Produced by Robert J. Hall
PEN DRAWING
AN ILLUSTRATED TREATISE
BY CHARLES D. MAGINNIS
F.A.I.A., LL.D.
FELLOW AM. ACAD. ARTS AND SCIENCES
FORMERLY INSTRUCTOR IN ILLUSTRATION, COWLES ART SCHOOL
INSTRUCTOR IN PEN DRAWING, BOSTON ARCHITECTURAL CLUB
SEVENTH EDITION
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
To Mr. David A. Gregg and to Mr. Bertram G. Goodhue, who have generously
made special drawings for this little book, and to the Publishers
who have courteously allowed me to make use of illustrations owned
by them, my thanks and my cordial acknowledgements are due.
C. D. M.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FIGURE
1. JOSEPH PENNELL. From _The Century Magazine_ (The Century Co:
New York)
2. MAXIME LALANNE. From "La Hollande à Vol d'Oiseau," by H. Havard
(A. Quantin: Paris)
3. MAXIME LALANNE. From "La Hollande à Vol d'Oiseau," by H. Havard
(A. Quantin: Paris)
4. RESTORATION HOUSE, ROCHESTER, ENGLAND. Drawing from a Photograph
5. JOSEPH PENNELL. From "Highways and Byways in North Wales" (Macmillan
& Co: London)
6. BERTRAM G. GOODHUE. Drawn for "Pen Drawing"
7. HERBERT RAILTON. From "Coaching Days and Coaching Ways," by
W. Outram Tristram (Macmillan & Co: London)
8. BERTRAM G. GOODHUE. Drawn for "Pen Drawing"
9. C. D. M. Drawn for "Pen Drawing"
10. C. D. M. Drawn for "Pen Drawing"
11. MARTIN RICO. From _La Ilustracion Española y Americana_
12. C. D. M. Drawn for "Pen Drawing"
13. DANIEL VIERGE. From "Pablo de Ségovie," by Francisco de Quevedo
(Léon Bonhoure: Paris)
14. MARTIN RICO. From _La Ilustracion Española y Americana_
15. ALFRED BRENNAN. From _St. Nicholas_ (The Century Co: New York)
16. LESLIE WILLSON. From _Pick-Me-Up_ (London)
17. DRAWING FROM PHOTOGRAPH. From _Harper's Magazine_ (Harper &
Brothers: New York)
18. JOSEPH PENNELL. From "The Sâone: A Summer Voyage," by Philip
Gilbert Hamerton (Seeley & Co: London)
19. JOSEPH PENNELL. From "The Sâone: A Summer Voyage," by Philip
Gilbert Hamerton (Seeley & Co: London)
20. JOSEPH PENNELL. From _Harper's Magazine_ (Harper & Brothers:
New York)
21. E. DANTAN. From _L'Art_ (Paris)
22. J. F. RAFFAËLLI. From _Gazette des Beaux-Arts_ (Paris)
23. C. D. M. Drawn for "Pen Drawing"
24. D. A. GREGG. From "Architectural Rendering in Pen and Ink," by
D. A. Gregg (Ticknor & Co: Boston)
25. DANIEL VIERGE. From "Pablo de Ségovie," by Francisco de Quevedo
(Léon Bonhoure: Paris)
26. DANIEL VIERGE. From "Pablo de Ségovie," by Francisco de Quevedo
(Léon Bonhoure: Paris)
27. HARRY FENN. From _The Century Magazine_ (The Century Co:
New York)
28. REGINALD BIRCH. From _The Century Magazine_ (The Century Co:
New York)
29. JOSEPH PENNELL. From _The Century Magazine_ (The Century Co:
New York)
30. BERTRAM G. GOODHUE. From _The Architectural Review_ (Bates
& Guild Co: Boston)
31. JOSEPH PENNELL. From "Charing Cross to St. Paul's," by Justin
McCarthy (Seeley & Co: London)
32. LEONARD RAVEN HILL. From _Pick-Me-Up_ (London)
33. DANIEL VIERGE. From "Pablo de Ségovie," by Francisco de Quevedo
(Léon Bonhoure: Paris)
34. P. G. JEANNIOT. From _La Vie Moderne_ (Paris)
35. PORCH OF AN ENGLISH CHURCH. From a Photograph
36. D. A. GREGG. Drawn for "Pen Drawing"
37. NORMANDY MOAT-HOUSE. From a Photograph
38. C. D. M. Drawn for "Pen Drawing"
39. STREET IN HOLLAND. From a Photograph
40. C. D. M. Drawn for "Pen Drawing"
41. C. D. M. Drawn for "Pen Drawing"
42. GEORGE F. NEWTON. From "Catalogue of the Philadelphia & Boston
Face Brick Co." (Boston)
43. C. D. M. Drawn for "Pen Drawing"
44. C. D. M. Drawn for "Pen Drawing"
45. FRANK E. WALLIS. From _The Engineering Record_
46. HARRY ALLAN JACOBS. From _The Architectural Review_ (Bates
& Guild Co: Boston)
47. D. A. GREGG. From "Architectural Rendering in Pen and Ink," by
D. A. Gregg (Ticknor & Co: Boston)
48. D. A. GREGG. From _The Brickbuilder_ (Rogers & Manson: Boston)
49. HERBERT RAILTON. From "Coaching Days and Coaching Ways," by
W. Outram Tristram (Macmillan & Co: London)
50. D. A. GREGG. From _The American Architect_ (The American
Architect and Building News Co: Boston)
51. WALTER M.CAMPBELL. From _The American Architect_ (The American
Architect and Building News Co: Boston)
52. HERBERT RAILTON. From "Coaching Days and Coaching Ways," by
W. Outram Tristram (Macmillan & Co: London)
53. A. F. JACCACI. From _The Century Magazine_ (The Century Co:
New York)
54. CLAUDE FAYETTE BRAGDON. From _The Brickbuilder_ (Rogers &
Manson: Boston)
55. HARVEY ELLIS. From _The Inland Architect_ (The Inland Publishing
Co: Chicago)
56. C. E. MALLOWS. From _The British Architect_ (London)
57. C. D. M. Drawn for "Pen Drawing"
58. C. D. M. Drawn for "Pen Drawing"
59. C. D. M. Drawn for "Pen Drawing"
60. C. D. M. Drawn for "Pen Drawing"
61. A. B. FROST. From _Scribner's Magazine_ (Charles Scribner's
Sons: New York)
62. ALFRED G. JONES. From a Book Plate
63. WALTER APPLETON CLARK. From _Scribner's Magazine_ (Charles
Scribner's Sons: New York).
64. A. CAMPBELL CROSS. From _Quartier Latin_ (Paris)
65. MUCHA. From a Poster Design
66. HOWARD PYLE. From "Otto of the Silver Hand," by Howard Pyle
(Charles Scribner's Sons: New York)
67. WILL H. BRADLEY. From a Poster Design for _The Chap-Book_
(Herbert S. Stone & Co: Chicago)
68. P. J. BILLINGHURST. From a Book Plate
69. "BEGGARSTAFF BROTHERS." From a Poster Design
70. EDWARD PENFIELD. From a Design for the "Poster Calendar"
(R. H. Russell & Son: New York)
71. LOUIS J. RHEAD. From a Poster Design for "Lundborg's Perfumes"
72. J. W. SIMPSON. From a Book Plate
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.--Style in Pen Drawing
CHAPTER II.--Materials
CHAPTER III.--Technique
CHAPTER IV.--Values
CHAPTER V.--Practical Problems
CHAPTER VI.--Architectural Drawing
CHAPTER VII.--Decorative Drawing
CHAPTER I
STYLE IN PEN DRAWING
Art, with its finite means, cannot hope to record the infinite
variety and complexity of Nature, and so contents itself with a
partial statement, addressing this to the imagination for the full
and perfect meaning. This inadequation, and the artificial adjustments
which it involves, are tolerated by right of what is known as artistic
convention; and as each art has its own particular limitations, so
each has its own particular conventions. Sculpture reproduces the
forms of Nature, but discards the color without any shock to our
ideas of verity; Painting gives us the color, but not the third
dimension, and we are satisfied; and Architecture is _purely_
conventional, since it does not even aim at the imitation of natural
form.
[Sidenote: _The Conventions of Line Drawing_]
Of the kindred arts which group themselves under the head of Painting,
none is based on such broad conventions as that with which we are
immediately concerned--the art of Pen Drawing. In this medium,
Nature's variety of color, when not positively ignored, is suggested
by means of sharp black lines, of varying thickness, placed more or
less closely together upon white paper; while natural form depends
primarily for its representation upon arbitrary boundary lines.
There is, of course, no authority in Nature for a positive outline:
we see objects only by the difference in color of the other objects
behind and around them. The technical capacity of the pen and ink
medium, however, does not provide a value corresponding to every
natural one, so that a broad interpretation has to be adopted which
eliminates the less positive values; and, that form may not likewise
be sacrificed, the outline becomes necessary, that light objects may
stand relieved against light. This outline is the most characteristic,
as it is the most indispensable, of the conventions of line drawing.
To seek to abolish it only involves a resort to expedients no less
artificial, and the results of all such attempts, dependent as
they necessarily are upon elaboration of color, and a general
indirectness of method, lack some of the best characteristics of
pen drawing. More frequently, however, an elaborate color-scheme
is merely a straining at the technical limitations of the pen in
an effort to render the greatest possible number of values.
It may be worth while to inquire whether excellence in pen drawing
consists in thus dispensing with its recognized conventions, or
in otherwise taxing the technical resources of the instrument.
This involves the question of Style,--of what characteristic pen
methods are,--a question which we will briefly consider.
[Side note: _What Constituted "Style"_]
It is a recognized principle that every medium of art expression
should be treated with due regard to its nature and properties.
The sculptor varies his technique according as he works in wood,
granite, or marble; the painter handles his water-color in quite
another manner than that he would employ on an oil-painting of
the same subject; and the architect, with the subtle sense of the
craftsman, carries this principle to such a fine issue as to impart
an individual expression even to particular woods. He knows that
what may be an admirable design when executed in brass may be a
very bad one in wrought-iron and is sure to be an absurdity in
wood. An artistic motive for a silver flagon, too, is likely to
prove ugly for pottery or cut-glass, and so on. There is a genius,
born of its particular properties, in every medium, which demands
individual expression. Observe, therefore, that Art is not satisfied
with mere unrelated beauty of form or color. It requires that the
result confess some sensible relation to the means by which it has
been obtained; and in proportion as it does this, it may claim
to possess that individual and distinctive charm which we call
"Style." It may be said, therefore, that the technical limitations
of particular mediums impose what might properly be called natural
conventions; and while misguided ambition may set these conventions
aside to hammer out effects from an unwilling medium, the triumph
is only mechanical; Art does not lie that way.
[Side note: _The Province of the Pen_]
Ought the pen, then, to be persuaded into the province of the brush?
Since the natures of the two means differ, it does not stultify
the water-color that it cannot run the deep gamut of oil. Even if
the church-organ be the grandest and most comprehensive of musical
instruments we may still be permitted to cherish our piano. Each
has its own sphere, its own reason for being. So of the pen,--the
piccolo flute of the artistic orchestra. Let it pipe its high treble
as merrily as it may, but do not coerce it into mimicking the bassoon.
[Illustration: FIG. 1 JOSEPH PENNELL]
Pen drawing is most apt to lose its individuality when it begins
to assume the characteristics of wash-drawing, such as an elaborate
massing of grays, small light areas, and a general indirectness
of method. A painter once told me that he was almost afraid to
handle the pen,--"It is so fearfully direct," he said. He understood
the instrument, certainly, for if there is one characteristic more
than another which should distinguish pen methods it is Directness.
The nature of the pen seems to mark as its peculiar function that
of picking out the really vital features of a subject. Pen drawing
has been aptly termed the "shorthand of Art;" the genius of the
pen-point is essentially epitome.
If we turn to the brush, we find its capacity such that a high
light may be brought down to a minute fraction of an inch with a
few swift strokes of it; whereas the tedious labor, not to speak
of the actual technical difficulties, encountered in attempting such
an effect of color with pen and ink, indicates that we are forcing
the medium. Moreover, it is technically impossible to reproduce
with the pen the low values which may be obtained with the brush;
and it is unwise to attempt it. The way, for example, in which
Mr. Joseph Pennell handles his pen as compared with that in which
he handles his brush is most instructive as illustrating what I
have been maintaining. His pen drawings are pitched in a high
key,--brilliant blacks and large light areas, with often just enough
half-tone to soften the effect. His wash-drawings, on the contrary,
are so utterly different in manner as to have nothing in common
with the others, distinguished as they are by masses of low tone
and small light areas. Compare Figs. 1 and 5. Observe that there
is no straining at the technical capacity of the pen or of the
brush; no attempt to obtain an effect in one medium which seems to
be more naturally adapted to the other. Individuality is imparted
to each by a frank concession to its peculiar genius.
[Illustration: FIG. 2 MAXIME LALANNE]
[Side note: _Examples of Good Style_]
I have said that the chief characteristic of pen methods is Directness.
I think I may now say that the chief element of style is Economy
of Means. The drawing by M. Maxime Lalanne shown in Fig. 2 is an
excellent example of this economy carried to its extreme. Not a
stroke could be spared, so direct and simple is it, and yet it
is so complete and homogenous that nothing could be added to make
it more so. The architecture is left without color, and yet we are
made to feel that it is not white--this subtle suggestion of low
color being obtained by a careful avoidance of any strong black
notes in the rendering, which would have intensified the whites
and lighted up the picture. Fig. 3, by the same artist, is even
more notable by reason of the masterly breadth which characterizes
the treatment of a most complicated subject. A comparison of these
with a drawing of the Restoration House, at Rochester, England, Fig.
4, is instructive. In the latter the method is almost painfully
elaborate; nothing of the effect is obtained by suggestion. The
technique is varied and interesting, but the whole drawing lacks that
individual something which we call Style. In the Lalanne drawings we
see foliage convincingly represented by means of the mere outlines
and a few subtle strokes of the pen. There is no attempt at the
literal rendering of natural objects in detail, all is accomplished
by suggestion: and while I do not wish to be understood as insisting
upon such a severely simple style, much less upon the purist theory
that the function of the pen is concerned with form alone, I would
impress upon the student that Lalanne's is incomparably the finer
manner of the two.
[Illustration: FIG. 3 MAXIME LALANNE]
[Illustration: FIG. 4 FROM A PHOTOGRAPH]
[Illustration: FIG. 5 JOSEPH PENNELL]
[Side note: _A Word of Advice_]
Between these two extremes of method there is a wide latitude for
individual choice. Contrast with the foregoing the accompanying
pen drawing by Mr. Pennell, Fig. 5, which gives a fair idea of the
manner of this admirable stylist. Compared with the sketches by
Lalanne it has more richness of color, but there is the same fine
restraint, the same nice regard for the instrument. The student
will find it most profitable to study the work of this masterly
penman. By way of warning, however, let me remind him here, that in
studying the work of any accomplished draughtsman he is selecting
a style for the study of principles, not that he may learn to mimic
somebody, however excellent the somebody may be; that he must,
therefore, do a little thinking himself; that he has an individuality
of his own which he does not confess if his work looks like some
one's else; and, finally, that he has no more right to consciously
appropriate the peculiarities of another's style than he has to
appropriate his more tangible property, and no more reason to do
so than he has to walk or talk like him.