_METHODS OF DRAWING FOR REPRODUCTION IN LINE._
There is no doubt that to-day the most popular method of designing the
decoration of a book (I use the word book, but I would refer to
magazines and papers as well) is by means of line work. By the use of
what materials these lines are to be made; how they are to be placed
upon paper or metal that they may reproduce and print best; and the
way in which that reproduction and printing is done, will be the
subject of this and subsequent lectures.
The line has always been employed, not only by artists, but by the
artless, to express form; the only difference being that the artist
uses a vital line full of meaning, the artless a meaningless line
without vitality. But often the work of the two approaches so closely
that at times it can scarcely be distinguished; however, that is a
critical, and not a technical, matter.
I do not propose to give you a history of the methods employed to
obtain lines, in fact, a history of drawing. There are many such
books, and as for drawing you study that every day, in the life and
antique, and I hope outside as well. But it is to line work and its
reproduction in the present, that I wish to call your attention.
The most generally adopted method of making a line drawing for
illustration to-day is with a pen and ink, upon white paper. There are
but four tools, and a surface to work on required. The tools are
simple and cheap enough, the ability to use them rightly and well is
rare enough, even though every book is decorated and all newspapers
are to be illustrated in the near future.
First, as to the pens: there is, as you know, an endless variety of
them, all the best. Some are made specially for the artist, and of
these the most generally used is Gillott's 659 (all colourmen keep
them), a barrel pen, which fits a special handle; when one has
mastered this pen, unsympathetic, hard and scratchy at first, and each
pen, by the way, has to be broken in, one finds that the most amazing
variety of line can be obtained with it, from the most delicate to the
boldest. The beginner thinks because it is a small tool that only
small work can be done with it; experience and practice will prove to
him that it is a most sensitive implement, and he will learn to take
care of his pens, keeping them on the holder in a box which they just
fit, for these pens improve with age, getting better and better until
they are almost like living things, and then they break.
From this most delicate and sensitive of pens I would call your
attention to the hardest and most unsympathetic, the glass pen, or
stylus; this is a useful tool, but while the Gillott is to be used in
work demanding freedom of touch and consequent variety of line, the
glass pen is only to be used--unless you like it--when lines of
uniform thickness are wanted. It carries a large quantity of ink, and,
as lines can be made in any direction with it, it is more like an
etching needle than anything else I know of; and if these pens were
really well made in metal and not of glass, and of different sizes and
would give lines really varying in width, they would be much used; as
it is they are very unreliable, easily broken, and expensive. I find
that they are liable to tear up the paper, or refuse to work in an
annoying fashion. It has been pointed out that they are most useful
for tracing, and also that if they clog up they may be easily cleaned
by dipping in water and wiping off with a dry rag. I may say that they
should be thoroughly wiped, and in fact all pens should, after they
are cleaned, or the ink is changed, as you may not only spoil your
pen, but your ink as well, by dipping your pen without cleaning,
either in water or another sort of ink, as one ink may contain some
chemical matter which absolutely ruins another. Some rubber should be
placed in the bottom of your inkstand, for if the glass pen drops
heavily it will be broken; but not paper, unless you wish to spend all
your time wiping pulp off your pen. The best of these pens I have
found are those sold by Roberson, 99, Long Acre. Between these two
extremes, of flexibility in the Gillott, and firmness in the stylus,
are to be found all sorts and conditions of pens. And I may say that
you may never like, and you need never use, any special kind, but
instead your favourite writing pen; if you like that best, it is the
tool for you, use it. There are, however, some other sorts of pens to
which I may call your attention. If only some fountain-pen maker had
the sense to invent a pen for artists, he would make his fortune. But
fountain-pens at present are unreliable in action and unsuitable for
use with drawing inks, so they are out of the question altogether for
us.
A very good tool is the quill pen. Much variety can be obtained with
it, especially in broad dragged work. I use technical terms because
you understand them, I hope, and it is only the technical side of
illustration I propose to touch. With the back of this pen you can get
rich and broken effects, especially when it is half dry. The quill,
the stylus, and the reed, were the tools for pen-drawing used by the
old men. You can buy quill pens anywhere. Reed pens you had better
make for yourselves; go to a reed bed in the early summer, cut off the
top of the stalk, strip off the outer covering, and cut the inner
canes into sections between the joints, cut your pen and finish it at
once, or rather a lot of them, for when the reed is dry it is liable
to split and is not half so flexible.
Pen work with reed pens really should only be done when they are
fresh; but at all times they glide easily over the paper, though any
pen will do this after you have mastered it. Reed pens also make a
broad fat line and hold lots of colour.
Another pen which is useful sometimes is Perry's Auto-Stylo, or
marking pen, from Perry's, Holborn Viaduct; lines half an inch broad
or as fine as a hair can be made with it, and I have at times used it
as a brush; it is a most amusing instrument.
Brandauer's round pointed pens are used by some. But the pen you
should use is the pen you can use; that is, the pen with which you can
get the most variety of line. Or you may use half a dozen, from the
finest Gillott to the biggest reed. It is not the pen, but the person
who uses it. Sometimes it is not a bad thing to remember this.
Many artists are now taking up the use of the brush; most probably it
was used by the old men, certainly the men of the last generation
employed it, as it was much easier to work on the wood block with a
brush than a pen. And we know that the Japanese pen is a brush. The
advantages are flexibility of line, amount of colour it will hold,
freedom from scratchiness, and absolute freedom of movement in every
direction--the greatest advantage of all--the line itself is fuller
and fatter, more pleasing. The drawbacks, well, there scarcely are
any, save that to use either brush or pen well is about as difficult
as to play the violin; that is all.
The commonest brush for line work is that used by lithographers, a
sable rigger which they cut to a fine point, removing the outside
hairs; but almost any good pointed brush will do. Very good indeed are
the genuine Japanese brushes, the small thin ones are the best--in
black handles--you can pick these up sometimes at the Japanese
dealers, but I imagine any artist's colourman would send to Japan for
them if there was a sufficient demand; I have got them in quantities
for a penny each.
There are various mechanical tint tools like air brushes in use; they
are of little importance to the artist, and if you want a dotted tint
you can get it by dipping a toothbrush in ink and rubbing the inked
hairs with a match stick, when the ink will be splattered in dots and
blots all over the paper. You may lay a piece of paper on the parts
you wish to keep white, and paint or scratch out spots that are too
dark, or you may impress your inked thumb or pieces of inked silk on
the paper, or indulge in any trick of this sort that amuses you and
gives the desired result.
Ink is probably the most important material employed in pen-drawing.
It must be good, that is, it must be black--it should not shine--it
must never settle, it must flow easily, dry quickly, and never clog
the pen. There are many varieties of good ink, but the only ink I
know of to-day, which gives me exactly what I want and is obtainable
of the same quality all over the world, all over Europe at any
rate--and this is an enormous advantage--is Bourgeois' Encre de Chine
Liquide. During several years it has never varied, and that is more
than I can say of any other. It is indelible, a desirable quality in
ordinary use. The only bad thing about it is the vile, ill-balanced
bottle and the rotten cork, which always breaks and often gets you
into a mess. The best bottle I have ever seen is that in which
Higgins' American drawing ink comes.
This is not a talk on inks, but a hint as to what I have found the
most satisfactory and reliable--if you do not like this one, every
colourman makes an ink or sells some one else's; try it. Among the
best are Higgins', Winsor and Newton's, Newman's, Rowney's, Reeves',
Stevens' ebony stain.
Freshly-ground Indian ink is the best of all, but to grind up your ink
is too much trouble, too tedious and too unreliable to be worth the
bother it entails. Indian ink, under certain conditions, shines and
glitters, and this is not pleasant, and hinders photography. Lamp
black and ivory black are quite dead and free from shine, but they are
not fixed colours. They may be easily fixed with gall or gum.
Writing inks usually, if not always, have blue in them; therefore they
will not photograph, they run about, blot, and generally misbehave.
Sometimes one gets good black writing-ink; when you do get it, use it.
But Indian or Chinese ink is best, and as I know of no better
preparation at present, I commend Bourgeois' Encre de Chine Liquide;
it comes in the tall bottle with the diagonal black and yellow dragon
on the label. Coloured inks, save blue, may be used, but unless the
illustration is to be printed in that colour the result is almost
always disappointing; delicate washes of brown, for instance, becoming
staring solid blacks.
In sketching out of doors with ink, a method I most strongly
recommend, pour your ink, or rather enough of it, into an exciseman's
ink-bottle, one of those unspillable affairs which you can cork
up--though, save to keep the dust out of them, there is no occasion to
do so--and attach it by a sort of watch-guard to your buttonhole,
putting the bottle in your pocket. Messrs. Newman, 24, Soho Square,
have fixed up some of these bottles for me, and they will, I have no
doubt, supply them.
The general way with artists is to put their uncorked ink-bottle in
their waistcoat pocket; if they should happen to lean over, on
straightening up the ink is found upon their trousers or frocks, or
sketch-block--in the male a result most conducive to strong language,
especially if the trousers are spoiled; the drawing doesn't so much
matter.
Also provide yourself with a hardish lead pencil H., or, better, a
blue one, as the blue doesn't photograph, but it's hard to get off the
paper, and don't look well; also some lithographic crayon or Wolff's
carbon pencils; a good rubber, pure rubber or bread for the pencil, an
ink rubber or eraser for the ink; some Chinese white and gum for
patching up things; and for use in the house, an old razor to scratch
out, and out of doors a folding eraser, such as Mr. Percy Young, of
Gower Street, supplies: get the folding ones, as the others are not
only less convenient but rather dangerous to carry.
Lastly, the paper: the photo-engraver will tell you Bristol board.
Certainly, a simple open line drawing in pure black upon pure white
smooth paper, very little reduced, should give a truer result than
anything else. But what it does really is to give engraver and printer
less trouble, and that is what most of them want; in the majority of
cases it is best to aid them, otherwise your work is spoiled.
Therefore, if you like Bristol board, use it, and use it whether you
like it or no, if you are doing work for ordinary printing. But if
your illustration is to be well engraved and well printed, use what
paper you like. But to get satisfactory results from rough paper
requires much experience, and you had better arrive at that experience
by doing simple things, in a fashion which will engrave well; go to
printing offices and engravers' shops, find out what is necessary,
try to work in harmony with the engraver and printer, and they will do
their best for you: most of them care about their work, and are
genuinely sorry if they cannot make yours look well, so work with
them, and they will work with you.
As to the Bristol board, get the best; if the drawing is large and has
to be rolled up, the thin, if not the thicker quality; it is known as
so many sheets, two, four, six sheets the heaviest. You must get the
best quality, otherwise there is a risk of bad spongy places in it,
which may almost ruin the drawing, at any rate its appearance, and
necessitate patching up which is delaying and annoying. Bristol
boards, too, may always be made up into books or blocks. Some boards
are now mounted so that they can be stripped off the mount when the
drawing is finished, among them are Turnbull's Art Tablets; while the
best surface of all, which is like marble or ivory to work on, a
surface which may be rubbed or scratched without harm, is the old
mounted thin Whatman or Bank Note paper prepared by Messrs. Roberson
and Newman. These thin papers are mounted on heavy boards and kept
under hydraulic pressure for weeks, until the whole becomes a solid
mass. This mounted Whatman, when well made, is the best paper in the
world; it is also the most expensive. Thin foreign correspondence
paper may also be used, putting it over the sketch like tracing paper,
and when the drawing is finished mounting it on card board; tracing
paper may also be mounted. One scheme not much in vogue yet is to draw
upon black paper with Chinese white, making the drawing in white lines
instead of black. Any sort of writing paper, or all varieties of rough
or smooth Whatman are useful. Of course in drawing on rough paper you
are bound to get a rough broken result in printing; however, if you
know what you are after, no one will object but the engraver. In fact
any sort of white paper may be used for pen and ink work; only, the
smooth gives the most certain results. There are also many grained
papers which give a tint; that is, a mechanical tint is printed on the
paper, lights are scratched in it, blacks are put in with a pen or
brush, another tint in pencil or chalk is added, and many tricks may
be played, one usually only a little less satisfactory than the other.
These papers are made by Gillott, of Paris, and Anger and Goeschl, of
Vienna, and generally supplied by colourmen; they are called Gillott
or scratch papers.
There are also various clay or chalk surfaced papers which, after
being drawn upon, may be scratched to get light in the design. The
results are, however, rarely satisfactory. In fact, it is best to use
a good handmade white paper; you will be surer of your result, and
that is what you are working for.
Having given you a list of the necessary materials, I will try to tell
you how you should use them. I shall not try to compel you to make
short lines or long lines, black blots or white lines: work in your
own fashion, only that must be good, and capable of being engraved and
printed. I shall not tell you how to draw, but how to draw so that
your work may reproduce and print best. You may commence your drawing
in either one of two ways, by making a pencil sketch on your sheet of
paper which is to be sent to the engraver, preferably in blue pencil
which does not photograph, and in as few lines as possible; or by
commencing straight away at your final work, in ink; if it is a
drawing from nature, I do not see why you should not do this, for it
will teach you care in selecting your lines and putting them down. And
as you have an ink eraser in metal and rubber you should be able to
remove those which are wrong.
But if your design is more in the nature of a composition with
elaborate figures, or figures in action, it will be almost impossible
to do this. True, most interesting sketches may be made, and should be
made and must be made direct from nature. But your final design will
in nearly every case have to be built up from these. Therefore, unless
you can "see the whole thing in your head" before you put it on paper,
so clearly that you only want a model to keep you right, I think you
had better make sketch after sketch, and then transfer the best to
the sheet on which it is to be completed by putting transfer paper
under the sketch and tracing paper over it. Probably you will pencil
on the final drawing, but do as little as you can, for the camera,
when the drawing comes to be photographed, pays just as much attention
to smudges, finger marks, pencil lines, and meaningless accidents as
it does to those portions which are brim full of meaning. By
neglecting these matters all artists give engravers much trouble, and
unless the engraver is an artist too he not infrequently bestows great
pains on the reproduction of an accidental line, even though in order
to do so he ruins the entire drawing. And again, in all cheap work
your drawing is placed with a number of others and no special
attention is paid to it, and it reproduces somehow, or don't, which is
much the same thing. But in case of failure you will be blamed by the
public.
The first thing to remember in putting your drawing on the paper is
the space it is to fill; if it is to be a full page, it must be made
the size of that page or twice as large; at any rate it must have some
definite relation to it. In the case of half a page, it is only
necessary that the top or bottom of the drawing should fit across the
printed matter; still, the drawing should not be made so high that it
will not fit in, or so narrow as to be ineffective, but if you will
look at any book or magazine you will see what I mean.
Again, for cheap rapid work as little cross-hatching as possible
should be indulged in, for all cross-hatched lozenges become smaller
lozenges in reduction, and the smaller they are the easier it is for
them to fill up and clog with ink. Draw your shadows with parallel
lines whenever you can without being mechanical; they engrave and
print well.
After several years' experience I am quite unable to say how much or
how little a drawing should be reduced, for there is no reason why it
should be drawn the same size it is to be engraved, save that the
nearer it is the same size, the nearer the result should be to the
original; if the reduction is to be great, it is easier to make the
design larger and have it mechanically reduced. The excessive
reduction of a drawing tends to make the lines run together into a
black mass sometimes, and the enlargement of a drawing--this, too, may
be done--makes the lines at times look crude and clumsy. But it is
impossible to foretell results in any two cases. Only there is one
matter: a good drawing in line will, with good engraving and
printing, look well, whether the artist knew anything of process or
not. But there are some things to be observed, if certain results are
wished for.
In simple cheap work the ink should be uniformly black, for the
engraved block will be put with type, and inked with the same amount
and strength of colour all over; therefore, in order to get variety,
distance, effect, you must use lines of different widths, placed at
varying distances apart, not of different degrees of colour. In theory
at least, then, the foreground should be drawn with a firm bold line,
the middle distance with a medium-sized line, the lines themselves
closer together, and the extreme distance with a thin line. But there
is no rule, only get variety in your line and this will produce
variety and interest in the engraved result.
If you make your drawings much larger than they are to be reproduced,
you will often be greatly surprised at the change in their appearance.
Greys will, by filling up, become darker, and lights lighter owing to
the concentration around them of masses of colour; that is, blacks
become blacker, and whites whiter in reproduction. But do remember
that though the drawings by Boyd Houghton, Millais, F. Walker and
Pinwell were made the size you see them, on the wood, in the books of
twenty-five years ago, the drawings made to-day by Abbey, for example,
are four or five times as large as the published engravings, and are
not, in the originals, filled with that microscopic work which appears
in the reproductions. But do not make crude lines under the impression
that they will ever be anything but crude. Try to make a beautiful
drawing, a beautiful line--unless you can do this you will never get a
beautiful reproduction; and once you have learned to draw, study the
best books and the best magazines, always remembering that drawings
to-day are made much larger, as a rule, than you see them on the
printed page.
Again, in reproduction you will often find that some parts of the same
drawing change more than others; some places, for example, become too
weak, others too strong. I cannot explain this, but you will find that
it does happen. At times it may be because the photograph is bad, or
the etching is rotten, but even with good photography and etching the
final result is often disappointing.
In pen work you may run the gamut from solid blacks to the most
delicate grey line. Do not try to always, but select a colour scheme
which is restrained and appropriate to every drawing.
Solid black will reproduce best because it is a solid mass, excepting
in cheap rapid printing, when solid blacks either get too much or too
little ink. A number of black lines close together will reproduce
almost equally well, because in engraving and printing these lines
support the paper and do not take up too much ink. A single thin line,
on the contrary, always thickens in the engraving, and often prints
badly because in the printing press the ink and paper bear down too
heavily upon it and it receives too much ink and thickens up.
I have recommended you to use only black ink and white paper; before
you have worked much you will try experiments, I am sure, in greying
ink, putting water with it, and leaving pencil marks, or adding lines
with lithographic chalk, or crayon; but you will find out the moment
the drawing is printed that everything comes quite black, and if you
have made your distance in broad grey lines it will possibly ruin your
whole scheme. Greys may be obtained by engraving the blocks by hand,
rouletting, or a number of other ways which I shall explain. Line
drawings may also be made altogether in pencil, on rough paper, in
chalk or crayon, reinforced, if necessary, with a blot of ink, or a
wash, or a line with a pen here and there; but for line work with
these materials you must employ a grained paper in order to get a
proper mechanical direct reproduction of the work. Bristol boards must
not be used. Sometimes these combinations of pen and pencil work are
excellent; but they must harmonise, otherwise the result is
unpleasant.
Some idea of the effect your drawing will present when engraved may be
obtained by the use of a diminishing glass; and, _vice versâ_, you
might study some of the engravings in the books and magazines around
you with a magnifying glass.
Corrections in line drawings with pen should be made either with an
ink eraser, a razor, the razor knife, or by painting over the place
with Chinese white, or, if it be large, by pasting down a bit of paper
on it. This is the most usual way; if the paper is thin and the edges
well joined, it is the best. Or you may cut a hole from the back and
let in a bit of paper, paring down the edges, or scraping them down;
but be careful about the edges, because they make a nasty line when
the drawing is photographed. In pencil, crayon, or charcoal work,
remove imperfections in the ordinary way with a bit of rubber. You
will not, of course, lose your head and elaborate a pen drawing, any
more than you would a chalk or charcoal drawing or etching. You will
select your lines with the utmost care, put them down with the
greatest intelligence, and the more care and intelligence you exercise
the better will be your illustrations; however, this is what you are
trying to do every time you make a drawing in line from life or the
antique, and I will not bore you by repeating what you hear every day
in your ordinary school work, nor will I do more than remind you how
careful you must be in your composition, in your arrangement of lines,
in your placing of blacks, in making up your picture; only exercise
the judgment necessary to compose any other work of art.
Your drawings should be works of art; be proud of them; but also
regard them as a means to an end, and, as I have said, for cheap and
rapid printing draw on smooth white paper with good black ink, and do
not use big solid blacks, or single thin lines. Keep your work as open
as possible and do not have it reduced. That is, draw as near the size
it is to appear (if you can find that out) as possible. For the best
engraving and printing, draw as you like. Anything to-day can be
photographed and engraved; the great difficulty is in the printing.
Remember that if you do not put distinction and character into your
work, the engraver and printer cannot. They will take much away in any
case.
As you are working for an editor, you will have to please him. Do so
if you can without hurting your work and your own standard of right
and wrong.
But always work in your own way, if that is at all possible for
reproduction and printing, if not, you will have to change your
methods. For you are working for a definite purpose, illustration;
therefore your work must engrave.
If you wish to succeed you must see all the illustration you can, you
must talk to editors and illustrators, and you must go down into the
printing office and the engraver's shop.
You must learn your trade, for if you have not passed through the
drudgery of the apprentice, you will never become a master of your
craft.