Pen Drawing Part 2

Interesting effects of texture are sometimes introduced into pen drawings by obtaining the impression of a canvas grain. To produce this, it is necessary that the drawing be made on fairly thin paper.

The _modus operandi_ is as follows: Place the drawing over a piece of mounted canvas of the desired coa.r.s.eness of grain, and, holding it firmly, rub a lithographic crayon vigorously over the surface of the paper. The grain of the canvas will be found to be clearly reproduced, and, as the crayon is absolutely black, the effect is capable of reproduction by the ordinary photographic processes.

CHAPTER IV

VALUES

[Side note: _The Color Scheme_]

After the subject has been mapped out in pencil, and before beginning the pen work, we have to consider and determine the proper disposition of the Color. By "color" is meant, in this connection, the gamut of values from black to white, as indicated in Fig. 23. The success or failure of the drawing will largely depend upon the disposition of these elements, the quality of the technique being a matter of secondary concern. Beauty of line and texture will not redeem a drawing in which the values are badly disposed, for upon them we depend for the effect of unity, or the pictorial quality. If the values are scattered or patchy the drawing will not focus to any central point of interest, and there will be no unity in the result.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 23 C. D. M.]

There are certain general laws by which color may be pleasingly disposed, but it must be borne in mind that it ought to be disposed naturally as well. By a "natural" scheme of color, I mean one which is consistent with a natural effect of light and shade. Now the gradation from black to white, for example, is a pleasing scheme, as may be observed in Fig. 24, yet the effect is unnatural, since the sky is black. In a purely decorative ill.u.s.tration like this, however, such logic need not be considered.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 24 D. A. GREGG]

[Side note: _Princ.i.p.ality in the Color-Scheme_]

Since, as I said before, color is the factor which makes for the unity of the result, the first principle to be regarded in its arrangement is that of Princ.i.p.ality,--there must be some dominant note in the rendering. There should not, for instance, be two princ.i.p.al dark spots of equal value in the same drawing, nor two equally prominent areas of white. The Vierge drawing, Fig. 25, and that by Mr. Pennell, Fig. 5, are no exceptions to this rule; the black figure of the old man counting as one note in the former, as do the dark arches of the bridge in the latter. The work of both these artists is eminently worthy of study for the knowing manner in which they dispose their values.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 25 DANIEL VIERGE]

[Side note: _Variety_]

The next thing to be sought is Variety. Too obvious or positive a scheme, while possibly not unsuitable for a conventional decorative drawing, may not be well adapted to a perspective subject. The large color areas should be echoed by smaller ones throughout the picture. Take, for example, the Vierge drawing shown in Fig. 26.

Observe how the ma.s.s of shadow is relieved by the two light holes seen through the inn door. Without this repet.i.tion of the white the drawing would lose much of its character. In Rico's drawing, Fig.

11, a tiny white spot in the shadow cast over the street would, I venture to think, be helpful, beautifully clear as it is; and the black area at the end of the wall seems a defect as it competes in value with the dark figure.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 26 DANIEL VIERGE]

[Side note: _Breadth of Effect_]

Lastly, Breadth of Effect has to be considered. It is requisite that, however numerous the tones are (and they should not be too numerous), the general effect should be simple and h.o.m.ogeneous. The color must count together broadly, and not be cut up into patches.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 27 HARRY FENN]

It is important to remember that the gamut from black to white is a short one for the pen. One need only try to faithfully render the high lights of an ordinary table gla.s.s set against a gray background, to be a.s.sured of its limitations in this respect. To represent even approximately the subtle values would require so much ink that nothing short of a positively black background would suffice to give a semblance of the delicate transparent effect of the gla.s.s as a whole. The gray background would, therefore, be lost, and if a really black object were also part of the picture it could not be represented at all. Observe, in Fig. 27, how just such a problem has been worked out by Mr. Harry Fenn.

It will be manifest that the student must learn to think of things in their broad relation. To be specific,--in the example just considered, in order to introduce a black object the scheme of color would have needed broadening so that the gray background could be given its proper value, thus demanding that the elaborate values of the gla.s.s be ignored, and just enough suggested to give the general effect. This reasoning would equally apply were the light object, instead of a gla.s.s, something of intricate design, presenting positive shadows. Just so much of such a design should be rendered as not to darken the object below its proper relative value as a whole. In this faculty of suggesting things without literally rendering them consists the subtlety of pen drawing.

It may be said, therefore, that large light areas resulting from the necessary elimination of values are characteristic of pen drawing.

The degree of such elimination depends, of course, upon the character of the subject, this being entirely a matter of relation. The more black there is in a drawing the greater the number of values that can be represented. Generally speaking, three or four are all that can be managed, and the beginner had better get along with three,--black, half-tone, and white.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 28 REGINALD BIRCH]

[Side note: _Various Color-Schemes_]

While it is true that every subject is likely to contain some motive or suggestion for its appropriate color-scheme, it still holds that, many times, and especially in those cases where the introduction of foreground features at considerable scale is necessary for the interest of the picture, an artificial arrangement has to be devised.

It is well, therefore, to be acquainted with the possibilities of certain color combinations. The most brilliant effect in black and white drawing is that obtained by placing the prominent black against a white area surrounded by gray. The white shows whiter because of the gray around it, so that the contrast of the black against it is extremely vigorous and telling. This may be said to be the ill.u.s.trator's _tour de force_. We have it ill.u.s.trated by Mr. Reginald Birch's drawing, Fig. 28. Observe how the contrast of black and white is framed in by the gray made up of the sky, the left side of the building, the horse, and the knight. In the drawing by Mr. Pennell, Fig. 29, we have the same scheme of color.

Notice how the trees are darkest just where they are required to tell most strongly against the white in the centre of the picture.

An admirable ill.u.s.tration of the effectiveness of this color-scheme is shown in the "Becket" poster by the "Beggarstaff Brothers,"

Fig. 69. Another scheme is to have the princ.i.p.al black in the gray area, as in the Vierge drawing, Fig. 26 and in Rico's sketch, Fig.

11.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 29 JOSEPH PENNELL]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 30 B. G. GOODHUE]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 31 JOSEPH PENNELL]

Still another and a more restful scheme is the actual gradation of color. This gradation, from black to white, wherein the white occupies the centre of the picture, is to be noted in Fig. 20.

Observe how the dark side of the foreground tree tells against the light side of the one beyond, which, in its turn, is yet so strongly shaded as to count brilliantly against the white building. Still again, in Mr. Goodhue's drawing, Fig. 30, note how the transition from the black tree on the left to the white building is pleasingly softened by the gray shadow. Notice, too, how the brilliancy of the drawing is heightened by the gradual emphasis on the shadows and the openings as they approach the centre of the picture. Yet another example of this color-scheme is the drawing by Mr. Gregg, Fig. 50. The gradation here is from the top of the picture downwards.

The sketch of the coster women by Mr. Pennell, Fig. 31, shows this gradation reversed.

The drawing of the hansom cab, Fig. 32, by Mr. Raven Hill, ill.u.s.trates a very strong color-scheme,--gray and white separated by black, the gray moderating the black on the upper side, leaving it to tell strongly against the white below. Notice how luminous is this same relation of color where it occurs in the Venetian subject by Rico, Fig. 14. The shadow on the water qualifies the blackness of the gondola below, permitting a brilliant contrast with the white walls of the building above.

It is interesting to observe how Vierge and Pennell, but chiefly the former, very often depend for their grays merely upon the delicate tone resulting from the rendering of form and of direct shadow, without any local color. This may be seen in the Vierge drawing, Fig. 33. Observe in this, as a consequence, how brilliantly the tiny black counts in the little figure in the centre. Notice, too, in the drawing of the soldiers by Jeanniot, Fig. 34, that there is very little black; and yet see how brilliant is the effect, owing largely to the figures being permitted to stand out against a white ground in which nothing is indicated but the sky-line of the large building in the distance.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 32 L. RAVEN HILL]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 33 DANIEL VIERGE]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 34 P. G. JEANNIOT]

CHAPTER V

PRACTICAL PROBLEMS

I have thought it advisable in this chapter to select, and to work out in some detail, a few actual problems in ill.u.s.tration, so as to familiarize the student with the practical application of some of the principles previously laid down.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 35 FROM A PHOTOGRAPH]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 36 D. A. GREGG]

[Side note: _First Problem_]

In the first example the photograph, Fig. 35, shows the porch of an old English country church. Let us see how this subject has been interpreted in pen and ink by Mr. D. A. Gregg, Fig. 36. In respect to the lines, the original composition presents nothing essentially unpleasant. Where the strong accent of a picture occurs in the centre, however, it is generally desirable to avoid much emphasis at the edges. For this reason the pen drawing has been "vignetted,"--that is to say, permitted to fade away irregularly at the edges. Regarding the values, it will be seen that there is no absolute white in the photograph. A literal rendering of such low color would, as we saw in the preceding chapter, be out of the question; and so the essential values which directly contribute to the expression of the subject and which are independent of local color or accidental effect have to be sought out. We observe, then, that the princ.i.p.al note of the photograph is made by the dark part of the roof under the porch relieved against the light wall beyond.

This is the direct result of light and shade, and is therefore logically adopted as the princ.i.p.al note of Mr. Gregg's sketch also.

The wall at this point is made perfectly white to heighten the contrast. To still further increase the light area, the upper part of the porch has been left almost white, the markings suggesting the construction of the weather-beaten timber serving to give it a faint gray tone sufficient to relieve it from the white wall.

The low color of the gra.s.s, were it rendered literally, would make the drawing too heavy and uninteresting, and this is therefore only suggested in the sketch. The roof of the main building, being equally objectionable on account of its ma.s.s of low tone, is similarly treated. Mr. Gregg's excellent handling of the old woodwork of the porch is well worthy of study.

[Side note: _Second Problem_]