_THE THEORY AND PRINCIPLES OF ILLUSTRATION._
Here it will probably be well to consider the different classes into
which illustrations naturally seem to fall, and this because it is the
common custom to regard the contents of an illustrated book as all
belonging to one.
Perhaps the simplest and most spontaneous form of illustration is seen
when one is describing a position or locality, and takes pencil and
paper to draw a rough plan showing this or that road, cross-road,
turning, &c. We do this without any forethought, without any artistic
ability, and never for a moment considering that we are fulfilling the
first theoretical function of the illustrator, and we make this
sketch-plan partly because we could not so graphically describe what we
wish in words; and, again, the drawing will produce a more lasting
impression upon the person appealed to, and that without so great an
effort of memory on his part. "Seeing is believing," and to _see_ is
also to _remember_. It is the same with the diagrams which illustrate
the problems of Euclid, a tourist's map, an architect's plan; these are
all illustrations of a diagrammatic kind.
Only a little higher in the scale are the illustrations in scientific
and physiological books. I say _higher_, because of the difficulties
attaching to the photographing of such objects, and their more complex
forms, which sometimes necessitate their being drawn from the objects at
first hand by one possessing some amount of skill as a draughtsman. But
the intention is to explain the text, added to which is perhaps the
special office of enabling the student to recognise and identify the
particular animal or vegetable structure, or a certain rock formation or
crystal, when found; for which purpose it is of primary importance that
the essential and specific characters of the particular object are
carefully portrayed, and the entire figure be of faultless accuracy.
This same quality must also be secured in topographical views with which
the book of travels, with its description of far-distant places and
people, is illustrated; it is in this class of drawings that there is
most danger of a desire to make a pretty picture--overwhelming the
purely descriptive or explanatory function.
The representation of the principal characters in a story, with which it
is the custom to illustrate a novel or work of fiction, has often
appeared to me to be one of the least successful departments of
illustration. Probably this arises from the fact that the artist has no
actual models to work from; he creates, out of the author's description,
imaginary beings, and portrays them accordingly. Therefore, unless
author and artist have been in very close communication, it is as likely
as not that the artist may get a conception of certain characters quite
remote from the author's intention. At least, it must have occurred to
many a reader to find the pictures in a favourite novel often quite fail
to realise the ideal which he had himself formed of the hero or heroine,
of whom, at the very outset, he had conjured up an image and an
environment.
Somewhat lately the experiment has been made of illustrating fiction
with actual photograms from life, in which case the illustrator must
select with great care individuals answering very exactly to the
descriptions given, and use these as models grouped as required.
Obviously this method must be confined to such books whose plot is laid
in comparatively recent times and in ordinary scenes of life; for the
difficulties, which are in any case great, assume insurmountable
proportions when one conceives the idea of illustrating by photograms
such books as "Robinson Crusoe," "Pilgrim's Progress," or "Don Quixote."
[Illustration: PEN DRAWING BY W.T. WHITEHEAD.
(_Original_ 8 x 5.)]
The ideal condition would be for the author to illustrate his own
writings, then indeed should we be sure of getting a glimpse of the
character intended; and we can imagine with what care he would fashion
the child of his imagination.
Failing this, the author should control to a greater extent the work of
the man who is to illustrate his writings, a point far too often
overlooked in the making of a book.
It will be seen that in this section of illustration the draughtsman
draws upon his imagination, so that, to some extent at least, his art is
_creative_. It must, however, be borne in mind that he is not at liberty
to paint or draw his own unaided imaginings; he is merely interpreting
another's words into a graphic representation; so that, be he never so
fine an artist, his art, like Pegasus in harness, is restrained under
the yoke of the illustrator.
We may, however, find illustration ascending a step higher towards the
sphere of art proper and creative, and that is in the _edition de luxe_,
in which, with or without printed matter, we have plates which are
pictures in the best sense, and appeal chiefly, or exclusively, to the
æsthetic sense. Also in some dramatic works, in poetry, and in some
prose, there is a much wider scope for the imagination of the artist,
and we have high-class books of a real artistic merit.
[Illustration: PEN DRAWING BY W.T. WHITEHEAD.
(_Original_ 8 x 2.)]
One other notable form of illustration remains, and that is the purely
decorative. This is seen to advantage in the book-plates in which a
device bears the name of the owner and is affixed to each book; to
revive which custom an effort has happily been made of late. In
allegorical figures and scrollwork on title-pages, at heads of chapters,
in borders, in large initial letters, at the termination of a chapter,
or a design interspersed with the type on a page, and in many other
forms beyond the prescribed shape which its position determines, there
is little to restrict the artist. Some examples of designs for
book-plates were recently given in that excellent magazine _The Studio_;
and some interesting and wholly praiseworthy "initials," formed on an
actual photogram, appeared recently in _The Photogram_. These are two
instances out of the many which may be seen on every hand, and in this
connection I have long felt that photograms from nature might be more
largely applied to book illustration or decoration.
[Illustration]
Thus I have endeavoured to indicate the principal uses of illustrations.
Now in every work of art, its strength and its success are dependent in
a great measure upon its composition and purpose possessing simplicity
and unity, and I think that it cannot be too deeply impressed upon the
illustrator that singleness of purpose will be a strong contributory to
success.
If the purpose of the illustration be to explain or to describe, then
let it do that at the sacrifice, if need be, of all else; and if, at the
same time, it be possible to introduce such qualities as will make it
void of offence to the more cultivated eye, so much the better; but the
particular aim and intention must be paramount. In like manner, if the
illustration be for purely ornamental purposes, or purely pictorial,
giving pleasure to the eye and the sense of beauty: then to attempt to
make it fulfil the function of a teacher, to anything more than a
subordinate degree, is to divide, and therefore to weaken, both
capacities.
An illustration, therefore, should be thought out, designed, and
produced, with a definite and single purpose.
Speaking of the rise and development of newspaper illustration, in a
lecture delivered before the Society of Arts, in November, 1893, Mr.
Henry Blackburn quoted from a discussion held at the same place in 1875,
when the following conclusion was arrived at: "In the production of
illustrations we have arrived at great proficiency, and from London are
issued the best illustrated newspapers in the world. But our artistic
skill has led us into temptation, and by degrees engendered a habit of
making pictures when we ought to be recording facts. We have thus,
through our cleverness, created a fashion, and a demand from the public,
for something which is often elaborately untrue.
"Would it, then, be too much to ask those who cater for (and really
create) the public taste, that they should give us one of two things, or
rather _two things_, in our illustrated papers--the real and the ideal.
"1st. Pictorial records of events in the simplest and truest manner
possible."
"2nd. Pictures of the highest class that can be printed in a newspaper."
This, it appears, was said before the mechanical process block was much
used or even known; but what was true in principle in the old
wood-engraving days is as true now that we have new and rapid means of
reproduction.
Having, in any given case, decided what is the purpose of the
illustration required, it will next be necessary to determine by which
of the methods at our disposal the scheme can best be carried out, both
as regards the method of producing the original, and the method of
reproducing it in print. And this naturally brings us to the subject of
our next chapter.
[Illustration]