The Art of Illustration Part 1

The Art of Ill.u.s.tration.

by Henry Blackburn.

PREFACE.

The object of this book is to explain the modern systems of Book and Newspaper Ill.u.s.tration, and especially the methods of drawing for what is commonly called "process," on which so many artists are now engaged.

There is almost a revolution in ill.u.s.tration at the present time, and both old and young--teachers and scholars--are in want of a handbook for reference when turning to the new methods. The ill.u.s.trator of to-day is called upon suddenly to take the place of the wood engraver in interpreting tone into line, and requires practical information which this book is intended to supply.

The most important branch of ill.u.s.tration treated of is _line drawing_, as it is practically out of reach of compet.i.tion by the photographer, and is, moreover, the kind of drawing most easily reproduced and printed at the type press; but wash drawing, drawing upon grained papers, and the modern appliances for reproduction, are all treated of.

The best instructors in drawing for process are, after all, the _painters of pictures_ who know so well how to express themselves in black and white, and to whom I owe many obligations. There is a wide distinction between their treatment of "ill.u.s.tration" and the so-called "pen-and-ink" artist.

The "genius" who strikes out a wonderful path of his own, whose scratches and splashes appear in so many books and newspapers, is of the "b.u.t.terfly" order of being--a creation, so to speak, of the processes, and is not to be emulated or imitated. There is no reason but custom why, in drawing for process, a man's coat should be made to look like straw, or the background (if there be a background) have the appearance of fireworks. No ability on the part of the ill.u.s.trator will make these things tolerable in the near future. There is a reaction already, and signs of a better and more sober treatment of ill.u.s.tration, which only requires a _better understanding of the requirements and limitations of the processes_, to make it equal to some of the best work of the past.

The modern ill.u.s.trator has much to learn--more than he imagines--in drawing for the processes. A study of examples by masters of line drawing--such as Holbein, Menzell, Fortuny or Sandys--or of the best work of the etchers, will not tell the student of to-day exactly what he requires to know; for they are nearly all misleading as to the principles upon which modern process work is based.

In painting we learn everything from the past--everything that it is best to know. In engraving also, we learn from the past the best way to interpret colour into line, but in drawing for the processes there is practically no "past" to refer to; at the same time the advance of the photographer into the domain of ill.u.s.tration renders it of vital importance to artists to put forth their best work in black and white, and it throws great responsibility upon art teachers to give a good groundwork of education to the ill.u.s.trator of the future. In all this, education--_general education_--will take a wider part.

The ILl.u.s.tRATIONS have been selected to show the possibilities of "process" work in educated, capable hands, rather than any _tours de force_ in drawing, or exploits of genius. They are all of modern work, and are printed on the same sheets as the letterpress.

_All the Ill.u.s.trations in this book have been reproduced by mechanical processes, excepting nine_ (marked on the list), which are engraved on wood.

Acknowledgments are due to the Council of the Society of Arts for permission to reprint a portion of the Cantor Lectures on "Ill.u.s.tration"

from their Journal; to the Editors of the _National Review_ and the _Nineteenth Century_, for permission to reprint several pages from articles in those reviews; to the Editors and Publishers who have lent ill.u.s.trations; and above all, to the artists whose works adorn these pages.

H. B.

123, VICTORIA STREET, WESTMINSTER.

_May, 1894._

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY.

There are, broadly speaking, two kinds of engraving for ill.u.s.tration in books, which are widely distinct--1. _intaglio_; 2. _relievo_. The first comprises all engravings, etchings, and photogravures in which the lines are cut or indented by acid or other means, into a steel or copper plate--a system employed, with many variations of method, from the time of Mantegna, Albert Durer, Holbein and Rembrandt, to the French and English etchers of the present day. Engravings thus produced are little used in modern book ill.u.s.tration, as they cannot be printed easily on the same page as the letterpress; these _planches a part_, as the French term them, are costly to print and are suitable only for limited editions.

In the second, or ordinary form of ill.u.s.tration, the lines or pictures to be printed are left in relief; the design being generally made on wood with a pencil, and the parts not drawn upon cut away. This was the rudimentary and almost universal form of book-ill.u.s.tration, as practised in the fifteenth century, as revived in England by Bewick in the eighteenth, and continued to the present day. The blocks thus prepared can be printed rapidly on ordinary printing-presses, and on _the same page as the text_.

During the past few years so many processes have been put forward for producing drawings in relief, for printing with the type, that it has become a business in itself to test and understand them. The best known process is still wood engraving, at least it is the best for the fac-simile reproduction of drawings, as at present understood in England, whether they be drawn direct upon the wood or transmitted by photography. There is no process in relief which has the same certainty, which gives the same colour and brightness, and by which gradation of tone can be more truly rendered.

As to the relative value of the different photographic relief processes, that can only be decided by experts. Speaking generally, I may say that there are six or seven now in use, each of which is, I am informed, the best, and all of which are adapted for printing in the same manner as a wood-block.[1] Improvements in these processes are being made so rapidly that what was best yesterday will not be the best to-morrow, and it is a subject which is still little understood.

In the present book it is proposed to speak princ.i.p.ally of the more popular form of ill.u.s.tration (_relievo_); but the changes which are taking place in all forms of engraving and ill.u.s.tration render it necessary to say a few words first upon _intaglio_. We have heard much of the "painter-etchers," and of the claims of the etchers to recognition as original artists; and at the annual exhibition of the Society of Painter-Etchers in London, we have seen examples in which the effects produced in black and white seemed more allied to the painter's art than to the engraver's. But we are considering engraving as a means of interpreting the work of others, rather than as an original art.

The influence of photography is felt in nearly every department of ill.u.s.tration. The new photo-mechanical methods of engraving, _without the aid of the engraver_, have rendered drawing for fac-simile reproduction of more importance than ever; and the wonderful invention called _photogravure_, in which an engraving is made direct from an oil painting, is almost superseding handwork.[2]

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. II.

"_Ashes of Roses_," by G. H. BOUGHTON, A.R.A.

This careful drawing, from the painting by Mr. Boughton, in the Royal Academy, reproduced by the Dawson process, is interesting for variety of treatment and indication of textures in pen and ink. It is like the picture, but it has also the individuality of the draughtsman, as in line engraving.

Size of drawing about 6-1/2 x 3-1/2 in.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: "BADMINTON IN THE STUDIO." (FROM THE PAINTING BY R. W.

MACBETH, A.R.A.)

(_Royal Academy, 1891._)]

The art of line-engraving is disappearing in England, giving way to the "painter-etchers," the "dry-point" etchers and the "mezzotint engravers," and, finally, to _photogravure_, a method of engraving which is so extraordinary, and so little understood (although it has been in constant use for more than ten years), that it may be worth while to explain, in a few words, the method as practised by Messrs. Boussod, Valadon & Co., successors to Goupil, of Paris.

In the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1882, Sir Frederick Leighton's picture called "Wedded" will be remembered by many visitors. This picture was purchased for Australia, and had to be sent from England within a few weeks of the closing of the exhibition. There was no time to make an engraving, or even an etching satisfactorily, and so the picture was sent to Messrs. Goupil, who in a few weeks produced the _photogravure_, as it is called, which we see in the printsellers'

windows to this day. The operation is roughly as follows:--First, a photograph is taken direct from the picture; then a carbon print is taken from the negative upon gla.s.s, which rests upon the surface in delicate relief. From this print a cast is taken in reverse in copper, by placing the gla.s.s in a galvanic bath, the deposit of copper upon the gla.s.s taking the impression of the picture as certainly as snow takes the pattern of the ground upon which it falls. Thus--omitting details, and certain "secrets" of the process--it may be seen how modern science has superseded much of the engraver's work, and how a mechanical process can produce in a few days that which formerly took years.

What the permanent art-estimate of "photo-engraving" may be, as a subst.i.tute for hand-work, is a question for the collectors of engravings and etchings. In the meantime, it is well that the public should know what a _photogravure_ is, as distinct from an engraving. The system of mechanical engraving, in the reproduction of pictures, is spreading rapidly over the world; but it should be observed that these reproductions are not uniformly successful. One painter's method of handling lends itself more readily than that of another to mechanical engraving. Thus the work of the President of the Royal Academy would reproduce better than that of Mr. G. F. Watts or Mr. Orchardson. That the actual marks of the brush, the very texture of the painting, can be transferred to copper and steel, and multiplied _ad infinitum_ by this beautiful process, is a fact to which many English artists are keenly alive. The process has its limits, of course, and _photogravure_ has at present to be a.s.sisted to a considerable extent by the engraver. But enough has been done in the last few years to prove that photography will henceforth take up the painter's handiwork as he leaves it, and thus the importance of thoroughness and completeness on the part of the painter has to be more than ever insisted upon by the publishers of "engravings."

A word may be useful here to explain that the coloured "photogravures,"

reproducing the washes of colour in a painting or water-colour drawing, of which we see so many in Paris, are not coloured by hand in the ordinary way, but are produced complete, at one impression, from the printing-press. The colours are laid upon the plate, one by one, by the printer, by a system of stencilling; and thus an almost perfect fac-simile of a picture can be reproduced in pure colour, if the original is simple and broad in treatment.

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. III.

"_A Son of Pan_," by WILLIAM PADGETT.

Example of outline drawing, put in solidly with a brush. If this had been done with pencil or autographic chalk, much of the feeling and expression of the original would have been lost. The drawing has suffered slightly in reproduction, where (as in the shadows on the neck and hands) the lines were pale in the original.

Size of drawing 11-1/2 6-1/2 in. Zinc process.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: "HOME BY THE FERRY." (FROM THE PAINTING BY EDWARD STOTT.)

(_Royal Academy, 1891._)]

One other point of interest and importance to collectors of engravings and etchings should be mentioned. Within the last few years, an invention for coating the surface of engraved plates with a film of steel (which can be renewed as often as necessary) renders the surface practically indestructible; and it is now possible to print a thousand impressions from a copper plate without injury or loss of quality. These modern inventions are no secrets, they have been described repeatedly in technical journals and in lectures, notably in those delivered during the past few years at the Society of Arts, and published in the _Journal_. But the majority of the public, and even many collectors of prints and etchings, are ignorant of the number of copies which can now be taken without deterioration from one plate.

It is necessary to the art amateur that he should know something of these things, if only to explain why it is that scratching on a copper plate has come so much into vogue in England lately, and why there has been such a remarkable revival of the art of Durer at the end of this century. The reason for the movement will be better understood when it is explained that by the process just referred to, of "steeling" the surface of plates, the "burr," as it is called, and the most delicate lines of the engraver are preserved intact for a much larger number of impressions than formerly. The taste for etchings and the higher forms of the reproductive arts is still spreading rapidly, but the fact remains that etchings and _editions de luxe_ do not reach one person in a thousand in any civilised community. It is only by means of wood engravings, and the cheaper and simpler forms of process ill.u.s.tration, that the public is appealed to pictorially through the press.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LINE PROCESS BLOCK.]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] All the ill.u.s.trations in this book are produced by mechanical processes excepting those marked in the List of Ill.u.s.trations; and all are printed simultaneously with the letterpress. For description of processes, see _Appendix_.