COMPARISON OF PROCESSES.

The method of drawing in line referred to in the two preceding chapters may be regarded as traditional and of the normal character, and we shall next take under consideration various other methods of drawing equally suitable for reproduction by line process.

In the meantime, we will see how the processes for producing blocks in relief may be applied and see by a few examples how the results compare.

With the artist, the Swelled Gelatine process will probably rank as first favourite, and this because it is less exacting in its requirements.

Although only rendering the drawing in black and white, it is certainly more sympathetic, and does to some extent recognise the weaker impression of a grey line. By this process many ordinary black and white drawings, made without any regard for the demands of the process man, reproduce well, but would be impossible by the cheaper zinc etching; moreover, it is admirably suited to reproduce drawings in which a mixture of pen and pencil has been employed, an example of which will be given later.

The artist or draughtsman is not, however, usually master of the situation; the printer and publisher will use the cheaper methods, to suit which we must adopt, to a certain degree, a conventional manner. If a drawing be seriously studied, it is often surprising how much of the feeling of the draughtsman is conveyed to us through the strokes of his pen or pencil, and it is just this feeling which the Gelatine process preserves in great measure, but which the commoner methods sift out and give us a mere mechanical translation. Still, by suiting ourselves to these more ordinary processes, much may be done to compensate for the lack of sympathy which they display.

I have given (pp. 82, 83) two reproductions from the identical drawing, in order that comparison may be made.

The Bitumen process is characterised by the crude, sincere, line given, ignoring many finer lines, and bringing others up black and hard.

The Albumen process is the one by which probably the greatest number of blocks are made in this country, and, when carried to a high degree of perfection, yields some very pleasing results which, though inferior to swelled Gelatine, are better than the Bitumen. Ordinarily, however, there is not very much to choose between these two, and a very great number of examples would have to be examined in order to properly exhibit the differences.

The comparison of results by these three processes is a subject which has given rise to some controversy. The artist, who has also usually been the author in this matter, has pronounced favourably for the swelled gelatine; but in this the process expert is in disagreement. After comparing carefully a variety of results, I am inclined to think that perhaps too much importance is attached to the supposed advantages of the swelled gelatine, and two powerful contributories to success are not sufficiently considered. Swelled gelatine is not used for ordinary newspaper work, and is charged at a much higher rate; and for this reason, probably, greater care is taken in the block-making, and, being used in higher class publications, it is more carefully printed from than is possible in the vast majority of cases when the cheaper blocks are used. The use of zinc blocks in cheap, rapidly printed publications probably prohibits the process having full justice done to it, and we are apt to judge its possibilities by the examples we too often see. Cheapness, short time, and rapid printing are factors calculated to spoil the reputation of any process. If bitumen and albumen could receive the same amount of care and attention as is customarily bestowed upon the more expensive swelled gelatine, there seems little reason why results should not be equal.

In considering the application of such various methods, we are brought to that somewhat singular contest which seems to exist in every sphere of work wherein art is concerned, it is the disagreement and misunderstanding which exists between artist and craftsman.

The enterprising endeavour of the process-block maker is to perfect his process to produce a clean, bright, faultless piece of technical work; a process which shall produce from all kinds of originals an equally brilliant print, so that, when he is called to reproduce a special effect which the artist may desire, he seems incapable of understanding as desirable anything which falls short of his own arbitrary standard. It is as though the artist's colourman said to the painter, you must varnish all your picture so as to show the full richness and gloss of the colours, no matter whether the painter reckoned on some degree of dulness to give a certain effect.

So the material maker will aim at supplying canvas or board of as fine and smooth a surface as possible, and it is at first difficult to persuade him that the artist is right in desiring a coarse, rough surface. The process man and material maker are ever on the side of polish, brilliancy, and fineness.

Execution and craft invariably seem to be at war with feeling and art, and I would strongly caution my reader against being too much concerned about the relative virtues of various processes, or too much prejudiced by what others may have to say. Whatever your artist friend may advise is pretty certain to be discounted by your block-maker; and in course of time, and after experience, you will probably form your own individual opinion, which will be at variance with both.

It is at this stage that more particular mention may be made of the use of the roulette to correct by hand, on the zinc block, the misinterpretations of the process. The roulette consists of a sharp-edged toothed wheel of minute proportions, which is passed backwards and forwards across lines which have come up too black, thus breaking such lines into tiny dots, which therefore print greyer.

It is well to know that such a revision of the block, as first turned out, is possible, and we shall sometimes be glad to make use of it. Still, as before pointed out, such hand-work must not be relied upon.