The Art of Illustration Part 7

Amongst the modern inventions for helping the hurried or feeble ill.u.s.trator, is the system of laying on mechanical dots to give shadow and colour to a pure line drawing, by process. It is a practice always to be regretted; whether applied to a necessarily hasty newspaper sketch, or to one of Daniel Vierge's elaborately printed ill.u.s.trations in the _Pablo de Segovia_. One cannot condemn too strongly this system, so freely used in continental ill.u.s.trated sheets, but which, in the most skilful hands, seems a degradation of the art of ill.u.s.tration. These dots and lines, used for shadow, or tone, are laid upon the plate by the maker of the block, the artist indicating, by a blue pencil mark, the parts of a drawing to be so manipulated; and as the ill.u.s.trator _has not seen the effect on his own line drawing_, the results are often a surprise to everyone concerned. I wish these ingenious contrivances were more worthy of an artist's attention.

On the opposite page is an example taken from an English magazine, by which it may be seen that all daylight has been taken ruthlessly from the princ.i.p.al figure, and that it is no longer in tone with the rest of the picture, as an open air sketch. The system is tempting to the hurried ill.u.s.trator; he has only to draw in line (or outline, which is worse) and then mark where the tint is to appear, and the dots are laid on by the maker of the blocks.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "THE ADJUTANT'S LOVE STORY." (H. R. MILLAR.)

(_Example of mechanical grain._)

No. XXII.]

In the ill.u.s.tration on the last page (I have chosen an example of fine-grain dots; those used in newspapers and common prints are much more unsightly, as everyone knows), it is obvious that the artist's sketch is injured by this treatment, that, in fact, the result is not artistic at all. Nothing but high pressure or incompetence on the part of the ill.u.s.trator can excuse this mechanical addition to an incomplete drawing; and it must be remembered that these inartistic results are not the fault of the process, or of the "process man." But the system is growing in every direction, to save time and trouble, and is lowering the standard of topical ill.u.s.trations. And it is this system (_inter alia_) which is taught in technical schools, where the knowledge of process is taking the place of wood engraving.

The question is again uppermost in the mind, are such mechanical appliances ("dodges," I venture to call them) worthy the serious attention of artists; and can any good arise by imparting such knowledge to youthful ill.u.s.trators in technical schools? Wood engraving was a craft to be learned, with a career for the apprentice. _There is no similar career for a lad by learning the "processes;" and nothing but disappointment before him if he learns the mechanism before he is an educated and qualified artist._

Mention should be made here (although I do not wish to dwell upon it) of drawing in line on prepared transfer paper with autographic ink, which is transferred to zinc without the aid of photography, a process very useful for rapid and common work; but it is seldom used for good book ill.u.s.tration, as it is irksome to the artist and not capable of very good results; moreover, the drawing has often to be minute, as the reproduction will be the same size as the original. It is one of the processes which I think the student of art had better not know much about.[15]

That it is possible, by the common processes, to obtain strong effects almost equal to engraving, may be seen in some process ill.u.s.trations by Mr. Lancelot Speed, in which many technical experiments have been made, including the free use of white lining.

Mr. Speed is very daring in his experiments, and students may well puzzle over the means by which he obtains his effects by the line processes.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The ill.u.s.tration opposite from Andrew Lang's _Blue Poetry Book_, shows a very ingenious treatment of the black-lined papers. Technically it is one of the best examples I know of,--the result of much study and experiment.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _From Andrew Lang's "Blue Poetry Book."_ (LANCELOT SPEED.)

No. XXIII.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. XXIV.

"_The Armada_," by LANCELOT SPEED.

This extraordinary example of line drawing for process was taken from Andrew Lang's _Blue Poetry Book_, published by Messrs. Longmans.

In this ill.u.s.tration no wash has been used, nor has there been any "screening" or engraving on the block. The methods of lining are, of course, to a great extent the artist's own invention. This ill.u.s.tration and the two preceding lead to the conclusion that there is yet much to learn in _drawing for process_ by those who will study it. The achievements of the makers of the blocks, with difficult drawings to reproduce, is quite another matter. Here all is easy for the reproducer, the common zinc process only being employed, and the required effects obtained without much worrying of the printer, or of the maker of the blocks.

Thus far all the ill.u.s.trations in this book have been produced by the common line process.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: "SEINE BOATS." (FROM THE PAINTING BY LOUIS GRIER.)]

"HALF-TONE" PROCESS.

The next process to consider is the method of reproducing wash drawings and photographs on blocks suitable for printing at the type press, commonly known as the Meisenbach or "half-tone process;" a most ingenious and valuable invention, which, in clever hands, is capable of artistic results, but which in common use has cast a gloom over ill.u.s.trations in books and newspapers.

First, as to the method of making the blocks. As there are no lines in a wash drawing or in a photograph from nature, it is necessary to obtain some kind of grain, or interstices of white, on the zinc plate, as in a mezzotint; so between the drawing or photograph to be reproduced and the camera, gla.s.s screens, covered with lines or dots, are interposed, varying in strength according to the light and shade required; thus turning the image of the wash drawing practically into "line," with sufficient interstices of white for printing purposes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "THERE IS THE PRIORY!"]

Thus, all drawings in wash, chalk, pencil, etc., that will not reproduce by the direct line processes, already referred to, are treated for printing at the type press; and thus the uniform, monotonous dulness, with which we are all familiar, pervades the page.

The conditions of drawing for this process have to be carefully studied, to prevent the meaningless smears and blotches (the result generally of making too hasty sketches in wash) which disfigure nearly every magazine and newspaper we take up. There is no necessity for this degradation of ill.u.s.tration.

The artist who draws in wash with body colour, or paints in oils in monochrome, for this process, soon learns that his high lights will be lost and his strongest effects neutralised, under this effect of gauze; and so for pictorial purposes he has to _force his effect_ and exaggerate lights and shades; avoiding too delicate gradations, and in his different tones keeping, so to speak, to one octave instead of two.

Thus, also for this process, to obtain brightness and cheap effect, the ill.u.s.trator of to-day often avoids backgrounds altogether.

In spite of the uncertainty of this system of reproduction, it has great attractions for the skilful or the hurried ill.u.s.trator.

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. XXV.

"Helga rode without a saddle as if she had grown to her horse--at full speed."

("_Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales._")]

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. XXVI.

"_The Storks_," by J. R. WEGUELIN.

"And high through the air came the first stork and the second stork; a pretty child sat on the back of each."

Example of half-tone process applied to a slight wash drawing. The ill.u.s.tration is much relieved by vignetting and _leaving out_: almost the only chance for effect that the artist has by the screened process. It suggests, as so many of the ill.u.s.trations in this book do, not the limits but the scope and possibilities of process work for books.

This and the preceding ill.u.s.tration by Mr. Weguelin are taken from _Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales_ (Lawrence & Bullen, 1893).]

That this "half-tone" process is susceptible of a variety of effects and results, good and bad, every reader must be aware.

The ill.u.s.trations in this book, from pages 138 to 165, are all practically by the same process of "screening," a slight difference only in the grain being discernible.

The wash drawing on page 139 suffers by the coa.r.s.e grain on it, but the values, it will be seen, are fairly well preserved. The lights which are out of tone appear to have been taken out on the plate by the maker of the block, a dangerous proceeding with figures on a small scale. Mr.

Louis Grier's clever sketch of his picture in wash, at the head of this chapter, gives the effect well.

Mr. Weguelin's ill.u.s.trations to _Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales_ have been, I understand, a great success, the public caring more for the spirit of poetry that breathes through them than for more finished drawings. This is delightful, and as it should be, although, technically, the artist has not considered his process enough, and from the educational point of view it has its dangers. The "process" has been blamed roundly, in one or two criticisms of Mr. Weguelin's ill.u.s.trations, whereas _the process used is the same as on pages 149 and 157_.

However, the effect on a wash drawing is not satisfactory in the best hands. So uncertain and gloomy are the results that several well-known ill.u.s.trators decline to use it as a subst.i.tute for wood engraving. We shall have to improve considerably before wood engraving is abandoned.

We _are_ improving every day, and by this half-tone process numberless wash drawings and photographs from nature are now presented to the public in our daily prints.

Great advances have been made lately in the "screening" of pencil drawings, and in taking out the lights of a sketch (as pointed out on page 127), and results have been obtained by careful draughtsmen during the last six months which a year ago would have been considered impossible. These results have been obtained princ.i.p.ally by good printing and paper--allowing of a fine grain on the block--but where the ill.u.s.tration has to be prepared for printing, say 5,000 an hour, off rotary machines, a coa.r.s.er grain has to be used, producing the "Berlin wool pattern" effect on the page, with which we are all familiar in newspapers.

Let us now look at two examples of wash drawing by process, lent by the proprietors of _Black and White_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. XXVII.

This is a good average example of what to expect by the half-tone process from a wash drawing. That the result is tame and monotonous is no fault of the artist, whose work could have been more brightly rendered by wood engraving.

That "it is better to have this process than bad wood engraving" is the opinion of nearly all ill.u.s.trators of to-day. The artist _sees his own work_, at any rate, if through a veil of fog and gloom which is meant for suns.h.i.+ne!

But the time is coming when the public will hardly rest content with such results as these.]