(C.) DRAWINGS ON PREPARED PAPERS.
For photo-litho transfer without the use of a screen there are some commercial papers, toned, grain, net or pyramid grained papers which may be used with excellent results.
On these papers, according to their preparation, various excellent results can be obtained, which possess high claims as illustrations.
A smooth white scraper board made by Angerer and Göschl of Vienna, which has a very even film of chalk, and which takes the lines clean and vigorously, is especially suitable for pen and ink work. On this paper plucky drawings like woodcuts can be executed. The perfect whites of the paper, combined with the vigorous beautiful black, facilitate reproduction with excellent results and without much trouble.
An ordinary writing pen and ordinary Chinese ink are used for drawing. The ink gives sufficiently black and matt lines.
The deepest parts are covered with ink, and the desired shading or stippling put in with the toothed scraper or engraving tool. The shading off of the shadows may also be worked up with the toothed scraper, and thus very delicate shading be obtained.
Two more very useful papers by the same firm are known as scraper boards with printed lines or points, and white scraper boards with simple or double lines stamped on to it. These papers are also coated with a chalk film.
With these papers the printed lines or dots serve as half-tones for the artist, and by scraping with smooth or toothed scraper knives very many effects can be obtained. Lead pencil, chalk or litho ink can be used for drawing. For laying on, ordinary ink with a small addition of soap may be used, and new tone effects {26} may also be produced with a half dry Chinese ink brush, but for any drawing for line reproduction washing with paler or darker inks is excluded. By scraping with the smooth scraper, points are formed in place of the lines, which by further scraping disappear entirely into white, by which means the transit into the highest lights is effected. If a black surface is scraped with the smooth knife a line tone is produced in the opposite direction to the printed one. By the aid of the toothed scraper lines in any desired direction can be obtained. When the printed tone is only desired in parts in the picture, the other parts can be covered up with white paper. The paper is only stuck down by the edges with mouth glue; if it were stuck down all over with gum or starch it would be distorted. On the white paper stuck on, drawing may be done with the pen, and thus new effects again be obtained, as thus in a manner pen and wash drawing are combined.
The white scraper boards without printed lines or dots are either impressed with a single line or with lines crossed at right angles.
On this paper pen and ink drawings combined with grained tones may be done. The outlines and everything which is to be treated like a pen drawing may be done with a hard pen or a marten brush. Bright tones are so worked with the brush that smooth surfaces are not formed, but dotted darker or lighter tones. Those parts which have been laid on quite black can be brightened up afterwards with the smooth or toothed scraper knife or the needle, and thus many gradations obtained. Instead of the litho writing ink pastell or very black good litho chalk may be used for drawing. Obviously this paper also ought not to be washed or smeared.
The pyramidal grain paper prepared by Schäuffelen of Heilbronn is also very suitable for drawings for photo-lithographic reproduction. The paper is coated with a chalk film of blinding whiteness, and is stamped with a regular grain of truncated pyramids, and is produced in three numbers. Grain No. 1 contains 2,500 regular projections per square centimetre; grain No. 2 contains 1,500; and grain No. 3, 750 pyramids.
This paper is drawn on with litho chalk or black pastell crayons. The deepest shadows are laid on quite black, and light effects are introduced with the scraper or engraving needle as with the above described papers. The same rules apply to the other parts of the drawing.
For drawing in general or the use of effects in drawing it should be noted that with all these papers the drawing may be somewhat overdone, and this is necessary in order to obtain the corresponding vigorous action in the reproduction. The printing ink is, as a rule, never such a deep black as the drawing ink, nor is the paper which is used for printing ever so white as the lines of the toned paper. The contrasts would, therefore, in printing become too {27} little, and flat unsatisfactory pictures would be obtained. With these drawings, therefore, the two opposites, “black and white,” may be used to the extreme, even if the drawing is not satisfactory to the artistic eye.
For making the drawing red paper ought not to be used, as when photographed red appears dark. Then blue proof paper, or paper rubbed with lead pencil, should be used.
A drawing for photographic reproduction ought never to be rolled, and still less be folded; if it is to be sent away it should be packed flat.