
to
Dr.
Russell's
to
have
two
line of a hillside, it.
It
nalists
and
is
from the Crimea
in
the
possible,
here and there, with the
and the position of troops ujaon
feasible
by telegraph
back nearly
would have been added
pictorially giving {e.g.) the out-
icas possible
much more
conveying
had been considered
if it
inserted,
type, a line or
in
to consider (going
interest letters
Times newspaper, then,
To
transmission of form by telegraph.
realise the
news,
many
give one or two examples, out of
which come
to
do
this
The
now.
in
1855, but
it
is
transmission of form
of the utmost importance to jour-
scientific
men, and, as our electricians
have not yet determined the best methods,
it
may
be interesting to point out the simplest and most rudimentary means
known
in the
at hand.
army and
is
The method
used
is
well
for field purposes,
but hitherto newspapers have been strangely slow to avail
themselves
of
it.
The diagram on
opposite page will explain a system which of
much development
of photography
is
with and without
the
capable the aid
ELEMENTARY ILLUSTRATION.
reader will imagine this series of squares
If the
to represent a portable piece of
which might be
set
up
open
window
at a
between the spectator and
field,
25
trellis-work,
or in the
any
open of
object
— each
square representing a
number corresponding with
a cock; in universal use
interest at a distance
—
it
will
be obvious, that by noticing the squares
which the outline of a
hill
would cover, and
telc-
p-aphing the nJimbcis of the squares, something the way of form and outline
may be
in
quickly com-
municated from the other side of the world.
CODE FOR TRANSMITTING FORM BY TELEGRAPH.
This
when
is
for
rapidity
importance
;
rough-and-ready use of
but
in
communication
in
time of war,
is
of
the
first
time of peace a correspondent's
letter continually requires elucidation.
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION.
26
Next words,
A
is
an example, which,
will call
I
newspaper correspondent
of the
Italian lakes,
scene on a calm
want of better
for
''the shorthand of pictorial art."
a boat on
in
is
and wishes
summer
This
day.
one
describe the
to
is
how he
proceeds "
We
are shut in
by mountains," he
says, " but
the blue lake seems as wide as the sea.
On
promontory on the
grow down
to the water's
left
hand the
trees
a rocky
edge and the banks are precipitous,
indicating the great depth of this part of the lake.
The water is
one
drooping
there
is
is
vessel, sails,
as
smooth as glass
a
heavily-laden
floating slowly
no need to repeat
it
down
all
on
;
its
surface
market boat with
;
"
(and so on)
but
when
half a
column of word-painting had been written (and well-written) the correspondent failed to present the
picture clearly to the eye without these fotir expla-
ELEMENTAR Y
ILL USTRA TION.
natory lines (no more) which should of course have
been sent with his
This
method
letter.
of
aptitude and training
many little is
requires
description
certain
but not much, not more than
;
a journalist could acquire for himself with a
The
practice.
reported
spondent,
who
director of the
Daily Graphic
" the
have said that
to
ideal
can sketch as well as write,
born."
He
artistic
functions
of a
daily
;
manner.
There
solely,
and care
are,
and
will
in
I
mean,
the most
many
be,
information, simply
how, or
little
of the
by "we"
of course, "the public," expecting news
moments when we want
not yet
newspaper than we
should be disposed to grant him
graphic
is
takes perhaps a higher view
corre-
in
and
what shape,
it
comes.
This kind of information, given pretension to be
artistic,
true sense of the word,
applied
is
great.
but
it is
and
When
its
has no
pictorially,
" illustration
value
" in
when
the
rightly
the ;ilterations at
Hyde
Park Corner (one of the most important of the
London improvements in
of our day) were
Parliament, a daily newspaper, as
first if
debated
moved by
some sudden
flash of intelligence, printed a
plan
proposed alterations with descriptive
te.\t
of the ;
ground-
and once or twice only, during Stanley's long
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION.
28
absence
we have
did
Africa,
in
sketches or plans
printed with the letters to elucidate the text, such as
a sketch of the floating islands with their weird
Congo
habitants, at Stanley's Station on the
which appeared
news presented
— instances
of
the reader in a better form than
to
"The
words.
a daily newspaper
in
in-
river,
very thing that was wanted!" was
the general exclamation, as
there were
if
some new
discovery of the powers of description.
As
the war correspondent's occupation does not
appear likely to cease
worth while
to
make
The method spondents on the
of
we
find, if
equipped.
by
we
hear of letters written actually
;
it
arrives
in the saddle,
by the post
take the trouble to measure
of the pen
it,
and on
we may that the
or pencil, has travelled over a
distance of a hundred feet
!
This
is
the actual as-
certained measurement, taking into account
ups and downs, crosses and dashes, as abroad.
corre-
of battle seems unnecessarily
on a drum-head, or
fire,
would seem
it
fully
is
employed
writing
opening the packet as
point
our time,
field
clumsy and prolix under
in
sure that he
No wonder
the typewriter
it
is
all
the
arrives from
resorted to
in
journalism wherever possible.
A
newspaper correspondent
the seat of war,
or
is
is
stationed
sent suddenly to in
some remote
ELEMENTARY ILLUSTRATION. country to give the
readers of a newspaper the
What
benefit of his observations.
1894
?
common
he sees strokes
in a
hundred
of the
meaning better
in
to describe
when with two
lines,
what
or three
pen he might have expressed pictorially.
I
his
have used these words
but they apply with redoubled force at the
present time.
command
The for
fact
is,
that with the
means now
reproducing any lines drawn or
written, the correspondent if
he doing
with every minister of state
and public schoolboy, he proceeds
at
is
In the imperfect, clumsy language which he
possesses in
before,
29
is
not thoroughly equipped
he cannot send them as suggested, by telegraph
or by
letter.
newspaper
It is all
reporter
a matter of education, and the of
the
considered complete unless he
future is
will
not
be
able to express
himself to some extent, pictorially as well as verbally.
Then, and not
till
then, will our complicated language
be rescued from many obscurities, by the aid of lines other than verbal.*
In nearly
*
It
every
seems strange
city,
town, or place
there
is
that enterprising newspapers, with capital
command, such as the Nno York Herald, Daily Telegraph, and Pall Mall Gazette, should not have developed so obvious a method of transmitting information. The Pall Mall Gazette has been the most active in this direction, but might do much more. at
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION.
30
some
feature,
architectural
gives character to interest of letters
with a
and
it,
principal objects.
is
art of looking at things,
cultivated and
Two this
is
in
natural,
which to the
they were headed indication
of the
seldom done, because the
and the power of putting a
few
lines,
has not been
not given to many.
things are principally necessary to attain
end
A STUDY
A. Standpoint.
The
ledge of
is
PERSTECTIVE.
(hUME NISDET.)
C. Horizontal
line.
F. Vanishing lines of dist.ince.
D. Vaniihing
line;
G. Line of sight.
education of hand and eye and a knowperspective,
schoolbo)',
pation
m
B. Point of Sight.
E. Point of distance.
I.
if
sketch, or
This
them down simply
or
would add greatly
from abroad
outline
little
it
to
no matter what
likely to be.
be
imparted
to
every
his profession or occu-
ELEMENTA RY 2.
this
The
The lishers
tion
education of the public to read aright
new language (new
hand of
ILL US TRA TION.
most people), the "short-
to
pictorial art."
popular theory amongst editors and is
would not care
that the public
presented
them
to
"would not understand
in
way — that
this
pub-
for informa-
they
and would not buy
it
it."
Sketches of the kind indicated have never been fairly tried in
England
number every
day,
when we
but the)' are increasing in
;
and the time
is
not far distant
back upon the present system
shall look
with considerable amusement and on a book or a
newspaper which
and
consumed
enormous
;
is
not illustrated as an incomplete
The number
production.
daily
of illustrations produced
in
the
but they are too
printing
much
press
is
of one pattern,
and, as a rule, too elaborate. In the illustration of books of
should be a more general plans to elucidate the
te.xt.
all
kinds there
of diagrams
use
No new
and
building of
importance should be described anywhere without
an indication of the elevation,
ground plan
;
if
not also of the
and, as a rule, no picture should be
described without a sketch to indicate the composition.
In history words so often
correct locale that
it
fail
to
give the
seems wonderful we have no
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION.
32
method
better
rough plan of
making a
common
in
will
illustrate
The
use.
following
one of the simplest ways
Take
description clear to the reader.
the verbal one
first
"The young
:
Bretonne stood under the doorway
of the house, sheltered from the rain which
From she commanded
came
with the soft west wind.
her point of vantage
on the
a view of the whole
'
village, it
was
Place
'
and could see down the four
streets of
which
principally composed."
In this instance a writer was at
some pains
to
describe (and failed to describe in three pages) the
near where the
exact position of the streets
stood
;
and
it
was a
situation in
girl
which photography
could hardly help him. It
may seem
strange
at
the pages of a book on
elementary oudines, but that plans
first
art it
and diagrams are
reason,
as already
diagrams and
must be remembered at the basis of a
of illustration which will one day
The
sight to occupy
with
pointed
system
become
general.
for
drawing
out,
ELEMENTARY ILLUSTKATIOA. attention to the subject now,
is
that
that systems have been perfected lines
on the printed page almost
Thus
setting up the type.
new
a
33
only lately
it is
reproducing
for
rapidly
as
as
era, so to speak, in
the art of expressing ourselves pictorially as well as verbally has
are to hand in less
commenced ;
:
the
means of reproduction
the blocks can be made,
if
necessary,
than three hours, and copies can be printed
on revolving cylinders
The advance
at the rate of 10,000
in scientific
an hour.
discovery by means of
subtle instruments brings the surgeon sometimes to
the knowledge of facts which, in the interests of science,
he requires
objects which
it
drawing and
graphically,
would often be impossible to have
With
photogra[)hed.
demonstrate
to
a rudimentary knowledge of the
perspective,
surgeon
and
astronomer would both be better ec^uipped. University of Pennsylvania,
in
Philadelphia,
the
At the where
the majority of students are intended for the medical profession, this subject
is
considered of high im-
portance, and the student in
express himself
in
America
is
learning to
a language that can be under-
stood.
In architecture
it
is
often necessary, in order to
understand the description of a building, to indicate in
a few lines not only the general plan and elevation,
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION. but also
its
street.
Few
a
position in perspective in a landscape or architects can
moment's notice
And
room.
yet
in it
do
this
if
upon
called
at
Parliamentary committee
a
necessary
a
is
part of
the
language of an architect.*
These remarks apply with great
force to
books of
travel,
where an author should be able
to take part
in the
drawing of
least to
his illustrations, at
the
extent of being able to explain his meaning and
ensure topographical accuracy.
A
curious experiment was
-students
an
in
Art school,
of the accepted system buildings,
and the
made to
lately with
prove the
of describing landscapes,
A
like in words.
from one of the VVaverley novels
page or two
(a description of a
castle
and the heights of mountainous
river
winding
in
clusters of houses
read
slowly
and
students, three of
some fallacy
land, with a
the valley towards the sea, and
and trees on the right hand) was repeated
belore
whom, standing
a
number of
apart from each
other by pre-arrangement, proceeded to indicate on
blackboards before an audience the leading lines of the i)icture as the words had presented
minds.
It is
* It has been well said that in words,
it is
it
to their
needless to say that the results, highly if
a building can be described
not worth describing at
all
ELEMENTAR Y skilful in
one
and that
in particular the
were
case,
ILL USTRA TION. different,
all
and all
tunvijr,
horizon line of the sea (so
easy to indicate with any clue, and so important to the composition) was hopelessly out of place.
Thus
we
describe day by day, and the pictures formed in
the
mind
reader
are erroneous, for the imagination of the at
is
work
The
guidance.
once, and
at
exhibition was,
recjuires
simple
need hardly
I
say,
highly stimulating and suggestive.
Many arguments might
be used
tion of pictorial for verbal
for the substitu-
methods of
e.xpression,
Two
which apply to books as well as periodicals.
may I.
be mentioned of a purely topical kind. In June,
1893,
parties ran high in
when
the
strife
rapprochement between their leaders possible, in
of political
England, and anything
like
Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Balfour were seen
apparently
Speaker's
friendly
chair
the
in
newspaper reporter
conversation
House
in t)ne
of
behind
Commons.
words, that
"Mr. G. was seen
but makes, or has caricature)
of
made
the
two
A
many
talking to Mr.
1).,"
for him, a sketch (without
figures
and writes under
the Speaker s chair."
the
of the galleries, observing
the interesting situation, does not say in so
together,
a
seemed im-
Here
it,
it
standing " .linenilies
will
talking
behind
be seen that the
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION.
36
subject
approached
is
more
with
and
delicacy,
the position indicated with greater force through the pictorial method.
The second modern
2.
instance of the i^ower
method
the eloquence, so to speak, of the pictorial
—appeared of the
^
1893.
words
bear, with the
round
the
of
visit
October,
the pages of
in
Punch on
Russian
the occasion to
sailors
Paris
dancing
rollicking,
in
Russian
" Vive la Repiibliquc"
wound
his head, hit the situation as
no words could
have done, especially when exposed
for sale in the
kiosques
of
required
no
the
The
boulevards.
Paris
translation
the
into
picture
languages
of
Europe.
may be
It
said that there
that the political cartoon
Rome,
that
all
everywhere in
history teems with
it,
that
it
on English
to us
nothing new here
Hourished
existed always,
down
is
is
soil
— that
that
it
has
it
Athens
and
comes
through Gillray, Row-
landson,
Hogarth, Blake, and many distinguished
names.
I
the town sheets.
draw is
attention
The tendency
read less and
less,
records of events. this
to
these things because
laden with newspapers and illustrated
and
to
of the time seems to be to
depend more upon
pictorial
There arc underlying reasons
on which we must not dwell
;
for
the point of im-
ELEMENTARY portance to illustrators
demand
insatiable
is
IIJ.USTRATIOX. the fact that there
which
"jjictures"
for
37
something- quickly and accurately,
an us
language
a
in
is
tell
which every nation can understand. ,c
{C Anotlier example
the
of
pression to aid the verbat
Mountains
finds
use of
A
ex-
pictorial
traveller in the
Harz
himself on the Zeigenkop,
near
'
Blankenberg, on a clear summer's day, and thus describes
"We
it
are
in
words
now on
:
the heights above Blankenberg, a promontory
1,360 feet abos'e the plains, with an almost uninterrupted view of distant country looking northward
and eastward.
The
plateau of
mountains on which we have been travelling here ends abruptly. It is
the end of the upper world, but the plains seem illimitable.
There to
nothing between us and our homes in Berlin— nothing
is
impede the view which
The
words.
spires,
"
almost impossible to describe in
is
Germany seems
of Northern
coming
it
setting sun has pierced the veil of mist,
into view
one by one.
First,
then Magdeburg, then another
We
and a map
unrolled before us, distant cities
we
see Halberstadt with
city,
its
and another.
have been so occupied with the distant prospect, and
with the objects of interest which give character to
that
it,
we
had almost overlooked the charming composition and suggestive There
lines of this
wonderful view.
heights, the
town of Blankenberg
at
is
an ancient__caslle on the
our
perpendicular rocks in the middle distance
of the valleys,
flat
away across the church
spire
towards the trees, &c.,
;
its
The cluster
chateau, with
its
a strange wall ot
there are the curves
pastures, undulating woods, plains.
with
itc."
feet,
and roads winding
central point of interest
of
houses spreading
massive
terraces
is
the
upwards
fringed
with
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION.
38
This was a veil
is
all
lifted
very well
in
word-painting, but what
from the reader's eyes by some such
sketch as the one below.
NKENCERG, HARZ MOUN:
It
should be mentioned that three photographic
prints joined together picture,
owing
would hardly have given the
to the vast extent of this inland view,
and the varying atmospheric
The
last instance
I
effects.
can give here
is
an engraving
from CassclTs Popnlar Edticator, where a picture is
used to demonstrate the curvature of the world's
surface; thus imprinting, for once,
and
for always,
on
ELEMEiXTA RY J LLC 'S TRA TION. the
young
reader's
mind a
fact
39
which words
fail
to
describe adequately.
THE CL'KVATURE OF THE WORLDS
This
is
"The
sense of the word.
:
Art of Illustration"
in
the
true
CHArXER
III.
ARTISTIC ILLUSTRATIONS.
N
referring tions,
now
more
to
we should
notice
artistic illustra-
first,
some of the
changes which have taken place (since the
meeting referred
to
in
twenty years, consider the work of the the photographer, and the as
presented
speaking
the
last
bridging over a distance of nearly
chapter), and,
maker
books and newspapers
in
of
principally
illustrator,
of process blocks,
1894;
in
on
illustrations,
toj^ical
which so many thousand people are now engaged.
may seem
It
"
newspapers
the fact
new
strange
" in
that the
is
at
sight
first
to include
a chapter on art illustrations, but
weekly newspapers, with
their
appliances for printing, and in consequence of
the cheapness of good paper,
with
books and magazines
illustrations
found
in
are
now competing
the production
in
which a few years ago were only
books.
The
illustrated
newspaper
to is
of
be
one
of the great employers of labour in this field and distributor of the white,
and
in
this
work of the
artist
in
black and
connection must by no means be
L1\E DRAWING. ignored.
The
41
Post-office carries a
volume of 164
pages (each 22 by 16 inches), weighing from two to three
pounds, for a half-penny.
"weekly newspaper," but 100
illustrations,
It
called a
is
sometimes,
contains,
it
and competes seriously with the
production of illustrated books.
Further on we shall see
one number
how
the illustrations of
of a weekly newspaper are produced
what part the
original artist has in
with which
The
all
it,
what part the
These are things
engraver and the photographer.
students should be acquainted.
stage of illustration, where
first
little
than a plan or elevation of a building (as
suggested
author, with
in
we approach
more
aimed
at
the last chapter), and where an
little artistic
to explain himself,
is
is
knowledge,
yet enabled
is
comparatively easy
the hazardous
it
;
domain of
is
when
art that the
real difficulties begin.
As
matters stand at present,
it is
younger school of draughtsmen "
all
abroad
lacking,
"
not
in the
it
is
in this
much
and the
country are
matter of drawing for the press,
industry,
That they do good work but
scarcely too
the majority of art students
to say that
not in
capacity,
abundance
not e.\actly the kind of
but is
method.
not denied,
work required
—
short, they are not taught at the outset the value
in
of
(
42
)
No. IV. " Tiresome
Dog," by E. K. Johnson.
This example of reproduced
by the
work
pen-and-ink gelatine
rehef
has
process.
been
The
drawing, which has been greatly reduced in reproduction, was
made by Mr. Johnson
for
an Illustrated
Catalogue of the Royal Water-Colour Society, of
which he It
is
limitations
The
a member.
is
instructive as
of
relief
gradation of tone
or dotted lines.
" rouletting parts
;
"
showing the process-work is
all
possibilities
in
and
good hands.
obtained in pure black,
Mr. Dawson has aided the
effect
by
on the block on the more delicate
but most of the examples in this book are
untouched by the engraver. {Sec Appendix.)
.^ -:.s>^-v ^^iW""-x-:^ ^l£^^a^..
No. IV.
i^Ro)al Ac(uh'»iy, 1891.)
LINE DRAWING. a
That greater
line.
45
and certainty of drawing
skill
can be attained by our younger draughtsmen unquestionable, and, bearing every book
and
illustrated, the is
much
in
mind
that
is
nearly
tJie
future will be
importance of study
in this direction
nciuspapei-
greater than
in
may appear
at first sight.
Referring to the evident want of training amongst
our younger draughtsmen, the question was put very bluntly in the
Why
is
Athcmcuni some years ago, thus
not drawing in line with pen and ink taught in our
own Government
schools of art
The
?
present system in schools
to render the art of drawing of as
seems
:
as possible, for he has
little
use to the student
no sooner mastered the preliminary stage
of drawing in outline from the
flat
with a lead pencil, than he has
chalk put into his hand, a material which he
will
seldom or never
use in turning his knowledge of drawing to practical account.
The
readier
method of pen and ink would be of
great service as
a preparatory stage to wood drawing, but unfortunately drawing is
taught in most cases as though the student intended only to
become
a painter.
Since these lines were written, efforts have been
made for
in
some schools
illustrators,
and
of art to give special training instruction
is
also
given
in
wood engraving, which every draughtsman should learn
;
but up to the present time there has been
no systematic teaching the
various
processes,
in
for
drawing applicable the
reason
that
majority of art masters do not understand them.
to
the
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION.
46
The
art of
expression
effect of a picture or a
in line,
or of expressing the
landscape from Nature
few leading lines (not necessarily outline) understood
in
the Atlicnccuvi
this
country
pointed
;
out,
and is
if
is
in a little
such study, as
important for the
a^^rlWwood draughtsman, how much more for
few
so in drawing
reproduction by photo-mechanical artists
in line,
have the
gift
means
?
A
of expressing themselves
but the majority are strangely ignorant of
LINE DRAWING.
47
the principles of this art and of the simple fac-simile
processes by which drawing can
now be
reproduced.
In the course of twenty years of editing the Notes,
some strange
facts
have come
Academy
to the writer's
\
"^
Av
"a
IJGHT of laughing flowers along the grass
is
SI'READ.*' (m.
notice as to the powerlessness of
express the motif of a picture as to
bours
how
far
we
in
some
RIDLEY CORItET.)
painters to
a few lines
;
also
are behind our continental neigh-
in this respect.
(
48
)
No. V.
H.
An
example of
S.
line
Marks. drawing and
" the
of
art
leaving out," by the well-known Royal Academician.
Mr. Marks and Sir John Gilbert were the
first
(see frontispiece)
painters to explain the composition
and
leading lines of their pictures in the Acadetny Notes in 1876.
Mr. Marks suggests
light
and shade and the
character of his picture in a few skilful lines.
John
Gilbert's pen-and-ink
force
and
well
individuality.
drawing
is
also
full
Sir
of
These drawings reproduce
by any of the processes.
Nu. V.
SELECT COMMITTEE."
{kkOM THE PAINTING BY
{Royal Acadevty^
1891.)
H. S.
MARKS,
K.A.)
LINE DRAWING. interesting to note here the firmness of
It is
and clearness process block
of
the result being
;
many drawings by
than
The
reason
is
and Miss
;
Press.
wash,
satisfactory illustrators.
;
the painter
knows
his
black and
in
it
and, in the case of Mr. Corbet
they have
IVIontalba,
acquainted with the best
and-ink
more
to give the effect of
white, in a few lines
hne
common
the
professional
not far to seek
and how
picture
by
reproduction
way
made themselves
of drawing for the
There are many other methods than penwhich draughtsmen use,— pencil, chalk,
grained
paper,
drawing, because
//
but
&c.,
is
as
first
only means
t/ic
certain results can be obtained,
aiul
which, for practical reasons, should be
it
is
first
to
line
by ichick
one
the
mastered.
Line drawings are now reproduced on zinc blocks fitted for
the type press at a cost of less than six-
pence the square inch for large blocks
;
the pro-
cesses of reproduction will be explained further on. It
cannot be sufficiently borne
speaking now to students with
the
black
lines
subject
which there
the is
— that
quality
who to
and
in
are
mind— I am not
produce effect
some gradation of
intimate
with (jf
tone,
is
pure
lines
in
no easy
matter, especially to those accustomed to the
wood
engraver as the interpreter of their work.
John
Sir
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION. Tenniel, to
M. du Maurier, and Mr. Sambourne, not
mention others on the Punch
accustomed probably
'™
to
still
draw
for
prefer this
staff,
have been
wood engraving, and would method
to
any
other.
'*!?i"'Va.t
HE ROSE QUEEN."
{From
But the young methods, and
how
photo-engraving.
^*
Academy
(C.
D. LESLIE, R.A.)
Notes,'* 1S93.)
illustrator
has to learn the newer
to get his effects
What may
through direct
be done by process
LINE DRAWING. is
demonstrated
are appearing every day zines,
in the illustrations
which
our newspapers, maga-
in
— especially
and books
printed and on
drawings interspersed
in the line
through these pages, also
53
those which are well
good paper.
Mr. George Leslie's
pretty line drawing from his picture, on the opposite
page,
of suggestion for illustrative purposes.
is full
But
us glance
let
first
and see how
teaching,
tor of to-day.
The
at the ordinary
far
down
rules laid
hand-book
useful to the illustra-
it is
methods
as to the
of line work, the direction of lines for the expression
of certain
mannerism difficulty
closel}',
the
in
On
sincere,
properties of everj' line .
and twt
the imitation
• to
drawn
an
if
witli
this
.
.
artist's
pen and ink
strong point
work
of another man's
who wishes
pen-and-ink drawing, the
select
with
is
is
simple
sty/e." *
the question arises as to what e.xamples a
beginner should copy of
will
:
sure to be attained unconsciously,
When
which he
artist,
these points, Mr. Robertson,
should be original and personal
and
if
painter and etcher, writing seven
years ago, says well
The mental
&c., are,
apt to lead to hardness and
young
shake off
the well-known
"
" cross-hatching,"
te.xtures,
followed too
to practise the art
dilliculty
will
be
to
from the great and varied stores of material
No
one
artist
can teach drawing
mannerism, especially
in line
in art classes.
without a tendency
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION.
54
that are
everywhere
to his hand.
All
and
steel
copper-plate engravings that have been executed line,
and
all
wood engravings,
range of pen-and-ink drawing. that
much time should
tative
in
are within the possible hold,
I
however,
not be occupied in the imita-
copying of prints
:
only, indeed, so
much
as
enables the student to learn with what arrangement of lines the different textures and qualities of objects
may be
best rendered.
There effect
roughly,
are,
with a pen
the other by the intention
many
lines,
to see
is
two methods of obtaining
— one by few what
and
lines, laid slowly,
drawn with
rapidity.
may be
effect
If
obtained
with comparatively few lines deliberately drawn,
may
refer to the
woodcuts
after
we
Albert Dtirer and
Holbein, and the line engraving of Marc Antonio.
The engraved
plates
by Dtirer
furnish
examples of work, with more and his
woodcuts [but many of the
by
his hand].
"
Some
are examples of what
pen and
ink,
but
in
excellent
finer lines
latter
than
were not done
of the etchings of
Rembrandt
may be fairly reproduced them we find the effect
depend upon innumerable
lines in all directions.
in
to
In
the matter of landscape the etched plates by Claude
and Ruysdael are good examples animal
life
for study,
and
in
the work of Paul Potter and Dujardin."
IJXE DRAWING. Thus,
for style, for
ment of
mastery of
we must go back
line,
work produced generally
to
and manage-
effect
to the old masters
a reposeful
in
which the younger generation are strangers. the
mere copying of other men's
lines
But
of
is
;
to
life,
little
avail without mastering the principles of the art of line
The
drawing.
skilful copies, the fac-similes
engravings and etchings drawn
which are the admiration
of
or no
friends, are of little
aptitude of the student.
young
the
value
The
pen and
in
artist's
deciding the
in
following words are
worth placing on the walls of every art school Proficiency far
in
copying engravings
of
and
niecJianical pursuits,
by anyone with much
There
arts of design." in this
in
missal
thought
not
likcl\- to
instinctive is
much
the
be acquired
feeling truth
in
tendency to
for
the
and insight
now understood, we
a measure,
o(
the
of line alone the
to the point
and the
writer
duced many of
which
is
a
remark.
In line work, as
back,
vtarks
plainly
art,
:
fic-simile,
in
from suggesting promise of distinction
profession
of
ink,
illuminator,
possibilities
his decorative
(I
refer to the
effect
was
are going
of view of the
who,
no
with
of reproduction,
pro-
pages by management parts of his
produced
by
work
black
in
and
LINE DRAWING.
No amount
white).
labour
was
would
he
to
come
spared
of for
have said
this
told
possibility
being reproduced
of several
one that
if
and
What centuries
in
of the
in its
artist's
own
100,000 times, at the rate
And what would
thousand an hour.
he have thought
thought,
copy.
work would be revived
line
integrity, with the lines
patience, this
if
57
told that, out of thousands of
students in centuries to come, a few, a very few
could produce a decorative page
only,
few could be brought
was
to
to realise that a
be repeated, say a thousand times,
worthy of as much attention as to a single
On
and that
;
work which
copy
his ancestors
was gave
!
the principle that "everything worth doing
worth doing
the processes in
is
and on the assumption that
well,"
common
use
—
purposely omit
[I
mention here of the older systems of drawing on transfer paper,
and drawing on waxed
plates,
without
the aid of photography, which have been dealt with in
previous books]
artistic
them,
— are
worth
all
the
care
and
knowledge which can be bestowed ujjon
we would
press,
upon young
artists especially,
the importance of study and experiment direction.
work of the
As
there
artist "
is
no
in
question that " the
this
hand-
can be seen more clearly through
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION.
S8
mechanical engraving than through wood engraving,
behoves him to do his
it
And
best.
substituting process blocks for
as
we
are
wood engraving
in
every direction, so we should take over some of the
and care which were formerly given
patience
book
to
illustrations.
We
cannot
the
live, easily, in
of the past," but
"cloistered silence
we can emulate
the deliberate and
thoughtful work of Mantegna, of Holbein, of Albert Diirer,
and the great men of the
past,
who,
if
they
were alive to-day, would undoubtedly have preferred drawing
for process to the
engraving
by
;
and,
others, they
if
his
To do
own
is
this successfully
in
and careless) drawings
But we must not
to the processes
a limited extent
style, to
own
sla\'ishly
which were
We
by
and most deliberate (instead of
old work, but preserving his
masters,
does
these days, the artist
his hurried
old
it
better preserved,
his best
production.
be reproduced
lines.
must give
founding his
to
us to realise, that the
insight in
individuality of the artist
making
labour of etching and
work were
would have perceived, what
much
not require
their
may
it
may
be,
;
on
individuality.
copy sketches by the
never
intended for re-
learn from the study of
them
the power of line to express character, action, and
LINE DRAWING. effect,
we may
learn composition som.ctimes, but not
often from a sketch.
As
to
copying the work of hving
artists,
it
shouUl
be remembered that the manner and the method of a line drawing
is
X
repetition of
it
each
,,
n
artist's
Mnn^
by others
(
is
property,
cimm
s
and the
)
injurious to him.
would be an easy nK!thod indeed
if
the
young
It
artist,
fresh from the schools, could, in a few weeks, imitate
the mannerism, say of Sir John Gilbert, whose style is
no
founded upon the labour of 50 years. sucli royal road.
There
is
6o
(
)
No. VI.
"A
An
Ploughbfly" by
excellent
original
drawing was i\ x 5I
Mr. Clausen's sizes in
George Clausen.
example of sketching
artistic
in.
I
sketch of his picture in two
order to compare results.
on page 59
The
in line.
have reproduced
(printed
in
The
small block
Grosvenor Notes,
1888)
appears to be the most suitable reduction for drawing.
The
results
worth
are
anyone studying process work.
made by
the gelatine process
the ordinary zinc process.
;
The
comparing first
this
by
block was
the one opposite by
{See Appendix?)
No. VI.
Liu
LINE DRAWING.
To the
return
to
illustrator
mere
than
The
illustration.
The tendency
art training-.
of magazines and newspapers
who can
education
of
means much more
days
these
in
63
of editors
employ those
to
is
This may not be
write as well as draw.
a very hopeful sign from an art point of view, but it
we have
a condition of things which
is
Much
as
we may
good raconteur
in
always be
;
rare
good
desire to see a
to face.
artist
and a
one man, the combination those
who seek
editors
will
for
it
are often tempted to accept inferior art for the sake of the story.
I
mention
this as
one of the intluences
affecting the quality of illustrations of an
ephemeral
or topical kind, which should not be overlooked.
and standing
In sketches of society the education
of
the
much
has
artist
M. du Maurier's work an example of what art with
learned It
in
in I
knowledge of
and imitators lack
to
there
Punch may be taken
as
His clever followers
society.
something
which
cannot
be
drawing
for
an art school.
should
is
his success.
mean, combining excellent
be
understood
reproduction by any of the (either in
do with
wash or
more
in line,
strain
that,
in
mechanical processes
but especially the
on the
artist
work was engraved on wood, and
than
the
latter),
when
his
knowledge of
(
64
)
No. VII. ^''
This
Blcnvmg Bubbles," by C. E. Wilson.
is
an excellent example of drawing
treatment of textures and surfaces production.
—
The few pen touches on
have come out with great
fidelity,
— and
of
for process re-
the drapery
the double lines
marking the paving stones being the only part giving
maker of the
any trouble
to the
The
management of the
skilful
again " the art of leaving out."
gelatine relief block. parts in light
shows
c?X^
No. VII.
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATIOA.
66
drawing
this has left
for process principally in
They
hands of the younger men.
the
be older by
will
the end of the century, but not as old then as
some
who keep
of our best and experienced illustrators
to
wood engraving. I
am
touching
now upon
meaning
niv
clear.
and is
on the
staff not
the. style
due
The
to
make
illustrations in Piiiic/ihave,
been engraved on wood (the elder
until lately, all
artists
a difficult and delicate
and must endeavour
part of the subject,
taking kindly to the processes),
and manner of
measure
in great
line
we
see
in its
to the influence ot the
pages
wood
engraver.*
This as
work,
refers to fac-simile
we know,
also interprets
wash
Init
the engraver,
into
clean lines,
helps out the tiniid and often unsteady draughtsman,
and
in little
matters puts his drawing right.
The wood and
after long
mechanical
engraver was apprenticed to his
art,
and laborious teaching, mastered the he had the
artistic
sense
he soon developed into a master-engraver and
illus-
trator,
*
difficulties.
If
and from crude and often weak and
One
inartistic
of the most accomplished of English painters told
the other day that
when he
first
drew
for illustration, the
me
wood
engraver dictated the angle and style of cross-hatching, &c., so as to
fit
the engraver's tools.
LINE DRAWING. drawinq^s produced illustrations
From very
and beauty.
67
of tone, quality,
full
slight material
handed
to
him by the publisher, the wood engraver would evolve (from his inner consciousness, so to speak)
an
and
elaborate
graceful
employ,
who had
how
produce the
to
often involved
art,
by the
was
The system
and,
like,
am
if
speaking of the average
when
an uncommon thing to spend
or
wood engraving
alwa\s
ilnd a
— nobody
ever
will
Nobody knows "
For good or
evil,"
now only
thinking
—
it
of the
^600 on
the
home will
in Englantl.
know
— how
may be
said
;
but
I
good, of occasions
the engraver has had to interpret the artist's
meaning, and sometimes,
come
illus-
was not
the engraver has done for the artist in years
past.
when
^500
it
Let us hope that the highest kind of
engravings.
am
not very
and appreciated
trated book, say of twenty years ago,
much
own
his
care and research for details of
at least well paid for, I
in
and knew exactly
effects required.
much
public.
illustrations,
artists
special training,
costume, architecture, and the
high
of
series
drawn on the wood block by
to the rescue
The
artist
and
who draws
and mechanical means sources.
He
it
must be confessed,
[)erfect
to
imperiect work.
for reproduction
by chemical
thrown upon
his own reMake these
is
cannot say to the acid, "
68
(
)
No. VIII. Illustration
to
"
Dream/and
(London
Gloucester.
:
in History,"
Isbister
&
C^o.)
by Dr.
Drawn by
Herbert Railton. Example of
brilliancy
and
simplicity of treatment
in line
drawing
in this
book which shows better the scope and
of his
common
process work.
process,
drawing
and brought
There
is
is
no
illustration
variety
Mr. Railton has studied to
and sense of the
architecture illustration
for process.
it
a
knowledge
jiicturesque.
of
This
reduced considerably from the original
No. VI II.
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION.
^o
lines a little sharper," or to the sun's rays, " little
more
light
"
;
and so
Give a
—as we cannot often have
good wood engraving,
as
it
enough or rapid enough
for
our needs
is
not always
cheap
— we draw on
r
;',-^
ICEQUENTED WA-\S."
])apcr
{\V.
H. GORE.)
what we want reproduced, and
resort to
one
of the photographic processes described in this book. I
do not think the modern
niucli
depends upon him
speak, of the
in
illustrator realises
how
taking the place, so to
wood engraver.
The
interpretation
LINE DRAWING. of
tone
into
line
for
fitted
type
the
which the wood engraver gave a
to
We
devolve more and more upon him.
keep the (as
this too
mind, for
continually in
limitations
in
cannot spite of
mechanically-produced
in
compared with wood engraving)
delicate effects of tone in line, in
press,
hfetinie, will
which the engraver has no
in
blocks
obtaining
much can be done
part.
^.
LOWING HERD
I
purposely place these two pen-and-ink drawings
by Mr. Gore side by of line and tone
side, to
may be
by proper treatment.
.show what delicacy
obtained on a
One
relief
block
could hardly point
better examples of pure line.
on ordinary cardboard (the one above, 4;[X9j and reproduced by All this,
it
will
the;
to
They were drawn in.)
gelatine relief process.
be observed, points
to a
more
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATIOX.
73
and
delicate
than very
intelligent
different
scribbles
" the
error in
iNIr.
Grap/iic
his
we use
solid
black
A
darkness. that this
to
little
to
lay
where
Aiis, in
advocates
pen drawing," arguing
we may use masses
so
many
represent
reflection will
in his
tkit
he
in
curious
white paper to express air_
light,
no argument at
is
how
to
and
proper style
Hamerton makes a
liberally
Mr. Ruskin's advice as
the
short
in
outlines
values" are scarcely ever considered
and various degrees of of
sketchy
artist."
the use of the " black blot that as
to something,
thin
which are considered
connection.
this
the
to
"pen-and-ink
for the
But
use of the process block
generally allowed,
is
gradations
of
convince anyone
all.
Elements of Drawing,
tints
black lines (although written
by means of pure
many
years ago, and
before mechanical processes of reproduction were in
vogue)
is
singularly applicable and useful to the
student of to-day;
him black
To
lines,
"
especially
where he reminds
"if you cannot gradate well with
that,
you
will
pure
never do so with pale ones."
gradate well with pure black lines
'
is,
so to
speak, the whole art and mystery of drawing for the
photo-zinc process, of which one turns out
London
firm alone
more than a thousand blocks a week.
Lh\r.
As bear
to the in
rule
amount of reduction
reproduction,
known, that about
in spite
is
it
of rules laid
ADVERSITY."
a drawini; will
down, there
is
no
interesting
to
(FRED. HALL.)
compare
with the larger one overleaf.
pursued on
reproduction
this
There
the e.xperiments which ma\- be if
th;it
cannot be sutliciently widely
it.
'
It
DRAWIXG.
made
scientific principles.
is
no
in
limit to
reduction,
{
74
)
No. IX. '^Adversity,"
This
fine
Hall, from his picture in
Size
of
by I'red. Hall.
drawing was made
original
14,'.
llie
xii^
in [len
and ink by Mr.
Royal Academy, 18S9. in.
Reproduced
by
gelatine blocks.
The feeling in line is conspicuous in both many painters might prefer the smaller.
but
blocks,
No. IX.
(from the I'AINTINC BY MAUD NAFTEL. (.Vew Gallcrv, 1SS9.)
USE Mr. Boutall,
Emery Walker, who has had
production
ol
is
of the firm of
and designs from
will tell
in
old
you that very often
no reduction of the original
show reproductions
Walker and
great experience in the re-
illustrations
books and manuscripts, there
DRAWING.
and he
;
will
photo-relief of (Migravings
and drawings of the same
size as the originals, the
character of the paper, and the colour of the printing also,
so
closely
imitatetl
that experts can
On
distinguish one from the other.
hardlv
the other hand,
the value ot reduction, for certain styles of drawing especially, can hardly
drawing was reduced the original, and yet attained by
Again,
I
is,
thc^
say,
"
I
The
be over-estimated.
last
to less than half the length of think,
Dawson there
is
one of the best
results
relief process.
no rule about
it."
In
the course of years, and in the reduction to various scales of thousands of drawings to print at
every
the type press,
draiving has
its
by
my
scale,
different artists,
experience
to
zv/nch
it
is
th;it
is
best
reduced. In these pages will be found cxanniles of drawings
reduced
to
one-sixtieth
the
area
of the original,
whilst others have not been reduced at
There painters,
is
much
all.
instruction in these drawings by
instruction of a kind, not to be obtained
7S
)
No. X. " Tioiiis,"
Sketch
in
by Stanley Berkley.
pen and
ink. (size
S];
x
5!- in.)
from Mr.
Berkley's picture in the Grosvenor Gallery in 1S84.
A line,
good example of breadth and expression the values being well indicated.
knowing animal
life well,
and knowing
his picture,
able to give expression to almost every touch. the
common
zinc process answers well.
in
Mr. Berkley, is
Here
"-'''-Ml
:'^ Im.'^.^i
' f'
.
J[''^ (.
^•-^
'-^
;/'';'
y^
No. X.
ISLAND."
(kROM the FAINTIKC
{Royal
Ac(uiej/:y, 1S85.)
LINE DRAWING.
The
elsewhere. " sketch "
sketchy
broad
manner cannot be too
such drawings as those by Fred. Hall
Gotch
between
distinction
from Nature and a drawing
([).
^A
others,
These are
G. Clausen
Berkley
Stanlc)-
and
S3),
(p.
difference.
often pointed out,
I\Ir.
help
to
(p.
and 59),
T. C.
79),
(p.
a
in a
tiiade
ex[)lain
the
reproduced easily on
all
process blocks.*
As
sketching-
to
in
from
line
reproduction on a process block,
The
say a few wortls here.
reacl\-
life,
it
is
s)-stem
for
necessary to is,
know,
1
followed by a lew illustrators for ncwsjaapcrs (and
by a few geniuses Hill,
and
Phil.
like
and who, by incessant ficient.
Mr. Joseph Pennell, Raven
May, who have
They have
practice,
have become pro-
special ability for this kind of
work, and their manner and st)le
and
is
But to attempt
good
is
to teach rapid sketching in
beginning
art
;
it
is
at the
like
wrong
end, and
paper, and
TivV//
all
in this
been draivn on
pen fital
different materials ;
and
book from
dijfcrcnt kinds
yet nearly
have come out successfullv, and give the
original.
is
teaching the principles of
* Special interest attaches to the cx.Tmi)les the fact that they have nearly
seen,
their capital
attraction.
and ink to
own methods),
their
all,
as will
spirit
of
be
of the
(
82
)
No. XI.
A
Portrait,
Pen-and-ink drawing picture in the
by T. C. GoTCH. (size
7-^x6i
Exhibition of the
in.),
from his
New EngHsh
Art
Club, 18S9.
Gotch
Mr.
children
;
but
is
well
known
for
he has also the
his
painting
instinct
for
of line
drawing, and a touch which reproduces well without
any help from the maker of the zinc block.
The absence gested
by
of outline, and the modelling sug-
vertical
lines,
also
background, should be noticed. lights
up when opposed
to white
the
treatment
of
This background
and
vice-versa.
No. XI.
LIXE DRAWING. pyrotechnics
wliilsc
we hear
yet
S5
fireworks are goini;
reproduced by the processes.
l)e
this
is
the
wrong road
artist of the past
Indeed,
Ijeheve
I
the baneful result of hving
;
high-pressure times.
in
any
.And
dIT.
prizes given lor ra[)id sketches to
of
It
cHfhcult to imagine
is
consenting to such a system
of education.
Sketching from student (especially
when making illustrations by wash
drawings, of which
work
line
it
done
be
require
thinking what to leave out,
grey of a pencil, or the the
in
fewest
Thus,
lines.
pencil,
to
of a
or
The
moment.
about,
thinking"
how
tints
in
first
easiest at the
is
reproduction
for
speak presently), but for
shall
I
should
whatever medium lines
of course, neces.sary to the
life is,
interpret
the
brush sketch
and thus
onl)-,
the
student learns "the art of leaving out," "the value of a line."
The tendency somebody
;
where the
artist,
and
of
modern
in line
illustrators
drawing
is
to imitate
for the processes,
and not the engraver, has
the lines, imitation of
some man's method
to is
make
almost
inevitable.
Let
me
(juute
Charles Keene nal
at
the
an instance. is
imitated
present
time,
in
The
style of the late
more than one jour-
the artists
catching
his
(
86
No. XII. " Sir Ji'kn Tcniiicl" by Edwin Ward.
Example of another
Ward
is
a master of
painter.
He
well as a skilful portrait
has lost nothing
of the force
character of the original here, by treating
Mr. Ward has painted a
duced by
is
process.
and
in line.
an example on
pen-and-ink drawing 8^x5,',
common
it
series of small portraits
of public men, of which there Size 01
Mr.
of line drawing.
style
line, as
in.,
p. 90.
repro-
^3.^;^ ti<^^.
'J^^ I'-'iir ill
W^
No. XII.
OF CAj^f2>^
LIXE DRAWIXG.
more
89
method of
line
of his art,
his chiaroscuro, his sense of values
atmospheric
easily than the hicjher qualities
effect.
I
and
say nothing of his pictorial
sense and humour, for they are beyond imitation. It is
we have
the husk only
As
jiresented to us.
a matter of education
younger generation of
and outlook
the
for
imitation of
illustrators, this
other men's lines deserves our special consideration.
Nothing
is
good
art,
And
Nothing
up
hold
more
or
yet
an
is
it
more
is
some
the habit of
of the
(and
the
pen and
in
ink,
instructors
to
tricks)
work of Daniel Vierge,
way viz.
of one I
:
to
read
draw
topical
that e.\ami)les
Rico, Abbey,
Raven
and other noted pen draughtsmen, should be
"set as an exercise to students; explanation by a lecturer
a dangerous road
travel.
to
to
art periodical the other day, a suggestion for
illustrations
is
copy from
prejudicial
to the admiration of students.
the better understanding of the
Hill,
to
fatal to progress.
methods
the
draughtsman in
work than
easier in line
the daily press.
Of all
for
or
the
"
of course with
But
teacher.
this
average student
to
branches of art none leads so quickly
mannerism as
line
when thus acquired
work, and a particular manner
is ilithcult
Think of the consequences
to
shake
oft.
— \'ierge with his garish
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATIOX. lights,
his
trick
of
black
spots,
and tolerated
in a genius for
mechanical
his
shadows and neglect of chiaroscuro
—
all
redeemed
the dash and spirit
HE RT. HON. JOHN MOR
and beauty of
his lines
reproduce with
—
difficulty
by countless students; refined,
lines,
on
be
it
observed, that
relief blocks
Mr.
E.
— imitated
A. Abbey, the
and delicate American draughtsman, imitated
•aNL*/t
LINE DRAWISG. for
liis
method
— the
chic of
— imitators of the imitators of
the imitators of Charles It
work
may be as
must be must
be
Keene
being his
it
Rico
— imitators of ^
!
said generally, that in order to obtain
an
illustrator
— the
originality,
The drawing
point
practical
originality of thought
to
from photo-
line
some
illustrators,
as
newspapers much better
blocks will print in
But
than photographs.
There thought
for the Press.
of portraits in
graphs gives employment
— there
and design.
as well as care and
bestowed on every drawing
line
9'
Think of the crowd coming
own, and inimitable.
on
and
style
HSITY
for
newspaper printing
they must be done with something of the precision of this portrait, in which the whites are cut deep
and where there arc few broken It
is
the
exception
England, under
to
present
lines.
get
good
printing
of haste
conditions
in
and
cheapening of production, and therefore the best drawings for require
the
reproduction
rapid least
touching on
are
the
engraver, as a touched-up process block to
the printer ;
but
it
is
difficult to
those
part is
of
that
the
troublesome
impress this on
the artistic mind.
Some people cannot draw firm clean Few allow
should not attempt them.
lines at
all,
and
sufficiently for
92
)
No. XIII. ''Nofhiiigvatimr, no/hi/ig /laiT," by E-P.Sanguinltti.
Pen-and-ink drawing from the picture by E. Sanguinetti,
exhibited
at
the
V.
Nineteenth Century
Art Society's Gallery, 1888.
The paper,
best
large block
and by
adapted
is
fast
for
suitable for printing
The
machines.
bookwork, and
is
on common
little
block
interesting
showing the quality obtained by reduction. an excellent example of drawing
much
ingenuity of line.
The
for process,
It
made, 15 x 10
in.)
as is
showing
tone and shadows on
the ground equal the best fac-simile engraving.
of original drawing, from
is
(Size
which both blocks were
No. XIU.
(
94
)
<
LINE DRAWING.
95
the result of reduction, and the necessary thickening-
some
of
The
lines.
results are often a matter of
touch and temperament.
work
unfitted for line
;
Some
artists are naturally
the rules which would apply
to
one are almost useless to another.
is
great inequality in the
zinc
blocks,
made
however
for
making of these cheap
well
the
drawings may be
they require more care and experience in
;
developing than
As
line
generally supposed.
is
drawing
the press,
is
the basis of the best drawing
have interspersed
I
pages examples and achievements
examples which of
Again, there
through these
in this direction
;
nearly every case are the result
in
knowledge and consideration of the requirements
of process, as an antidote to the sketchy, careless
methods so much
in
vogue.
Here we may
as has probably never been seen before in one
—what this
see
volume
harmonies and discords may be played on
instrument with one string.
" messing about,"
if
the phrase
—
One string no may be excused
pure black lines on Bristol board (or paper of the
same
surface),
photographed on
to a zinc plate, the
white parts etched away and the drawing stand in a book
;
relief,
made
to
ready to print with the letterpress of
every line and touch coming out a black
one, or rejected altogether by the process.
No. XIV. " I'or
Vie
S(/!iin\"
by Sir John
Mii.i.ais,
B.\RT., R..\.
This
is
an example of drawing
The
rapid printing. e.Kpressed firmly
and
effect of the picture
Millais' picture,
accents
was engraved
for
picture
are
way.
CTeater reduction.
in
in
Agnew
of pen-and-ink drawing, 7] x 5!
much
process
in the fewest lines, to give the
which was exhibited
Gallery in 1883,
for
the
in the simplest
published by Messrs. Thos.
for
of
in.)
Sir
John
the Grosvenor
mezzotint, and
&
Sons. It
is
(Size
suitable
No. XIV,
LINE DRAWING. Drawinos thus made, upon
99
Bristol board or
paper
of similar surface, with lamp black, Indian ink, or
any of the numerous inks now with a
in
dull, not shiny, surface, will
use,
which
dr)'
always reproduce
brush
The pen should be of medium point, or a may be used as a pen. The lines should be
clear
and sharp, and are capable of much variation
well.
and treatment, as we see
in style
purposely do
is
artist
to
in
these pages.
upon some
be
interested
different tones
the
in
I
special
and
processes
with
mechanical
;
the side.
have not recommended the use of ''clay board,"
for instance, is
here
may be produced by the line too much tendency already
there
I
dwell
and papers by which
surfaces effects
not
much
for
tised
the-
line
for giving
draughtsman, although a
crisp
line
to
it
jjrocess
work, and has a useful surface for scraping out &c.
lights,
mechanical
On
The
to the
1
it
will
always
be observed, are well suited
method of reproduction
t^rst
1
nearly
looking.*
is
by Mr.
* For description ])Dge
are
the next page are two simple, straightforward
drawings, which,
The
results
3,
11.
S.
of the various
also Appendix.
for the type press.
Marks, R.A. (which
I
grained papers, &c., see
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION. Academy
take from the pages of
drawn upon
Bristol board, about
Here every
line tells,
Notes), skilfully
7X5
in.
and none are superfluous;
the figure of the monk, the texture of his dress, the
old
stone
doorway, the creeper growing on
"the
STOrPF.D KEY."
(ll
the wall, and the basket of provisions, picture,
the
lines
of which
all
form a
harmonise well
with
the type of a book. In
this
deliberate,
white paper plays
by
careful far
the
drawing, principal
in
which
part,
the
LINE DRAWING. background and lighting of the picture are conalso the general
sidered,
balance of a decorative
page.*
*
The young "pen-and-ink
scratches
;
artist" of to-day generally avoids
them
by a series of unmeaning he does not consider enough the true " lighting of a
backgrounds,
picture," as
or
we
renders
shall
see further on.
modern black-and-white teaching
is
The tendency
of
to ignore backgrounds.
BAS-BKl.IEF.
Academy Notes. ")
(h.
HOLIDAY.)
much
CH\PTER
IV.
THOTO - ZINC TROCESS.*
In order to turn any blocks
for
have
to
and zinc
it
type
the
a
This
plate.
drawing
print print,
lying
the
of
greasy substance
gelatine),
and
the plate
is
*
ether,
is
the
press,
photographed
to transfer
of
and
of these
the
to
of
on
it
or
drawings
size
to
the
(bichromate
zinc
of
is
required,
a sensitized
photographic
upon
into
process
first
image
plate,
potash
is
and
afterwards inked up with a roller
then immersed
in
;
a bath of nitric acid
which cuts away the parts which were
The heading
to this chapter was
by photo-zinc process.
drawn
(See page 134)
in line
and reproduced
T.INE r/WCESS.
upon the paper, and leaves the
left \vliit(;
drawing
103
in relief
This "biting
considerable
requires
experience
lines of the
as
in,"
it
and
according to the nature of the drawing. lines are turned into metal in a
plate
when mounted on wood
letters, is
is
called,
attention,
Thus, the
few hours, and the
to the height of type-
ready to be printed from,
if
necessary, at
the rate of several thousands an hour.
MT.
{From
(T. l.l.AkK VMKijM.,: **
Academy
Notes.'*)
[This portrait was exhibited in the Royal in 1880.
I
Academy
reproduce Mr. Wirgman's sketch
sake of his [lowerful treatment of
line.]
for the
104
(
XV.
No. " Forget-Me-Not,'"
(From
An
the
)
Henry Ryland.
by
"English Illustrated Magazine.'')
unusually fine example of reproduction in
line,
by zinc process, from a large pen-and-ink drawing. serves to if
show how
done by a trained hand.
the variety of brightness
the
It
clearly writing can be reproduced
" colour "
Students should notice
and delicacy of
also
line,
and evenness of the process block
throughout.
This
illustration suggests possibilities in
decorative pages in
of printers' type, which schools. figure
requires,
It
is
worth consideration
preparation for such work,
tion of decorative pages in the
of the British It
would be
aid
in art
of course, knowledge of th2
and of design, and a trained hand
One obvious
producing
modern books without the
Museum,
for process.
is
an examina-
Manuscript Department
(^i?
Appendix)
difficult, I think, to
show more
clearly
the scope and variety of line work by process than in the contrast
between
illustrations.
Each
white in his
own way.
this
artist
is
and the two preceding an expert
in
black and
JpTQeCTlOC vet the tried tnt&nt e^ Qf^ujoh. aCnun txsJhave meant
vriyareai tTazxxU cocSiadtY ~5bent ^^ 3'o'r6ec -not -let
^oT^et -not ^et
(johen fi.-rsC be^CL-n, She. (jc>ea-rfX.iJe j-e /^houx since uJieru
the.£reat assays ahecrueL u}T~cng (rie.'Se.oi^nfuL iXiavs t/OT^ei >7ct'(et
Sfhe pOJ-nfuL patxenae. u-n dLeioi(S
QJbrgeC not (Acs (ongagb hxuh been. arui. ls &iaX neue-r inecxnc amisi ^orgec "noC wee
€foTget not!
ytc&t
ahe'TntrioL 5firtfe^ noC then, thxne. ou^n appro\je.ci
J^
forget
njot wet
No.
XW
l.IXE PROCESS.
A
and
wonderful
invention
startling
is
here,
worthy of a land of enchantment, which, without labour, with transfixes
the
concrete
Ijy
;
more than
little
artist's
a
touch,
of
the hand,
turns
pen
of the
fac-simile for the
!
best and truest
into
are
not
iSoo.)
merely recorded
in
eye to decipher, but are brought
out in sharp relief as bold and strong as out of a rock
it
which the most delicate and hasty
{From ^'Aindvnty Notes,"
strokes
wave and
1 1
ere
is
work we
an argument
for
if
hewn
doing "the
can," a process that renders
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION.
loS
indestructible of cremation
put
— so indestructible
would get
upon paper
purposes
of
;
rid of
the
best adapted for reproduction
silent pool."
(From "Academy
*
The mechanical
that nothing short
— every line that we
an argument
illustration
"a
it
for
touch
learning
and
for
method
the press.*
b\-
(ed. w. waite.) Kotcs,'' 1691.)
processes, neglected
and despised by the
many years, have, by a sudden freak of fashion, apparently become so universal that, it is estimated, several thousand blocks are made in London alone every week. majority of illustrators for
LINE PROCESS.
109
GELATINE PROCESS.
By
this
process a more delicate ami
method has been used
The drawing (as before),
photographed
is
and the negative
to the required size
upon a glass plate
laid
coated with a mi.xture of gelatine and
(previously
bichromate of potash). tive film not
exposed
when immersed exposed
sensitive
to obtain a relief block.
in
The
part of this thin, sensi-
to the
water
light, is
swells
absorbent, and
The
up.
to the light (/>., the lines of the
part
drawing)
Thus we
remains near the surface of the glass.
have a sunk mould from which a metal cast can be leaving
taken,
process.
more can
In
the skilful
hands
delicate gradaticms,
be
relief as
in
lines
this
and
reproduced with
in
process
pale,
tolerable
the
uncertain lines fidelit\'.
blocks take longer to make, and are double the of the photo-zinc process
described.
first
zinc
admits of
The jjrice
There
is
no process yet invented which gives better results from a pen-and-ink
drawing
The
the
for
These blocks when completed have
type-press.
a copper surface.
reproductions of pencil, chalk, or charcoal draw-
ings by the zinc, or " biting-in
we may
"
processes are nearly
always
failures, as
artistic
books and magazines to-day.
see in
some of the
best
(
no
No.
)
XVI.
" The Miller's Daughter^'
by E. K. Johnson.
Another very interesting example of Mr. E. K. Johnson's drawing in pen and ink. line has the value
The drawing
intended by the has been
reproduced by the gelatine
Nearly every
artist.
largely
reduced,
relief process.
and
"^
No.
XV]
"THE END OF THE
CifAI'TER."
(FROM THE PAINTING UV w. KAIKEV.)
[Roj'nl Acatieiii}', lSS6.]
(Reproduced ty the old Da-.vson fyocess.)
GRALXED PAPERS.
"in the
I'AS
DE CALAIS."
(jAF.
PRINSEP BEADLE.)"
GRAINED PAPERS. For there
tho.SC
who cannot draw
render drawings first is
kinds
are several
suitable
easily with
of grained
The
for reproduction.
a paper with black lines imprinted upon
a material suitable for scraping out
and strengthening with pen or pencil blacks.
the pen,
papers which
On some
it
on
to get lights, to get solid
of these papers black lines are
* This excellent drawing was made on rough white paper with autographic chalk It is
;
the print being
much reduced
in size.
seldom that such a good grey block can be obtained by
means.
this
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION.
114
imprinted
horizontally,
diagonally,
some
several artist
in
kinds, one
can get
Drawings
the
thus
some
"spotty"
in
of
required by scraping out.
tint
made
grain
lines
under the other, so that the
can
be
reproduced
relief like line drawings, taking care
a fine black
some
vertically,
and some with
dots,
much
too
or
it
in
not to reduce will
become
reproduction.
This drawing and the one opposite by Mr. Nisbet show the
skilful
and horizontal black
Hume
use of paper with vertical
lines
ing, the different qualities
;
also, in
the latter draw-
of strength in the sky,
and the method of working over the grained paper in
pen and
ink.
No. *'
TWILIGHT.**
{From "Lessons
in
Att"
XV IT.
(SI'ECIMEN OF DI.ACK-r.RAINED rAPBR.)
hy
Hume
Nistet^/ubiishetf ly
Chattel Windus,)
(
1
16
)
No. XVIII.
"Z^ Dent Another
skilful
Gcant^' by E. T.
dii
snow, glacier, and drifting clouds.
paper may be seen
'
The
in the
LE DENT DU G^ANT."
effect is
Compton.
use of the black -grained paper to represent
The
original tone of the
sky and foreground.
(frOM THE PAINTING BY
E. T.
COMPTON.)
obtained by scraping out the lighter parts on
the paper and strengthening the dark with pen and pencil. It
is
interesting to
same drawing.
(Size
compare the two blocks made from the of drawing
74X4
in.)
uS
)
No. XIX. Landscape, by A. M. Lindstro.m.
Example of bold effect by scraping out on the black-lined paper, and free use of autographic chalk This drawing shows, of
this
process in
I think, the artistic limitations
the
hands of an experienced
draughtsman.
The
original
drawing by Mr- Lindstrom (from his
painting in the Royal as the reproduction.
Academy) was the same
size
No. XIX.
CRArxr.l) PAPERS.
Other papers largely used
I2t
illustration
ior
the
in
type press have a ivhite grain, a good specimen of
which
is
on page 123
and there are variations of
;
these white-grained papers, of which what in
France as allonge paper
rough sketches
The
in
is
many
arise in
effect,
worthy of the time and
which has been bestowed upon them very doubtful
if
for
minds, are these
contrivances with their mechanical lines
ducing
known
one of the best
books and newspapers.
may
question
is
much work ought
?
1
to be
by means of the black-grained papers
;
for
pro-
attention
think
it
is
producetl
certainly, in
the hands of the unskilled, the results would prove disastrous.
A
may
painter
use them for sketches,
Mr. Compton
especially for landscape.
(as
on
p.
i
1
6)
can e.xpress very rapidly and effectively, by scrajjing out the lights and strengthening the darks, a snowdrift
or the surface of a glacier.
on page
123,
Mr. C.
J.
In the drawing
Watson has shown
the grained paper can be played with,
in
us
how
artistic
hands, to give the effect of a picture.
The
difference,
sketches
made on
papers seems to
But
artistically
speaking,
between
black-grained and white-grained
me much
at the best, blocks
these papers are apt
to
in
favour of the
latter.
made from drawings on be
unequal, and do not
122
(
No.
)
XX.
"Vo/cndam,'' by C.
Example
of
skilfully
and
picture
could
J.
white-lined
effectively
— only
have given so
Watson.
paper,
the
treated
painter
much
very
of the
breadth
and
truth of effect.
This
2vhiie pai)er
when drawn upon same appearance taken for (Size of
as
has a strong vertical grain which with autographic chalk black-lined pa[)er;
it.
drawing 6 x 4^
in.)
and
has the is
often
n
No. XX.
GRAINED PAPERS. print with the ease thc;y require g-Qod is
not
al\va)s
to
" AND WEE PEERIE
and certainty of pure
be
obtained.
FOR A*,"
have
The
his
work
;
in
artist
who
(from the I'AINTINC BV Ht'CH CAMERON.) too largely reduced.
for the processes in this country
expect (excepting
line
paper and careful printing, which
Example 0/ a good chalk drawing
draws
125
very exceptional
work reproduced
America, or even as well as
and
in this
must not cases)
printed
book.
as
to in
126
(
No. XXI.
"An This
is
Arrcsf," by jNIeltom Prior.
a remarkable
of a pencil drawing. efifecl
of
a pencil
"half-tone"
example of the reproduction
It is
seldom that the
soft
grey
drawing can be obtained on
a
relief block, or the lights so successfully
preserved.
This
is
Trior, the
only a portion of a picture by Mr. Melton
well-known special
indebted to the proprietors of
The reproduction
is
aitist,
for
which
Skctc/i.
by Carl Hentschcl.
I
am
^iff
No. XXI.
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION.
128
The
on the previous page owes
reproduction
success not only to good process, paper,
its
printing, but also to the firm, decisive touch
Melton
experienced illustrator like Mr. pencil
drawing
in less skilful
pieces
"
press.
on the
Mr. C.
G.
Harper,
English Pen Artists,
hands
apt to
A
"go
to
book on
has treated of other ways
which drawings on prepared papers may be
in
manipulated for the type press with
The
success.
In
Sttidio, there
year
many
that
too
much
on.
"mixed drawings,"
adopting such aids to fact
is,
always
publication,
on
this
Some and
is
of the
of
but
subject,
illustration
perhaps
examples
chalk-and-pencil
might well deter any
reproductions,
The
not
have appeared during the past
valuable papers
insisted
but
;
interesting
which the mechanism of
in
of
of an
Prior.
excellent
his
in
is
and
from
artist
illustration.
that the use of grained papers
is,
at
the best, a makeshift and a degradation of the art of illustration, if
judged by the old standards.
be a bad day
for the art of
mechanical appliances are put
young students
It will
England when these into
the hands of
in art schools.
For the purposes of ordinary
illustrations
should keep to the simpler method of
line.
we All
LIKE PROCESS. these contrivances require great care in printing,
and the blocks have often engraver.
T/ic viatcrial
this
u[)
of the process
by an
blocks
is
In a liandbook to students
iinsuitcd to the purpose.
of illustration
be worked
to
requires
repeating
on
nearly
every page.
As a
a contrast
sketch
in
the
to
pure
line
foregoing,
Mr. M. R. Corbet, who, with scribble
of the
sunrise and the
pen, still
let
us look at
by the landscape
can
little
express
painter,
more than a
the
feeling
air amonorst the trees.
4^ /,
"bUNKISE
IN
THB SEVERN VALLKY." (.MATTHEW
R.
y
U
COKBET.)
/^
of
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION. MECHANICAL DOTS.
Amongst
the
modern inventions
hurried or feeble iUustrator,
on mechanical dots
to
give shadow and colour to
a pure line drawing, by process.
always
be
to
for helping the
the system of laying
is
regretted
It
is
practice
a
whether applied
;
to
Daniel Vierge's elaborately printed illustrations
One
the Pablo de Segovia.
cannot condemn
strongly this system, so freely used illustrated
a
hasty newsjxiper sketch, or to one of
necessarily
but
sheets,
which,
in
in
too
continental
in
the most skill ul
hands, seems a degradation of the art of illustration.
These dots and
lines,
used for shadow, or tone,
are laid upon the plate by the the artist indicating,
maker
of the block,
by a blue pencil mark, the
parts of a drawing to be so manipulated
the illustrator lias line
not seen
the effect
;
on
and as his oivn
drawing, the results are often a surprise to
everyone concerned. contrivances
were
wish
I
more
ingenious
these
worthy
of
an
artist's
attention.
On
the opposite page
is
an example taken from
an English magazine, by which that
all
it
may
be seen
daylight has been taken ruthlessly from the
principal
figure,
and that
it
is
no longer
in
tone
with the rest of the picture, as an open air sketch.
^a'/""
U:yL *'th::
adjutant's love story."
(h. k.
{^ExatiipU of nttchahiaxi gntiu.)
No. XXII.
millak.)
'^H/*
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATIOX.
132
The system
tempting to the hurried ihustrator;
is
he has only
draw
to
Hne
in
and the dots are
on by the maker of the blocks.
laid
an example of fine-grain dots
common
the
is
result
not
is
high pressure
unsightly,
that the artist's
treatment, that, in
this
at
artistic
fact,
Nothing but
all.
incompetence
or
have chosen
much more
obvious
is
it
by
injured
(I
those used in news-
;
prints are
as everyone knows),
sketch
is
appear,
tint is to
In the illustration on the last page
papers and
which
outline,
(or
worse) and then mark where the
on
the
jjart
of
the illustrator can excuse this mechanical addition to
an
drawing
incomplete
remembered
these
that
and
;
inartistic
it
results
must
be
are
not
the fault of the process, or of the "process man."
But the system
is
growing
save time and trouble, and
And
of topical illustrations. alia)
which
is
taught
is
in
every direction, to
lowering the standard it
is
this
system
in technical schools,
knowledge of process
is
taking the
{Jiitcr
where the
jjlace
wood
of
enyravintr.
The
question
is
again
uppermost
in
the mind,
are such mechanical appliances ("dodges,"
I
ven-
ture to call them) worthy the serious attention of artists
;
and can any good
knowledge
to
youthlul
arise
by imparting such
illustrators
in
technical
LINE PROCESS. schools
engraving was
\\\)od
?
133
a
no
similar
Icamii/o-
upon
dwell
to
of
it)
drawing
transferred
is
a
without
to zinc
very
process
common work book
but
;
illustration,
as
is
it it
is
the
useful
drawing has often
to
of jjhoto-
aid for
and
rapid
good
for
irksome to the ;
on
which
ink,
seldom used
not capable of very good results
will
an
do not
I
line
in
prepared transfer pap^jr with autographic
graphy,
is
qualified artist.
Mention should be made here (although wish
is
Ike
before
mechanism before he
learns the
and
educated
by
There
and nothing bid disappointment
"'processes;"
him if he
lad
a
career for
be
to
craft
learned, with a career for the apprentice.
and
artist
moreover, the
be minute, as the reproduction
be the same size as the original.
of the processes which
I
It
one
is
think the student of art
had better not know much about.* 1 hat
it
is
possible,
obtain strong effects *
The young
artist
by the common processes, almost equal
would be much
to
better occupied in learning
draiving on stone direct, a branch of art which does not into
the
scope of
illustration,
on stone in
this
book,
as
and cannot be printed
it
at
to
engraving,
is
seldom used
the type press.
in
come book
Drawing
is well worthy of study now, for the irt is being revived England on account of the greater facilities for printing than
formerly.
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION.
134
may be Mr.
seen
some
in
Lancelot Speed,
process whicli
in
experiments have been made,
by
illustrations
many
technical
including
the free
use ot white lining.
Mr. Speed
is
very daring
in his
stmlents ma)' well puzzle (>\er the
he obtains his
The
effects
by
exprTiments, and
means
b)'
which
tlic line ijrocesses.
from Andrew
illustration opposite
Lang's
Blue Poetry Book, shows a very ingenious
ment of the
black-lined papers.
one of the best e.xamples
much study and
I
Technically
know of,— the
exjjeriment.
treatit
is
result of
Ait,ir,w Land's
"Blue Poetry Book."
No. XXIII.
vLancelot speed.)
136
(
XXIV.
No. "
)
The Armada^' by Lancelot Speed.
This extraordinary example of line drawing process was taken from
for
Andrew Lang's Blue Poetry
Book, published by Messrs. Longmans. Li this illustration no wash has been used, nor
has
a
great
The methods the
extent
illustration
by
common
drawings
Here
yet
is
those
achievements of difficult
of lining are, of course, to
artist's
own
the to
all
is
This
invention.
and the two jireceding lead
clusion that there
for process
matter.
" screening " or engraving on
been any
there
the block.
much to who will
to the con-
learn
drawuig
in
study
The
it.
makeri of the blocks, reproduce,
is
quite
another
easy for the reproducer,
zinc process only being employed,
required effects obtained wiihout
much
with
the
and the
worrjiiig of
the printer, or of the maker of the blocks.
Thus
far
a'l
the
illustrations
been produced by the
common
in
this
book have
line process.
No XXIV,
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION
138
"
The
HALF-TONE
"
PROCESS.
next process to consider
reproducing wash
drawings and
the
is
method of
photographs on
blocks suitable for printing at the type press, com-
monly known process
" ;
as
the
Meisenbach or
a most ingenious and valuable invention,
which, in clever hands,
is
capable of
artistic results,
but which in
common
illustrations in
books and newspapers.
First,
As
" half-tone
as
to
the
use has cast a gloom over
method
there are no lines
in
photograph from nature,
some kind of
grain,
a it
of
making
the blocks.
wash drawing or is
in
a
necessary to obtain
or interstices of white, on the
HALF-TONE PROCESS zinc plate, as in a mezzotint
;
139
so between the drawing
or photograph to be reproduced
and the camera,
glass screens, covered with lines or dots, are inter-
posed, varying
in
strength according to the light
THERE
and shade required
wash drawing
;
IS
THE
I'RIORV
thus turning the image of the
practically into "line," with sufficient
interstices of white for printing purposes.
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION.
!4o
Thus,
all
drawings
already referred
type press
to,
and
;
by the direct
etc.,
line processes,
are treated for printing at the
thus
dulness, with which
wash, chalk, pencil,
in
that will not reproduce
we
monotonous
uniform,
the are
all
familiar,
pervades the
page.
The to
be
conditions of drawing for this process have caret ully studied, to prevent the
smears and blotches (the
meaningless
making
result generally of
too hasty sketches in wash) which disfigure nearly
every magazine and newspaper we take up. is
There
no necessity for this degradation of illustration.
The
who draws
artist
or paints in
oils
in
in
wash with body
monochrome,
soon learns that his high lights his strongest effects neutralised,
gauze
;
and so
/lis ejfict
for pictorial
and exaggerate
be
will
under
lost
and
this effect of
purposes he has
lights
colour,
for this process,
X.o
force
and shades; avoiding
too delicate gradations, and in his different tones
keeping, so to speak, to one octave instead of two.
Thus, also cheap
for this process, to obtain brightness
effect,
and
the illustrator of to-day often avoids
backgrounds altogether. In spite of
reproduction,
the it
uncertainty
of
this
system of
has great attractions for the
or the hurried illustrator.
skilful
Jf^&^fhA
No. XXV. '
HciRa rode without a saddle t
("//.!/«
as
if
she had grown to her horse— horso— at/idl ;>t/ull sp speed.'
Aiideneni Fairy ra/cs:)
/
142
)
No. XXVI. ^'Thc S/orks,'" by " And high through the second stork
;
came
air
Exam]ile of
lialf-tone process
The
first
stork and the
applied to a slight
much relieved by and /caving out : almost the only chance illustration
for effect that the artist has It
the
a jiretty child sat on the back of each.''
wash drawing. vignetting
R. Weguelin.
J.
suggests, as
so
book do, not the
many
is
by the screened process.
of the illustrations in this
limits but the
scope and possibilities
of process work for books.
This
and
the
[ircccding
Weguelin are taken Talcs (Lawrence
\-
from
illustration
by
Hans Andcrscui
jjullcn, 1S93).
Mr. Fairy
No. XXVI.
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION. That
this
"half-tone" process
susceptible of
is
a variety of effects and results, good and bad, every
reader must be aware.
The 165,
illustrations in this book,
from jjages 138 to
by the
same process of
are
all
practically
"screening," a slight difference only
the grain
in
being discernible.
The wash drawing on page coarse grain on
it,
are fairly well
preserved.
139 suffers by the
but the values,
The
be seen,
will
it
which are
lights
out of tone appear to have been taken out on the plate
by the maker
of
the
a
dangerous
scale.
Mr. Louis
block,
proceeding with figures on a small
Grier's clever sketch of his picture in wash, at the
head of
this chapter, gives the effect well.
Mr. Weguelin's
Fairy success,
illustrations to
have
Talcs
been,
public caring
the
I
Hans
Aiidcrscii s
understand,
more
a
the
lor
great of
spirit
poetry that breathes through them than for more finished
drawings.
This
is
delightful,
should be, although, technicalh', the considered
his
process
educational point of view
it
has
artist
and
enough, its
Mr. Weguelin's
the process 7tscd is
tlie
in
it
has not
trom
dangers.
"process" has been blamed roundly, criticisms of
and as
the
The
one or two
illustrations,
whereas
same as on pa^rs 149 and
157.
HALF-TOXE PROCESS. However, the
effect
on a wash drawing
the
results
illustrators decline to use
We
engraving. before
shall
have
wood engraving
several
that it
uncertain and
So
satisfactory in the best hands.
gloomy are
not
is
well-known
as a substitute for
wood
to inii)rove considerably
abandoned.
is
improving every day, and by
We
are
this half-tone process
numberless wash drawings and photographs from nature
now presented
are
to
the public
in
our
in
the
daily prints.
Great advances have been made
"screening" of pencil drawings, and the 127),
and
taking out
sketch (as pointed out on page
of a
lights
lately in
results
have been obtained by carelul
draughtsmen during the
last
si.x
months which a
year ago would have been considered impossible.
These
have been obtained principally
results
and
gooel printing
on the block prepared
jiaper
— allowing
—but where the
for printing,
by
of a fine grain
illustration
has to be
say 5,000 an hour, off rotary
machines, a coarser grain has to be used, producing the " Berlin
Let
drawing
wool
we
with which
now
us
by
Black and
are
pattern all
look
process,
IV/iiic.
eftect
"
familiar at
two
lent
in
on
the
page,
newspapers.
examples
of
wash
by the proprietors of
(
146
)
No. XXVII. This
is
good average example of what
a
to expect
by the halftone process from a wash drawing. the result artist,
is
tame and monotonous
is
no
That
fault of the
whose work could have been more brightly
rendered by wood engraving.
That "
it is
better to have this process than
wood engraving
" is
trators of to-day.
any
rate, if
meant But
for
the
The
through a
sunshine time
the opinion of nearly artist sdds his on'ii
veil of fog
all
bad illus-
ivork, at
and gloom which
is
!
is
coming when the pubUc
hardly rest content with such results as these.
will
No. XXVII.
148
(
No. XXVIII.
from " B/ack and
lUuslration
U'hi/e,"
by
G. G. Manton.
This process
good example of wash drawing
a
is
that
;
for
good example from the
a
to say,
is
"process man's" point of view.
Here the to
has used his utmost endeavours
artist
meet the process half-way
;
he has been careful
to use broad, clear, firm washes,
and has done them
with certainty of hand, the result of experience. in the
endeavour
few
out of a qualities,
it
is
and the
to get strength,
tones,
the
work lacks some
over
his
wash
work, which
admirably for reproduction hardly be It is
arlislic
almost a necessity.
Mr. Manton has a peculiar method of stippling,
If,
best results
recommended
;
but
the
lining, or
lends
itself
practice can
to the attention of students.
as difficult to achieve artistic results by these
means, as
in the
combination of
one drawing, advocated by some At the same time, surfaces
line
and chalk
Mr. Manton's indication of
and textures by process are both
and valuable.
in
ex])erts.
interesting
No. XXVIII.
(
'a sunny land."
I50
)
(from the painting by GEORGE WETHERCEE.) {Netu Gallery^ 1S91.)
DECORATIVE DESIGN BY RANDOLPH CALDECOTT.
One
of the
many
uses which artists
the half-tone process tion of
drawn
is
may make
one of Mr. Caldecott's decorative designs, freely with a brush full of white,
on brown
paper on a large scale (sometimes two three
feet
long),
and
reduced
as
reduction refining and improving the
This
is
"process" others,
of
suggested by the reproduc-
even
or
above
the
;
design.
a most legitimate and practical use for illustrating books,
which
in artistic
architectural
hands might well be further
developed. (Tlie above design,
from the Memoir of
Messrs.
of
and
Sampson Low
A'.
&
CalJccotl^
Co.)
is
lent
by
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION. Of
the illustrators
who
way we
free-and-easy
use this process in a
now
will
out of the pages of Sketch
Here
more
take an example, cut
overleaf
[see
p.
[55).
truths of light and shade are disregarded,
the figure stands out in unnatural darkness against
white paper, and
upon nothing. few modern
mechanical shadows are cast
flat
Only sheer
illustrators
ability
on the part of a
has saved these coarse un-
gainly sketches from universal condemnation.
But
the splashes, and spots, and stains, which are taking
more
the place of
become a vogue
serious
in
work
1894.
'^'le
sketch
two or three hours, instead of a week is
much cheaper
also
to
sketch where formerly a finished required,
if
in a lively
manner.
purpose of topical the times.
It
illustration, of
*
The
made
in
the process
;
satisfied
wood
with a
was
illustration
the subject be treated dramatically and If the sketch
smear on the page,
sightly
is
the publisher than
and the public seems
engraving,
have
in illustration,
evil of
it
it
illustration,
is
little
comes out an un-
at least
answers the
and apparently
short of a
suits
revolution
in
which we do not yet see the end.*
is
that
we are becoming used
to black blots in
the pages of books and newspapers, and take them as a matter of
course
;
j'.ist
as
we submit
in the matter of clothing.
to the deformity of the
outward
man
HALF-TOXK PROCESS.
The
bookstalls are laden with the daring achieve-
ments of Phil May, Raven
and
others, but
it
is
Dudley Hardy,
Hill,
not the object of this book to
works of genius, either
exhibit the imitation.
It
show him the
for emulation or
rather to sug-gest to the average
is
may
student what he
legitimately attempt, and to
possibilities of the process block in
different hands.
ment
153
It
may be
said,
without disparage-
numerous clever
of the
and
experienced
illustrators of the day, that they are only
adapting
themselves to the circumstances of the time. a theory— the truth
is
which
ol
that the reproductions ol
living
more
vitality
and
thim can be obtainc^d
freedom,
But the young adapting a)iything
illustrator
methods,
these
rcprcdiiccd
for
draiun to lime'' in art
One called
should
:
the
that
" illustrations,"
of want
of
rather th.in of the
artistic
other means.
hesitate
before
and should never have pJiblication
icliich
was
classes. in
this
produced blotches
hastily
which disfigure the pages of
many books and magazines,
result
and
feeling b)' an\'
thing cannot be repeated too often
connection
so
sketches from the
rapid
model by the hall-tone process have more
qu.alities
'"
There
do not cpicstion
I
cart;
are generally the
on the part of the
maker of the
blocks.
artist
(
154
)
No. XXIX. This
is
part
of a page illustration lent
pro]irietor3 of Skctih.
talent (or the taste,
and
It
we
by
the
does not do justice to the
will
hope), of the illustrator,
only inserted here to record the kind of work
is
which
is
edition
popular
in
1S94.
we may have other
(Perhaps exploits
a second
in
of genius
to
record.)
should be noted that this and the illustration
It
on
p.
149 are both reproduced by the same
half-
tone process, the difference of result being altogether the handling of the brush.
in
have been intolerable will
This sketch would
in less artistic
hands.
Artists
doubtless find more feeling and expression in
the broad washes and splashes before
us,
than
in tlie
most careful stippling of Mr. Manton. Students of wash drawing for process a middle course.
may
take
No. XXIX.,
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION.
A
word here on the influence of PROCESS-BLOCK MAKERS
on the youn^-
The
illustrator.
"
process man,
"
the
teacher and inciter to achievements by this or that process,
He knows
of the word.
what
is
probably
will
in the true
better than
sense
anyone
else
he can reproduce, and especially what
lines
kind of drawing
He
" artist "
not usually an
is
materials
to
drawings
will
use,
best adapted for his
tell
what amount of
bear,
own
process.
young draughtsman what
the
reduction
his
and other things of a purely
technical not to say businesslike character.
not be understood to disparage the
engravers and others engaged on
Let
work
the.se
me
of photo-
processes
;
on the contrary, the amount of patience, industrv,
and
activit}-,
anxious
bestowed
care
reproduction of drawings and paintings
ujjon is
the
astonish-
ing,
and deserves our gratitude.*
new
industry of an important kind, in which art and
cratt
bound up together.
are
when "process work" only
as
inartistic
*
On
fit
for
the
is
to
This work
The day
is
a
has past
be looked down upon
cheapest,
most
inferior,
and
results.
the
opposite page
painting from a photograpli
is
an
excellent reproduction of a
hy the half-tone process.
HALF-TOXE PROCESS.
piioto(;k.M'Uic
One
result of hasty
illustkatioxs.
work
in makintj; ilrawincjs,
and
the uncertainty of reproduction, promises to be a
very serious one to the see ahead,
viz.
graphs from
:
life
ilkistrator, as
for
other
forms of
The "I\Ieisenbach"reprodnction life,
say a
full
far as
we can
the grackial substitution of photoillustration.
of a photograph from
length figure of an actress
in
some
elaborate costume, seems to answer the purpose of
the
editor
of a
newspaper
formerly artists and
employed.
One
to
engravers
fill
a
page, where
would have
been
reason for this
is
that the details
of the dress are so well rendered
b\-
photography on
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION.
158
the block as to answer the purpose of a fashion
an
plate,
an
result
skilfully
some weekly news-
in
generally unsatisfactory from
is
of view, but the picture
point
artist's
most
matter
imi)()rt;int
The
papers.
is
often
composed and the values wonderfully
rendered, direct from the original. In the case of the reproduction of
which we are now
by working up a platinotype
made
out to be
upon the
artistic
who have or bad
print before giving
Much depends
into a block.
illustrations
power
to
have produced good
from the same
original.
makers of the blocks being confined price, are
practically
powerless,
to
The
time and
and seldom have
an opportunity of obtaining the best should be mentioned that blocks
results.
It
made from wash
being shallower than those made from
drawings, line
it
here
knowledge of editors and publishers,
in their
it
photographs,
much may be done
considering,
drawings,
sutler
more from bad printing and
paper.
A from
good life
dations
silver print
(whether from a piiotograph
or from a picture),
and
through the
strong film
effects,
of
gauze,
paratively uninteresting
original
is
given
tvith
;
full
of delicate gra-
appears on the plate dull,
flat,
and com-
but the expression of the
more
Jidclify
than could be
HALF-TONE PROCESS.
159
done by any ordinary wood engraving. best that can be said tor
it,
is
it
process, requiring help from the
This
the
is
a dull, mechanical
maker of the blocks
;
and so a system of touching on the negative (before
making the block) of the picture
is
common
the
hazardous business
at the best, especially
show where "handwork" comes
The
in.
block,
when made,
now
when
mention
is
a
dealit
to
half-tone process is
also often
especially
in places,
spotty or too dark; and on this
formerly wood-engravers
I
the
in
touched up by an engraver
There
This
practice.
ing with the copy of a painting.
first
and accents
to bring out the lights
where
work many who were employment.
find
no doubt that the makers of process
is
blocks are the best instructors
as
to
the
results
be obtained by certain lines and combinations
to
of lines
;
but
the majority of cases they will
in
the artist too muih, ,uk1 lead him to take loo
his
mechanical
the
business.
illustrator's best protection against this
tendency,
interest
The
the
in
whole armour and coat
first
tell
much
and an
This
is
men.
mail,
ol
is
to
be an artist
illtistrator afterioards.
the
sum
of the examples to a
cjt
side
of the matter.
in this
more thorough
Perhaps some
book may help
testing of results
us,
and lead
by cai)able
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION.
i6o
" SKETCH." It will
of which is
made
be interesting here to consider
one number of an
will
and how
up,
have part
in
be instructive.
example, because publication,
far the artist
From
it.
it is
material
and wood engraver
an economic point of view
it
take this "newspaper" as an
I
vicing,
tlie
paper {Sketch)
illustrated
a typical and quite "up-to-date" circulation
in
and importance,
with the Illnsfratcd Loudon Ncios, both published
by the same proprietors.
In one
number
there are
upwards of 30 pages, 10 being advertisements. There are in
the
all
Out
1
5
part,
te.xt
the
of
1
illustrations, of
and 88 text
in
which 63 appear
graphs from
life (several
reproductions
24 only are from
illustrations,
Next
drawings or sketches.
original
being
full
from engravings,
by mechanical processes
in
the advertisement pages.
—
in
all
are 26 plioto-
pages), and 13
etc.,
reproduced
Some
63.
of the
pages reproduced from photographs are undeniably good, and interesting to the public, as
by the popularity of
this
i)aper
is
alone.
evidenced In
the
advertisement portion are 88 illustrations (including
many
small ones), 85 of which have been engraved
on wood old
;
a
blocks,
week.
The
number
of
them are electrotypes from
but there are
reason
for
many new ones every wood eneravinrr
usinij
No. MI^S
F'loto^raphed from
life
bv
XXX.
KATE RORKE. (FROM "SKETCH."} H,
S. Mendeissckn.
Reproduced by half-tone process
)
^\0
H A
Hy"
UNIVERSITY
HALF-TOXE PROCESS. largely tor advertisements
is,
that
163
wood
l)locks print
more
easily than " process,"
type,
and print better (being cut deeper on the
when mixed with
the-
block) where inferior paper and ink are employed.
But
up
this class of
" It
is
not worth
Thus this
wood engraving may be summed
words of one of the
in the
will
it
£2
a
week
be seen that
craft to nn; lately
to
duced without the aid of
To
the "text" part of
in
newspaper two-thirds of the
:
anybody."
illustrations are pro-
artist or
wood engraver
!
turn to one of the latest Instances where the
photographer
Is
the illustrator.
A
-photographer,
Mr. Burrows, of Camborne, goes down a lead mine in
Cornwall with his apparatus, and takes a series
of views of the workings,
which could probably
have been done by no other means. difficult
Under most
conditions he sets his camera, and by the
aid of the
magnesium
of figures at
roundings.
" tlash-light," gives us
groups
work amidst gloomy and weird
The
sur-
results are exceptionally valuable
as " illustrations" in the true
meaning of the word,
on account of the clear and accurate definition of details.
The remarkable
part,
good colour and grouping of the * " 'Mongst
W. Thomas.
Mines and
(London
:
Miners" by
Is
the
liurrows
and
artistically.
figures.* C.
J.
Simpkin, Marshall
&:
Co.)
THE ART OF ILLVSTRATIOX.
i64
Another instance of the use of photography Mr.
iUustration.
in
Black
Villiers, the special artist of
and White, made a starthng statement lately. He said that out of some 50 subjects which he took at i
more than half-a-dozen
the Chicago Exhibition, not
were drawn by him
;
the rest being "snap-shot
all
Some were very good, could result of many hours' waiting
photographs.
be better, the
fivourable grouping
hardly for the
That he would
of figures.
re-draw some of them with his clever pencil for a
newspaper
possible, but observe the part photo-
is
graphy plays In
both
in the matter.
America novels have been thus in figure
and landscape
backgrounds to
the
attention to this
the
;
the
illustrated
point being
subjects.
figure
movement
weak
I
draw
because the neglect of
composition, of appropriate backgrounds, and of the true
of the
lighting
artists, is
throwing
figures
illustrations
by so many young
more and more
Thus
the hands of the photographer. " pen-and-ink artist,"
and the sketcher
an
model
is
artificially lighted
in
in
into
the rapid
wash from
a crowded art school,
hastening to his end.
The
time
is
popular novels following way.
coming will
fast
when cheap
be illustrated
The
artist,
—
editions of
and many
in tlie
instead of being called
No. XXXI. (./
Photograph from
li/c, l,y
Mcsin. Camcrm &• Smith.
KrtroduccJ by half-tone froctst.)
HALF-TONE PROCESS. upon
to draw,
composin
occupy himself
will
through
pictures
The
lator
on the
vignetted,
do the
plates, will
if
man" and
"process
—and
photographs now produced, ready to
The cheap which to
for,
make
models
aid
models
of
jjhoto-
producing pictures
Much more
will
do
— with
the the
for they are earnest, un-
sacritices of
dramatic
artists'
pose
rest,
and
setting
the clever manipu-
desired, as overleaf
makers of blocks can do
tiring,
in
and the ever-ready
trained for the purpose,
grapher.
the
167
time and money.
illustrations, just referred to,
in
America know so
may be found
how
well
suitable from the
com-
mercial point of view for novels of the butterlly
kind
but they
;
And
here,
for
between the the
do
••
will
seldom be of
the present,
illustrator
black and white
his best in every
own
in
the future.
the line
and the i^hotographer.
man
" will
branch of
It
real artistic interest.
we may draw
But
obviously have to
illustration to hold his
may be thought by some artists
that these things are hardly worth consideration
but
we have
ing
week by week
;
only to watch the illustrations appearto see
whither
we
are tending.*
• Both Mr. Cameron's and Mr. Mendelssohn's [thotographs have had to be sHghtly cut down to fit these pages. But as illustralions
they are,
I
think,
remarkable
photographer's and the [)hoto-engraver's
art.
examples of
the
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION.
The
last
example
of
photograph from
life
more
is
published
worth observing,
is
wood
has been turned into line by the
it
engraver, and
popular
It
serves
for
The
illustration.
artistically posed,
and pleases the
but
printing purposes original it
is
as
where a
is
engraved on wood
as a vignette illustration.®
because
photographer
the
which can be given here,
illustrator,
as a
might have been
pretty as a vignette,
[Sec opposite page.)
pulilic.
1 here are hundreds of such subjects now pro-
duced by the joint aid of the photographer and the process engraver.
It is
not the artist and the
wood
engraver who are really "working hand-in-hand"
m
these days in the production of illustrations, but
the photographer I
his
that
the on,
and
maker of process
the
blocks.
is
much
the photographer cannot do pictorially.
lUit
is
Hajjpily for us there
significant.
photographer and the
is,
line of
and phot(jgraphic
as
I
said,
marching on and
demarcation between handwork
illuslnilions
becomes
less
marked
to
an art
every day.
The school,
the
photographer's
exhibitions
*
daughter
From
of
the
goes
shown
annually
photographic
societies.
and her inlluence
is
the Graphic newspaper, 28th October, 1893.
in
No. XXXII. (A Photograph from
ll/e,
engraved on wood.)
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION.
I70
This influence and
and
this
movement
the artist —that
vital to
with
midst,
correcting
details
which no human eye can
mind can take
On
in
the obligations of artists
a
and no one
see,
photographers
to
The
unacknowledged
rule,
our
and
at once.
a book might be written. as
in
lacts
ever
is
drawing
our
so strong
cannot be emphasised
it
The photographer
too much.
is
nor
;
are not,
benefits
bad
the
are
That
influences of photography always noticed. is
the
necessary
depends he uses did
made
artist
things
himself to
his
days of
[jhotngraphy,
powers of observation years
ago.
That
him astray sometimes
short,
in
;
than
less
he
photographer
the
is
he now
which
for
many
with
acquainted art.
upon the photographic lens his
a few
leads
before the
that
say,
to
another
thing
to
remember.
The
future of the illustrator being uppermost in
our thoughts,
let
with which he
Mr. William always draws
is
us consider further the influences
surrounded.
.Snicdl,
for
As
to
wood engraving), savs
never take good work out of a good
He
speaks as an
photography,
the well-known illustrator
artist
,
—
"
(who it
will "
artist's
who has taken
seriously and most successfulh
:
hands.
to illustration
having devoted the
THE ILLVSTRATOR. best years of his
of
it
that in
is,
illListratii)ns
to
its
are done, to hold
much fully
the other it
of the
way
would seem
wood
not the competitor
much employment
is
At present the
for.
we
;
—the
(the best
photography can only
artist,
there
in this direction
work
In line
lor the processes)
be looked
own they must
Let them be as slight as you please,
be the servant of the
and
newspaper
style
llieir
they be original and good.
and surest
The moral
development.
whatever material or
be of the best. if
life
171
influence
— ungrate-
are casting off
experience of the lifetime
engraver, and are setting in
its
place an
and
art half developed, half studied, full of crudities
The
discords.
and
illustrations
which succeed
in
books
newspapers, succeed for the most part from
sheer ability on the part of the
of
to
very
is
ability,
"
students to copy.
executants
brilliant
value of a cesses. to the
are
Time
is
;
;
titcy
are full
bad exami)les nn)ney
"
for
with these
they have no time to study the
nor the requirements of the
prt)-
and so a number of drawings are handed photo-engravers
fitted ior
— which
are often quite un-
mechanical reproduction
literally in
daring
line,
artist
rule,
as a
but,
a lew hours.
originality,
illustration.
"
Take
and it
It
is
— to
be produced
an age of vivacity,
reckless up, look at
achievement it,
and throw
in it
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION.
172
down,"
is
There
the order of the day.
but an economic one
why
should not be as good as the
make
The manufacturer
it.
is
no reason
the worls done "to look at"
can afford to
artist
of paperhangings or
printed cottons will produce only a limited quantity
how
of one design, no matter
on
So much
to another.
who would his best,
not keep employment
no matter whether
The
a day or for a year.
an
illustrated
trated
beautiful,
newspaper
life
if
he did not do
work was
his
of a single
to last for
number of
a week, and of an
is
illus-
book about a year.
The young
illustrators
on the Daily Graphic
notably Mr. Reginald Cleaver of
and then go
the better for the designer,
with
effect
— (jbtain the maximum
minimum
the
—
of
Thus
lines.
Caldecott worked, spending hours sometimes studythe
insr
of
art
Keene's
Charles
out.
leavincj
example may well be followed, making drawing'after drawing, no matter
was
satisfied that
how it
wrong," he used to say
do
tor
tri\ ial
was
" ;
the subject, until he
right. '
" Either right
right
enough
'
will
or n<.it
me."
.\nother
good or bad
intluencc
—
is
on
modern
the electric light.
illustration It
— for
enables the
photographic operator to be independent of dark
and foggy days,
and
to
put a search-light upon
'\
/
No. XXXIII. "PROUD MAIRIE."
(LANCELOT
(From " The Blue Poetry Book."
SIEF.D.)
Louilon:
Longmnm.)
Pen-and-ink drawing by line process;
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION.
174
So
objects which otherwise could not be utih.sed. far
To
good.
the ilkistrator this aid
is
often
a
The late Charles Keene (with have had many conversations on this
doubtful advantage.
whom
I
subject)
predicted
a
general
quality of illustrations
deterioration
natural and impossible effects,"
illustrations in Piiuc/i of figures
then
—
street
electric
a
15 years ago)
man who
lighting,
has
been
— novel
true,
we
conditions
electric lamps, tuck-
shadow which
see the glare of the
magnesium
on many a page, and the unthinking public
dazzled every
week
of
Charles Keene's predictions
for a stream.
have come
seen under the
"dining" returning home
ing up his trowsers to cross a black
light
un-
one of which represented
through a street lighted up by
he takes
"
and he made one or
two
(lo or
the
in
from what he called
in
is
the illustrated sheets with
these "unnatural and impossible effects."
Thus
it
has come about that what was looked
upon by Charles Keene as untrue of
in effect, is
garish, exaggerated,
people as a lively and
illustration.
and
accepted to-day by the majority legitimate
method of
LINE PROCESS.
DANIKL
One
175
VIKR(;K.
of the influences on the
modern
illustrator
a decidedly adverse influence on the unlearned
—
is
the pnjininence which has lately been given to the art of
Daniel Vierge.
There
probably no illustrator of to-day
is
has more originality,
more genius
— than
for practical reasons,
As
his
to
side,
scholar as drawings
the
is
versatility
—
and none whose work,
ierge,
more misleading
illustrations,
and imaginative
and
style,
\'
who
in short
to students.
from the purely literary
they are as attractive to the
by Holbein or Menzell are
to
Let us turn to the illustration on the
artist.
next page, from the Pablo dc Segovia by
Ouevedo
an example selected by the editor,
publisher,
of the
book
First,
;
as a specimen page.
as to the art of
way could be more and character than
it.
Nothing
in
its
own
fascinating in humour, vivacity, this
ladles at the entrance to
The
or
grotesque duel with
long
an old Spanish po.sada.
sparkle and vivacity of the scene are inimitable;
the bounding
diaphanous expression of ofcnius.
figure
grace, in
line
haunts the
touched
in
memory by
with
its
a master
ot
In sliDrl. \\r arc in the [)resence
176
(
No.
Example
XXXIV.
Daniel
of
)
\'ierge's
to
illustrations
Pablo de Segovia, the Spanish Sharper, by Francisco
de Quevedo-Villegas, 1882
imblished in
first
Paris,
in
afterwards translated into English (with an
;
Essay on Quevedo, by H. E. Watts, and comments
on Vierge's work by Joseph Pennell), and published by Mr. T. Fisher Unwin,
in 1S92.
Yierge was born in 185
where
lie
1869 he has lived illustrations for
in Paris,
.f(7/'/i?
left
His
side.
in
1882 by
de Segovia, the illustrations to which
About twenty of these
drawn with the right
Since
La Vie Moderiie,
His fame was made
he was unable to complete owing paralysis.
Madrid,
in
life.
and produced numerous
Le Monde lllustii and
and other works. Quevedo's
and educated
1,
spent the early years of his
illness
and
illustrations
were
to
hand, owing to paralysis of the
career,
full
of romantic interest,
suggests the future illustrator of
Don
Quixote.
These drawings were made upon white paper— Bristol
board or drawdng paper
Indian ink old stylus.
;
but Vierge
now
The drawings were
the photo-engraver
of
— with
a pen
and
uses a glass pen, like an
Paris,
then giren to Gillot,
who,
by
means
o(
photography and Iiandwork, [iroduccd metal blocks to be printed with the tyjie.
«$r* ->/
LINE PROCESS. But the whole and the
tricks
effect
— of
is
179
obviously untrue to nature,
black
of
spots,
exao-crcrated
shadows on the ground, of scratchings (and of carelessness, which might be excused in a hasty sketch for
La
Vie Modcnic)
— are only too apparent.
In nearly every illustration in the Pablo dc Scgoina
which there are upwards
(of
the artist has relied
for
one hundred),
of
brilliancy
and
on
effect
patches of black (sometimes ludicrously exaggerated)
and other mannerisms, which we genius,
but which
attempt
to imitate.
Spectator, "
There
the
To is
student
a
not
quote a criticism from the
There
there
no approach attempted
is
better
almost no light and shade
Vierge.
is
from
accejjt
had
in
an ingenious effect of dazzle, but to truth
of tone,
shadows being quite capriciously used for decoration and supplied to figures that tell as light objects against the sky which throws the shadows."
m
yet
And
handsome pages there are gems of draughtsmanship and extraordinary tours de force these
in illustration.
In the reproduction of these drawings, the
maker of
seem
The are
to fact
the blocks,
have had a is,
M.
difficult
task
to
think
I
Gillot, of Paris,
would
perform.
that Vierge's wonderful line drawings
sometimes as
difficult
tu
reproduce
for
the
I
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION.
So
type
be done satisfactorily by one of the such as that employed by the
processes,
intaglio
Company
Autotype
and
Holbein or Menzell,
press as those of
could only
in
editions
de
That
luxe.
who
Vierge's drawings were worthy of this anyone
saw the would, It
originals
when
exhibited at
think, agree.
I
the duty
is
any writer or instructor
of
to point out these things,
illustration,
That Vierge could adapt himself process
Inn
Barnard's
he pleased,
if
\\\<^Pablo de Segovia,
is
to
once for
in all.
almost any
demonstrated repeatedly
where
(as
in
on pages 63 and 67
of that book) the brilliancy and "colour" of pure line
by process has hardly ever been equalled.
some of well,
his illustrations are impossible to
and have been degraded
in the
That
reproduce
process
is
also
demonstrated on page 199 of the same book, where a mechanical grain has been used to help out the drawing, and the lines have had to be cut up and "rouletted"
Of
on the block
to
make them
possible to print.
the clever band of illustrators of to-day
owe much tricks of
of their inspiration (and
method)
speak here
;
this chapter,
students of
we
to Vierge,
it
is
some of
who their
not necessary to
are in an atmosphere of genius in
and geniuses are seldom safe guides art.
to
LINE PROCESS. Speaking generally (and these remarks editors
art of illustration as practised in
satisfactory
;
we
are too
England
much given
the tricks and prettinesses it
refer to
and publishers as well as draughtsmen), the is
far
of other nations, and
quite the exception to find either originality or
is
individuality on the pages which are hurled
the
from
to imitating
modern
printing press
;
from
individuality as seen
in the
work of Adolphe Menzell,
s[)irit,
in that of
and, in a different
Gustave Dore and Vierge.
CHAPTER
Y.
WOOD ENGRAVINGS.
O
turn to
;i
more
illustration
practical side of
The
illustration.
and yet
to illustrate,
is
book of
principle
first
it
is
a fact that few illustrations in books or
magazines are
be found
to
in their
proper places
in
called)
in
the text. It is
seldom that the
artistic
harmony with
is
found
in
books.
old
of Bewick's
work
character.
Here
and a system of a
is its
illustration
(.so
is
the rest of the page, as
One
it
of the great charms
and expressive
individuality
the artist and engraver were one,
was founded
illustration
in
England
hundred years ago which we should do well not
to forcret.* * In
Thomson
The Life and IFfris nf Ttiomas ;
Art, and in
in T/ie Portfolio, Tlie
Good Words, Bewick's
have been exhaustively discussed.
Beivi'c/!,
Art Journal,
Tlie
by D. C.
Magazine
oj
merits as artist and engravei
IVOOD ENGRAVING.
We
are fast losing sight of
first
183
and aim-
principles
ing rather at catching the eye and the public purse
with a pretty page
;
and
in
doing
this
In the English magazines
imitators.
we
are but
is
strange
to find a slavish, almost childish imitation
of the
American instance,
system
of
illustration
;
it
adopting,
for
the plan of pictures turned over at the
corners or overlapping each other with exaggerated bkick borders and other devices of the album of the last generation.
England still),
am
is
and the kind of
remembered I
This
what we have come
to in
1894 (with excellent wood engravers
in
by which we
art
shall
be
end of the nineteenth century
at the
!
speaking of magazines like Good Words and
Casseir s Alagazine, where
wood engra\ing
is
still
largely employed. It
for
may be
as well to explain here that the reasons
employing the medium of wood engraving
elaborate
illustrations
which, such
as
we
see
for in
American magazines, were formerly only engraved on copper or
and can
steel,
are
—
(i) rapidity of production,
(2) the almost illimitable
be
number
produced from casts from
The broad
distinction
drawn
wood
blocks.
between the old and new
methods of wood engraving the lines were
of copies that
is,
clearly un
that in early days lh(;
wood block and
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION. drawn cut away by the engraver, who
the part not
endeavoured
make a
to
hnes.
artist's
It
perfect
now
is
photograph from
transfer a
block
{see p.
167), also to
brush
in tint,
and even
drawing on
to
movable
engraved
on
to
wood
photograph a water-colour
to
own way.
days of book
were
the
text
were
all
together,
and
thus,
of
block books produced in
necessity (as in the old
Belgium
illustration,
invented,
of the
letters
wood
the
Holland and
the
to
draw on the wood with a
type-letters
and the
illustration
of the
the wood, leaving the engraver to
the very earliest
before
on
life
turn the tints into lines in his In
fac-simile
common custom
a
the
in
fifteenth
century),
there was character and individuality in every page; the picture, rough as
it
often was, harmonising with
the text in an unmistakable artistic
parts and
more harmony of
elaborate
illustrations
was an
illustration
the word. that
manner.
From an
point of view, there was a better balance of
It
effect
illustration
in
type
day.
The
the true sense of
interpreted something to the reader
words were incapable of doing
movable
than in the more
of the present
was
first
;
and even when
introduced,
the
simple
character of the engravings harmonised well with the letters.
There
is
a broad line of demarcation,
WOOD
E.\GRAVL\G.
wood engravings
indeed, between these early for
for the
Society)
art
movement
in is
the
and the
American
development
last
Americans,
peculiar to them, have
na'ivcti?.
set themselves the task of outstripping in the
beauty and quality of magazine
That they have succeeded effects,
medium
to
Have you seen
the Century
is
meet people
well
in
The
delicate
through the
known, and
it
England asking,
number
the last
Magazine f"
illustrations.
colour,
call
nations
all
obtaining
in
of wood-engraving,
common
is
"
and what painters
The
magazines.
because the
important,
with an energy and
Weigel
1872, from the
in
and recently reproduced by
Leipsic,
Holbein
of the
(such,
Ars Moriendi," purchased
Museum
British
collection at
the
"
the
as
instance,
i8s
Harper s
of
fashion
is
to
or
admire
them, and English publishers are easily found to
devote time antl capital to distributing American
magazines
which come
to
England
free of duty),
The
to the prejudice of native productions. for
the
excellence
(which
is
freely
American wood-engraving and printing the
first
work.
place,
more
capital
is
reason
admitted)
of
that, in
is
employed upon the
The American wood-engraver
is
an
artist in
every sense of the word, and his education
is
not
considered complete without years of foreign study.
li
(
No.
A
Portrait engraved on
XXXV. wood
at the
Office of the
Century Mag.\zine. Example of portraiture from It
is
American engravers in
England
is
under
the Century Magazine.
note the achievements of the
interesting to
at a
time when wood engraving
a cloud.
This portrait was
photographed from
afterwards worked up by hand and
engraved
in
New
York.
most
life
and
skilfully
XXXV. (Photo^rafh /rom
life,
en^mvcd on
-.void.
From
tin
Century Afajazliu-.)
lyOOn EAGRA VJNG.
The American engraver the
artist
as
— an
have seen them
I
rule,
by
— working
Harper s,
New
the
Cetitury
in the
same
England the
artist,
as a
does not have any direct communication with
America the
In
publisher,
having a very large circulation for his works, to bring the culture of
own country
his
often,
York,
in
In
side.
wood engraver.
the
matter
at
Magazine, and Scribncr s studio, side
always en rapport with
is
important
Europe and the
to the aid of the
spending sometimes
The
magazine.
result
is
able
wood-engraver,
hundred pounds on
five or six
the illustrations of a single
is
capital of
number
of a monthly
an engraver s success of a
very remarkable kind.
A
discussion of the merits of the various styles
wood
of
engraving, and of the different methods
of drawing on wood, such as that initiated by the late
Frederick Walker, A.R.A.
William
.Small, E.
the styles of Mr.
;
A. Abbey, Alfred Parsons,
does not come into the scope of but
it
be
will
useful
to
this
to
refer
etc.
publication,
one
or
two
opinions on the American system. "
Book
illustration as
an
Mr.
art," as
Comyns Carr
pointed
out in his lectures at the Society of Arts ten years ago, "is
founded upon wood engraving, and
we must look
if
we
it
is
to
wood engraving
that
are to have any revival of the kind of beauty
which early-printed books possess.
In the mass of work
now
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATIOX.
I90
produced, there
very
is
Holbein laboured. means, our modern
most
proceeding
of
by the
seems rather by preference
not unjust, to
is
it
has
say,
become
tinguishable from a steel engraving excepting by
Hubert
Mr.
Herkomer,
very wide experience " In
simplest
to take the
A wood
and complex way of expressing himself
difficult
engraving,
artist
upon which
trace of the principles
little
Instead
its inferiority."
who
R.A.,
graphic
scarcely dis-
has had a
arts,
says
modern times a body of engravers has been
raised
have brought the
in the
modern work,
of perfection, that the most
Americans,
done
is
to
wood
of engraving on
art
show
tlie
the art of the draughtsman.
:
up who
to such a degree
especially that of the
of the engraver rather than
skill
do not
This, I
hesitate to say,
is
a
Take up any number of the Century or Harpers magazines, and you will see that effect is the one aim. You marvel at the handling of the engraver, and forget the of decadence.
sign
artist.
Correct, or honest, drawing
kind of illustration
is
no longer wanted.
is
most pernicious
This
and
to the student,
7vill
not last "
America
a child
is
of promise in art
full
destined to be a great master
and they
Mr.
W.
will
let
be the
first
himself
system, and his words
steel-line
is
come with
misapplied when
it
engraving or etching,
is
in
its
that
is
youthful
to foster this style of
it."
strongly
the other side of the Atlantic "Talent
first
to correct
thus
— a child
us not imitate
Linton, the well-known
J.
expresses
so
Americans were the
efforts or errors. art,
;
wood engraver,
on the
modern
great force from
:
spent on endeavours to rival following
brush-marks,
in
pretending to imitate crayon-work, charcoal, or lithography, and in striving
who
shall scratch the greatest
number of
lines
on a
WOOD ENGRAVING. given space without thought of whether such muhiplicity of lines
adds anything to the expression of the picture or the beauty of
How much
the engraving.
much
of talent
is
here thrown away
of force that should have helped towards growth
having well done the lowest thing having
for that
— the
worth having
in this slave's play for a prize not
the
in
is
how
!
wasted
fame of
and
engraver's art,
neglected the study of the highest
For
!
the
it is
lowest and the last thing about which an artist should concern himself, this excessive fineness
and minuteness of work.
In engraving, as in other branches of
art,
the first
.
.
thing
is
drawing, the second driving, the third dra^vingP
This
is
the protcssional view, ;ibly expressed, of
many minds
a matter which has been exercising
of late folly
;
of
and
is
worth quoting,
if
only to show the
imitating a system acknowledged by
e.x-
perts to be founded on false principles.
But there
another view of the matter which
is
should not be lost sight of the is,
of.
American system of
Whatever the opinion illustration
may
be, there
on the other side of the Atlantic, an amount of
energy,
enterprise,
cultivation
delicacy of manipulation, and cleverly
organised
of
provide
to
hand and eye
individual
a
wide
industry,
continent
with a better art than anything yet attempted
any country.
Some
Americans have
fine
lately
engravings,
which
in
the
been distributing amongst
the people, such, for instance, as the portraits (en-
graved from photograjihs from
life)
which have
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION.
192
appeared
in
Harper s and
the Century magazines,
only reach the cultivated few in Europe books. art
It
effect
The
is
of this widespread
distribution will
published
at the
and refined
same
want of sincerity
is
a
being
That there
the movement,
in
that
a
is
"things
exactly what they seem," that something
not
be well
will
providers
to
may be admitted
might be done,
better
our
for
remember
that
illustrators
the
capital
ever-increasing knowledge and cultivation.
Ceniury magazine,
"The
on
ten
years
and
ago,
there
;
art
Americans
advancing upon us with the power of
article
and
price;
amongst a variety of people on the western
fostered
it
anything
illustration
continent, learned and unlearned.
much
than
illustrations,
England
in
taste for delicate
but
be.
"prairie flower" holds in her hand a better
magazine, as regards
are
expensive
in
worth considering what the ultimate
are
and
In the
was an
Pupils of Bewick," with illustrations
admirably reproduced from proofs of early wood engravings, by "photo-engraving."
This ledge
is
of
America
;
noteworthy, as showing that the knowstyles
and
engravings by
is
also,
disseminated
how easy
"process,"
it
everywhere is
to
reproduce
and how important
have a clear copyright laiv on this
subject.
in
to
woo/) EXGRAVIiW,.
Of
wood
English
the
commercial wood engraving
many
is
remains that
fact still
and publishers, as
editors
it
the
England much
in
behevc the
I
and of
engravers,
present state of the profession
has been written.
'93
relied
on by
prints with
more
ease and certainty than any of the process blocks.
That there are
those
Biscombe Gardner and
England
in
unable to reproduce here), that
engraving results,
I
of writing
expend
On
still
am
is
capital
difticult
upon
the ne.xt page
am
wood
But at the moment
it
to get
for is
many
publishers to
ordinary illustrations.
an example of good wood
eneravine.
'
in
I
as a vital art, capable of the highest
also well aware.
it
believe
Mr.
(like
whose work
others,
DRIVING
HOME THE
PICS."
(Acndemy Notes,
(jOHN PEDDEK.) 1891.)
194
(
XXXVl.
No.
Joan of
Arc's House at Rouen,
liy
the late
Samuel Prout. Engraved on wood by Mr.
J- 1^-
Cooper, from a
water-colour drawing by Samuel Prout.
The flat
original drawing,
made
with a reed pen and
washes of colour, was photographed on to the
wood
block,
and the engraver interpreted the various
tints into line.
tones obtained engraver's
art,
The method in
an
line art
is
interesting,
and the
show the resources
of
the
rather carelessly set aside in
these days.
This engraving
(London
:
is
from
Sampson Low
&
Nonnandy Co.)
Picturesque.
No.
X.VW
I.
SIGN bV
WALTER
i
CHAPTER TIIK
jo
DECOKATIVK PAGE.
modern
and are
tile
cusciiib/c
where an to
of
more considered, to
educated
the
and
a it
printed is
work of an
have been the presiding genius
their nielhoLls to mcjdern
page
pleasant to
intelligent
the illustrators, whilst they are fully the spirit of the past, have
side
where design
illustration,
be able to draw attention
seems
more dccunitive
turn ncxl to thu
of
school,
VI.
;
art
mind where
imbued with
taken pains to adajH
re(iuirements.
the liirmingham Municli)al School ot
An.
I
reler lu
198
(
)
XXXVII.
N.'.
Decorative Page, by A.
(From Mans
This
Antk-i sen's Fairy Tales.
good
a
is
example
J.
Gaskin.
London
:
George xVUen.)
appropriate
of the
decoration of a page without any illustration in the
The
ordinary sense of the word.
treatment
ornament harmonises well with old-faced type
The /he is
original
same
size
excellent
in
was drawn
as
the
in
pen and
reproduction.
colour,
almost
equal
ink,
of
letter.
about
The ground to a wood
engraving.
This
is
another example of the possibilities
process, rightly handled,
and
also of effect
without reduction of the drawing.
of
produced
:7inDGRS€riS
s
u
scoRies,
7/,
Tlie Nightingale. In China, as you know, Emperor is a Chinaman, and all tliose he has about him are Chinamen the
\\^
too.
The
following story
happened many years ago, but that
\f
is
why
just
it is
worth hearing before is
it
Tne Em-
forgotten.
castle was the most beautiful in the world and was entirely of fine porcelain it was
peror's
;
very costly, but so brittle
and delicate that one had
to
touch,
to be very
In the garden were seen the most woncareful.
derful
.
flowers,
No. X.X.WII.
to
the
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATli^X. Whilst using wood engraving
the
freely,
illus-
Birmingham (notably Mr. Gaskin), are
trators of
showing what can be clone relief processes,
to
in line
drawing by the
produce colour and ornament
which harmonise well with the letterpress of a book. This seems an important step
and
if
the right direction,
in
work emanating from
the
apparently, confined to an
less,
heavy
and
(jutline
from what
I
see, not
this school
archaic
style,
ornament
mediaeval
knowing the school
were
(I
to
speak
personally),
there are possibilities for an extended popularity for
who have worked under its influence.* The examples of decorative pages by experienced
those
illustrators
But the band of
doing.
design will
if
is
be
much in
be only
it
it
artists are
who
consider
study of the past,
the pages of mediceval books, will
greatly aid the student of design. I
others,
should be, and than
A
the near future. in
some
illustrators
smaller than
and
Crane
Mr. Walter
serve to remind us of what
will
it
like
have mentioned a few
fine
In the
Appendix
examples of decorative
may be
pages, with and without illustrations, which usefully studied at the British *
1
many the
mention
this school as
others where design and
same roof with success
Museum.
a reiuesentative one
wood engraving
in 1894.
;
;
there are
are studied under
No. XX.WIII.
WOOD ENGRAVING. In called
all
these pages,
"colour"
throughout
will
it
203
be observed, what
black and white
in
showing that a page can be thoroughly
;
decorative without illustrations to the text. criticised,
is
])reserved
is
some
crude and capable of more pages, as a rule,
show the
Closely
may appear
of the old block designs
skilful treatment, but the
sense
artistic
—unmistak-
ably, mysteriously, wonderfully.
In these and similar pages, such, for instance, as
Le Mer des Hisioires, produced le Rouge in 1488 (also in the the is
harmony of
interesting It is in
Paris
British
by Pierre
Museum),
line ilrawing with the printtxl letters
and
{Sec Appendix.)
instructive.
the production of the decorative page that
wood engraving quarters,
as
produced
in
]\Ir.
in
William
asserts
may be
supremacy
its
seen
in
still
in
some
the beautiful books
England during the past few years by where
INIorris,
typefounder, papermaker,
work under the guiding handwork) of the author. us rather as exotics
;
artist,
printer,
spirit
wood
engraver,
and bookbinder
(when not the
They
actual
are interesting to
an attempt to reproduce the
exact work of the past under modern conditions, conditions which render the price within reach only of a lew, but they are at least a protest against ihc
modern shams with which we are
all
familiar.
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION The
nineteenth-century
for
the
imitate
not
love
author's
him
hterature of his past has led
to
only the style, but the outward aspect of old books
and by a
has lent himself only too readily)
t(.)
thing w'hich appears to be what
is
The genuine outcome style
produce somenot.
of media;val thought and
be treated
end of the nineteenth century as a fashion
be imitated in books, such as are to be seen
under glass cases to
it
— of patience and leisure — seems to
at the
to
;
of frauds (to which his publisher
series
be feared
the British
in
the
that
Museum.
twentieth-century
It
is
reader,
looking back, will see few traces worth preserving, either of originality or of individuality in the
work
of the present.
What
are the
facts
?
The typefounder
of to-
day takes clown a Venetian writing-master's copy-
book
of
pen,
the
fifteenth
forms
a
language
much
vogue
of which
with living
in
whirl of
clothes himself
in
movable face
"
;
imitating
and,
strcjkes
of the
type,
reed
called
a style
in
of letter
but the style and character
altogether to the past. the
aids,
a
" old
in 1894,
belongs
such
of
set
printer's in
century,
downward
the thick
exactly
man of letters movement and
Thus,
of to-day
discovery
the handwritinu' of the Venetian
No. DESIGN FOR This
is
XXXIX.
THE TITLE PACE OF THE " HOBBY-HORSE." (sELWVN
a
rediictiim /! ftvccss from
a large quarto
'.vchhI
IMAGE.)
cngravliis
)
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION.
2o6
scholar as deliberately
Norwegian dons a
as the
bear-skin.
1 he next step
is
to present
book a
his
in
series
of so-called "engravings," which are not engrav-
reproductions by process
ings but
The "advance
blocks from
relief
type
for the
square inch, value
from
of science"
of
The
modern
next step
coarse-textured "
necessity
is
worm
when every
of to-day,
plates
iii/a'^iio
small
cost per
from the
manufacture
to
artistic
but
also
is
rough-edged,
purporting to be carefully
paper,
by hand labour, machinery, and
a
edition dc luxe,
The rough
hand-made."
prints.
and genuineness.
interest
its
at
not only taking
is
of old
producing photo-
and other
steel
printing press,
the
in
edge,
which was
was
sheet of paper
now
imitated
finished
by
successfully
handled lovingly by the book-
is
regardless of the
f^ict
these
that
roughened sheets can be bought by the pound
The
Drury-lane. call
that
it
no
the
less)
worst,
that can
clothing
a
— the
and
last
fraud
be referred
"skin of
to
in
can
(I
here
is,
—
that
vellum"
appropriately encloses our modern edition dc luxe is
made from
pulp,
rags,
and other
dc'bris.
That
the gold illuminations on the cover are no longer real
gold,
and that the handsomely bound book,
THE DECORATIVE PAGE. with
when
margins, cracks
its fair
207
half with a " bang,"
in
opened, are other matters connected
first
witli
the discoveries of science, and the substitution of
machinery
modern
hand
for
Looking
at the
we
which
labour,
and
enterprise
"decorative pages"
in
inclined to ask
of the lost
—
Is the " setting-out of a
past,
one
"
one
page
the designing of a coin
arts, like
to
most books,
and remembering the achievements of the is
owe
invention.*
?
What
harmony of
style
How many
authors or illustrators of books show
do we see
that they care for th(;
The
fact
the
that
is,
in
an ordinar)- book
?
"look" of a printed page?
modern author
shirks
his
responsibilities, following the practice of the greatest
There are so many
writers of our day. -
— as they
are called
author takes
little
—
for
producing books that the
interest
in
the
Ruskin, delicate draughtsman as he has contril)uted
little to
of the pages that
Mr.
Allen,
print(!d
in
at
the
amples of the * Mr.
matter. is
known
Mr. to be,
the cnsciubic or appearance
How from
Orpington.
the printing press of
Mis books are well
modern manner, but judged by ex-
past,
a deadly monotony pervades the
Cobden Sanderson's
lecture
before the " Arts and Crafts Society," of liook lovers.
" facilities"
is
on Bookbinding, read well
worth the attention
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION. page
in
master's
th.e
;
exactly
his
like
noblest
weakest,
lines together as
Mr. Hamerton,
the
in
thoughts are printed
and are
drawn out
all
making of macaroni
artist as well as author, is
!
content to
describe the beauty of forest trees, ferns and flowers, the \-ariety of
underwood and the
word, in an article
the
in
some picturesque form
or
like (nearly
Portfolio,
graceful
line),
indicating the varieties pictorially on
The
page.
late
the
without printed
Lord Tennyson and other poets
have been content line, little
every
referring to
for years to sell their
song by the
heeding, apparently, in what guise
it
was
given to the world. In
these
seems small,
and a
printed
days
monotony
the
of
uniformity
pervade the pages, alike of great and
to
letter
from a friend
by a machine
!
is
now
often
No. XL. **SCAK[,F.T POl'l'lES."
(\V.
J.
MUCKLEV.)
This bcMutiful piece of pen work by Mr. Muckley (from his picture in the Royal Academy, 1S85) was too delicate in the finer passages to reproduce well by any relief process (the pale lines having come out black); but as an
example
of breadth,
be surpassed.
and indication of surfaces
in
pen and ink,
it
could hardly
CHAPTER
AM)
AUTITOK, ILLUSTRATOR,
now
•VV us
\II.
lU.ISl
slmrily
CDiisiilcr
the Illustrator, ;uul their inlluence
IT
1
KR.
llu-
Author,
Publisher, aiul
tlu-
ou the appearance and
production of a book.
If
it
be im-
possible in these days (and, in spite of the cttorts
of Mr. William Morris and others, impossil)le) details,
author also to
modern
it
seems worth
stamp
can
considerin;^' in
with
it
what extent he
seems
is
his
in
to all
be its
what way the
own
indi\iduality
in
making use of
justified
;
appliances.
How
may
then,
far,
responsible
for
excellence
the
he
'I'heoreticallv,
par
it
produce a Genuine book
to
;
he
is is,
the author be said of
state tlu'
to
be
things just ([uoted
man
of taste and
?
culture
or should be, in most cases,
the arbiter, the dictator to his publisher, the chooser of
styl(!.
i
hf book
Is his,
ami
it
is
his business to
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION. decide
what
in
concrete
form
;
should
ideas
his
become
aiding his judgment with
the pubhsher
experience, governing the finance, and carrying out
How
details.
facilities for
comes
then
it
with the present
that,
reproducing anything that the hand can
put upon paper, the latter-day nineteenth-century
author
is
so
much
in
the hands of others as to the
appearance of his book
man
educated
has
?
It is
not
been
because the so-called taught
to
use
his
hands as the missal-writers and authors of mediaeval
The modern
times taught themselves to use theirs. author,
who
age of
"
is,
say, fifty )-ears old,
advanced
method of expression "
old, in
for
pothooks and hangers."
was born
when
civilisation,"
an
in
only
the
the
young was one
The
child of ten years
whose eye was mentally forming
pictures, taking
unconsciously the facts of perspective and the
like,
had a pencil
fingers until
tied with string to his
two
crosses and dashes, of
modern handwriting, which
has been accepted by the great, as well as the
ones of the earth, as the
medium
best
munication between intelligent beings gardless
of
first
he had' mastered the ups and downs,
character,
style,
he scribbles away
!
So much
straggling style of penmanship.
or
;
of
and
little,
comso, re-
picturesqueness,
for
our generally
Author, illustrator, and publisher. There
213
no doubt that the author of the future
is
have to come more into personal contact with
will
the artist than he
has l)een
and that the distinction chapter,
between
records of
(2)
the habit of doing, to
which are
illustrations
and
facts,
in
referred
I
works of
art,
in
the
to
will
first
be (i)
have
to
be more clearly drawn.
Amongst producers affects
the
expert
in
(i)
the needs
in
one that
only touch upon because
is
illustrator
I
:
— That
(2)
The
b)-
it
house
should
to
determine
be reproduced.
resources of an establishment will not always
admit of such an arrangement publishers easily
who
;
but the editors and
are intormed on these matters can
be distinguished by the quality of their publi-
cations.
By
the substitution of process blocks for
wood engravings
in
books, publishers are deprived
to a great extent of the fostering care of the
wood engraver,
Amongst none, the
I
to
master
which they have been accustomed.
the influences affecting the illustrator,
venture to say, are more prejudicial than
acceptance
inartistic It
it
should be an
suitable for publication;
is
what means
community of book
there
every publishing
whether a drawing
and
the
by
editors
and
publishers
of
drawings.
would be
difficult,
I
think, to jtoint to a period
THE ART OF I/JJS'JRAnOX.
214
much
when
so
The
causes
work was procluccd
b;icl
already
ha\'e
as at present.
[luinted
Ijeea
the
out,
beautiful processes for the reproduction of drawings
scarcely understood
are
the
jM'ocesses
these
in
majority ot
the
b\-
publishers, authors, or critics.
It
htirrying
da_\s,
m
draq-ging otn' national reputation
artists,
the luismc of
is
which
is
the mire .md
perplexing the student.
The modern
publisher,
it
may be
said without
ofience, understands the manulacture and the com-
merce of a book better than the
how should
it
be otherwise
were ever produced, from an
art
in
TIkj best
'!
artistic
men removed tVom
of
and
life,
unknown lisher,
!
aiid
to
ot
art
and
the commercial scramble
whcjm an advertisement was a
thing-
The
ordinary art educ.ition
the
multitude of affairs requiring his
atterition, untit
whether an
nd
point ot \iew,
were inspired and designed by students letters,
/^
it.
books that
him
a pub-
generally, for the task of deciding
illustration
when he cheapens
ot
is
good
or l)ad, or
how
tar
the production ot his book by
using photographic illustrations ("snap-shots" troin
nature)- he
is
justified in calling
deterioration in in
England
may
well be
is
them "art."
The
the character of book illustration
a serious matter,
drawn
to
it.
and public attention
AUTHOR, ILLUSTRATOR, AND PUBLISHER.
Here we look
The
the author.
— especially
for
the
active
215
co-operation
of
far-reaching spread of education
technical art education
—
is
tending to
bring together, as they were never brought before in this
author
century, the author a
ot
book
will
and the
The
illustrator.
give more attention to the
appearance of his pages, to the decorative character
and ornament, whilst the average
of type
artist
be better educated from a literary point of view;
will
and, to use a French ci]uivaK:nt, will be
word
more en
which there
for
is
no
>-apport with both author
anel |)ublisher.
I'or the
" It
is
a poor career,
of distinction
anil
has practised
it
anything properly
tlo
is
methods
in
is
even
content to-da)'
me
lately (an artist
his profession
in
twenty
— not
vogue
to
success
an ideal career^
who
Blackburn," said a well-
illustrator
for
give satisfaction
man,
to
connection.
known newspaper
" It
by profession there seems no
no lime
leisure;
artistic in this
illustraiDr
years), to
s;iys
with
— and
who
"you seldom
yourself."
another, a younger
more
the
slap-dash
uiih the income he
receives for them.
Referring again to the question "
W
liy is
in
the .lllioucuni,
not drawing for the press taught
in
our
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION. Government schools reasons is
why
of art ?"
not generally taught (i)
drawing
sonal
teaching
understand
wondered It
is
schools are
is
the
(2)
very
possible
few
in
do
not
not to be
is
at.
students are taught
were
to
become
The masters
part, well and worthily occupied
groundwork of knowledge drawing
for
the
that
the
press.
our schools
most cases as
when
painters,
tration, or design.
in
in
majority
the
tion
per-
classes
exceptii.Mis,
possible career for
to
more
throughout
— which
not the fault of the masters
they
—
art
in
masters
art
the ncio processes
that
of art if
than
with
country,
the
in art
for reproduction requires
schools;
public
think the prhicipal
I
the art of ilkistration by the processes
that
is
the only illus-
ot
most
are, for the
giving a good
in
every student,
to
There
best jireparation
for
is
this
as
no ques-
work
is
the best Qeucral art teaching that can be obtained.
The from
student must have drawn from the anticpie and life
;
he must have learned com[)osition and
design; have studied from nature the of light in
short,
painter
of
and shade,
aerial perspective
relati\-e
and the
have followed the routine study
whose
first
monochrome.
aim should be
values
to be a
like lor
;
a
master
AUTHOR, ILLUSTRATOR, AND PUBLISHER. more
In the illustrator
technical
process
b}-
He
needs personal help.
what he he
doing
is
;
for
and
by touch
is
require
know,
he
as to the reasons for
of process ivork
xoliat style
and so
toiipcraniciil best fitted,
All this has to be considered
on.
to
have a multitude of
will
"somebody"
questions to ask
which the young
parts,
will
217
we
if
are to keep
a good standard of art teaching for illustration.
The
fact that
a pen-and-ink drawing ivhich looks
well scarcely ever reproduces well, must always be
Many
remembered.
mended
art
in
drawings
schools for
process,
for
com
good draughtsmanship
or design, will not reproduce as expected, for want of exact knowledge of the requirements of process
whereas a drawing by a trained look belter in the reproduction. especially to
The
topical
prints has, less
of course,
what becomes of
is
style,
refer
to architectural
aiul
more
sketcher
licence,
and
in
weekly-
ii
matters
his lines in their rapid transit
Still
the illustrator, of whatever
has a right to complain
if
his tlrawini'-
reproduced on a scale not intended by him, or by
a process for which badly,
;
often
like.
illustrator
through the press. rank or
will
These remarks
ornament and design,
drawings and the
hand
it
is
not
and with bad materials.
fitted,
or
if
printed
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION. But the sketchy a
little
only
overdone
when
sequently
great
to
allied
and
ability
of talent in this country which control.
is
when we want
to
There
con-
plenty
is
for
summer
be
tolerable
— remains
wasted
plavs about us like
It
—being
the hands of a few.
in
seems
style of illustration
at present,
want of
lightning
precision and accuracy of the
the
telegraph.
The
art of colour printing
intaglio processes, or
become
should beautiful
the
such
child-iace,
w
made and
1)\-
young
and
without the
The
as an
taste,
is
its
the
and the
ot
colour- printer.
and invention of Kate
wood engraver and
the
artists as II. S.
Walter Crane, and the
a
over
owes much
illustrator, there is little
sympathetic aid of such
it
means,
Kate Greenaway,
latter
to
that
scattered
thousands;
of
success
Admitting the grace,
Greenaway
Millais,
artist, like
established.
prestige
be by the
industry
By
here.
hundreds
by
reputation of a
her
important
an
mentioned
be
it
has arrived at such proficiency and
relief blocks)
has
(whether
by chromo-lithogra[)ln-, or on
late
doubt
that,
e.xample and
Marks,
R..\.,
Randolph Caldecott,
she would never have received the praise bestowed
upon her by M. Ernest Chesneau, or Mr. Ruskin.
These things show how intimately the
arts
of
AUTHOR. Ill.L'SIRATOR. AXD
more sympathy and communicalion should
that
between
exist
219
and how important
rL-procUiction aftect reputations, it is
PLJIIJS.'/ICR.
procUicers.
all
the
In
mass
of
pubh'cations issuing from the press the
ilUistrated
exp.rt can discern clearly where this sympathy and
knowledge
exist,
the
has been allied to practical knowledge
artist,
and where
ability,
on the part of
of the requirements of illustration.
The some
l)usiness of man\-
be multiplied
to
be to contribute,
will
making of
iorm. to the
in the press
and, in order to learn
;
the technique and obtain employment,
most promising pupils have
in
pictures and designs
to
fall
some
into the
of
thct
ways of
the producers of cheap illustratinns, Christmas cards,
and the
like.
On
the other h:uul. a knowledge of
the mechanical processes for reproducing drawings (as is
it
is
being pressed forward
technical schools)
in
leading to disastrous conseciuences, as
on every railway In
"book
the
less of the
Ijookstall in the
of
the
Ironi careless
processes
;
process
"
\\v
hope
to see
wash drawings by the cheap
fewer of the blots upon the
modern reader seems
course.
seen
"lath and plaster'' style of illustration,
produced
the
fiuure
may be
kingdom.
to
i)age,
which
take as a mailer of
In books, as in [leriodicals, the illustrator by will
have
to divest himself, as far as possible.
THE ART OF ILLVSTTATION.
220
of that tendency to scratchiness and exaggeration that injures so
many
process ilkistrations.
In short,
he must be more careful, and give more thought to the
meaning of
hues and washes, and to the
his
adequate expression of textures.
There artists
a great deal yet to learn, for neither
is
of our best illustrators have the time
new methods,
clination to take to the criticism,
who
Few
nor writers have mastered the subject.
it
is
or
the
in-
and, as regards
hardly to be expected that a reviewer
has a pile of illustrated books to pronounce
upon, should
know
he sees before misled by those
the reason of the failures that
Thus
him.
public
the
who should be
the value and importance of the
is
olten
guides as to
its
new systems
of
illustration.*
In
who
conclusion,
be he author,
towards in
let
remember
us
that
everyone
cultivates a taste for artistic beauty in books,
style,
artist,
relieving
or artificer, the
may do something
monotony and
confusion
which pervades the outward aspect of so
• There seems but one rule of criticism in this connection. a book illustration comes out coarsely and (as a
mere smudge, the process
photograph may have been employed.
is
is
If
often the case)
blamed, when the drawing or
quite unsuitable
for
the
process
AUTHOR, ILLUSTRATOR, AND PUBLISHER.
many
books.
missal
a far cry from the work of the
It is
writer
a monastery
in
modern book, but the shown
in
the pages of a
to
and feehng whicli was
taste
and sixteenth centuries
fifteenth
tlic
221
in
the prothiction of books, exists in the nineteenth,
imder difhcuk concHtions.
"book
the
In
of the
future"
author
the
will
help personally, more than he has ever done, as
The
have already suggested. ventilated yet, nor can
the day
hand of the author and
of
lines
There
is
modern
touch upon
I
not far distant
is
no
will
limit to
appliances,
if
when
I
not half-
is
further, but
it
power of the
the
be tested to the utmost,
will
kinds
all
really
subject
a])pear
the
in
text.
what may be done with
only the idea
seized with
is
intelligence.
Two
however, remain unanswered
questions,
(i)
Whether, as a matter of language and
we
are communicating
much
better than the
inscriptions,
on
and
stones
art of
then, cultivate
drawing
for
worthy profession.
the
Let
cuneiform
in
monuments.
illustrative
making the best use of modern us,
did
ancients
Whether, as a matter of
Let
history,
information to each other
art,
(2)
we
are
appliances.
more systematically the press, it
and
not
be
treat
said
it
as
a
again.
THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION. as
was
it
of
to
Let
wheels
the
of
— that
soon
reproduction
time
pictorial
the
— that,
expression
mw
said
move
press
have
The
"
things,
processes
hand, but where are
to
not be
it
in
been
think not,
I
!
is
are
chemistry and
ntilised too
by one who has devoted
these
to
rej)r()diiction
artists?"
and
nic lately
a lifetime
halt
the
that
too
fast
our
chariotfor
us
have been
sun's
rays
short,
the processes of
perfected
and that an
— which
has
before
their
— the
art of
art
for
ages
best understood by the Jap;incsc,
may
existed
be cultivated amongst us to a more practical end.
AKK CASE."
(U-
11.
IJAIKU.)
[^Royal Acctdcnty, 1S91.)
*^\ 6 ^ A fty* or TBK
UNIVERSITY
:^3
)
studi:nts' dr.\\vixc;s. The
folknving
fcv.ir
siudents at \'ictoria intcrcstiiit^ as
Nos.
I,
3,
and
grounds altogether problem
The
aiul adaptability
outline in the experiment as 4,
it
— the
for
much
will
ilrawing'
be
from
life,
by
from art schools, arc
fresh
tentative work.
powers
test their
examples of Street,
object
has
line i^'oik
;
been
to
a\-oitiiii_<^
as possible. obser\-ed,
evade
back-
too read}' solution of a difficult
in line.
Tliese drawings were
made
direct
from
life,
in
line
a .sj'stem not to be recommended, excepting as an ex-
periment of powers. ICxamplcs of students' wash drawings, in future editions
of this book.
S:c., will
appear
224
)
No. XLI. " Spam's/!
]!y
This
is
A
JJ'diiiaii."
Stud}^ from Life.
Ina Bidder. pen and ink and
a clever sketch with
and drawn with a bold
free
Inrush,
hand, reproduced on
an (untouched) process block.
It
shows
originality
of treatment and courage on the part of the student also the value of great reduction to give strength effect.
(Size of drawing, 16 x
11.',
in.)
and
No.
Xl.l.
226
(
)
No. XLII. '^
Sketch from
by Estelle d'Avigdcr.
Life,''
This student was the winner lately
but
not
clearly
in
direction
the
After considerable success in writes:
"I
still
in a prize
competition
She has undoubted
T/ie Stiuiio.
in
find the
pen a
ability,
of line drawing.
painting, this student difiicult
instrument to
wield."
In
this
school of
influence of
Aubrey
of the dense-black,
reckless
sketch we see the
Beardsley and others
modern
illustrators.
(Size of drawing, lo x
6-^
in.)
Zinc process.
E.fAvicE^i^^
No. XI. n.
228
(
)
No. XLIII. Sketch from Life, by G. C.
This pen-and-ink drawing especially in the hair
modelled
if
drawn
;
it
first in
is
interesting for colour,
would have been better pencil or chalk.
This student has an obvious
work
;
the touch
is
Marks.
aptitude
for
very good for a beginner.
(Size of drawing, \o\ x S in.)
Zinc process.
line
Nu. XI. III.
(
230
)
No. XLIV.
Bough of
A most
Coiiuiwii Furze,
by William Frenxh.
careful study from nature in
(Size of original drawing, 14 x
1
1
J,
in.)
pen and
ink.
Reproduced
by zinc process.
This
artist
learned the
process in a month.
method of
line
work
for
•ME
'
tj ,,,M im
^"4,, I
''1
-*L
£0n-)k. ^/^ 'f Hlf^//
.No.
XLIV
232
(
)
CANTOR LFXTTRES.
The Illustrations liart,
of
in this
Volume are,
reproductions of drawings which
study
Blackburn
and at his
comparison
lectures
for the
for
shown
most
purposes
by
Mr.
Lectures in Art Schools, enlarged
to a scale of 15 to 20
Students
— are
—
ft.
who may be unable
to
attend
these
can see some of the original drawings on
application
(by letter)
Henry Blackburn's AVestmin^ter.'
to
'"
The
Secretary, at
Mr.
Studio, 123, Victoria Street,
APPENDIX. Process.— 2.
P110TO-7.INC
I.
4.
Gelatine Process.— 3.
Half-tone.—
Intaglio Processes.— 5. Drawing Materials.— 6. Books for
Students.— 7. Decorative Pages.— S. List of Photo-engravers.
PHOTO-ZINC PROCESS. for the reproduction of line drawings in relief, suitable for printing at the type press.
Description of the Process. drawing photographed to the of
it
—The
on to a sensitized zinc
plate.
and
This
image of the drawing lying upon the zinc
stage
first
size required,
is
to
have the
to transfer a print
print, or
plate,
is
photographic
of greasy sub-
stance (bichromate of potash and
gelatine),
inked up with a
roller
then immersed in a bath of
and
ether,
nitric acid
;
the plate
is
and
is
afterwards
which cuts away the parts which were
left
white upon the paper, and leaves the lines of the drawing in relief.
This " biting
in," as
it
is
called, requires
considerable
experience and attention, according to the nature of the drawing.
Thus, the lines are turned into metal plate,
when mounted on wood
ready to be printed from,
if
in a
few hours, and the
to the height of type-letters,
is
necessary, at the rate of several
thousands an hour.
The cost a
number
are
of these blocks averages 6d. the square inch where
made
at
one time, the minimum price being
Small book illustrations by
this process,
5
'-.
by firms who make
a specialty of producing single illustrations, are often charged 9d.
the square inch, with a
minimum
of 7/6
;
but the cost should
never be more than this for a single block by the zinc process.
234
(
)
GELATINE PROCESS. FOR THE RF.rRODUCTlON OF DRAWINGS IN LINE IN RELIEF, SUITARLE
FOR
This
is
more
a
I'RINTINi;
delicate
It is called
reh'ef block.
The drawing
laid
mi.xture of gelatine
light,
i.e.,
the glass. cast can
In
is
a
size (as before),
The
and bichromate of potash). exposed to the
part of this
light is absorbent,
The
in water swells up.
and
part exposed to the
the lines of the drawing, remains near the surface of
Thus we have a sunk mould from which
hands
this process
pale, uncertain lines
There
method of obtaining
glass plate (previously coated with a
be taken, leaving the
skilful
and
sensitive
I'RESS.
the " gelatine," or " Gillot " process.
upon a
thin, sensitive film not
when immersed
and
HE TYPE
1
photographed to the required
is
and the negative
AT
a metal
lines in relief as in the /inc process.
admits of more delicate gradations,
can be reproduced with tolerable
no process yet invented which gives better
results
fidelity.
from a
pen-and-ink drawing for the type press.
Reproductions of
by
this
process;
generally too
The
and charcoal are
not suited far
much working up by hand on
it,
also possible
and there
is
the block to suit
These blocks when completed have a copper
rapid printing. surface.
jiencil, chalk,
but they are
blocks take longer to make, and are about double
the price of the photo-zinc process.
The
cost varies from gd. to
i/6 the square inch.
M.
Gillot, in Paris,
of this process,
may be
said to be the inventor or perfector
now used by many photo
engravers in London,
notably by Mr. Alfred Dawson, of Hogarth Works, Chiswick.
(
235
)
HALF-TONE PROCESS. KOR THE REPRODICTION OF WASH DRAWINGS, PHOTOGRAPHS, ETC., IIY
This
As
THE SCREENED PHOTO-ZINC RELIEF
method
from nature, or of grain, mezzotint
or ;
making the blocks
of
no
there are
lines in a
a painting,
in
interstices
so
PROCESS.
more complioited.
is
wash drawing, or it is
in a photograph
necessary to obtain some kind
of white, on
the
zinc
plate,
between the drawing or photograph
as
produced and the camera, glass screens covered with
in
be
to
a
re-
lines or
dots, are interposed, varying in strength according to the light
and shade required
;
thus turning the image of the wash drawing
or photograph practically into " line,' with sufficient interstices of
white for printing purposes.
The
coarseness
or fineness of grain on these blocks varies
according to circumstances.
Thus,
for ra[)id printing
on cylinder
machines, with inferior paper and ink, a wider grain and a deeper cut block
is
necessary.
The examples
in this
book may be said
to
show these process
blocks at their best, with good average printing.
The
results
from wash drawings, as already pointed out, are uncertain, and generally
The this
gloomy and mechanical -looking.
reproductions of pencil, chalk, or charcoal drawings by
process are generally unsatisfactory, even
good conditions. zinc line process,
The
when
printed under
blocks are shallow as com[)ared with the
and are double the
cost.
(
236
)
INTAGLIO PROCESSES. I'lIOTOCKAVURE, AUTOTVI'E, DALLASTYPK, ETC.
Photogravure.
—
photographic negative
First, a
from the picture to be reproduced, and from
bon
print
is
this
is
taken direct
an autotype car-
taken and transferred on to glass or silvered copper,
making carbon prints for sale. and forms the mould, upon
instead of on the paper used in
This picture
is
which copper
is
in
delicate relief,
electrically deposited.
After being
made
" con-
mould is placed in a galvanic bath, the deposit of copper upon it taking the impression perfectly. Another method is to transfer the same mould upon pure, clean copper, and then operate with a powerful biting solution, which is resisted more or less according to the varying thickness Thus the parts to be left of carbon mould to be penetrated. smoothest are thick of carbon, and the parts to be dark are bare, This, it will be perso that the mordant may act unresisted. ceived, is the opposite way to the process above given, and is therefore worked from a " transparency," or photographic " positive," instead of a negative. This is the Klick and Fox Talbot method, and is very commonly in use at i)resent. The process of " photogravure " is well known, as employed by Messrs. Boussod, Valadon, & Co. (Goupil), of Paris, and is ductive," the carbon
adapted
for the
reproduction of wash drawings, paintings, also
drawings where the lines are pale and uncertain, pencil, chalk, etc.
;
the greys and gradations of pencil being wonderfully inter-
preted.
In
London
many of now much used for
the intaglio processes are used by
the firms mentioned on page 240.
They
are
the reproduction of photographic portraits in books, taking place
of the copperplate engraving.
The
co.st of these plates
is,
roughly, 5/- the square inch.
The
makers of these plates generally supply paper, and print, charging by the 100 copies. But engravings thus produced are comparatively little
used
in
modern book
illustration, as
they cannot be
printed simultaneously with the letter-press of a book suitable only for limited editions
and
;
" editions dc luxe."
they are
237
(
DRAWING MATERIALS FOR REPRODUCTION. I.
For Drawings
Line.
in
ink and Bristol board
— For
general use, liquid Indian
or hard paper of similar surface.
;
" Clay board," the surface of which can easily be removed with a scraper,
useful for
is
touch on clay board 2.
some purposes, but the pen become mechanical.
Pencil and Chalk, grained papers arc These papers arc made of various textures, with black or white lines and dots As a matter of fact, vertical, horizontal, and diagonal. grained papers are little used in book and newspaper illustration in this country, and unless artistically treated
For Drawings used (see
the
p.
results
in
113 and following).
very
are
suitable for landscape 3.
apt to
is
For Wash Drawings.
They
unsatisfactory.
work and sketches of
— Prepared boards
for
are
most
effect.
wash drawings,
varying in surface and texture according to the scale of the drawing,
artist, and the These must be Lamp black and opaque white combination of line and wash is
the brush handling of the
nature of the work to be reproduced.
decided by the teacher. are
commonly
A
used.
generally to be avoided.
The
materials for drawing for reproduction are to be obtained
from the following amongst other A. J.
AcKERMAN,
Barnarh &
CORNELISSEN
191,
artists'
Regent
So.N, 19, Berners Street,
&
SoN,
22, Great
Lecubrtier, Barhe, & Co., Jas.
Newman,
24,
Reeves & Sons,
&
YoUNC,
60,
W.
Street,
W.C.
Kegent Street, W.
Soho Square, W.
99,
Long
Acre,
37,
W.C.
W. Rathbone I'lace, W.
Co., 64, 0.\ford Street,
WiNSOR & Newton, I'liRCY
Queen
113, Cheapside, E.C.
Chas. Roberson & Co., Geo. Kow.ney
colourmen.
Street, \V.
137, Clutter Street,
W.C.
238
(
)
BOOKS FOR STUDENTS. The
following will be found useful
I.—" The Graphic
&
millan
:
Hamerton (London
by P. G.
Arts,'"
2.—"' Pen aiid Pencil Artists'' by Joseph
&
Macmillan ''
3.
English Pen Artists of To- Day" hy
The is
&
known, but
well
it
Harper (London
G.
:
reaches into branches of the art of
beyond the scope of
illustrations in
it
the second
it
most valuable to
is
and white," with the caution
volume seems more
technical teaching. costly as to
book
that
many
of the
were not drawn for reproduction, and would
not reproduce well by the processes third
Of
book.
this
said that Mr. Joseph Pennell's
students of " black
The
J.
Co.).
value and comprehensive character of Mr. Hamerton's
illustration far
may be
Pennell (London:
Co.).
Rivington, Percival
book
Mac-
:
Co.).
It is to
we have been
practical
for
considering.
elementary and
be regretted that these books are so
be out of the reach of most of us
;
but they can be
seen in the library of the South Kensington Museum.
Mr. Hamerton's " Drawing and Engraving, a Brief Exposition of Technical
Charles
Principles
Black,
1892),
Drawings," by Col.
"Lessons
in Art,"
are portable
Henry
and
J.
by
and Practice
Hume
Nisbet (Chatto
useful books,
Trueman Wood's
&
Newton)
dates are 1SS6.
(London
Waterhouse (Kegan, Paul,
"
full
:
Adam and
&
&
Modern
of
Co., 1890),
Windus, 1891),
of technical information.
Books," and Mr. H. R. Robertson's
(Winsor
"
"The Photographic Reproduction
Methods of
Sir
Illustrating
"Pen and Ink Drawing"
are both excellent
little
manuals, but their
239
(
)
DECORATIVE PACES. (KROM OLD MSS. AND ROOKS TO UK SKKN IN THE liRITISH MUSF.l'M.) Reprintld from the Cantor Lrctiircs.)
1.
"
Example of
early Venetian writing,
15th century, written with a reed pen.
picturesqueness of the page
used to-day bad) 2.
— what are
letter in
"A
;
also the similarity to the type letters
called
beautiful
example of Gothic writing and ornament, from
is
" Facsimile
printed
of a
"History of England," produced of type
is
the British
;
date
page,
from
in Basle, in
Polydorc 1556.
Vergil's
The
style
treatment of ornament (with
figures introduced, but subservient to the general effect),
not familiar, because tive page.
The
it
is
"An
printer of the past
had a sense of beauty, and all
but a few to-day.'
illuminated printed page, 1521, with engraved borders,
designs
after
is
seldom that we see a modern decora-
of the fitness of things apparently denied to 4.
Museum
again familiar to us in books published in 1894; but
the setting out of the page, the little
in
Here the decorative character and general balance of the delightful to modern eyes."
1480.
3.
much (good and
old face,' and of
'
modern books."
a French illuminated manuscript
page
from a copybook of the Note the clearness and
by
Holbein
;
figures
again
subordinate
to
the
initial,
and
general effect." 5.
"Examples
letters
forming a
of Italian, 14th century brilliant
;
ornament,
and harmonious combination."
Illustrations of the above and other decorative pages (which this book) arc shown at the lectures
could not be reproduced in
on a
large scale.
the many modern books on decoration and ornament, the handbooks by Mr. Lewis Foreman Day (London Batsford) are
Of
:
recommended to students of " the decorative page " " English Book PlaU's," l)y Egerton Castle (G. Dell & Son.s). ;
also
(
240
LIST OF PROCESS From
a long
list
BLOCK MAKERS.
of photo-engravers, the following arc mentioned
from personal knowledge of their work
:
Relief Blocks.
Andr6 & Sleigh, Bushey, Herts. The Art Reproduction Company, Mr. Dallas,
5,
Clairville Grove,
South Kensington.
Furnival Street, E.C.
A. & C. Dawson, Hogarth Works, Chiswick. Dellagana & Co., Gayton Road, Ilampstead, N.W. Direct Photographic Company, 38, Farringdon Street,
Hare &
Sons, Ltd., Bride Court, Fleet
E.C.
Street.
Carl Hentschel, 182, Fleet Street, E.C. Chas. Geard (Agent for Krakow), MacLean's
BIdgs.,
New
St. Sq.,
E.C.
Meisenbach Co., Ltd., Wolfington Road, West Norwood, S.E. John Swain & Son, 58, Farringdon Street, E.C. Swan Electric Light Co., 114, Charing Cross Ro.id, W.C. Typographic Etching Co., 3, Ludgate Circus Buildings, E.C.
Walker & Boutall, Clifford's Inn, Fleet Street, Waterlow & Sons, Ltd., London Wall, E.C. \'incent
& Hahn,
34, Barbican,
E.C.
E.C.
Int.\glio.
Several of the firms inentioned above are makers of " Intaglio plates
;
some
are also wood-engravers, photo-lithographers, etc.
"
;
and agents for French, German, and Austrian photo-engravers. Amongst leading firms who make " Intaglio " plates are Messrs. and Messrs. Boussod, Valadon, & Co. (London and Paris) ;
Angerer
&
Goschl, of Vienna.
The Autotype Company's admirable
rejjroductions of photo-
graphs and drawings should also be mentioned
UNIVERSITY
in this
connection.
"BlacU anb Mbitc." NOTICE.— MR. HENRY BLACKBURN'S STUDIO open
five
days a week for the Study and Practice of
FOR THE PRESS at
with Technical Assistants.
is
DRAWING
Students join
any time.
Private Inst riirt Ion and
bi/
Corresptnitfoice.
i;^ \'icTORiA Street, Westminster (miu
.-irmj' Cr= A''av}' Sion-s).
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS On "
'
The Art
man who
First
tlie
of Illustration
'
Edition.
a brightly written account, by a
is
has had large experience of the ways in which books
and newspapers are
illustrated
tion of typical illustrations
by
nowadays.
artists
.
.
As a
.
collec-
of the day, Mr. Blackburn's
book is very attractive." The Times. " Mr. Blackburn explains the processes line, half-tone, and exemplifying each by the drawings of artists more so forth They are or less skilled in the modern work of illustration. well chosen as a whole, to show the possibilities of process work in trained hands." Saturday Review. " We thoroughly commend this book to all whom it may
—
—
Athemetim. " Mr. Henry Blackburn, perhaps our greatest expert on the
concern."
the
of
subject
book
illustrator's
very well afford to do without. instructive illustrations."
"
The
has
art,
may be
book
best adapted to
its
is
to
show how drawing
purpose. all
.
and-white work of the time." -Daily News. " Mr. Blackburn's interesting and practical manual first
become
reader
.
Many
.
are beautifully
by choice reproductions from some of the best black-
illustrated
to
instance, for the guidance of students illustrators in black-and-white,
but
for
is
designed,
who
intend
the general
contains a large quantity of readable and attractive
it
Tin Literary World. matter." " must express our admiration for the contents of
We
Art of
can
Nearly a hundred splendid and
of Mr. Blackburn's instructions are technical, but
in the
artist
Black and White.
author's purpose in this
for the press
most
a
written
volume, which no young black-and-white
interesting
Illustration,'
and
its
'
'l"he
fund of technical information."
Bookseller.
"The book is full of interest, containing close hundred varied examples of illustrations of the day. of unquestionable value." " Mr. Blackburn
processes
;
his
upon a A work
Publishers' Circular.
knows from experience what is best for the volume is illustrated with nearly one hundred
viii
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
,
drawings, most of them good examples of what
being done.
is
'The Art of Illustration' is an entirely safe guide." Art/oumal. "Mr. Henry Blackburn has written an able book on 'The Art of Illustration,' which,
hands of every
in the
not overpraise to say, should be
is
it
artist
who draws
for reproduction."
T/n-
Goitlewcinan. "
The
'
work of
of Illustration
.'\rt
art of its kin
perhaps the most
is
'
satisfactory
has yet been published."
that
Sunday
Times.
"A tion."
"
very clear e.xposition of the various methods of reproduc-
— Guardian.
i\Ir.
Blackburn
and
Gilbert,
sails
justly
book under the
his
exjrounds
the
of
flag
all-importance
Sir
John
of line."
National Observtr.
"'The
Art
of
contains
Illustration'
a
amount
vast
ot
valuable artistic information, and should be on every student's bookshelf."
— Court Cinuiar.
"Mr. Henry Blackburn
well-known authority on the
a
is
technical aspects of painting
and design, and
lends value to his exposition of
He
'
The Art
writes with admirable clearness
"The
excellent
series
and
Mr. Blackburn's book
zinc process.
the student
and
interest
force."
of reproductions
(inter alia) the variety of effects to
the
to
circumstance
this
of Illustration.'
in
this
.
.
book show
be obtained by the will
.
Leeds Mercury.
common
prove of great value to
general
reader."
Manciiester
Guardian. " This
A
volume
many
of the
is
full
ot
good
criticism,
charming and instructive volume." " '
The Art
of Illustration
'
will
and others concerned
artists
and takes a survey
may be beautified. Birmingham Gazette.
processes by which books
in
have the deepest the
illustration
interest
.
.
.
for
of books."
Yorkshire Post.
"A
very
illustrations."
"
interesting
quarto,
worth
having
for
its
Mr. Blackburn's volume should be very welcome
and publishers." The Artist. most useful book." Studio,
editors, ".•\
typical
British Architect.
"UNIVERSITY
to artists,
u\\o\rcKir(A -—
RETURN
JO^^
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