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.