while in the Caroline it may be considered three. You find the m
slightly different: turn to our last chapter and note the Hans Rogel
m, which is upper case, and see how it corresponds to the Minnesinger
lower-case m.
The Caroline e you think, differs from the Minnesinger e, but if you
will look at the e in _erat_, third line of text, you will see how
decidedly the e there is a lower-case e.
Now turn to the Bergomensis letters and recognize that they have
certain characteristics. One characteristic is that the final letters
and several others are ornamented with the same kind of curved lines
as in the first Caroline I. Then that the letters are made with a
pen stroke, but that three strokes are frequently used where one is
satisfactory in the Caroline. This is plainly seen in the letter I.
And of these three strokes, one is the shaft of the letter, which is
long, the other two are the top of the shaft, which extends a little to
the left, and the bottom which extends to the right. And these three
strokes become the basis of the letter i, of u which is a double-i, of
n which is a double-i, and of m which is a triple-i. The o is made of
the main shaft and the right-hand base, and the left-hand top and the
main shaft. So you will then see that the Bergomensis is nothing less
than a more complicated and more regular letter than the Minnesinger,
which in turn is nothing less than a more irregular letter than the
Caroline! In order to make the Bergomensis letter you must have your
pen cut to a comparatively blunt point the exact width of the letter—a
letterer uses such a pen almost always. {195} When you study the
Italic specimen (see last chapter, “Lucidario” page), however, you find
that the lower-case letter is very much like the Minnesinger, except
that it is more simple and a trifle more rounded, but note that it is
evidently written with a comparatively sharp-pointed quill pen. But it
is not to be overlooked■
[Illustration: Example of seventh century lettering from a Latin
manuscript, reproduced from Strange’s book on lettering. In this
letter, freed of the curves in the capitals I, T, L, V, C, etc., we
find the principles of a very simple and graceful style of lettering,
virtually the Caroline, which is being revived by Grasset and Auriol in
France today.]
■that the variety in the letters is still due to the pressure of the
pen. The Italic letter is best practiced with a new quill; and then
when it gets a little out of order it may be cut a trifle and be used
for a Gothic letter, like the Minnesinger; and then when it spreads
again it may be cut a second time and then used for a broader Gothic
letter like the Bergomensis. {196}
Now, I do not claim that this chapter will be intelligible to a mere
reader—I feel sure that it will not be—but to anyone who will put in
practice all the exercises I have suggested, I feel sure that it will
be intelligible, and that it will give him the foundation for the whole
study of lettering so that he may pick up any alphabet and master its
principles after a few days’ practice.
{197} CHAPTER VI.
USE OF QUILL FEN NECESSARY IN THE STUDY OF LETTERING — THE
ORNAMENTATION IN LETTERING OF NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN SCRIBES COMPARED:
THE ITALIAN, GOTHIC, VISIGOTHIC, LOMBARDIC, ROMAN, VENETIAN,
ARABIC — THE FIRST PRINTED LETTERS: TYPE OF CAXTON, GUTENBERG,
ALDUS — THE ITALIC (LUCIDARIO PAGE), MODERNIZED, BECOMES THE JENSON AND
MORRIS TYPE, THE FRENCH OLD STYLE, ENGLISH OLD STYLE, AND OUR MODERN
ROMAN LOWER CASE: THE ALDUS TYPE BECOMES OUR ITALIC — THE PRINTER MUST
HAVE EDUCATED TASTE IF HE WOULD DESIGN CORRECTLY — APPROPRIATENESS
OF CERTAIN LETTERS BECAUSE OF THEIR HISTORIC ASSOCIATIONS — THE BAD
TASTE OF ORNAMENT AT THE EXPENSE OF CLEARNESS — AIMLESS, UNBALANCED
ORNAMENTATION — OVERORNAMENTATION — GRASSET’S LETTERING STUDIED — IN
AURIOL’S LETTERING THE SPIRIT OF PLANT FORM IS EXTENDED BY LETTERING,
AS IN GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE PLANT FORM IS BUILT UPON.
It is to be hoped that upon our advice the printer, after reading
Chapter I, attempted to copy some font, and that, not following any
special method, he found it pretty tedious work: that he then read
Chapters II, III and IV, and found, with the help of our information
about the Latin capitals in a square, and about the Gothic letter
being dependent upon the spreading of a quill pen, that things seemed
clearer, more intelligible. But we think that, with the help of the
present chapter, he will make still more progress. If he, fully
appreciating our reference to the quill pen, procured one, and set
to work studying the Grasset letters {198} he must have made rapid
progress; for it is only by using the quill pen that the Grasset
and Auriol letters can be understood. So we say that if a printer
will procure one and practice the Caroline alphabet given in the
last chapter, next the Burgomensis, next the Minnesinger, and then
the Stimmel and Rogel alphabets, he will find that he has a solid
foundation on which to study lettering, and a clear idea of the genius
of letters. He will begin to realize that the Caroline is the simplest,
the Burgomensis and Minnesinger the more complex, but not very
ornamental, though in them the caligrapher had begun to assert himself,
using a flourish from time to time to ornament the letters. And he will
notice that these flourishes are such as are made naturally with a
quill or reed pen, and that upon these curves and swellings are based
not only the Gothic capitals, but also what are known as lower-case
letters.
It so happened that most of the southern scribes (Italians and Spanish)
confined themselves to a very simple letter, while the northern ones
took pleasure in variety. The southern style is called the Italian, or
italic; the northern, the Gothic. There are many historical instances,
however, where northern manuscripts are simple; and on the other hand,
the letters of Visigothic and Lombardic writers, though southern,
were more ornamental than those of their Roman and Venetian brethren;
and our Burgomensis specimen we call Gothic, though it was originated
in Italy. The true southern ornamentation was originated under the
Arabic influence in Spain (at the time of the Saracenic conquest), and
traveled up to France, where it is found in the elongated d, s and f in
the French diplomatic hand.
{199} [Illustration: Facsimile of the title-page of an Aldine Horace,
1519. Showing Latin monumental letter now known as upper-case roman;
and Italian cursive hand, now known as italic.]
{200}
You, of course, know that when the art of printing was invented the
types had to be cast, and the dies were naturally cut in the form of
the letters of the manuscript of the country in which the printing
was done. Caxton imitated the manuscript of the Low Countries and not
that of England, when he printed the first book printed in English
movable type. So, too, Gutenberg’s type imitated the German manuscript,
while that of Aldus, tradition says, was cast after the manuscript of
Petrarch, and that form has been called Italian or italic ever since.
We give a specimen of Aldus’ “Horace”: copy with a quill the lower
case in it till you can write with ease, and you will be able to write
as Petrarch did. It is harder to associate it with quill pen writing
than to associate the Gothic with the pen letter. Nevertheless, if you
will write for a little while with an old quill, lettering like the
Minnesinger, and then with a new quill imitate the Aldus italic, you
will soon see that the italic character depends upon the pressure of
the quill pen, just as the Gothic does, though not to such a degree.
Make lower-case _a_, _d_ and _s_, or an _m_ several times, and you
will see what I mean. The other Italian form, which printers do not
call italic, is like the Lucidario, which is less cursive than the
Petrarchian form. When modernized, the Lucidario becomes the “Jenson”
and Morris type (while the Aldus is our italic); it only needs a little
investigation to realize how easily it became the French Old Style and
English Old Style, and then our modern, roman lower case.
It will not be difficult for you, if you will really obtain the quill
pen and practice as I propose, to realize the truth of the following
suggestions:
A printer should show an educated taste in his {201} designs. Few
people know this, and your fight will be continually against this
ignorance, both in yourself■
[Illustration: First page of Larousse’s New Dictionary, showing a
scholarly style of decoration. This can be best studied under a
magnifying glass.]
■and your customers. You will think that anything you like is artistic
and appropriate and you will be tempted {202} to undertake it.
Your customers will say that they “know nothing about art” but they
“know what they like”; so they will pick out some ill-executed and
inappropriate job and insist upon your following it. But my business is
simply with that which is established as standard, and not with what
people like or dislike. Now, historic association plays an important
part in designing for printers. The first page of the Larousse
dictionary is a superb example of historic association introduced
into a design. Here, to illustrate the letter A we have letters from
many different periods, but they are all harmonious because of their
ornament and their execution. And they are appropriate because they
are historical. So if you are designing an announcement of the Ancient
Order of Hibernians, a prospectus of a genealogical society, a book of
early English poetry (earlier than the tenth century) you could use
the sixth or seventh century A because that belongs to the very best
Irish-English lettering used between the sixth and tenth centuries.
The other letters that go with the Larousse sixth century ornamented A
specimen you will find in an example from the “Book of Kells,” given in
Strange’s “Alphabets,” and perhaps in the “Durham Book.” This identical
A is probably from “The Rule of St. Benedict.” Now, if you should
obtain an Anglo-Saxon alphabet and master its style and apply it as we
have suggested, it would be properly associated with these historic
subjects; so you, as an educated printer, would know that you were
right, and any criticism would not deter you from using it.
I take it for granted, however, that you use such letters as this A
only as initials, or in designing a title {203} of a line or two; and
that you would not let it occupy too much of the page: for it is not
only necessary that a letter should be associated historically with a
subject and that it be well designed, but it must also be associated
with printing or bookmaking. It is true that some introductory pages in
the sixth and seventh century Irish-English manuscripts were sometimes
very ornamental, but the reading pages were, as a rule, quite■
[Illustration: This is a design by Eugene Grasset for the heading of a
department in “La Revue Encyclopédique.” It represents French designing
art at its best. It is free from conventionality, and yet orderly and
well balanced. The Auriol design for “La Revue Encyclopédique” is bold
and striking, but not as perfect as this.]
■simple. The good bookmaker never forgets his pages are for reading.
So, a Gothic ornamental letter that might be appropriate in a stained
glass window or on a hand-painted testimonial might be offensive
throughout a printed book. I know of nothing more inartistic, more
nauseating to critics, than the millions of lithographed mottoes,
Christmas cards, etc., that the English lithographic publishers have
put out for the last decade—overburdened with ornament that should be
painted and not printed. And so the whites in this sixth century A, and
the dotted outline around it, make {204} it in a way less appropriate
for general printing than the solid black, twelfth century A.
The middle A is in the style of the wood-cut Venetian letter of the
sixteenth century; and while on general principles a gray background
like this is not so satisfactory as a black one, yet this is not a bad
specimen of designing, for the stipple could be punched into the wood
very deeply, and is so near together that if one hole did fill up it
would not be missed. However, it, too, must not be used for general
printing, but only as rich ornament. It is well balanced, mind you, and
therefore the detail is not so worrying as would be as much detail put
in freehand, aimlessly and unbalanced.
If you will now turn to the cover design of the Larousse given in the
August number, you will find it a beautiful production by Grasset,
wherein we see also some decorative elements that may be studied in
conjunction with what we have written in this and preceding chapters
about letters. For example, the use of line with silhouette—we find a
dandelion leaf reduced to silhouette, and another laurel wreath like
the one pictured on the head of Goethe’s mother. But the lettering of
the title is the most interesting part of it. Grasset has studied the
Caroline letter, and reproduces it with very scholarly fidelity. Only
when you have studied an example like the Caroline alphabet we give
from Strange’s book can you appreciate the workmanship and good taste
in the Grasset. A companion piece to this is the heading by Auriol
where we see a modification of the monumental letter and the uncial as
in the d and the r. Here the initials J J and the initial L are Gothic
in principle, and you will not fail to see how■
{205} [Illustration: Design for an article in “La Revue Encyclopédique”
on “Le Théatre Moderne et L’Influence Étrangère, par Jean Jullien,”
with an initial letter and design embracing a half-tone portrait of
the author. A harmonious design, showing the use of silhouette; and
Caroline lettering not so well understood as in the work of Grasset.
Designed by George Auriol.]
■{206} harmoniously the L below the leaves extends the spirit of the
plant design, so that if you have ever read essays upon Gothic art,
like the writings of Ruskin, you will readily see the plant form is
here built upon, as in Gothic architecture. What we have said so far
ought to have prepared you for a historic survey of the topic of
lettering. Our space is much too limited to make such a survey very
extensive, but what we shall give in the next chapter will serve as a
foundation on which you can build, by reading, a much more exhaustive
study of the subject.
{207} CHAPTER VII.
THE GROWTH OF WRITTEN LANGUAGE — SIGNS AND SYMBOLS BECOME
HIEROGLYPHS — EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHS BECOME HIERATIC OR CURSIVE — THE
HIERATIC BECOMES ANGULAR IN THE PHŒNICIAN — PHŒNICIAN ALPHABET A
MONUMENTAL ONE AND THE LETTERS LIKE OURS — FROM THE PHŒNICIAN COME THE
GREEK AND LATIN ALPHABETS, WHICH ARE USED THROUGHOUT EUROPE TODAY.
The growth of written language is briefly recorded as follows.
Primitive man used signs and symbols, as does the North American
Indian. Noah understood the symbol of the dove with the olive branch.
Had he wished to record the event of the flood he would probably have
drawn several waved lines to represent water, and a mountain peak
underneath, to show that the water rose above the mountains. A second
picture of a dove with an olive branch would have indicated that the
waters had subsided. This method of writing was used by the Assyrians
and Egyptians 5000 B. C. With the Assyrians the symbols developed into
“cuneiform,” or wedge-shaped signs, stamped on clay. With this form we
have nothing to do, as it never influenced our writing; but with the
Egyptians (as with the Chinese) the symbols soon took a written form
called hieratic (used by the priests), which is the direct parent of
our own handwriting. In hieroglyphs on monuments in Egypt, the sign
for water was a horizontal zigzag, and for a mountain a silhouette of
hill-like form. These {208} were painted, and sometimes partly incised
on soft stone or stucco, and had a pictorial character. But when the
priests had to write voluminous rituals, they used a reed pen on
papyrus, and reduced the silhouette pictures to shorthand-like marks.
The first example in the Larousse Dictionary (page 201), represents the
hieratic shorthand of the hieroglyph of a bird. But not only did the
Egyptians use their signs as hieroglyphic word symbols, but they also
used them as phonetic signs, so that the sign for water stood for both
water (_mu_) and the sound _n_. The Phœnicians and Hebrews are supposed
to have borrowed their alphabet from the Egyptian hieratic writing; and
in the transition the irregular character of the markings of the reed
pen on papyrus disappeared and monumental regularity took its place, as
nearly all of the early Phœnician and Hebrew writing was in the form of
inscriptions on stone and metal. But in this transition the letters did
not revert to the Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol, but simply became an
angular, simplified form of the hieratic, so that the A became a V or
caret-like form with a line crossing it.
With the Phœnicians and Hebrews the signs were never used for word
signs, but for syllabic (or letter) forms, so that with them N was
simply a phonetic sign (plus variable vowel accompaniments).
This alphabet was used by the Phœnicians, Hebrews, Moabites and other
Semitic inhabitants of Palestine. It is supposed to have been carried
by the Phœnicians to Greece, and possibly to countries farther west,
but until investigation throws further light upon the subject it is
well to suppose that all the other countries of Europe {209} received
their alphabets from Greece, so that, virtually, all the alphabets of
Europe—Latin, English, German and Russian-are simply modifications of
the Greek (see the succeeding specimens in the Larousse Dictionary
page). The Greek alphabet was modified in two ways: first, in the
monumental form it became more regular—more right-angled—than
the Phœnician; secondly, in the manuscript it became much more
irregular—cursive in general, with angles not at right angles (see
cursive examples, third row of Larousse Dictionary page)—so that in
some third century manuscripts there is as much irregularity as in the
Egyptian. This character, however, is more apt to be found in the late
Greek manuscripts—that is, those written during the Christian era—than
in classic Greek manuscripts where simplicity and regularity prevail.
It is particularly interesting to the printer to realize this fact: for
when he sees a difference in European lettering—as, for instance, the
difference between Russian and German text on the one hand, and English
on the other—he must remember that Russian and German are outgrowths
of the late Greek or ornamental lettering; while English, Italian,
Spanish and French are the outgrowths of the simpler classical Greek
forms. To distinguish the two we have called the first (most of which
is irregular) Gothic, the second (which is generally regular) Latin.
But many an irregular manuscript was written by other than Gothic
scribes, and there are some Latin manuscripts that are as irregular as
the Gothic.
No matter how a letter may vary in ornamentation in a German, Russian,
or English book, it is an outcome {210} of a Greek original. In
the Russian, in one or two cases, a sign is a compound of two Greek
letters, but in English each letter has its Greek prototype. Now
anyone who stops to think will notice that monumental letters on
stone are about the same in all countries. (The letters on Gothic
brasses, however, are dissimilar to the usual monumental letters.) For
the monumental letter is usually made by measuring, as in the first
Bauernfeind alphabet, and is cut by an ordinary workman who follows
a pattern, which should be simple. Therefore, an A is nearly always
two oblique uprights and one horizontal crosspiece, like the sixth
Larousse example. The two uprights are not always at the same angle,
but they are nearly always oblique, though one may be very near the
perpendicular. The crosspiece is sometimes oblique, but rarely at an
angle greater than fifteen degrees. So a monument erected in Greece 600
B. C., one in Rome 60 B. C., one in Italy in 1400 A. D., and one in
Paris today, have virtually the same letter A upon them as one written
in Paris today, and a child who had just learned its letters could
recognize it in each.
It must not be expected that in a short treatise of this kind we can
cover the whole field of paleography, but our few notes on the subject
may indicate to some readers a line of study that will repay anyone who
undertakes it. The easiest method is to examine manuscripts of Bible
text, where the subject matter is pretty well known, and, following
the different styles of writing, acquaint oneself with the development
of writing in different centuries and in different countries. A
valuable handbook giving facsimiles of many Bible pages is “Bible
Illustrations,” published by Henry Frowde, New York—it costs but $1.
{211} [Illustration: SOMMAIRE
Headpiece for a French periodical.]
CHAPTER VIII.
SUMMARY OF METHOD OF INSTRUCTION GIVEN — PRELIMINARY “PLACING” OF LINES
IN A SKETCH — THE RELATION OF A SILHOUETTE TO AN OUTLINE — DRAWING
IN OUTLINE, IN SILHOUETTE, WITH PARTIAL SHADING AND WITH FULL
SHADING — CUTS GIVEN OF VARIOUS STYLES OF BOOK DECORATIONS — ANALYSIS
OF THESE STYLES.
Now for our summary. My method of teaching in this series has been one
of suggestion, and very often I have seemingly gone off at a tangent,
to hint at an application of some rule; in so doing perhaps the
chapters seem to lack continuity, but I think several readings of them
will show that there has been a logical development throughout. Perhaps
the following summary will bring various parts together and fix all in
the memory.
First, the student is advised to practice drawing from objects, and
to learn to get something on the paper as soon as possible, and then
by further labor to develop this something. There should be at first,
lines and markings showing _about_ where the different parts of an
object should come. In the Lautrec drawing the lines are not meant for
a bicycle or the calves of a man’s legs, but the lines represent about
where the bicycle and the man’s calves should come. Anything that can
be seen may be “placed” in this way—a tree, a house, a cloud. After the
student has learned to “place”■
{212} [Illustration: ZIMMERMAN AND HIS MACHINE.
After a lithograph by H. de T. Lautrec, from the _Revue
Franco-Americaine_.
This is given as an example of rapid manner in placing a figure. In
sketching a figure it is advisable always to draw the whole figure at
once, and never finish the head first and then go to the hand. In a few
lines, a correct draftsman may indicate a great deal. It is also given
as an example of a reproduction from a crayon drawing. This is actually
reproduced from a print, but the artist originally drew on a stone with
crayon, and crayon on paper will reproduce by photo-engraving as well
as this. Lithograph crayon may be used, or an ordinary hard crayon (the
softer the better), or Hardtmuth’s crayon pencils. Charcoal paper may
be used, or any of the special crayon papers. The more grain on the
paper, the better.]
■{213} objects fairly well, he finds that by going over his sketch
lines, and improving them a little, he can make outline drawings.
Outlines are frequently used for finished effect as seen in the
Beggarstaff poster.
Of course, this preliminary “placing” of the lines is difficult until
the eye is trained to see correctly. I have■
[Illustration: Portrait caricature of the French actor Dailly, from a
French periodical. Half-tone from a wash drawing.]
■known beginners who could hardly grasp the idea of what an outline
is, so I suggest the excellent method of trying to see objects as
silhouettes. It is not a bad plan to put a whisk broom, a screw-driver
and a hammer against a window pane and draw them in silhouette. {214}
The Beggarstaff is very interesting from this point of view—if you
will think of the cocked hat as a mass, like the Quaker hat, you will
find it easier to draw its outline than as if you see it in all its
component parts, as in the Penlick drawing. We have given previously
many silhouette illustrations to emphasize this method of seeing things
in mass. We also make this point: that the ability to see objects in
silhouette is helpful, not only for the purpose of representing an
entire object in silhouette, but also because details can frequently
be thus represented with excellent effect. For example, the hair and
mustache in the Penlick, and the hair in the Dailly are in silhouette.
Besides outline and silhouette, shading may be employed by the
draftsman to bring out form. The Dailly differs considerably from the
Beggarstaff—it is fully shaded, and shading brings out the forms of the
planes and muscles of the face.
[Illustration: Pen drawing by Albert Mantelet. [drop-cap]]
Mantelet’s initial gives us a third kind of drawing. It is partly
shaded. The Sphinx design is an excellent example of shading contrasted
with silhouette. In order to learn to shade, it is well to draw from
white objects, such as plaster casts or pasteboard boxes, placed in
a good light, which should come from one direction only. It makes
little difference what material is used to draw with; your aim should
be to accustom yourself to distinguish light and shade. If you can
distinguish it upon the object it is not difficult to draw it on paper.
Lettering and the adaptability or application of■
{215} [Illustration: Initial letter, with character portrait. Drawn by
Mantelet, enlarged from a cut in a French periodical. A drawing might
be made this size if intended to be reduced to the size of the cut
opposite.]
■{216} the pictorial to printing are matters which we have allowed to
force their way into almost every page, so a■
[Illustration: Design by Georg Auriol.]
■summary of our method of teaching in this series would not be complete
without a further word about the decoration of a page.
Let us next, therefore, consider the matter of periods or styles in
illustrating. The initial letter designed by Auriol represents a modern
style of design.■
[Illustration: THE BATTLE OF THE SPHINX.
Illustration from a French periodical. Crayon and silhouette effect.]
■{217} Twenty years ago the half-tone, as in this portrait, was
unknown, and while the white and black goes back to the fifteenth
century, the free distribution of the leaves is due to the French
artists having studied Japanese designing.
The “Théatre du Chat Noir,” designed by the same artist, is also
Japanesque in treatment. It may be profitably compared with the Grasset
page. Auriol’s initial■
[Illustration: Théatre du Chat Noir]
■“L” you will at once recognize as Gothic, and that also, you see, goes
back farther than the fifteenth century. Now, does not that suggest
to you that in modern designing there may be much recourse to antique
styles? Recognizing this, you will grasp our idea in publishing these
different Ls. We do not say any special one, like our initial “L,”
could be of immediate use to you; but we do say that, in the hands of a
clever designer, every one could serve as a basis on which to build a
style of design.
[Illustration: Drop-cap Capital L]
Looking at these initials from this point of view, they offer various
suggestions. Here, for example, are more natural forms, but not in the
Japanese styles. A close observer of nature might be able to engrave
a somewhat clumsier, {218} but none the less interesting, initial of
this kind, while he could not draw a Japanese-like design with the
grace of Auriol.
[Illustration: Drop-cap Capital L]
Leaves and flowers are not the only motives at the designer’s service.
Here is a little street vista in which the suggestion of buildings is
nicely brought out, yet the lines are by no means exact. If one or two
lines have been cut away in the process of engraving, we hardly miss
them; and if a few more should be cut away from the design as it is,
they would not be missed. A style of designing in which free lines are
used in this way has its value, though we should not advise one to
found a study of drawing upon such principles.
[Illustration: Drop-cap Capital L]
Lines in themselves, as well as nature’s forms, may be used. This “L”
is little more than a repetition of Arabic design; again in our example
of Holbein’s book-cover design we see an echo of Moorish and Grolier
designing, which were Arabic in character.
[Illustration: Drop-cap Capital L]
Like the former initial “L,” this one depends upon lines for its
ornamentation. These are curved lines instead of straight ones, and
where, as in the upper part, it resembles the Holbein cover, it is in a
measure Moorish; but where, as along■
{219} [Illustration: POSTER.
Designed and engraved on wood by the Beggarstaff Brothers.
Showing a clever use of silhouette and outline, with appropriate Old
English lettering. One of the most harmonious designs we publish.]
■{220} the letter L, the curves have a knot at each end, one longer
than the other, the design is based upon the Rococo, which is often
used in modern illustration, when lightness and irregularity are
required. The French illustrator Maurice Leloir, in his decorations of
some eighteenth century books, Such as “Sterne’s Sentimental Journey,”
used it advantageously.
[Illustration: Drop-cap Capital L]
Living forms may be substituted for lines, and the ingenious
combination of the figure and its shadows in this specimen suggests a
method of construction which is often used by designers. The sky in
this little cut is nicely engraved, and could serve as a good exercise
for one who had been practicing wood cutting a month or two.
[Illustration: Pastoral scene]
Leaving out the initial, a little rectangular cut like the foregoing
makes an effective introduction to a paragraph, and again suggests
practice in wood engraving.
All the cuts illustrating this chapter, except the Holbein, are taken
from numbers of the French journal, _L’Artist_, published between 1861
and 1868, and they represent a method of designing in vogue during
those years and as far back as 1830, and as late as 1870. The initials
were doubtless originally designed for a special purpose, so that the
subject related to the text, but later on cuts■
{221} [Illustration: PEN DRAWING BY PENLICK.
From _La Petit Journal Pour Rire_.
The legend reads: “Our Soldiers. Machin, the staff officer, the terror
of the soldier, doesn’t joke with the rules and regulations; has
risen from the rank and file; a very useful individual; it’s always
Machin here and Machin there, ask Machin. He terrorizes the one-year
volunteers, whom he treats as young shoots (literal translation beets);
an old bachelor to the core.”]
■{222} were put in the case and used promiscuously year after year; and
when the letter needed was not at hand, a cut like the last example was
employed to adorn the page, as a decoration.
Here we have a design by Holbein with Arabesque or Celtic interlacing,
which is often studied by designers, and used with pleasing results.
[Illustration]
It is probable that all the early Italian and French leather
book-covers were imitations of Arab book-covers (or, at any rate,
Eastern covers) brought into Europe by the Moors in the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries. Their Mohammedan religion forbade their picturing
the figures of man or beast, and so the efforts of their designers were
almost entirely centered on lettering, and on interlacing streamers
or bands, or whatever we may call them (since these were also used by
Celtic and Byzantian designers they are sometimes called Celtic or
Byzantian interlacing); and their book-covers consisted of beautiful
inlays of colored leather on ingenious combinations of interlaced lines.
In the next chapter the subject of wood engraving will be taken up, and
it will make this chapter more interesting.
[Illustration: LA REVUE. Headpiece from a French periodical.]
{223} CHAPTER IX.
SUGGESTIONS FOR PRACTICE IN THE TECHNIC OF WOOD
ENGRAVING — PHOTO-ENGRAVING THE MORE PRACTICAL, BUT LACKS THE
RICHNESS OF THE WOOD-ENGRAVED LINE — DIRECTIONS FOR PRACTICE IN WOOD
ENGRAVING — SIMPLE SUBJECTS AND A SIMPLE TECHNIC ARE ADVISED FOR
BEGINNERS — MANY CASES INSTANCED IN WHICH CRUDE OR WORN PLATES AND WOOD
TYPE MAY BE IMPROVED BY A LITTLE HAND WORK.
We wish to supplement the preceding pages with a chapter on the
technic of wood engraving, and a few words about kindred arts which
are of special consequence to the illustrator-printer. The art of
wood engraving I consider one of the most valuable things for the
illustrator-printer to learn. True, this art is going out of use
because of its tediousness; and, it must be confessed, if you wish a
picture of a building in your paper, it is much more economical and you
can get a better result if you make a pen drawing and send it to be
photo-engraved, than if you engrave it on wood. On the other hand, you
get, in an engraved line, whether it is white line or facsimile black
line, a richness of line that is in perfect keeping with the printed
type. The white line made by the graver is apt to be sharper and deeper
than the white space between two photo-engraved black lines, and it
does not fill up so easily.
We illustrate this chapter with some valuable suggestions, and we
consider that a printer who would learn wood engraving to such an
extent that he could {224} execute designs of the kind suggested,
could put forth some excellent examples of artistic printing.
Wood engraving is closely associated with the great masterpieces of
printing in the past, though, to be candid, I must admit that only a
limited public is capable of appreciating these historic associations;
and you could not, perhaps, build up your job printing department
entirely on such lines. But from time to time you might make posters,
handbills and booklets, where antique styles could be followed, and
they would meet with appreciation.
Nothing could be more easy to learn than the theory of wood engraving,
though the practice is trying to one’s patience. Simply take a block of
boxwood and place it upon a leather cushion filled with sand, so that
you may turn the block of wood in any direction. The natural tendency
is to place the handle of the burin or graver in the middle of the palm
and push with all one’s might, in order to cut away the wood; but it
should be placed against the palm, directly below the little finger,
the little finger nestling in the concave part of the wooden handle and
the other three fingers brought up along the shaft of the graver, the
ends of the fingers touching the handle of the graver and its shaft,
but _not wrapped around it_. The instrument should be pushed over the
wood with about one-tenth of the muscular exertion that the beginner
naturally uses. Hold a well-sharpened graver with ease and firmness,
and the process of engraving tires the arm no more than writing does.
It takes three or four months’ practice to learn to thus hold the tool
and use it with such surety that one {225} can draw in white line
on the block as in “The Standard-Bearer” of Schafhausen. But after
the facility is acquired, it does not take one long to get up a block
either in this style, or in what we should term the Chap-Book style,
especially when you have made your design so simple that it can be
engraved in a simple way. Please mark this last qualification. The
wood engravings in our magazines are of a style unadvisable for the
printer to follow, for the engraving of a multitude of gray tones
and the printing of the same requires much labor in cutting and in
make-ready, but cuts of the kind we recommend can be printed rapidly
and with little make-ready. We give a specimen of the genuine Chap-Book
illustration, and “The Pedlar’s Lamentation,” which is a clever modern
adaptation of the Chap-Book style. These form good examples for the
beginner to follow.
Beyond the directions as to holding the burin or graver, there is
little that the experimenter will not find out for himself. A design
is drawn on the block with pencil, pen or brush. When tones are to be
indicated, it is advisable for the printer to use a pen or brush. To
lighten the yellow color of the wood, the block may first be rubbed
with Chinese white or with moistened whiting. The design may then be
sketched in pencil, and afterward drawn in ink. As the design must be
in reverse, a good way is to draw it with a pen on thin, smooth paper.
A piece of transfer paper, like typewriters’ carbon paper, is laid
on the block; the design is laid face downward upon this, and a hard
pencil or stylus is used to go over the back of the design, which can
be seen through the thin paper. The pressure transfers {226} the mark
of the transfer paper to the block, rendering the design in reverse,
and it may then be drawn over with a pen or brush. In a good wood
engraving the■
[Illustration: THE STANDARD-BEARER OF SCHAFHAUSEN.
A 1521 wood cut in white lines.]
■curving of lines is generally reduced to a minimum. Though the
transferring and careful cutting around the line is wearisome at first,
it allows one to consider each line separately and thoroughly to study
economy of line. {227} The block is held, if small enough, between the
thumb and first finger of the left hand, the fingers holding not the
top and bottom of the block but the sides of it.■
[Illustration: EXAMPLE OF GENUINE CHAP-BOOK, WOOD CUT ILLUSTRATION.
From an article on “Art Among the Ballad-Mongers,” by Llewellynn
Jewett, F. S. A., in the London _Art Journal_.]
■It is then easily turned from side to side on the leather pad. When a
curved line is to be engraved it is not the graver alone which moves,
but the block also is directed with the left hand, so as to assist
matters. {228}
The first process in engraving a line is to take a fine tool (called
a tint-tool as distinguished from the blunter tool called a graver)
and outline the line. In the Schafhausen cut, the white line around
the man’s legs gives a good idea of the proper character of such
an outlining line, except that the line should be thinner, more
uniform, and more like the lower part of the outline of the sword
and the outline of the left side of the staff of the standard. The
wood is cut away from both sides of a black line; and then with a
gouge of any convenient size the wood is further cleared away. In
this way the genuine Chap-Book cut was produced. The white line of
the “Standard-Bearer” of Schafhausen can easily be combined with
tint lines. Tint lines may be seen in the Chap-Book imitation. It is
advisable to draw simple or rough subjects at first; and to draw your
outlines heavier at first than you intend them finally to be, since
in cutting away you are apt to reduce them by a slip of the tool or
by a little more pressure in one place than in another, and then it
is necessary to go around the line again to reduce it to uniform
regularity. It is better to draw a face like the one in the Crawhall
than like the genuine Chap-Book example, for in following the lines of
the latter a slip of the burin might entirely destroy an eyebrow or
the bridge of the nose; but in the Crawhall any of the lines might be
reduced to a somewhat narrower one without interfering with the general
effect. The beginner is advised to confine himself to initial letters
and tailpieces and not to attempt ambitious subjects. He is also
especially advised not to plan out, on the day he receives his tools, a
cut for a job wanted immediately, for he will surely have to keep that
order waiting a week■
{229} [Illustration: IMITATION OF CHAP-BOOK ILLUSTRATION.
Cut directly on the wood, without any copy, by Joseph Crawhall.]
■{230} or two. A pound of boxwood in four or six irregular pieces
from one inch to three inches long and one to two inches wide, if not
squared off, may be obtained for about 25 cents from a boxwood supply
house. The printer may square these scraps with a miter box and saw,
and he can proportion his designs to the size of the scraps. Thus,
illustrations and devices may be got up for a mere song. Larger blocks
of boxwood may be ordered at 3 or 4 cents a square inch, which is
nearly the cost of photo-engraving; and as it takes longer to engrave
than to draw in pen-and-ink, wood engraving is not recommended for
general illustration. But as photo-engravers usually have a minimum
price of from 75 cents to $1 for each cut, it is cheaper to cut initial
letters and tailpieces on scraps than to have them photo-engraved. For
instance, twenty photo-engraved tailpieces might cost you from $15 to
$20, but they might not cost you $2 if boxwood scraps were used.
In previous illustrations, such as the head of Göthe’s mother, the
Grasset typographical ornaments, the Vallotton, Auriol and Hassall
examples, we gave suggestions for exercises in wood engraving. The
benefit derived from the practice of wood engraving is not limited to
preparing new cuts alone. No printer who uses illustrations should be
without a wood engraving outfit, consisting of four to six tools, and
the cunning to use it. There are many cases in which a process plate,
or a chalk plate, or old wood type, can be cleaned up, altered or
improved with a little handwork. Sometimes in a zinc plate the fine
lines in a sky print clearly on a small run, but soon begin to round
and flatten; if not essential to the design they may then be entirely
cut out {231} and the run continued. In chalk plate, surfaces may be
cast black and then cut into with a white line, as in the Schafhausen.
And wood type which is too old to print a solid black evenly, may be
punched with an awl, as in the background of the Larousse Dictionary
A, to reduce it to a stipple gray; or white-lined like the following
portrait; or the sides may be trimmed with the graver. Rouletting can
be imitated with a■
[Illustration: WOOD CUT PORTRAIT.
From a French periodical, showing open white lines used to represent a
tint.]
■common graver by cutting across the line at regular intervals. Only
when a _series_ of lines has to be rouletted is it necessary to have
a special instrument, which costs from $1.50 to $3. New processes
are being developed every day whereby printers can make more or less
effective, if crude, cuts with little expense; but they are rarely
perfect mechanically, and a little handwork will improve their results
a hundred per cent.
In order to train oneself to engrave a tint as in the French portrait,
it is excellent practice to make parallel {232} lines on a block
without any drawing on it. Taking a tint tool, you engrave a line on
the wood, of any thickness, and then below it engrave another line,
leaving between the two a ridge of wood the same thickness as your
white lines. It is then your task to cover your■
[Illustration: Practice block No. 1. The top four lines are engraved
by an expert; the others, by a beginner, show normal progress from the
coarse to the fine, but inability to engrave a perfectly straight line.
It takes months of practice before one can engrave a series of straight
lines.]
■piece of wood with parallel lines all of the same thickness, leaving a
space between them, always of the same thickness.
This exercise may be varied after you can make an even tint by making a
graduated tint, letting your white■
[Illustration: Practice block No. 2. The line A is first outlined as
at B. If the beginner makes a design in which lines like A may be used
throughout, he is apt to get a better result than if he attempts a fine
line like C (outlined as at D), which is very difficult to engrave. E
represents a waved line.]
■lines be nearer and nearer together as you approach the base of the
block. These print lighter than those at the top. {233}
Another variation is produced by waving the lines; and still another by
crossing a tint with white lines. Cross-hatched black lines are very
tedious to engrave—we give an example of some.
[Illustration: Practice block No. 3. Showing engraving of crossed
lines; a difficult undertaking, requiring assistance from an expert.
Anyone who attempts engraving cross-lines will appreciate that it is a
great waste of time and that the white line is preferable for shading,
and he will appreciate the good judgment shown in Mr. Crawhall’s
method.]
Besides boxwood, maple wood may be used to engrave upon; it is cheaper
than boxwood, costing but 1 cent a square inch.
Proofs are easily taken by laying a thin piece of paper (engravers
use india paper) upon the inked block, and rubbing a penknife handle
or some hard object over the paper for some minutes until a perfect
impression is obtained.
[Illustration: Tailpiece, with silhouette portrait. From a French
publication.]
{234} CHAPTER X.
SUGGESTIONS FOR PRINTERS IN REGARD TO PROCESSES, ASIDE FROM WOOD
ENGRAVING, BY WHICH ILLUSTRATIONS ARE MADE — DIRECTIONS FOR EXPERIMENTS
WITH ZINC PLATES, DESIGNING FOR ZINC-PLATE PROCESS — MANIPULATION IN
COPPERPLATE ENGRAVING, ETCHING IN INTAGLIO — LITHOGRAPHY THE CHEAPEST
PROCESS KNOWN FOR SHORT RUNS OF PICTORIAL COLOR WORK, ITS RANGE OF
EFFECTS — MANY POSSIBILITIES IN THE CHALK-PLATE PROCESS.
The preceding chapter was devoted to wood engraving: the other
processes by which illustrations are made come outside the province of
“Drawing for Printers,” and we shall merely give a paragraph to each
process.
[Illustration: Copy of typographical design by Grasset. Etched on zinc
without the help of photography.]
ZINC PLATES.—Experiments may be made in zinc plates. The cut above was
traced from the Grasset cut given with Chapter III, Part I. Between
the tracing {235} paper and the zinc, typewriting carbon paper was
laid. The tracing was gone over with a hard pencil; the design was thus
transferred to the zinc. The lines were then covered with asphaltum
(which is the same as bitumen), bought in a tube at a paint store. Any
colored oil paint or varnish or transfer ink will do, as its use is
simply to hold the dragon’s blood. It may be thinned with turpentine
so that it will flow easily from the brush. While the asphaltum was
still wet, the plate was dusted with dragon’s blood, which was put in
a coarse linen rag and held like a bag over the plate by the right
hand; the left hand tapping the right made the powder fall evenly
over the plate. Do this carefully for practice in order to learn to
powder a plate evenly for a stipple tint (see farther on); the dragon’s
blood may be dumped on the plate. The plate was then dusted off with
a camel’s-hair brush, which removed the dragon’s blood from the plate
except where bitumen held it. The plate was then held over a flame till
the dragon’s blood turned black; it was then immersed in an acid bath,
about ninety per cent water and ten per cent nitric acid. The vessel
(an old baking pan painted with asphaltum) holding the bath was rocked
from time to time. The dragon’s blood served as a stopping-out varnish.
The acid will eat away the plate where it is not protected by dragon’s
blood. After five or ten minutes, when the acid seemed to be eating
into the stopping-out varnish, the plate was taken out, washed and
dried, and again dusted with dragon’s blood. (In using a large plate,
of course, it would be easier to roll it up with lithographic transfer
ink.) A second and third etching reduced the background, so {236} that
a proof was taken. For printing in this book the plate has been routed.
The ragged edge is due to our ’prentice hand; this is our second
experiment, but a little practice, we are certain, would bring more
satisfactory results. The Pan lettering is copied from the title-page
by Stuck, given in Chapter II, Part II, page 171.■
[Illustration: Copy of lettering by Stuck. Etched on copper without the
assistance of photography.]
■It is produced as was the Grasset, except that it was etched on copper
and required more bitings than the zinc.
Designs for this process should not be drawn in fine lines like
Engström’s portrait of himself, but should be heavy like his portrait
of “Hedin” and the Molock “Crispi.” (See Chapters I and II, Part I.)
When a white background is not required, the dragon’s blood dusted on
the plate may be allowed to remain upon it, in which case a stipple
background is the result. An ingenious experimenter can get many
different results by this stipple method.
COPPERPLATE ENGRAVING.—Copperplate engraving, and etching in intaglio
are not used by the typographical printer, but the printer who executes
very fine work would find that he could make handsome frontispieces for
limited editions, or book-plates, by either {237} of these processes.
For about 25 cents one may obtain Winsor & Newton’s handbook on “The
Art of Etching,” by H. R. Robertson, which will give a description of
the first process.
Copperplate engraving is most difficult to master and should not be
attempted by anyone who cannot■
[Illustration: Portrait of Félicien Rops, the etcher, by P. Matlay.
Half-tone from a half-tone. Showing copperplate press.]
■draw a sure line. A designer with a sure hand might attempt a simple
book-plate. Anyone who can use the burin on wood can use it on copper,
though in the latter case the pressure from the palm of the hand, which
the beginner in wood engraving should avoid, {238} is used because
the resistance of copper is much greater than that of wood. The first
finger may be placed _on top_ of the burin when engraving in copper,
but at the side for wood cutting. We would say that the engraved line
of the copperplate is one of the handsomest lines in the graphic arts.
Etching in intaglio is easier than copper engraving and can be mastered
by anyone who can etch in relief.
LITHOGRAPHING.—Lithography, like copperplate, requires a special
press, but a secondhand press can be bought for $25 or $30, and it
is certainly the cheapest process known for short runs of pictorial
color work; and any printer who has many orders for posters or picture
printing would do well to investigate the process; for it is not
difficult to draw on the stone, and, after the stones are bought, they
last for years, and every new design simply necessitates the scouring
off of the previous design, which will take a boy only about an hour.
A hand press will easily print a 16 by 24 poster, and if it is to
be printed in three or four colors by relief printing, the cost of
zinc relief plates or wood blocks would be considerable, while in the
case of the lithograph it is merely the hire of the boy who cleans
the stone. There is no end to the variety of effects to be got in
lithography by different combinations of technic: by using, separately
or in combination, pen, crayon or brush line; crayon or spatter work
tints; solid brush tints of color, or solid brush tints of color with
letters or forms scratched out of them with a penknife.
CHALK PLATE.—The chalk-plate process is one that has never been
adequately studied by designers. There are very many possibilities
in it. It was first introduced {239} into Japan through the
instrumentality of the writer. The editor of the “Kohumin Shimbun”
called at my studio to investigate the working of the chalk plate, and
I drew an outline portrait on the chalk plate, cast it, mounted it, and
took a proof of it, all in forty minutes! Full information in regard to
the process may be obtained from the Hoke Engraving Company, owners of
the patents. Every newspaper owning a stereotype outfit will find that
it will pay to use the chalk-plate process.
{240} ERRATA.
Page 38, lines 3 and 8: before “when” insert “that is.”
Page 38, line 11: for “called” read “on.”
Page 39, line 4: after “lines” insert “if in nature parallel to the
axis of his eyes, or if on a level with his eyes.”
Page 43, line 19: for second “bulk” read “effect.”
Page 63, chapter heading, line 9: after “light and shade,” and on
Page 71, line 4: after “light and shade” read “of the sort most usual
in Occidental modeling.”
Page 70, line 25: before “style” insert “complex.”
Page 106, last word: for “depression” read “depressor.”
Page 109: “Lucca della Robia” read “Luca della Robbia.”
Page 120, line 13: for “whereat” read “wherever.”
Page 150, line 1: for “Reeves” read “Rivers.”
Page 183, line 3 of legend: for “U. E. I.” read “U. H. I.”
{241} INDEX.
Ability, Natural, versus instruction, 17, 18, 19
Action, 55
Aldine printing, 158, 199, 200
Aldus type, 199, 200
Alphabets (See Lettering), 158, 181, 202, 209
America, The printer in, 159, 160
Analyzation of the naso-labial line, 86, 87
Arabic lettering, 198, 218, 222
Artist, How the, sees (See Eye, Education of), 56, 59
Artist, Reader not to be discouraged if he cannot become a
full-fledged, 18, 19, 80
Art school methods, 56, 58, 62, 65–71, 74
Assyrian letters, 207
Auriol, Georg, 175, 177, 179, 191, 198, 204, 205, 216, 217, 218, 230
Axis, Every object has its, 52, 55
Balance in design, 48, 204
Ballantyne, Messrs, 183
Bargue and Gérôme, Studies published under direction of, 66, 67, 80,
98, 99, 100
Bauernfeind alphabets, 181, 186, 187, 188
Beggarstaff Brothers, 214, 215, 219
Begin, How should one, to learn to draw, 19
Ben Day film, 75
Bergomensis letter (See Lettering), 193, 194, 198, 209
Bible manuscripts, 209, 210
Blocking in shadows by outline, 63–67, 70
Bonnard, Pierre, 87, 88, 90, 92, 94, 95, 96, 117
Bonnat, Léon, 54, 55, 91, 92, 94
Boxwood, 224, 230
Broad black line desirable for lettering, “devices,” and designs in
general, 167–71
Broad drawing recommended to printers, 78
Brun, A, 92, 94, 97
Burns, Robert, Statue of, 177, 178
Byzantine design, 222
Caricature, 46, 139, 142, 144, 213
Caricaturing beneficial to draftsman, 22
Caroline lettering (See Lettering), 155, 189, 191, 192, 194, 198, 204
Cartoon, Newspaper, style (See Printing), 127
Casts, Plaster, used as studies, 68–71, 74
Caspari, 169, 173, 177, 179
Catalogues, 170
Caxton, 158, 189, 200
Celtic interlacing, 189, 222
Chalk plate, 129, 143, 156, 161,230, 238
Chap-Book style, 225, 227, 228, 229
Chapter Headings (See Initial Letters), 18, 121, 123, 167, 168, 182,
189, 204, 205, 215–218, 220, 222
Character of objects, 103, 144
Charcoal drawing, 212
Chaume, Geoffroy de, 136, 137, 141
Chinese lettering, 207
Choudieu, Pierre Réné, 87, 88, 90, 92, 94, 95, 100, 101, 197
Color printing, 238
Copperplate, 236–238
Cover design, 157, 162, 166, 169–174, 176, 177, 179, 204, 222
Crane, Walter, 160
Crawhall, Joseph, 228, 229
Crayon drawing, 212
Cross-hatched lines (See Printing, Technic adapted to), 117, 123
Dagnan-Bouveret, 72, 76, 82, 84, 85
Dailly, 213, 214
David d’Angers, 136, 137, 148
Decorated page, the, 123, 124, 161, 168, 169, 182, 203, 205, 216, 217
“Decorative Illustration”, 160
Design considered, 158, 163–173, 216–218
Design, Economy in, 177, 179
Design, Use of heavy blacks in, 167, 171
Designing of value to the printer, 18, 200–202
Designs, Small, as difficult as large, 18
Detail versus broad drawing, 74, 76, 90
d’Illzach, Ringel, 136, 138, 150
Dollman, J. C., 139
Donatello, 103, 104
_Don Chisciotte_, 32
Dots, Eccentric use of, 129, 130
Dragon’s blood, 235
Draw as though tracing on a window pane, 35
Draw by lamplight, 94
Drawing-board recommended, 78
Drawing Finished, and original “placing” compared, 63–70
Drawing, Finished and rough compared, 73, 78, 80, 81
Drawing fragments for practice helpful, 65
Drawing from pasteboard boxes good training in light and shade, 76
Drawing, How to begin a, 19, 49–55
Drawing not arbitrary, 86, 103
Drawing, Preliminary placing of objects in beginning a, 45, 50–66,
211, 212
Drayton, Michael, 184
Dürer, Albrecht, 76, 187
Durham Book, 202
Eaton, Wyatt, 116, 117, 118
Economy of line, 226
Egyptian, The, hieroglyphic and hieratic writing, 207, 208, 209
Element defined, 52
English Old Style lettering, 200, 219
Enlarging a drawing, 75, 113
Engström, Albert, 22, 28, 29, 30, 132, 133, 236
Etching, Art of, 237
Etruscan, The, letter, 158
Eye, Untrained, sees incorrectly, 19
Eye, Education of the, 19–25, 50, 74, 76, 78
Eye, Drawing of the, 103–105
Eyesight, Knowledge of effect necessary beyond mere, 84
Face, Drawing of a, and head, 84, 85, 90–92, 101–109, 132, 133, 136,
144
Finished drawing and original “placing,” compared, 63–70
Finished drawing and rough drawing, compared, 73, 78, 80, 81
Foot, Drawing a, 98, 99, 100
Forain, 127, 139, 142, 144, 161
Fonts, Modern, 158
Form, 69, 76–78
French art school studies, 57, 66, 67
French names, 94, 96, 100
French Old Style lettering, 167, 175, 198, 200
French printers, 160, 161, 175
Frontal muscle, lines made by, 107
Gaillard, C. F., 76, 77, 78, 80, 82, 84, 103
Geometrical forms, 59–62
Gerbault, H., 24
Girardet, Jules, 36
Gothic letters, 155, 181, 182, 187, 188, 191, 193, 197, 198, 200, 203,
204, 206
Grasset, E., 32, 33, 39, 59, 63, 64, 166, 168, 172, 173, 177, 179,
191, 192, 197, 203, 204, 217, 230, 234, 236
Greek manuscript, 209
Grellet, F., 101, 103–107, 109
Grolier, 218
Guillaume, 125, 126, 129, 143
Gütenberg, 200
Half-tones, 148, 160, 167, 170, 177
Hassall, 177, 179, 230
Hats, 23, 24, 26, 27
Hebrew alphabet, 208
Herkomer, Hubert, 50, 51, 52, 59, 60, 61, 63, 65
Hieroglyphs, 207
High light, 42
Historic associations of certain alphabets. (See Lettering), 202, 224
Holbein, 218, 220, 222
Initial letters, Chapter headings, 18, 121, 123, 167, 168, 182, 189,
204, 205, 215–218, 220, 222
Introduction to Part II, 154, 155, 158–162
Irish text, 158, 202, 203
Italian lettering. (See Lettering), 181, 185, 187, 195, 198–200, 209
Italic letter. (See Lettering), 195, 199, 200
Japanese brush, 87
Japanese designing, 48, 217, 218
Japanese graphic art without Occidental modeling, 71
Japanese synthetic drawing, 59
Japanese use chalk plate, 238
Jenson, 158, 174, 200
Jewett, Llewellynn, 227
Kelmscott type, 186
Knaus, Ludwig, 82–85
Landscape, 130, 140, 144, 148, 150
Lansyer, E., 20
Larousse’s Dictionary, 166, 201, 202, 204, 208, 209, 231
Latin capitals, 197, 198
La-Tour, Fantin, 68–71, 148
Lautrec, H. de F., 211, 212
Lefébvre, J., 105, 106, 107
Leloir, Maurice, 147, 220
LeRoux, E., 139, 140, 144
Lettering, 155, 158, 166–169, 171–175, 180–210
Lettering must follow historical principles, 180, 187
Letters based on the circle and the square, 183
Light and dark, Spots of, 47, 48, 90
Lighting, Unusual, on head, 141, 148, 149
Line, Broad, 167–171
Line, Value of a, 56
Lines used to indicate organic parts, 56, 57, 58, 84
Lithography, 69, 109, 238
Local color, 42, 43, 47, 71
Lœwe-Marchand, 74, 75, 84
Lombardic lettering, 198
Lormier. E., 136, 138
Lucas, F. H., 144
Luca della Robbia, 103, 107, 109
Lucidario page, 185, 186, 195, 200
Luque, M., 40, 41, 42, 46, 146
Mannerisms of a caricaturist, 46
Mantelet, Albert, 214, 215
Marchetti, 121, 123, 126
Masses of light and dark appropriate for rough printing, 167–172
Masses of shadows, 74, 76, 90
Materials, Drawing, and technic of slight consequence compared with
correct seeing, 19, 86, 87
Medallions, David d’Angers, 136, 137, 148
Medallions, Lormier, E., 136, 138
Medallions, Ringel d’Illzach, 136, 138
Millais, John Everett, 45
Minnesinger song book, Page from a, 182
Minnesinger lettering, 182, 192–195, 200, 209
Modern Roman lettering. (See Lettering), 200
Modeling, 137
Moloch, B., 30, 31, 236
Monet, Claude, 148, 150
Monumental letters. (See Lettering), 188, 204, 209
Moorish design, 218, 222
Morris, William, 155, 158, 161, 165, 174, 200
Moullier, 129, 130
Mouth, Study of the, 104, 106, 107, 132, 133
Munkacsy, Michael, 53, 55
Naso-labial line, 80–90, 101, 102, 109
Newspaper illustration. (See Printing), 113, 119, 125–129, 143, 156,
161–168, 238, 239
Newspaper portraiture, 116, 117
Nose, The wing of the, 84, 85
Nostril, The shadows of the, 84, 85
Observation, Value of, 25
Old age, How to portray, 101, 105, 107, 169
Old English font, 158
Orbicular muscle, Lines made by, 105
Organic lines defined and illustrated, 56, 58
Ornamentation, Aimless, 203
Ornamentation of Northern and Southern scribes compared, 198
Outline, Beginner advised to use, almost exclusively, 47
Outline, Connecting link between, and shaded drawing, 72, 73
Outline, Force of, 41, 132, 139, 140, 144, 145, 213, 214
Outline, Mastery of, recommended to the printer, 23
Paper, 141, 165, 167
Papyrus, 208
Parallel lines. (See Printing), 115, 117, 123, 125
Paul, Herman, 132, 145
Pens, Various, may be used, 118, 120
Pen-Drawing, A, may be on large or small scale, 113
Penlick, 214, 221
Pen practice, Method of, 117, 129, 131
Pen technic, 112–130, 135, 139–146, 147
Pen technic from printers’ view-point, 113
Perspective, 19, 20, 22, 35, 36, 38, 39
Petrarchian letters, 200
Phœnician letters, 158, 208, 209
Photo-engraving, 113–148
Placing, Preliminary, of objects in beginning a drawing, 45, 50–66, 211
Plane, Objects seen in one, 33, 34, 39
Plant form, 205, 206
Pomeroy, F. W., 178
Posters, 177–179, 219
Preface, 3–5
Printer must have an educated taste to design correctly, 200, 201
Printing, Artistic, 154–167, 203, 223, 229
Printing, City newspaper, 115–119, 127–129, 143, 156, 161–168, 239
Printing, Country newspaper, 113–119, 125–129, 156, 161–168, 238
Printing, Magazines, 113–115, 118
Printing, Printers’ experience a guide in adapting technic to, 113, 115
Printing, Recent change in the character of, 17
Printing, Rough, defined, 164
Printing, Technics which are adapted to, 23, 32, 68, 78, 79, 90, 92,
108, 112–119, 123, 127, 128, 177
Process plate, 230
Proportion and direction, 50–55
Proportions, 65
Quill pen, 116, 118, 191–195, 197, 198, 200
Ratdolt, Erhard, 158
Reed pen, 208
Reduction of drawing for printing, 112–119, 124, 146, 149, 150, 164,
171, 176, 215
Renaissance lettering, 155
Renard, E., 114, 115, 123
Resumé of Part I, 133–150
Ricketts, Charles, 183, 184
Rivoire, 176, 179
Rococo design, 220
Rogel, Hans, 187, 188, 194, 198, 209
Roman lettering. (See Lettering), 155, 198
Schafhausen, 225, 226, 228
Scratch-board, Whites in, and wood engraving, 91, 92, 93, 94, 138, 148
Seeing properly, Drawing a matter of, 19–27, 50, 74–78
Shaded drawings, 42, 43, 46, 47, 48, 66–78, 146, 214
Shadows, Finding direction of, 65, 66, 67, 70
Shadows, Large, _versus_ minor ones, 74, 76
Shadows, Thrown and modeling, 43, 46, 149
Sickert, Walter, 118, 119, 150
Silhouette, An old-fashioned, 125, 204, 230
Silhouette, its use as typographical ornament, 32
Silhouette, used by Egyptians, 26, 27
Silhouetting, Practice in, objects, 33, 157, 213, 214
Solid Blacks, (See Silhouette)
Spanish scribes, 198
St. Elme, 123, 124, 126
Stevenson, Robert Louis, portrait of, 116, 117, 118
Still-life studies, 142, 145
Stimmer, Chr., 187, 188, 198, 209
Stipple, 138
Strange’s book on alphabets recommended, 181, 187, 202, 204
Stuck, Franz, 171, 172, 173, 177, 236
Summary, 211
Synthetic drawing, 58, 59, 62
Taste. (See Printing, Artistic), 158, 159, 160, 161, 163, 165
Technic. (See Pen Technic), 87
Texture, 30, 41, 42, 82
Thick and thin pen lines. (See Printing), 118
Tint lines, 228, 231
Touraine font, 158
Toussaint, T., 88, 89
Transfer, How to, a drawing, 131
Typographer should be designer, 17
Vale press, 183, 185, 186
Vallet, 128, 129
Vallotton heads, 133, 134, 135
Values, 42, 43, 68–71, 94
Venetian lettering, 198, 204
Verdyen, 92, 93
Vierge, Daniel, 122, 123
Visigothic letter, 155, 158, 198
Walker, Fred, 101, 102, 149
Watts, George Frederick, R. A., 78–88, 90, 94, 101, 103, 107, 112, 113
White, Gleason, 183
Windows in perspective. (See Perspective), 19, 20, 22
Wood engraving, 134, 135, 153, 218, 220, 223, 230
Wood engraving, Practice, 224, 232, 233
Written language, 207, 208
Youth, Portrayal of, 101–108
Zinc plate, 75, 230–236
{247} ADVERTISEMENTS
The Manufacture of Ink.
Comprising the raw materials and the preparation of writing, copying
and hektograph inks, safety inks, ink extracts and powders, colored
inks, solid inks, lithographic inks and crayons, printing ink, ink or
aniline pencils, marking inks, ink specialties, sympathetic inks, stamp
and stencil inks, wash blue, etc. Translated from the German of Sigmund
Lehner, with additions by William T. Brannt. Illustrated; 230 pages;
$2.00. Address all orders to
_THE INLAND PRINTER CO._,—_214 Monroe St., Chicago._
_34 Park Row, New York._
THE COLOR PRINTER.
By J. F. EARHART.
_The Standard Work on Color Printing in America._
A veritable work of art. 8 1/4 by 10 1/2 inches, 137 pages of type
matter, 90 color plates in two to twenty colors each, handsomely bound
in cloth, stamped in gold and four colors. To produce a limited edition
of this work required 625 different forms and 1,625,000 impressions.
Book contains 166 colors, hues, tints and shades, produced by mixtures
of two colors each, with proportions printed below each. To use colors
intelligently and effectively every printer and pressman should have
one of these books. The limited edition will soon be exhausted. Order
one at once.
Price, postpaid, $10.00 per copy.
Former price, $15.00.
Address all orders to
THE INLAND PRINTER CO.
34 PARK ROW, NEW YORK. 214 MONROE ST., CHICAGO.
The Inland Printer.
[Illustration]
What it is.
The Inland Printer is a monthly magazine of from 100 to 120 pages,
9 by 12 inches in size, devoted to printing, publishing, engraving,
electrotyping, stereotyping, bookbinding, papermaking and all the
kindred trades. It is a work of art, and should be in the hands of
every lover of the typographic art or anyone interested in newspaper
work or advertising. Issued promptly on the first of every month.
Subscriptions can begin with any number.
What it Contains.
Its pages are filled with the most instructive and interesting original
articles relating to the matters that properly come within its domain,
besides an amount of valuable data, trade topics, correspondence,
craft items, recent patents, recipes, hints and suggestions that will
surprise you. In addition to this, it is copiously illustrated, and the
whole make-up and general character of the work is such as to challenge
admiration.
THE ILLUSTRATIONS. The full Page illustrations and those worked in
with the text are all of a high order, and include half-tone, zinc
etching and other methods of engraving, alike valuable to the engraver,
process-worker, compositor and pressman. Colored plates, by various
processes, are also shown.
THE TEXT. Taking up a copy at random one finds articles on
proofreading, the point system in type founding, notes on bookbinding,
natural colors in the printing press, newspapers and newspaper men, the
country newspaper, typographical make-ready, advertising, convention
notes, review of type designs, pressroom queries and answers, process
engraving, new patents, trade notes and much general information.
THE ADVERTISEMENTS. These are as important in a way as any other part
of THE INLAND PRINTER, for the reason that they are set in attractive
and catchy style, alike beneficial to the compositor and “ad.” writer,
and printed in the same excellent way that the other part of the
journal is. This part will interest you as well as the text.
SUBSCRIPTION PRICE:
$2.00 per Year; $1.00 for Six Months; 20c. per Copy.
No free copies and no exchanges. Subscribe through your type founder,
material dealer or news agent, or send direct to
The Inland Printer Company,
150 NASSAU ST., 212–214 MONROE ST.,
NEW YORK. CHICAGO.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
Original spelling and grammar have been generally retained, with some
exceptions noted below. Original printed page numbers are shown like
this: {52}. Original small caps are now uppercase. Italics look _like
this_. Original page images are available from archive.org—search for
“drawingforprinte00knau”. The transcriber produced the cover image by
editing the original cover image, and hereby assigns it to the public
domain.
Illustrations are the main subject of this book. Many of the
illustrations were printed full page, and fell on numbered pages,
inside paragraphs of text, frequently breaking sentences. The List of
Illustrations and many of the cross-references point to page numbers.
Therefore, the illustrations have been left where they originally
lay—_i.e._ many of them inside paragraphs and sentences. This is
unconventional, relative to normal Distributed Proofreaders practices,
and it may make reading the text in this simple text edition slightly
more difficult, since there are no variations in font and no images.
Therefore, paragraphs broken by illustrations have been marked in this
edition with the glyph “■” at each break point.
Page 14. The name “Loewe-Marchand” was changed, in the list of
illustrations and in the index, to “Lœwe-Marchand” to agree with the
text in other places.
Page 182. The letter A originally printed in blackletter type is coded
“«A»” in the simple text edition, and is shown via image in the other
editions.
Page 184. Rare unicode characters “○” U+25cb and “⬯” U+2b2f were
employed on this page in the simple text edition of this ebook; these
may require uncommon fonts to display properly. In the other editions,
images are substituted.
Page 240, Errata. These errata have been applied to the text in the
ebook editions. Also, there was an error in the errata: ‘Page 182, line
3 of legend: for “U. E. I.” read U. H. I.”’ has been changed to ‘Page
183, line 3 of legend: for “U. E. I.” read “U. H. I.”’. Furthermore,
the erratum ‘for “Reeves” read “Rivers.”’ had already been applied in
the printed edition which is the basis of this transcription.
Page 247. A new heading “ADVERTISEMENTS” has been added here.