GELATINE PROCESS.
By this process a more delicate and sensitive method has been used to obtain a relief block.
The drawing is photographed to the required size (as before), and the negative laid upon a glass plate (previously coated with a mixture of gelatine and bichromate of potash). The part of this thin, sensitive film not exposed to the light, is absorbent, and when immersed in water swells up. The part exposed to the light (i.e., the lines of the drawing) remains near the surface of the glass. Thus we have a sunk mould from which a metal cast can be taken, leaving the lines in relief as in the zinc process. In skilful hands this process admits of more delicate gradations, and pale, uncertain lines can be reproduced with tolerable fidelity. The blocks take longer to make, and are double the price of the photo-zinc process first described. There is no process yet invented which gives better results from a pen-and-ink drawing for the type-press. These blocks when completed have a copper surface. The reproductions of pencil, chalk, or charcoal drawings by the zinc, or “biting-in” processes are nearly always failures, as we may see in some of the best artistic books and magazines to-day.
No. XVI.
“The Miller’s Daughter,” by E. K. Johnson.
Another very interesting example of Mr. E. K. Johnson’s drawing in pen and ink. Nearly every line has the value intended by the artist.
The drawing has been largely reduced, and reproduced by the gelatine relief process.