A Handbook of Illustration

CHAPTER XI.

OTHER METHODS ADAPTED FOR LINE REPRODUCTION.

When a large space is required to be covered with an even tint, an immense saving of labour and time may be effected by the use of "Shading media"; but beyond a mere saving of labour they may, if discreetly used, be made to produce some very desirable effects.

If applied to the entire surface, the result is very like a half-tone process block in appearance. This is seen in the illustration on page 85, in which the shading medium has been applied everywhere except in the few white spots.

Such an application is particularly useful for evening or twilight subjects, but it is more usual to employ them locally, especially for skies. They are also largely used by some artists for figures, in the manner shown in illustration on page 65, in which the shading is so effectively used on the waistcoat and hat of the man.

The pattern of the tint varies greatly, there being more than a dozen distinct designs, a few examples of which are given on page 91.

These shading media are introduced on to the zinc block after printing from the negative (see Chap. VII.), for which purpose transparent sheets of gelatine, on which the required pattern has been engraved and previously inked, are used. By pressing these on to the albumen or other surface of the block, an ink impression is transferred, which accordingly protects the surface during etching in the same manner as the rest of the picture. The "shading" need not be restricted to the blank spaces only, but may be pressed on to any part or the whole of the block; and there is no reason why two or more different patterns should not be used in combination on the same subject. The gelatine sheets being transparent, the process worker can see exactly where to apply them, and can do so with considerably intricacy.

SHADING MEDIUM ON PEN SKETCH VIGNETTE.

(Original 5 x 4.)

In sending to the etchers a drawing in which a shading medium is to be introduced, the practice is to mark such portions as are to be shaded by scribbling over with blue pencil; this is at once understood better than written instructions. It had better be stated whether a dark or light tint be required; also whether it is to be vignetted or shaded all over. Vignetting is the most usual, as seen in the accompanying block, page 92. It is usual for the process people to make a slight additional charge for the introduction of tints; especially if at all complicated. And, of course, if special experiments in the combination of various tints be intended, requiring special care, fair consideration must be made for the additional trouble and labour.

Like most mechanical aids to drawing, shading media must be adopted with discretion, and they can at best be considered as a poor substitute for pure hand-work; they economise time and are useful in an emergency, but I should certainly caution the beginner against the too frequent use of them.

An ingenious method of imparting a certain greyness to some portions of a drawing is illustrated by the accompanying sketch "Near Berry Head."

This is known as "Splatter work," and consists of sprinkling minute dots of the black drawing fluid wherever required.

The drawing is first executed in the usual way, and all portions which are not to be "splattered" upon are covered over with pieces of paper cut to the necessary shape and size.

A stiff bristle brush is then inked; nothing serving for the purpose better than an ordinary tooth-brush. Holding the brush in the left hand, with the bristles downwards, the bristles are to be briskly stroked with any handy stick of wood; in this manner a spray of tiny dots of ink is splashed on to the paper beneath.

NEAR BERRY HEAD.

Pen drawing—foreground dotted by "splatter" work. (Original 6¼ x 5.)

Perhaps a finer and more regular spray may be obtained by taking the brush in the right hand and brushing it over the fine teeth of a comb, by which means the splashes can be with more certainty directed to a particular spot. Superfluous ink should be struck off the brush before sprinkling the drawing, and some portions of the protecting paper masks can be removed before others if some of the "splattering" be required to extend further.

It will be best to use an indelible or fixed ink for this work, as, even after practice, some ugly splashes are apt to occur, which will have to be afterwards corrected with Chinese white. Splatter work is more largely practised in America, and is just one of those tricks which in dexterous hands is sometimes so peculiarly happy in its results, and yet so apparently unresponsive in others.

We now come to consider an important group of drawing methods, known as "Scratch boards."

In speaking of white cardboards, reference was made to clay surface boards, and the possibility of removing any fault by scraping with a knife. We have now to do with a selection of boards in which the clay surface and the scraping-out possibilities are carried to the utmost practical extent, and made use of as a chief method of representation, not as a means to correct mistakes. These boards are of two principal kinds: 1st. White, on which are impressed white indented lines, giving the whole a ribbed appearance; and, 2nd, Black reticulations, or lines printed at right angles to the impressed grain or ribs.

Canvas-like reticulations, irregular grain or "Aquatint" dots, and diagonal or vertical lines, are the most useful patterns (of which there are many); they may be obtained at F.W. Devoe & C.T. Raynolds Co. and most of the dealers in materials, and are known as scratch-out, scrape-out or stipple boards.

Both boards are of a somewhat similar description, differing only in the method of producing the pattern. In the white boards the marks are impressed; whereas in the black ones they are printed.

Taking the black patterns first, the grain printed thereon supplies us with a flat grey tint composed of numerous fine black lines; this for convenience we will call the full tint. Now if we gently scrape the clay surface with the sharp point of a knife, moving it across the black lines, they will be removed from the top of the impressed ridges which cross at right angles, thus at once converting the black lines into rows of black dots, and giving a lighter tint which we will call a half-tint. Closely examine the accompanying series of specimens, and this will be at once recognised.

THE SCRAPER.

No. I. No. II.

DOTS. HORIZONTAL LINES.

No. III. No. IV.

DIAGONAL LINES. AQUATINT.

EXAMPLES OF BLACK GRAIN "SCRAPE BOARDS." (Original size.)

In No. 1 we have a board with parallel ruling, as supplied by the makers; in No. 2, a few strokes of the knife have converted some of the lines into dots; in No. 3, the knife has been used more vigorously, scraping away lines altogether and thus producing plain whites. This, then, gives us full tint, half-tint, and white. Now if we work with pencil or pen on the full tint, building up the drawing precisely as if drawing on plain white card, and then scrape out, as just illustrated, it will be seen what a wide range of "tones" will be suggested.

No. I. No. II.No. III.

The drawing is to be put in first either with crayon, pencil, or ink, and the scraping done afterwards; by this means any mistakes can readily be scratched out; no small consolation to the unpractised. But, on the other hand, a faulty scratch or scrape cannot be rectified, hence the greater need for care.

The manner of handling the knife (an ordinary penknife, or a specially constructed blade, may be used) differs a good deal in individual workers, but the safer manner is perhaps to keep the knife well up and nearly vertical. Avoid outlines, allowing the different degrees of tint to separate one object from another, as one would do in a wash drawing, and proceed somewhat in the manner illustrated by the accompanying figures.

A MISTY MOONRISE.

(Original 4 x 2½.)

One of the difficulties to be guarded against is the too great evidence of scraping, the knife marks often revealing themselves much more plainly in the reproduction than in the original, also the too sudden contrast between the full tint and the scratched half-tint. Notice in the two accompanying sketches on diagonal grain boards, by Mr. C.J. Vine, how the full tint, when it meets the half-tint, is broken up by slight irregular scratches; especially is this seen in the sky of "A Misty Moonrise." In this sketch, sky, sea, and the sails of the two more distant boats, are almost entirely made up by the diagonal tint and the scraped half-tint. Only in the hulls of the boats and the sails of the nearest boat is pen-work introduced, the lines being drawn diagonally from right to left, at right angles to the grain of the full tint.[6]

PEN AND INK ON BLACK LINE SCRAPE BOARD. FIRST STAGE.

(Original 5¾ x 3.)

PEN AND INK ON BLACK LINE SCRAPE BOARD WITH WHITE SCRAPED OUT.

(Original 5½ x 3¼.)

A more rapid way of obtaining an effect can hardly be imagined than by these "scraped" boards, and in good hands, or with practice, the effects obtainable are often very charming. The drawings should, as a rule, be not greatly larger than the reproduction intended—a reduction of one-third or one-half being about the best. All the different kinds of black grain boards are treated in the same manner as above described.

PENCIL ON VERTICAL GRAIN WHITE SCRAPE BOARD.

By C.J. Vine. (Original 4 x 3.)

Now the use of white grained boards is less a scraping method than pure line drawing, much of the "line" being almost mechanically produced by drawing upon the "ribbed" surface with pencil. We know if we place a piece of paper upon a rough, cloth-covered book and rub a blacklead pencil over it we get a mottled effect, the blacks and whites of which are reproductions of the projections and depressions on the book cover; so if we draw on a ribbed surface clay-board with pen and ink, the ink follows elevation and depression in one continuous pen stroke. If, however, we draw with a black pencil, without undue pressure, the pencil passes from one elevation to another, or from one "rib" to another, and thus forms a broken or dotted line, which, although in actual colour as black as an ink line, yet being broken and not solid, will reproduce lighter or greyer. A number of adjacent pencil lines would therefore produce a flat tint of dots, very similar to the tint of a "half-tone" block or a "shading medium," in addition to which, and upon which, ink lines may be made to produce deeper blacks. On the accompanying illustration are pencil marks and ink strokes drawn on a piece of grained white board, the grain or "ribs" being vertical. To the left, a single detached pencil stroke forming dotted lines; next are adjacent pencil lines constituting a grained tint, something very like the full tone of the black-grained blocks before considered, and coarser or finer in proportion as the pencil is pressed more or less heavily; next we have some pen and ink lines, the difference of which will at once be seen; and finally, a mixture of pencil and pen, on which the knife has subsequently been used to scratch some small lights. This exhausts the practical possibilities of white grained scrape boards.

The accompanying sketches will show somewhat the kind of things obtainable.

PENCIL AND PEN ON VERTICAL LINE WHITE SCRAPE BOARD.

By C.J. Vine. (Original 4 x 3.)

Reduction causes a very marked improvement, and the drawings should be looked at from time to time whilst in progress with a "diminishing" glass. An indelible ink should be used, or one that does not penetrate but rests on the surface: such as ivory-black, lamp-black, or Indian ink. Instead of pencil, a stick of lithographic chalk will be of advantage. In the first place, the greyness of pencil is deceptive, and reproduces blacker than we expect, moreover pencil rubs and smears; not so lithographic chalk, which does not rub, and is black. The scratching or scraping must be the final stage of a drawing, as only solid pen marks can be put on the white board after the grained clay surface has been removed.

Drawings in Pencil or Chalk on Rough Papers.

By the foregoing description of pencil or chalk drawing on ribbed surfaces, we see how a pencil drawing may be translated by an ordinary line zinco block, instead of the more expensive half-tone process described in the earlier chapters. The pencil or crayon point, in passing over a rough or broken surface, forms a series of dots instead of a continuous line. The same thing occurs when pencil is used on a rough surface drawing paper. Such pencillings, being examined, are found to be lead marks, interspersed with minute interstices of white paper, the whole giving a sort of grey tint of greater or less intensity.

For broad sketchy effects such a drawing method is exceedingly valuable; some very delightful things may be done without the least appearance of the mechanical.

SEWARDSTONE MARSHES.

Drawing on ContÉ crayon on rough paper. (Original 6 x 4.)

As may be readily understood from the accompanying examples, such drawings are best adapted for purely artistic impressions, and not for the portrayal of detail.

Practically any paper may be used which is white, and whose surface is sufficiently rough; some particular kinds, about to be mentioned, have proved especially successful under experiment. Any material may be used to draw with, preference being given to a black substance which will not smear or rub on being touched.

A good "B" blacklead pencil has the advantage of being pleasant to handle, and capable of being used with a sufficiently fine point to render some details; it has, however, the decided disadvantage of "rubbing" with a very little touching, and the strokes, although fairly intense, are not so black as crayon; hence, in reproduction, many portions which were expected to come out soft and delicate, reproduce much too black. We have, then, for our selection, Hardmuth's or ContÉ's crayons, made in several degrees, and also made into cedar-wood pencils—a cleaner and more handy form. Neither of these is, unfortunately, free from the disadvantage of blurring when rubbed, and will hence require to be fixed before being sent away; the photo-engraver, in the press of his business, rarely failing to subject drawings to a severe test.

Fixing may be best effected by treating the drawing with a solution of one part pure gum mastic dissolved in seven parts methylated spirit.

In Lemercier's lithographic crayons we have a drawing medium which gives as satisfactory results as the ContÉ or Hardmuth, and does not blur; it therefore saves the trouble of fixing. Being greasy, they should be used in a porte-crayon. They are made in three degrees as to hardness, the No. 1 being the hardest and best suited for drawing the limited amount of detail which is possible with crayons.

So long as the drawing is not too heavily worked upon, a surprising improvement is secured by reducing. A reduction of one-half is not too much.

As to the papers to be used, the following may be mentioned as only some which I have tested, and which others have spoken well of, but there must be a great many other rough surface materials well worth a trial.

Of the well-known Whatman papers, both the "Hot-pressed" and "Not," the latter being, perhaps, preferable.

A French paper, AllongÉ, has a very pleasing surface grain, and may be used on the right or wrong side with different results; the right side being the rougher, and perhaps the better.

CRAYON DRAWING ON ALLONGÉ PAPER.

Small whites in Chinese white. (Original 9 x 6.)

Next, we have Lalanne and Michallet or Ingres papers, and some examples of crayon drawing on these are here given.

CRAYON ON PYRAMID PAPER NO. 2.

Small whites in Chinese white. (Original 7 x 6.)

The most noticeable feature in these will be the lines, or grain, formed by the texture of the paper; this grain is apparently more perceptible when vertical, but if the paper is turned round so that the lines come into a horizontal position, they are much less discernible in the finished sketch.

In many respects the effect of these papers is a good deal similar to that gained by using the white lined clay-boards; the grain being, however, less mechanical. In like manner the crayon sketch may be effectively helped by the addition of pen and ink, or fine brush work. Scraping out, however, is not within its capabilities; though Chinese white, if applied fairly solidly, may successfully stop-out small lights or efface errors.

CRAYON ON PYRAMID NO. 1.

(Original 9 x 6.)

Other papers which may be attempted are Arnold's drawing papers, rough surface cartridge, various crayon papers, &c. Such houses as Penrose & Co., Amwell Street, E.C., London, or F.W. Devoe & C.T. Raynolds Co., of New York, would probably supply patterns and information in this respect.

A paper known as Pyramid Grained paper has a granulated surface, breaking the crayon marks into a succession of dots rather than broken lines, and often yields very pleasing results; it is made in two varying degrees, No. 1 having a grain of 15,000 "pyramids" to the square inch, and No. 2, 9,000.

For a further variation in effect, a drawing may be executed in crayon or pencil on a fairly smooth paper previously pressed into close contact with any rough surface, such as sandpaper or canvas. The unsized side of a canvas for oil painting, or the cover of a book, will answer the purpose; openness of work, and the amount of ultimate reduction desirable, being depended upon and controlled accordingly.

The following sketches, by Mr. C.J. Vine, on Michallet and Lallane papers (pp. 111, 113, 115, 117), are pure untouched crayon work, reproduced by zinc line etching, so that these drawings may be safely entrusted to this cheapest and least sympathetic process; though there can be little doubt that the swelled gelatine would render fuller justice to work of this class.

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