Example of medium tint. (Original 4 x 7.)
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.
PEN DRAWING.
Three different shading media. (Original 8 x 5¾.)
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.
