[Illustration: FROM THE ORIGINAL PAINTING BY R.C. MINOR. N.Y.
PHOTOGRAVURE CO.
_Evening_]
A HANDBOOK OF
ILLUSTRATION
BY
A. HORSLEY HINTON
[Illustration]
WITH REPRODUCTIONS
FROM
PHOTOGRAMS
AND SKETCHES
BY THE AUTHOR
AND OTHER ARTISTS
NEW YORK, U.S.A.
G. GENNERT, 24 and 26 EAST THIRTEENTH ST.
LONDON, ENG.
DAWBARN & WARD, LIMITED
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.--INTRODUCTION.--Primitive illustrations--Art and
illustration--Influence in photography--Illustrations from the
Author's aspect--Some uses of illustration.
CHAPTER II.--A NEGLECTED FIELD.
CHAPTER III.--THEORY AND PRINCIPLES OF ILLUSTRATION.--Different kinds
of illustration--Maps or plans--Scientific diagrams--Topographical
views--In fiction--Author and Illustrator--Pictorial or
artistic--Decorative--The "Two things."
CHAPTER IV.--REPRODUCTION BY HALF-TONE PROCESS.--Processes other than
photo-mechanical--The object of mechanical process--Intaglio, relief,
and separate printing process--Description of half-tone process--The
screen--Printing on the gelatine--Development--Etching--Inherent
disadvantage of the screen--Cutting out lights--Comparative results.
CHAPTER V.--PREPARATION OF ORIGINALS FOR REPRODUCTION BY
HALF-TONE.--I.--Photograms--The best kind of Photograms for
reproduction--Negative and print--Legitimate hand work--Relieving the
shadows--Helping the high light and shadows--Application of
photograms--"Stopping out"--Backgrounds not essential--Composition and
arrangement--Decorative initials, &c.
CHAPTER VI.--PREPARATION OF ORIGINALS FOR HALF-TONE. II.--Wash drawings,
oil paintings, pencil and other drawings--Character of wash drawing or
grey surface--Monochrome oil painting--Painting on a photographic
basis--Mixed drawings--Pencil drawings--Coloured sketches for
illustration--Thin reproduction.
CHAPTER VII.--LINE PROCESS.--Requirements of the process--The processes
described: Gelatine, Albumen, and Bitumen--Copying, printing,
developing, mounting--Description of the copy
negative--Reduction--Diminishing glasses--Pencil marks,
&c.--Non-photographic methods.
CHAPTER VIII.--METHODS OF LINE REPRODUCTION. I.--Pen-and-ink
drawing--Character of line drawings--"Tone" interpreted into
line--Various styles of line--Suggestion of colour, textures, &c.--The
art of leaving out--What to copy and study--Line shading--Flat
tints--Outlines--Reduction and thickening.
CHAPTER IX.--MATERIALS FOR SIMPLE LINE DRAWING.--Papers and
cardboards--Inks and fluids--Pens.
CHAPTER X.--COMPARISON OF LINE PROCESSES.--Some characteristics of each
described, and results in each compared--The roulette.
CHAPTER XI.--OTHER METHODS FOR LINE REPRODUCTION. The Materials
Required.--Mechanical tints--Their application--"Splatter" work--How
produced--Grained clay surface boards or "scrape" boards--Their use
described--Pencil and chalk drawing for line reproduction.
CHAPTER XII.--MECHANICAL AIDS TO DRAWING.--Methods of tracing from a
photogram--Drawing on a photogram--Drawing on a "blue" print--Tracing
on transfer paper--Drawing from nature--Conclusion.
Authors preface
Increased use of the =Photographic Reproduction= process and a
prevailing ignorance of their nature and application, made desirable a
simple practical =Handbook of Illustration Methods=
Such a book it has been my endeavour to produce
A.H.H.
London November 1894
[Illustration: PEN DRAWING.
(_Original_ 9 x 5-1/8.)]
A HANDBOOK OF ILLUSTRATION
CHAPTER I.
_INTRODUCTION--THE ART OF ILLUSTRATION._
Introduced to this country, in round numbers, some fifty years ago,
Photography has progressed beyond its contemporaries of the present
century. It has obtained a hold upon the people, entering equally into
their work and their amusements; the speed, the reality, the brilliancy
of it fit it peculiarly for the age into which it has been born. It has
survived, and will survive, amidst the decay of other things, because of
its extraordinary adaptability to changing circumstances, its readiness
to meet altering tastes and requirements; versatile in aspect, elastic
in its application.
Amidst all its adaptations of modern date, in none has it been more
successful than in that to which this book is devoted: that wherein
photography, directly or indirectly, is employed to introduce into our
literature expressions of thought, which are better so conveyed than by
written or printed words. Be the language never so rich in words, or the
writer's power in using them never so great, a clearer and a more
lasting impression may be conveyed, even to the cultivated, and
certainly to the popular mind, by the arrangement of lines and markings
in such form as may be felt to actually represent the objects, and
indicate the relative position and size of other objects or parts of the
same.
This may be said to be the primary and normal function of an
Illustration. Throughout the pages of this book, and to whatever extent
the student may practise the methods herein described, it may be well to
keep very clearly in mind the legitimate function of an illustration,
namely: to describe, to portray, and to do this _chiefly_ as an
auxiliary to written language.
To such a kind belongs the rude scratchings of the primæval man, whose
limited powers of speech forbade his adequately describing the forms of
those creatures whose pursuit meant life, whose disregard would mean
death, and of such kind were the hieroglyphics of the East. Nay, who
shall say that the very forms of letters themselves are not the outcome
of early effort to convey to the eye of another what might otherwise
only have been imperfectly communicated through other senses: a means to
an end; a servant, a tool, in the hands of him who would wield it.
But in the beginning there was a making of drawings and designs which
had another purpose. The gourd, or rough clay vessel, was graved and
marked with devices and forms suggested by the curves and shapes in
Nature, but this was merely for decoration; to please the eye, and not
to serve any purpose but to give pleasure. A means to an end in this
sense perhaps, but note that the end was in the commencement of it, and
went no further after completion; it gave pleasure to the beholder and
no more, and nothing more was intended or asked. Thus was Art born--not
to teach, nor to explain, nor to illustrate.
Nor is this distinction out of place in the present work. The tendency
to-day is too often to make a pretty picture rather than a good
illustration; to sacrifice accuracy to beauty; to strive rather after
the æsthetic pleasure in art, than the truth and fidelity of
illustration. The artist is what he is from the possession of certain
instinctive attributes which he is powerless to teach to another,
whereas the simpler and expressive forms of draughtsmanship _may be
attained by almost all_. From confusing art with illustration we find
a man saying "I cannot do this, or that, because I am no artist," and it
is with a hope of placing in the hands of such, at least to some extent,
a means of graphic expression, that the present book has been
undertaken.
[Illustration: AN ESSEX LANDSCAPE.
_Half-tone from oil sketch in monochrome._ (_Original_ 10-1/8 x 6-1/2).
[See p. 51.]]
Take also such a simple matter as a letter from a friend, and notice how
often words alone fail to convey a correct impression, yet a few lines
of simple form at once present a graphic description.
Mr. Blackburn gives a capital example of such a case in his "Art of
Illustration." He says: "A newspaper correspondent is in a boat on one
of the Italian lakes, and wishes to describe the scene on a calm summer
day. This is how he proceeds:
"'We are shut in by mountains,' he says, 'but the blue lake seems as
wide as the sea. On a rocky promontory on the left hand the trees grow
down to the water's edge and the banks are precipitous, indicating the
great depth of this part of the lake. The water is as smooth as glass;
on its surface is one vessel, a heavily laden market boat' (and so on).
There is no need to repeat it all; 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 _four_
explanatory lines (no more) which should of course have been sent with
his letter."
[Illustration]
In the same way small sketch plans (no matter how roughly made) are of
great assistance in describing the position of a fire, a murder, or
anything else of public importance; not to mention the value such
descriptive lines often are in private letters.
Whilst, then, Art and Illustration are distinct, and much of the latter
may be within the reach of many to whom the former is impossible, there
is no reason why either should needlessly offend the canons of the
other. Art--seeking, as it should, to awaken a sense of pleasure in the
beautiful--adheres to truth, in idea if not in fact. Illustration, which
portrays fact truthfully, may yet do so in such manner as shall not
annoy the cultivated and artistic senses; and this is the art of
illustration.
Here, as in other matters, much depends on a knowledge and exercise of
the mere technique or craftsmanship: the means to be employed, and the
manner of employing them.
With pen or pencil we might satisfactorily produce such a diagram or
drawing as should _illustrate_ our speech, but the exigencies of such
gigantic institutions of civilisation as books, magazines, and
newspapers, demand that the same illustration shall be presented to
thousands of readers at the same time. In former times the original
drawing was copied by craftsmen on to wood or metal, and then carved so
that a "block," containing the design in relief, might be set up in the
printing press and printed in conjunction with the letterpress type.
Wonderful skill did the wood-engraver acquire in reproducing the
original and in interpreting the artist's idea; but his work took time,
which had to be paid for, and sometimes the artist found that in passing
through the intermediary wood-engraver, his intention had been wrongly
construed, and even a departure made from the accuracy of his drawing.
Then came Photography, and it was found possible to photograph the
original on to the surface of the block instead of drawing it. It was
next found possible, under given conditions, to substitute for the
engraver a purely mechanical means, whereby the surface of the block was
suitably carved to print with ink the requisite design.
Thus a photographic and chemical _process_ supplants the hand-work of
the engraver, and a perfect replica of the original, in no way dependent
upon the personal ability of the engraver, is obtained. The same
process, working blindly, produces a facsimile equivalent to the
artist's own drawing; and does so with such speed, and at such small
expense, that for one penny we may purchase to-day a newspaper filled
with exact copies of drawings of events which happened only yesterday.
Thousands of books and papers, the world over, are now replete with
illustrations: the expense of producing which by the older methods would
have made impossible such welcome additions to the printed page.
Nor does it appear that the gigantic dimensions, and high state of
perfection, which Process illustration has reached, in any way
represents the limit of its possibilities in either respect. It has been
reasonably conjectured that in the near future every newspaper and
periodical publication will be illustrated, and almost each day sees
some advancement, some improvement, in the daily practice of the various
processes of reproduction, so that in writing a book of the present kind
it is difficult to keep the information therein contained fully abreast
of the times. While it is in the hands of the printer some new thing may
be found out, some new application of a method successfully attempted,
which shall make the novelty of yesterday give place to the invention of
to-day.
The pride of the _littérateur_ may make him feel that the use of
pictures, as an assistance to writing, indicates incapacity or
feebleness on the part of the author. Yet, able as is the description of
such familiar characters as Mr. Pecksniff, Pickwick, Jingle, and others,
how various would have been the idea conjured up by different readers,
were it not for the inimitable drawings of Cruickshank or "Phiz." Were
not Shakespeare's characters intended to be illustrated--not by drawings
perhaps, but by "living pictures"?
And, finally, out of the simple instruments for illustration there has
been evolved a greater thing. The same means as are employed to
reproduce the draughtsman's drawing, may also reproduce, and place in
the hands of the multitude, reproductions of the works of great master
artists; so that something of the treasures of the Pitti, and the
Louvre, may be seen in English homes to-day. The same simple methods,
used for mere illustration, have been wrestled with by those who
possess art as a birthright from the gods, and through their efforts our
books may now contain pictures (process reproductions) which are full of
fine artistic feeling; not merely illustrating the text, but awakening a
sense of pleasure and exaltation at the representation of nature's
beauties. Decorative pages, ornate with noble designs, brighten a book
like gleaming crystals in a rich but dark mine, and relieve the monotony
of too perfect a symmetry. A chapter heading, a tail piece, a decorated
initial, and here and there a picture page, exert an influence like
sparkling spring and smiling flowers, for joy and sweet refreshment by
the way.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]