DECORATIVE DRAWING
In all modern decorative illustration, and, indeed, in all departments
of decorative design, the influences of two very different and distinct
points of view are noticeable; the one demanding a realistic, the
other a purely conventional art. The logic of the first is, that
all good pictorial art is essentially decorative; that of the second,
that the decorative subject must be designed in organic relation to
the space which it is to occupy, and be so treated that the design
will primarily fulfil a purely ornamental function. That is to say,
whatever of dramatic or literary interest the decorative design
may possess must be, as it were, woven into it, so that the general
effect shall please as instantly, as directly, and as independently
of the meaning, as the pattern of an Oriental rug. The former, it
will be seen, is an imitative, the latter an inventive art. In
the one, the elements of the subject are rendered with all possible
naturalism; while, in the other, effects of atmosphere and the
accidental play of light and shade are sacrificed to a conventional
rendering, by which the design is kept flat upon the paper or wall.
One represents the point of view of the painter and the pictorial
illustrator; the other that of the designer and the architect. The
second, or conventional idea, has now come to be widely accepted
as a true basic principle in decorative art.
[Side note: _The New Decorative School_]
The idea is not by any means novel; it has always been the fundamental
principle of Japanese art; but its genesis was not in Japan. The
immediate inspiration of the new Decorative school, as far as it
is concerned with the decoration of books, at least, was found in
the art of Dürer, Holbein, and the German engravers of the sixteenth
century,--interest in which period has been lately so stimulated
by the Arts and Crafts movement in England. This movement, which
may fairly be regarded as one of the most powerful influences in
latter-day art, was begun with the aim of restoring those healthy
conditions which obtained before the artist and the craftsman came
to be two distinct and very much extranged workers. The activities
of the movement were at first more directly concerned with the
art of good book-making, which fructified in the famous Kelmscott
Press (an institution which, while necessarily undemocratic, has
exerted a tremendous influence on modern printing), and to-day
there is scarcely any sphere of industrial art which has not been
influenced by the Arts and Crafts impetus.
[Side note: _Criticisms of the School_]
This modern decorative renaissance has a root in sound art principles,
which promises for it a vigorous vitality; and perhaps the only
serious criticism which has been directed against it is, that it
encourages archaic crudities of technique which ignore the high
development of the reproductive processes of the present day; and,
moreover, that its sympathies tend towards mediæval life and feeling.
While such a criticism might reasonably be suggested by the work of
some of its individual adherents, it does not touch in the least
the essential principles of the school. Art cannot be said to scout
modernity because it refuses to adjust itself to the every caprice
of Science. The architect rather despises the mechanically perfect
brick (very much to the surprise of the manufacturer); and though
the camera can record more than the pencil or the brush, yet the
artist is not trying to see more than he ever did before. There
are, too, many decorative illustrators who, while very distinctly
confessing their indebtedness to old examples; are yet perfectly
eclectic and individual, both in the choice and development of
motive. Take, for example, the very modern subject of the cyclist
by Mr. A. B. Frost, Fig. 61. There are no archaisms in it whatever.
The drawing is as naturalistic and just as careful as if it were
designed for a picture. The shadows, too, are cast, giving an effect
of strong outdoor light; but the treatment, broad and beautifully
simple so as to be reconcilable with the lettering which accompanied
it, is well within conventional lines. That the character of the
technical treatment is such as to place no tax on the mechanical
inventiveness of the processman is not inexcusable archæology.
[Illustration: FIG. 61 A. B. FROST]
A valuable attribute of this conventional art is, that it puts no
bounds to the fancy of the designer. It is a figurative language
in which he may get away from commonplace statement. What has always
seemed to me a very logical employment of convention appears in the
_Punch_ cartoons of Sir John Tenniel and Mr. Lindley Sambourne.
Even in those cartoons which are devoid of physical caricature (and
they are generally free from this), we see at a glance that it is
the political and not the personal relations of the personæ that
are represented; whereas in the naturalistic cartoons of _Puck_,
for example, one cannot resist the feeling that personalities are
being roughly handled.
[Side note: _Relation_]
A chief principle in all decorative design and treatment is that of
Relation. If the space to be ornamented be a book-page the design
and treatment must be such as to harmonize with the printing. The
type must be considered as an element in the design, and, as the
effect of a page of type is broad and uniformly flat, the ornament
must be made to count as broad and flat likewise. The same principle
holds equally in mural decoration. There the design ought to be
subordinate to the general effect of the architecture. The wall
is not to be considered merely as a convenient place on which to
plaster a picture, its structural purpose must be regarded, and
this cannot be expressed if the design or treatment be purely
pictorial--if vague perspective distances and strong foreground
accents be used without symmetry or order, except that order which
governs itself alone. In other words, the decoration must be organic.
[Illustration: FIG. 62 ALFRED G. JONES]
[Side note: _Classes of Decorative Design_]
Decorative illustrations may be broadly classified under three
heads as follows: First, those wherein the composition and the
treatment are both conventional, as, for example, in the ex-libris
by Mr. A. G. Jones, Fig. 62. Second, where the composition is
naturalistic, and the treatment only is conventional, as in Mr.
Frost's design. Third, where the composition is decorative but
not conventional, and the treatment is semi-natural, as in the
drawing by Mr. Walter Appleton Clark, Fig. 63. (The latter subject
is of such a character as to lend itself without convention to a
decorative effect; and, although the figure is modeled as in a
pictorial illustration, the organic lines are so emphasized throughout
as to preserve the decorative character, and the whole keeps its
place on the page.) Under this third head would be included those
subjects of a pictorial nature whose composition and values are
such as to make them reconcilable to a decorative use by means
of borders or very defined edges, as in the illustration by Mr.
A. Campbell Cross, Fig. 64.
[Illustration: FIG. 63 W. APPLETON CLARK]
[Illustration: FIG. 64 A. CAMPBELL CROSS]
[Side note: _The Decorative Outline_]
Another essential characteristic of decorative drawing is the emphasized
Outline. This may be heavy or delicate, according to the nature of
the subject or individual taste. The designs by Mr. W. Nicholson
and Mr. Selwyn Image, for instance, are drawn with a fatness of
outline not to be obtained with anything but a brush; while the
outlines of M. Boutet de Monvel, marked as they are, are evidently
the work of a more than usually fine pen. In each case, however,
everything is in keeping with the scale of the outline adopted,
so that this always retains its proper emphasis. The decorative
outline should never be broken, but should be kept firm, positive,
and uniform. It may be heavy, and yet be rich and feeling, as may
be seen in the Mucha design, Fig.65. Generally speaking, the line
ought not to be made with a nervous stroke, but rather with a slow,
deliberate drag. The natural wavering of the hand need occasion no
anxiety, and, indeed, it is often more helpful to the line than
otherwise.
[Illustration: FIG. 65 MUCHA]
Perhaps there is no more difficult thing to do well than to model
the figure while still preserving the decorative outline. Several
examples of the skilful accomplishment of this problem are illustrated
here. Observe, for instance, how in the quaint Dürer-like design
by Mr. Howard Pyle, Fig. 66, the edges of the drapery-folds are
emphasized in the shadow by keeping them white, and see how wonderfully
effective the result is. The same device is also to be noticed in
the book-plate design by Mr. A. G. Jones, Fig. 62, as well as in
the more conventional treatment of the black figure in the Bradley
poster, Fig. 67.
[Illustration: FIG. 66 HOWARD PYLE]
[Illustration: FIG. 67 WILL H. BRADLEY
[Side note: _Color_]
In the rendering of decorative subjects, the Color should be, as
much as possible, designed. Whereas a poster, which is made with
a view to its entire effect being grasped at once, may be rendered
in flat masses of color, the head- or tail-piece for a decorative
book-page should be worked out in more detail, and the design should
be finer and more varied in color. The more the color is attained
by means of pattern, instead of by mere irresponsible lines, the
more decorative is the result. Observe the color-making by pattern
in the book-plate by Mr. P. J. Billinghurst, Fig. 68. A great variety
of textures may be obtained by means of varied patterns without
affecting the breadth of the color-scheme. This may be noticed
in the design last mentioned, in which the textures are extremely
well rendered, as well as in the poster design by Mr. Bradley for
the _Chap-Book_, just referred to.
[Illustration: FIG. 68 P. J. BILLINGHURST]
[Illustration: FIG. 69 "BEGGARSTAFF BROTHERS"]
The color-scheme ought to be simple and broad. No set rules can
be laid down to govern its disposition, which must always have
reference to the whole design. The importance of employing such a
broad and simple scheme in decorative drawing needs no better argument
than the effective poster design by the "Beggarstaff Brothers,"
Fig. 69, and that by Mr. Penfield, Fig.70. Of course the more
conventional the design the less regard need be paid to anything
like a logical disposition of color. A figure may be set against
a black landscape with white trees without fear of criticism from
reasonable people, provided it looks effective there.
[Illustration: FIG. 70 EDWARD PENFIELD]
[Side note: _Modern Decorative Draughtsmen_]
A word or two, in conclusion, concerning some of the modern decorative
draughtsmen. Of those who work in the sixteenth century manner,
Mr. Howard Pyle is unquestionably the superior technician. His
line, masterly in its sureness, is rich and charged with feeling.
Mr. H. Ospovat, one of the younger group of English decorators,
has also a charming technique, rather freer than that of Mr. Pyle,
and yet reminding one of it. Mr. Louis Rhead is another of the same
school, whose designs are deserving of study. The example of his
work shown in Fig. 71--excellent both in color and in drawing--is
one of his earlier designs. Mr. J. W. Simpson, in the book-plate,
Fig. 72, shows the broadest possible decorative method; a method
which, while too broad for anything but a poster or a book-label,
is just what the student should aim at being able to attain.
[Illustration: FIG. 71 LOUIS J. RHEAD]
[Illustration: FIG. 72 J. W. SIMPSON]
Some of those decorators whose work shows a Japanese influence have
a most exquisite method. Of these, that remarkable draughtsman, M.
Boutet de Monvel, easily takes the first place. Those who have had
the good fortune to see his original drawings will not easily forget
the delicate beauty of outline nor the wonderfully tender coloring
which distinguishes them. Mr. Maxfield Parrish is another masterly
decorator who is noted for his free use of Japanese precedent as
well as for the resourcefulness of his technique. The drawings
of Mr. Henry McCarter, too, executed as they are in pure line, are
especially valuable to the student of the pen. In respect both of
the design and treatment of decorative subjects, the work of the
late Aubrey Beardsley is more individual than that of any other
modern draughtsman. That of our own clever and eccentric Bradley,
while very clearly confessing its obligations, has yet a distinctive
character of its own. The work of the two latter draughts men,
however, is not to be recommended to the unsophisticated beginner
for imitation, for it is likely to be more harmful than otherwise.
Nevertheless, by steering clear of the grotesque conventions with
which they treat the human figure, by carefully avoiding the intense
blacks in which a great deal of their work abounds, and by generally
maintaining a healthy condition of mind, much is to be learned
from a study of their peculiar methods.