A Handbook of Illustration

by A. Horsley Hinton

The material most largely used for drawing on is probably white Bristol board, of four-sheet or six-sheet thickness, and this will answer better than anything else in almost all cases. Some attention should be paid to the tint of the card, many cardboards having a tendency to turn yellow with age and exposure. A cardboard of a pure white, or a slight tendency to a bluish tint, is what we require, a blue card being in photographic reproduction practically the same as white. Upon the surface of the cardboard will greatly depend the ease with which we shall get clean sharp lines. With many cardboards, in which the surface is apparently smooth, the pen finds irregularities and sometimes obstacles to its smooth and even progress, catching and "spluttering" over little particles of hard matter or hair.

A good Bristol board, such as is procurable at any artists' colourman, presents no such difficulties, and the making of a fine smooth line should be quite easy. Messrs. Reynolds and Sons supply various kinds of boards equally suitable for pen work. The bank note Bristol manufactured by F.W. Devoe & Co. is also especially adapted to this work.

The process man will very likely recommend you to use a "clay surface" board, and no doubt in some instances these have their advantages. On these clay boards the pen strokes are remarkably clean and crisp, and have a good deal the appearance of having been produced mechanically rather than by hand; a very fine line, however, is difficult to produce, the result being rather like, but in a much less degree, drawing on an enamelled card on which the ink spreads; at the same time, however, there will be less liability to make grey lines. A further advantage of a clay surface is that the surface is easily removable with the blade of a penknife, so that faults may be scraped or cut away—a feature put to very important use in boards specially made for scraping, which are described on p. [96.] For large, bold work a clay board is useful, but it should not be too often used on account of the hard, mechanical appearance of the drawing.

Whatman papers, or boards having a surface of Whatman paper, are also much used, and these are procurable in two surfaces: H.-P., or "Hot-pressed," the smoothest; and N., or "Not hot-pressed," the surface of which is sufficiently rough to make it very pleasant to work on, but not too much so. If using the H.-P., the surface must be wiped over with a clean wet sponge to remove a certain gloss which the process of hot-pressing imparts to it.

There is no particular virtue in any special paper or board beyond whiteness, evenness, and purity; any paper having these qualities may be used with success. I should not recommend the beginner to experiment with too many kinds; he will in the end be probably no nearer satisfaction than at the outset. Start on ordinary white Bristol and persevere, attributing failures to your own incompetence rather than to any fault in the materials. Some of the very best things have been produced on any scrap of notepaper or other white surface that has been at hand.

Of suitable black fluids there are many varieties, and the beginner may as easily concern himself a great deal too much about inks as about any other part of the necessary materials.

Cakes or sticks of dry pigment, or pans and tubes of moist colour, may be employed, but for general convenience a fluid black will be best. These are of two kinds: "fixed," which is not removable by water, and "ordinary"; and it may be well to consider beforehand the work we are going to do, and use the indelible, or fixed, ink if necessary.

I mean by this that we may sometimes require to use Chinese white over our black lines to produce whites, which could not easily be left as blanks, in which case it will be necessary to use a fixed black, else the Chinese white would smear and spoil the black.

The introduction of Chinese white is, however, an exception rather than the rule, and when the use of an indelible ink is not important, Stephens' Ebony Stain is admirable. It works easily, and although it dries with a slight gloss, which is usually a disadvantage, it reproduces well. It can be immediately thinned when becoming too thick by the addition of a little water, care being taken not to dilute it sufficiently to make it grey. It is sold in bottles at sixpence and a shilling, and is manufactured by the well-known makers of writing ink, but may be procured from the artists' colourmen. Messrs. Reeves and Sons have introduced a fluid black, called Artists' Black; this is made both "indelible" and "not indelible." This has become very popular of late, and is largely used; the not indelible, with water, making fine greys for wash drawing. Higgins' American "Waterproof" India Ink is also extensively used, and has received high commendation. Fixed Indian Ink is sold in fluid form, and Lampblack and Ivoryblack in tubes and cakes.