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LITHOGRAPH CRAYON DRAWING. From Bust of Brontolone by Luca della Robbia, by F. Grellet. Reproduced by half-tone. The original was 12 by 9 inches. Strong marking of the naso-labial line, line at the corner of the lips, crow’s-feet, and orbicular muscle, typical of old age. To be compared with the Bonnard Choudieu.
We have thus covered the muscles of the face which have most to do with expression, and so you see that, besides drawing the eyebrows, eyelashes, eyeballs, the bridge of the nose, the nostril, the lips, and the chin, the artist has to do with a great many muscles, and the novice must not only be warned about them, that he may know when to introduce them, but he must remember that they have principally to do with old age or {110} abnormal expression (laughter, grief, hate, etc.), and they must be used to express such attributes only. Hence the three English drawings represent very admirably the normal, placid expression of middle-aged men. If with the foregoing hints you attempt to draw a portrait for your newspaper, we fancy that, if you follow our advice faithfully, you will meet with more success than you imagine.
CHAPTER XII.
THE SCIENCE OF PEN DRAWING — PEN DRAWING MAY BE ANY SIZE — THE WATTS IN TWO SIZES — DRAWING MAY BE ENLARGED OR REDUCED — FROM THE PRINTER’S VIEWPOINT PEN TECHNIC LESS IMPORTANT AS REGARDS ITS ADAPTABILITY TO REDUCTION THAN AS REGARDS THE PRINTABILITY OF THE CUT MADE FROM IT — THE PRINTER’S OWN EXPERIENCE A GUIDE IN THIS MATTER — THREE KINDS OF PRINTING CONSIDERED, FOR CONVENIENCE CHARACTERIZED AS I. “MAGAZINE,” II. “CITY NEWSPAPER,” III. “COUNTRY NEWSPAPER” PRINTING — CROSS-HATCHED LINES SUPPOSED TO FILL UP MORE RAPIDLY THAN SINGLE LINES — PORTRAIT OF STEVENSON BY WYATT EATON THE NE PLUS ULTRA OF NEWSPAPER PORTRAITURE — THE NASO-LABIAL LINE IN THIS DRAWING SUGGESTED BY SHADING, NOT BY A SINGLE LINE — A DRAWING BY SICKERT — ANY PEN MAY BE USED FOR THESE DRAWINGS, BUT THE LINES MAINLY TO BE CONSIDERED AS THICK OR THIN, SINCE THEY MAY BE PUT UPON CHALK PLATE, AND NOT DRAWN IN PEN-AND-INK AT ALL.
IN our last chapter we said that we believed that if you would attempt to draw a portrait for your newspaper, following our advice faithfully, you would meet with more success than you would imagine. But you say, perhaps, that you are not prepared to attempt a portrait because we have given you no directions for pen drawing. Well, here you are partly right and partly wrong. There is a science of pen drawing that {112}
GEORGE FREDERICK WATTS, R.A. An English newspaper cut—from Tit-Bits, artist unknown. An excellent example of newspaper work. Note that the skull-cap is not represented partly gray and partly black because the artist meant to indicate a cap that was one color in front and another in the back, but he meant to show the rounding of the cranium, just as Gaillard did in varying the tones in the hair of the old woman. An enlargement of this cut was given in Chapter VIII. If a drawing is made the size of that enlargement, it can satisfactorily be reduced to the size of the cut above. Of course it may reduce to smaller dimensions; the greater the reduction the nearer the lines come together, and their closeness makes them more difficult to print.
{113} you may study with profit, but in order to draw a simple portrait for your newspaper it is not necessary for you to have any further instruction than we have given you. If it is going to pay you to follow drawing at all, you should be able at this stage of progress to make a tolerably good drawing for a newspaper portrait. But, you say, “What size should I make the drawing?” We reply, “Almost any size, though usually not smaller than the cut is to appear.” But that it may be smaller is seen by our two Watts cuts. Here is a cut the exact size of the original Watts, as it went to the engraver, who by mistake enlarged it to the size it appeared in Chapter VIII. I accepted this enlargement gladly, so as to show you that a drawing may be enlarged or reduced, but more especially with the idea of showing you the usual size that a drawing is made for reduction; for you will always be safe in making your portrait the size of the Watts in Chapter VIII if you wish it to appear the size of the present cut. I cannot over-emphasize the importance of your realizing that you have been told sufficient about pen drawing for you to go ahead and make drawings for your paper. If there is anything more to be learned I am candid in saying that you are better able to find out what it is than I am, for it is almost entirely a matter of printing, and not of engraving. Photo-engravers can nowadays reproduce almost any kind of a drawing, but a cut which might print well in a magazine might not print at all in your country newspaper. You know better than I do the trouble of “bringing up” a fine cut on poor {114}