“And high through the air came the first stork and the second stork; a pretty child sat on the back of each.”
Example of half-tone process applied to a slight wash drawing. The illustration is much relieved by vignetting and leaving out: almost the only chance for effect that the artist has by the screened process. It suggests, as so many of the illustrations in this book do, not the limits but the scope and possibilities of process work for books.
This and the preceding illustration by Mr. Weguelin are taken from Hans Andersen’s Fairy Tales (Lawrence & Bullen, 1893).
That this “half-tone” process is susceptible of a variety of effects and results, good and bad, every reader must be aware.
The illustrations in this book, from pages 138 to 165, are all practically by the same process of “screening,” a slight difference only in the grain being discernible.
The wash drawing on page 139 suffers by the coarse grain on it, but the values, it will be seen, are fairly well preserved. The lights which are out of tone appear to have been taken out on the plate by the maker of the block, a dangerous proceeding with figures on a small scale. Mr. Louis Grier’s clever sketch of his picture in wash, at the head of this chapter, gives the effect well.
Mr. Weguelin’s illustrations to Hans Andersen’s Fairy Tales have been, I understand, a great success, the public caring more for the spirit of poetry that breathes through them than for more finished drawings. This is delightful, and as it should be, although, technically, the artist has not considered his process enough, and from the educational point of view it has its dangers. The “process” has been blamed roundly, in one or two criticisms of Mr. Weguelin’s illustrations, whereas the process used is the same as on pages 149 and 157.
However, the effect on a wash drawing is not satisfactory in the best hands. So uncertain and gloomy are the results that several well-known illustrators decline to use it as a substitute for wood engraving. We shall have to improve considerably before wood engraving is abandoned. We are improving every day, and by this half-tone process numberless wash drawings and photographs from nature are now presented to the public in our daily prints.