The effect of the reduction may be seen in the accompanying three examples, the first being the same size as the original, and the others reduced as marked.
(Original 4¾ x 4¼.)
Until some experience has been gained in this direction, and apart from the exigencies of the space the illustration is required to fill, the process engraver will probably be the best authority for us to consult as regards the amount of reduction suitable to each individual drawing. A reduction of one-third is a very usual one, so long as the drawing is not unusually rough or clumsy.
Referring to the effect of reduction upon lines laid down to express a flat tint, Mr. H.R. Robertson gives some interesting notes upon the number of lines required to be drawn in an inch square to produce an even grey tint. I do not think too much importance should be attached to such calculations, as they are likely to embarrass the draughtsman and make him far too much concerned with the mere mechanism of his work; still, the matter is an interesting one. He says that from experiment he finds it will usually require about 108 to 120 lines within an inch to give to the naked eye the idea of a flat tint or wash, but that about 80 to an inch is as many as can be drawn to the inch by unaided vision; eighty lines to the inch gives 120 in 1½ inches, which, if reduced in reproduction by one-third, will give the requisite number of 120 to the inch which Mr. Robertson finds desirable. The effect produced, however, by parallel lines of shading alters considerably when the direction of the lines alters, and I think it is only necessary for us to glance through "Academy Notes," or any similar collection of sketches made by artists who understand the importance of conveying suggestions with pencil or pen, to assure us that far fewer lines are in many cases quite capable of giving the idea of an even tint. Such rules and figures are interesting, and perhaps useful, but they are certainly dangerous if the student places himself too much in subjection to their influence.
The beginner in pen drawing is probably destined to meet with severe disappointments at first from the manner in which the process will reproduce his work, and the inclination is to blame the process as unsympathetic, or the process man as incompetent, whereas the fault lies with the drawing, which is unsuitable through a want of proper regard for the requirements of process.
For instance, nothing is commoner with the student than to find such portions of our drawing as distance, sky, and the more delicate shading come up heavy and black—quite different to the original, and robbing such parts of it of all delicacy; or it may be that lines which we believed to be fine, smooth, flowing lines, reproduce as broken and irregular.
THE WILLOW HARVEST.
(Original 7 x 14.)