LESSON XXVIII
LAYOUTS FOR NEWSPAPERS AND CATALOGUES
By this time the student should have learned to draw the fashion figure in the front, back, side and sitting positions. He should have learned to sketch a garment from the model, and to place it on the figure. He should have learned also how to ink a drawing using the proper technique. To draw four or five figures may seem an undertaking and if one feels that he is slow in drawing one figure, he should keep on practicing until he can place one figure in, fairly quickly, that is getting the action and proportion without much difficulty.
A layout artist is one who draws the figures and their costumes, in a given space. Where many different articles of clothing, as hats, waists, corsets, dresses, etc., must be advertised, many business houses employ a staff of artists on the work, each artist doing the class of work that he is most proficient in. In such cases one drawing may pass through many hands before it reaches completion. The layout artist begins the drawing, another artist inks or paints the costumes, another the heads, and another the detail work, etc. Wash drawings in black and white and in water color are done in these houses, and while this book does not take up wash work, the student of this book might become one of the artists to make the layouts for these wash drawings.
Taking it for granted that the student is to fill an order in all its parts, bear in mind the rule for enlargement.
The size of the plate is very important, it being the size of the picture when finished.
It should be interesting as well as help-
ful for the student to go through an engraving plant. As this may be impossible, a brief account of the photo-engraving process, by which line pictures are reproduced, is here given.
The drawing is first photographed, usually to a reduced scale, and brought down to a size much smaller than the original. In this case all lines and dots will be reduced in size, and also the spaces between them. The photographic film is then toughened by a solution, stripped from the glass, turned, and placed over another sheet of glass with the positive side up. The glass plate carrying the turned negative is placed in a frame over a sensitized zinc plate and placed in the sun or under a powerful electric light. As the photograph is a negative, the lines of the drawing are transparent and the light shines through on the zinc plate, hardening it under the lines only. The part protected by the black portion of the film remains in its natural condition.
The plate is then inked and afterward washed. The hardened part, only, retains the ink, thus leaving a copy of the drawing on the plate. A fine powder (dragon's blood) is sprinkled on the plate, and adheres to the ink parts only, thus protecting the lines. The back of the plate is protected by a coating of asphalt varnish.
The plate is given several " bites " in acid, which eats away the surface not protected. As the bite eats sideways as well as down, the plate is sprinkled several times, with the powder, during the biting process. The " bite " eats between lines and dots, leaving the image in relief
on the plate. From this relief the drawing may be printed.