Drawing for Printers. / A practical treatise on the art of designing and illustrating in connection with typography. Containing complete instruction, fully illustrated, concerning the art of drawing, for the beginner as well as the more advanced student.

by Ernest Knaufft

CARICATURE OF THE ARTIST HIMSELF. By Albert Engström.

{22} on its front and on its sides. Let us presume that a man is standing directly in front of the building; the chances are that he sees every window in a tolerably correct manner. He sees that all the windows are alike, etc.; that each is a certain distance from the other, etc. Good! But now let him walk to the end of the building and look at it diagonally; he still sees the building as he saw it in the front view; depend upon it, that he sees each window as a perfect rectangle, and each window the same distance from the other; he would be incapable of going home and showing you on a piece of paper the “direction” of every window line. Let an artist step in his place and he sees every window different from the other! You probably do not realize the full truth of this statement at present, but you will after we have our chapter on perspective. For the present please take my word for it, and bear in mind that you must first learn to see.

Let us take the caricature by Albert Engström for our first lesson. We have selected it for two reasons: first, because it is a caricature, and we wish our readers to realize that this treatise is going to be of use to printers from the beginning, and that we are going to study drawing in an interesting manner. Many a printer is as well the publisher of a newspaper and feels that from time to time he would like to publish a caricature to enliven his pages, or at any rate he is interested in the cartoons in the illustrated press, and would like to know how they are done, and the best way to acquire this knowledge is to practice a little one’s self. Besides, the practice of caricaturing is most beneficial to every draftsman; there have been but few great painters who {23} have not indulged in it. Another reason for using this cut is that it is drawn in a very simple manner in a few strong lines. While the students at the art schools usually begin to get effects with light and shade, the printer will do well to master outline sooner than light and shade, for it is the most quickly executed and the most easily engraved, and, I need not add, last but not least, most easily printed. I should advise you then to take commonplace objects that are about the house and make innumerable sketches of them in the manner of this drawing. Take a derby hat for example, place it a little above the eye and endeavor to draw it as Engström did his. Do not worry much about your style of drawing, do not complain that your pen will not work and that you cannot get a line varying in thickness like this one; or if you do succeed, do not ask your friends to admire your handsome pen line; do not think about your drawing at all, but solely about learning to see. Place the hat above you, notice that you see the under part of the brim nearer you, and the inside of the brim on the far side; if there is not a head under the hat endeavor with a single curved line to indicate as much of the lining as you see; if you see anything else that is not given in Engström’s drawing and you try to express it as he expresses things you employ an excellent method of study. Next place the hat in the same position but below the eye, on the seat of a chair, and notice that you no longer see under the brims but inside of them; then place the hat on its crown upon the chair so that you see the oval of the inside of its crown, and endeavor to express that oval with two semi-circles, as simple as the one which Engström uses in drawing the {24} crown of the hat. Again, put the hat on the mantelpiece and draw a side view of it; this will be more simple than any of the other views. I think that an hour’s practice of this kind will soon convince you that the casual glance of the uneducated eye does not take in a complete or perfect view of an object, but that after you have studied an object with a view to drawing it, you begin to see with more thoroughness. You will, I think, notice, as you walk home in the evening, the contours of the different hats that you see in the hatter’s

PEN DRAWING WITH MECHANICALLY STIPPLED BACKGROUND. By H. Gerbault. Showing different kinds of hats in various positions.

window, and upon the pedestrians; you will begin to guess how you would draw such a hat or cap, and from time to time you will see headgear that “lends itself to drawing,” as it were; you will say, “When I go home I will try to draw that hat.” We print on this page an interesting drawing by Gerbault. To the casual observer a drawing of this kind simply represents some men with their hats on, and he enjoys looking at the hats collectively, while he may enjoy the individual {25} faces; but the illustrator, with his practiced eye, finds enjoyment in examining the way each individual hat is drawn. You will find the same enjoyment if you practice drawing hats as we have recommended, and it is needless to say that your enjoyment will be profitable, and, moreover, that your practice need not be limited to the drawing of hats, but may embrace coats, gloves, and shoes as well.

If such is the influence upon your mind made by this chapter, we feel sure that you will never regret having read it and given the time to the practice we recommend, and we think that the first step in the study of drawing will have been made, and that you will feel it has been a successful one.

CHAPTER II.

MORE ABOUT HATS — PERSPECTIVE MAY BE LEARNED FROM THEM — DRAWING MORE A MATTER OF SEEING PROPERLY THAN USE OF PEN — TEXTURE — SILHOUETTE DRAWINGS USED BY EGYPTIANS.