THE PREPARATION OF ORIGINALS FOR HALF-TONE REPRODUCTION.

II. Wash Drawings, Oil Paintings, Pencil and Other Drawings.

OF the remaining methods, whereby originals for reproduction by half-tone process may be made, much less need be said. The same principles of avoiding too fine and delicate gradations of tone apply as when making a simple photogram, and the methods of brush and pencil appeal almost exclusively to the naturally artistic.

The wash drawing, which is practically water-colour painting in monochrome, is the most popular, and, in the hands of those artists who have applied themselves to illustration for photo-reproduction, some very wonderful achievements are possible. Avoiding blue, green, red, orange, or colours approaching thereto, it matters little what colour is used, but probably black, such as Indian ink, or a good neutral grey or sepia, is the best to use. In any case, body colour reproduces better than transparent washes, the delicacy of which are wasted. Hence a liberal use of Chinese white to lighten the tints is preferable to making the colour thinner with water. Lamp black and Chinese white work well together and reproduce excellently. In using Indian ink, or indeed any colour, successive washes should not be made until each preceding one is dry, thereby escaping a "messy" effect and securing greater vigour.

The brush-work must be bold and strong, and, as was said with regard to photograms, include as little of the softer half-tones as possible, the contrasts of light and shade must be accentuated and effect exaggerated to compensate for the degradation of contrast brought about by the process. Unless this be remembered, the result can hardly fail to give anything but a very flat poor copy of the original. The artist should hold himself under restraint, and instead of blending one tone with another keep them nicely distinct, limiting himself to some half-dozen different shades or tones between the extremes of white and black, and even then some portions of the white may require to be cut away on the block.

Many illustrations from wash drawings of to-day are of a daring, spirited style in which figures are drawn with or without backgrounds, and when well done they are undeniably attractive, and may be abundantly met with in such publications as The Graphic, Illustrated London News, Sketch, In Town, St. Paul's, and many others. Were we considering the subject of art in illustrations, comment on this sort of work not wholly in approbation might be made, but that it is thoroughly up to date, effective, and in ready demand cannot be denied, and it should be carefully studied by the student, who will no doubt profit by the suggestions of technique without necessarily copying or being unduly influenced by the style.

Some capital effects may be obtained by making a wash drawing on grey-tinted paper and putting in the lights with white, an example of which is here given. Decorative designs done in Chinese white on dark-brown paper may be successfully produced, but should be made several times larger than required; the reduction in size usually improving the effect.

Painting in oil in monochrome will offer a welcome field for illustration work to those who are more accustomed to use this medium. A smooth surface canvas or board should be chosen, however, and the painting should be smooth, all strong brush marks, especially in the whites, being omitted or softened out with a badger. In thus softening, however, care should be exercised not to graduate one tone into another, but leave everything firm and distinct, the same restriction of tones being observed as in the other methods referred to previously. In using oil colours, turpentine must be liberally used, or benzine, as this will destroy the excessive gloss on the surface, a feature not liked by the process worker.

Either water colour or oil may be worked upon a photographic basis in order to save labour or difficulties in drawing. In such cases the photographic print should be as faint as possible; any photographic paper may be used for water colour, but smooth platinotype will probably be the most pleasant. The surfaces to which oil colour may be applied will be naturally more limited, but ready-sized canvas for printing in bromide by artificial light is made, and is largely used for oil painting for the commoner kind of portraits.

It will, however, sometimes be found desirable to economise labour by using a photogram to paint on, thus saving time in re-drawing and ensuring accuracy of elaborate details. Moreover, paint may be put upon a photogram, and much matter that is not required, or which may be judged as injurious to the pictorial effect, can be omitted. After the painting is finished, the photographic basis or original will then require to be removed.

Almost any photographic print may be prepared to receive oil paint by giving it a coating of common "size," and drying it slowly by a fire or otherwise. The painting-on being then proceeded with, and the paint dry, the back of the print is to be sponged or brushed with the iodine solution mentioned on page 114. Platinotype paper being already sized requires no further sizing, and by making a weak under-exposed print the subsequent reduction or bleaching of the image can be rendered unnecessary.

Many illustrators are fond of making wash drawings and then strengthening them with pen or pencil. The advantage is not easy to see, a mixed and indifferent character being usually felt.

Pencil drawing with a reinforcement of a few ink lines, or pencil by itself, is a method which appears to me to be deserving of much more attention and cultivation than it has usually received.

Average pencil drawing is inclined to be too weak, and wanting in those characteristics which have been already pointed out as essential in wash drawings, but if the drawing be vigorous, and the pencil strokes clean and distinct, some capital results may be obtained. In order to procure the grey of pencil work a very fine screen is used, and the printing carefully attended to, so that pencil sketches are hardly suitable for the cheaper and more rapid class of printing. The lights should be cut away on the block.

The accompanying sketch of a cottage is simply torn from the leaf of a sketch-book in which it was made without any regard for the requirements of the process; the strong shadows were slightly reinforced with pen and ink, and the whole carefully reproduced.

It seems scarcely necessary to refer to the use of water colour and oil paintings in colour as illustrations, inasmuch as if produced for purposes of reproduction, colour would hardly be employed. Occasionally, however, one may require to make a photogram of a painting for some such purpose, in doing which it will be best to employ a professed photographer who is accustomed to copying, and this because the photographing of coloured objects possesses peculiar difficulties.

Plates known as "Isochromatic" are used, these having certain dyes mixed with the sensitive film which makes them more sensitive to the least active colours, such as reds and yellows, and in addition a stained film of gelatine or glass is introduced into the lens to further correct the action of the colours. Special care, too, in lighting the picture to be copied is requisite, some experts recommending the use of coloured reflectors.

If the greens, reds, and yellows are not very pronounced, or the effect is not greatly dependent upon blue and such hues which by reason of their great light activity photograph as white, a fair copy photogram may be produced under ordinary circumstances; but where any doubt exists, I should recommend that the work be done by an experienced operator.

Throughout the foregoing remarks on the half-tone process, it will have been gathered that its inherent defects constantly stand in the way of our giving it unqualified approval. A recent writer on the subject, Mr. C.G. Harper, says of half-tone process that it is "inconstant and for ever incapable of rendering wash drawings as well as the wood-engraver."

Be this as it may—and it may not be possible to gainsay it—each day sees such improvements made in the processes, that even before these sheets are in my reader's hands circumstances may require a change of opinion, and prejudices may have given way under the convincing influences of modern improvements.

We may now turn our attention to the more direct processes of reproducing in line, in which, more than in any other direction, the revolution which photography has brought about in the art of illustration is evident.