DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20658#0338
324
ENGRAVING.
perspective and architecture, possesses the previous knowledge necessary to attempt this art;
though it must be confessed there have been some very expert in the management of their
instruments, who have also been greatly defective in those arts. It must be allowed, that a
person unacquainted with perspective will be unable to express the proper gradations of strong
and faint colours; and to throw back the figures and objects of his picture to their proper
distance. And without a knowledge of architecture he will never understand the due propor-
tions of the several orders, which the painter often entrusts to the discretion of the engraver.
Jt is proper also, for the engraver who would excel, in order to preserve equality and union in
his work, that he sketch out the principal objects of his piece, before he undertake to finish them.
With regard to the intersections of the lines of the graver, though they must not be crossed in
too lozenge a direction, particularly in the representation of flesh, and in picturesque designs,
yet we must except the case of clouds, tempests, waves of the sea, the skins of rough hairy-
animals, the leaves of trees, &c. where this method of crossing may be admitted. But in
avoiding the lozenge intersections we must be careful of falling into the square or right-angled
crossings, which would have too much the appearance of the hardness of stone. The graver
should be guided by the action of the figures ; and the shape of the objects should also be con-
sidered ; in what manner they advance towards, or recede from the eye of the observer. The
risings or cavities of the muscles should also be noticed, making the strokes wider and fainter in
the lights, and closer and firmer in the shades. Thus the figures will appear whole and finished;
and the hand should also be lightened in such a manner that the outlines may be formed and
terminated without being cut too hard. Though the strokes generally break off where the muscle
begins, yet they ought always to have a certain connection with each other; so that the first
stroke may often serve, by its return, to make the second, which will shew the freedom of the
graver.
In the flesh, particularly the lighter parts and middle tints, the effect may be produced by long
pecks of the graver, rather than faint lines; but some prefer round dots for this purpose : others
use dots a little lengthened by the graver : the best method however is to combine all those three
ways together with judgement, for which no better direction can be given than carefully to
examine the work in some excellent engraving. To produce the effect in the hair and beard,
the principal grounds, and chief shades should be sketched first, as in a careless manner, with
a few firm strokes, which are afterwards finished at leisure with finer and thinner strokes at the
extremities.
In representing architecture, the work ought not to be rendered very black, except the subject
be old ruinous buildings; because edifices being constructed generally of white marble or ston^|
they reflect a light on all sides, and therefore do not produce very dark shades. Sculpture beinif
generally formed of white stone, is governed by the same rule: and it must be observed in en-
graving from the work of the statuary, that white points must not be put in the pupils of the eyes
of figures, as in engravings after paintings; neither must the hair or beard have that freedom
as in nature, where the locks appear flowing ; because in sculpture no such appearance can
take place.
The representation of different substances requires not only different forms of lines and dots,
but different modes of intersecting the lines, to produce a natural appearance. A great variety-
obtains both in die shades and lights of the different sorts of cloathing: linen requires finer and
closer
ENGRAVING.
perspective and architecture, possesses the previous knowledge necessary to attempt this art;
though it must be confessed there have been some very expert in the management of their
instruments, who have also been greatly defective in those arts. It must be allowed, that a
person unacquainted with perspective will be unable to express the proper gradations of strong
and faint colours; and to throw back the figures and objects of his picture to their proper
distance. And without a knowledge of architecture he will never understand the due propor-
tions of the several orders, which the painter often entrusts to the discretion of the engraver.
Jt is proper also, for the engraver who would excel, in order to preserve equality and union in
his work, that he sketch out the principal objects of his piece, before he undertake to finish them.
With regard to the intersections of the lines of the graver, though they must not be crossed in
too lozenge a direction, particularly in the representation of flesh, and in picturesque designs,
yet we must except the case of clouds, tempests, waves of the sea, the skins of rough hairy-
animals, the leaves of trees, &c. where this method of crossing may be admitted. But in
avoiding the lozenge intersections we must be careful of falling into the square or right-angled
crossings, which would have too much the appearance of the hardness of stone. The graver
should be guided by the action of the figures ; and the shape of the objects should also be con-
sidered ; in what manner they advance towards, or recede from the eye of the observer. The
risings or cavities of the muscles should also be noticed, making the strokes wider and fainter in
the lights, and closer and firmer in the shades. Thus the figures will appear whole and finished;
and the hand should also be lightened in such a manner that the outlines may be formed and
terminated without being cut too hard. Though the strokes generally break off where the muscle
begins, yet they ought always to have a certain connection with each other; so that the first
stroke may often serve, by its return, to make the second, which will shew the freedom of the
graver.
In the flesh, particularly the lighter parts and middle tints, the effect may be produced by long
pecks of the graver, rather than faint lines; but some prefer round dots for this purpose : others
use dots a little lengthened by the graver : the best method however is to combine all those three
ways together with judgement, for which no better direction can be given than carefully to
examine the work in some excellent engraving. To produce the effect in the hair and beard,
the principal grounds, and chief shades should be sketched first, as in a careless manner, with
a few firm strokes, which are afterwards finished at leisure with finer and thinner strokes at the
extremities.
In representing architecture, the work ought not to be rendered very black, except the subject
be old ruinous buildings; because edifices being constructed generally of white marble or ston^|
they reflect a light on all sides, and therefore do not produce very dark shades. Sculpture beinif
generally formed of white stone, is governed by the same rule: and it must be observed in en-
graving from the work of the statuary, that white points must not be put in the pupils of the eyes
of figures, as in engravings after paintings; neither must the hair or beard have that freedom
as in nature, where the locks appear flowing ; because in sculpture no such appearance can
take place.
The representation of different substances requires not only different forms of lines and dots,
but different modes of intersecting the lines, to produce a natural appearance. A great variety-
obtains both in die shades and lights of the different sorts of cloathing: linen requires finer and
closer