COLOUR
In colour work the artist must always have in mind the limits of reproduction. With the exception of black, every colour may be reproduced by the three-colour process, but it is necessary that the colours used be kept as clean as possible. Different shades of the same colour (two different greens, for example, as distinct from two different tones of the same green) should be avoided.
Quite good colour effects may be achieved, by the use of two colours only, at considerably less cost than with the three-colour
process, since in this case only two colour blocks are necessary. The two colours employed can be used in all their tones from light
to dark, and also mixed together to form a third, with all its intermediate tones and variations; for example, if the colours chosen are red and blue, not only may purple be used, but reddish blues, and bluey-reds.
TECHNIQUE OF REPRODUCTION
The following technical notes on the reproduction processes are from an interesting handbook issued by the Federation of Master Process Engravers. Although the artist is not much concerned with the practical side of the reproduction of her drawings, some knowledge of the salient features of the work will, as has been said elsewhere, greatly assist her in creating drawings which are both saleable and advantageous to the client.
The commercial reproduction of drawings, both in monotone and colour, is made by what is termed photo-process engraving. This is the art of printing photographically on to a metal plate an acid-resisting copy of the picture to be reproduced, and then, by means of an acid, etching away the unprotected parts. The etched parts become lower than the protected parts, which remain in relief and become the printing surface of the plate or block.
Process work is of two kinds, line and half-tone. Line is the reproduction of subjects in black and white only, that is is to say by solid ink lines on a white ground.1 Half-tone is the reproduction in light and shade, such as is seen in photographs and wash drawings, which contain not only solid black and pure white, but many intermediate grey tints. The line block is the more simple. All that is required in a printing surface to reproduce black and white is that the design shall be represented in solid on one level, and that the remainder which is not to print shall be on a lower level. The application of black ink will affect the design alone and print that in solid black on white paper. Since it is not possible by this method to take any account of middle tones, it is important
1 For simplicity this explanation of the process of line work is confined to ordinary black-and-white work. " Line " also embraces colours, see second paragraph of Chapter V.
that the original should consist of definite black lines on a smooth white ground.1
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