DOI issue:
Nr. 159 (May 1910)
DOI article:Bone, Herbert A.: Pictorial stencilling: some experiments and results$nElektronische Ressource
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19866#0268
Pictorial Stencilling
c d
FIG. 2, c AND d, COMBINED STENCILLING : THE PROCESS CONTINUED AND FINISHED. IN a, b AND c THE THREE
LANDSCAPE PLATES ARE SEPARATELY SHOWN, BUT IN PRACTICE THE LANDSCAPE STENCILLING IS COMPLETED
AT THE FIRST STAGE (FIG. 2 a, PAGE 193)
distinctive reference, red, brown and grey (Fig. 3).
The first is used for flesh-shadows and all shades
of red except flesh-tints, which are grouped with
browns and yellows, upon the second, the brown
stencil. The grey combines the blue gamuts,
purple and green with cool neutrals. Of the land-
scape plates, two were assigned to foliage (light and
shade), the third to trunks, branches and shadows
of quarry and chalk banks (Fig. 2, a, c). The
emphasized anatomy of the great yews occupied
two plates and part of the third, in which the
foliage is cut (gradated only with the brush) ; and
in the bank below the road the herbage required
two, leaving one for roots and earth.
The cutting starts with definition of dominant
features by their shadows. After these are traced
off upon the first sheet it is laid upon glass, over
a dark surface, to show the effect in progress; and
with the translation of shading into definite shadow
forms (Fig. 4), divided by ties when necessary, the
knife becomes sentient, initiating style. These
areas of tracery should impart the true character
of decorative stencil, though veiled by more ap-
parent purpose, to the whole design ; for the richer
in decorative quality the shadow work, the more it
justifies pictorial use. Tint-spaces are kept open
and simple, bridged only where structure demands
194
by such incidents as a belt or a border, or a re-
flection in the hollow of a shadow. Tint-stencil
without any ties has a beauty of its own, differing
from, yet supplementing that of woven line and
lace-like enrichment, and this capacity for delicate
contrast and harmony is enhanced by partly or
wholly filling the spaces with shutters, fitted by
flexible attachments to open or close at pleasure.
After cutting flesh-shadows in the first plate
their covering tints are thus located on the second ;
the first being laid over it in register, those edges
of shadows which coincide with the contour are
slightly scored or indented with the knife upon
the lower plate through the openings in the upper;
colour is then brushed through, which sinking into
the scored lines makes them clearly visible and
also produces a proof of the first stencil so far as
cut, upon the second.
From the tracing, now substituted for the stencil,
the entire contour of flesh-tint is transferred
together with any shadows that are to be cut in
this plate (Figs. 4, 5). These are frequently con-
tiguous to the open tint-spaces, which may be
screened by shutters from their stronger tone
(Fig. 6). The second sheet, when ready for the
knife, is placed on the glass and the tint-spaces cut
by the guidance, first of the indented, then of the
c d
FIG. 2, c AND d, COMBINED STENCILLING : THE PROCESS CONTINUED AND FINISHED. IN a, b AND c THE THREE
LANDSCAPE PLATES ARE SEPARATELY SHOWN, BUT IN PRACTICE THE LANDSCAPE STENCILLING IS COMPLETED
AT THE FIRST STAGE (FIG. 2 a, PAGE 193)
distinctive reference, red, brown and grey (Fig. 3).
The first is used for flesh-shadows and all shades
of red except flesh-tints, which are grouped with
browns and yellows, upon the second, the brown
stencil. The grey combines the blue gamuts,
purple and green with cool neutrals. Of the land-
scape plates, two were assigned to foliage (light and
shade), the third to trunks, branches and shadows
of quarry and chalk banks (Fig. 2, a, c). The
emphasized anatomy of the great yews occupied
two plates and part of the third, in which the
foliage is cut (gradated only with the brush) ; and
in the bank below the road the herbage required
two, leaving one for roots and earth.
The cutting starts with definition of dominant
features by their shadows. After these are traced
off upon the first sheet it is laid upon glass, over
a dark surface, to show the effect in progress; and
with the translation of shading into definite shadow
forms (Fig. 4), divided by ties when necessary, the
knife becomes sentient, initiating style. These
areas of tracery should impart the true character
of decorative stencil, though veiled by more ap-
parent purpose, to the whole design ; for the richer
in decorative quality the shadow work, the more it
justifies pictorial use. Tint-spaces are kept open
and simple, bridged only where structure demands
194
by such incidents as a belt or a border, or a re-
flection in the hollow of a shadow. Tint-stencil
without any ties has a beauty of its own, differing
from, yet supplementing that of woven line and
lace-like enrichment, and this capacity for delicate
contrast and harmony is enhanced by partly or
wholly filling the spaces with shutters, fitted by
flexible attachments to open or close at pleasure.
After cutting flesh-shadows in the first plate
their covering tints are thus located on the second ;
the first being laid over it in register, those edges
of shadows which coincide with the contour are
slightly scored or indented with the knife upon
the lower plate through the openings in the upper;
colour is then brushed through, which sinking into
the scored lines makes them clearly visible and
also produces a proof of the first stencil so far as
cut, upon the second.
From the tracing, now substituted for the stencil,
the entire contour of flesh-tint is transferred
together with any shadows that are to be cut in
this plate (Figs. 4, 5). These are frequently con-
tiguous to the open tint-spaces, which may be
screened by shutters from their stronger tone
(Fig. 6). The second sheet, when ready for the
knife, is placed on the glass and the tint-spaces cut
by the guidance, first of the indented, then of the