International studio (49.1913)

Wood-Engraving for Colour

though he follows in principle the technique of the
Japanese woodcutters and printers, he seems never
to tire of experiment in the development of his own
practice. He thinks his methods out for himself.
Unlike his fellow-workers, he prefers the wood of
the Kauri pine from New Zealand to the customary
cherry or pear, than which he finds it is more
available. It can be got of any width up to about
four or five feet, and though it may not be good
for hundreds of impressions, as the harder woods
are, it can be depended upon for fifty. It is softer
for the inexperienced cutter to work, while for the
expert it it as good as cherry ; sycamore, by the way,
being very hard to prepare, since the grain keeps
coming up. Another matter in which Mr. Giles
goes his own way is in the use of starch-paste
instead of rice paste for mixing his powder-colours.
Like most enthusiasts, Mr. Giles is always ready
to talk about his craft, if he finds an attentive and
interested listener—and certainly, if one wants to
learn something of the artistic colour-printer’s
methods, it is well to listen to Mr. Giles. As to
colour-schemes, for instance, he will tell you that
“simplicity of treatment should always be one’s
aim, achieved, not with any archaic affectation,
but as a pleasure-giving
inspiration, to awaken
latent memories in others.
The day’s mood should
suggest the colours. Do
not the rosy tints of a
summer’s noon deepen
into purple at eventide,
to darken into the ulti¬
mate violet of night?
Does not the cobalt of
day gradate and quiver
into ultramarine, to deepen
again into the watery depth
of the sapphire night ?
One selects one’s colours,
therefore, according to
these personal sensations
of vision, tempering the
choice with the limita¬
tions of the pigment. Per¬
haps I am thinking too
strongly of the atmo¬
spheric unity of nature,
dominated always by one
main source of light.
There is another way of
seeing colour, namely,
tuning into harmony dis

cordant hues by an harmonic balance and com-
pensation, making a colour-creation of design.”
Again, if you ask Mr. Giles as to the number of
printings from wood-blocks required in an attempt
to render the fulness of nature, he will tell you
that these usually resolve themselves into about
thirty or so, though the blocks from which these
thirty printings are done number only about eight,
that is, from plank-boards cut on either side,
making the eight board-faces or blocks. Each of
these eight board-faces may contain as many or
as few colour-shapes as the nature of the design
demands. In printing, these colour-shapes are
conceived as colour-pattern, in the same spirit as
in intarsia design, with this addition, that each
colour-shape requires especial attention. If print-
ing-shapes could be arbitrarily selected in number,
four would be about the limit for each board; but
in practice this is never the case, for one desired
colour-shape is usually fouled by another. The
intended rhythm of order being destroyed, the
colour-shapes are cut on the boards in the order
they will best fit, so as to save endless blocks. In
laying water-colour washes on these shapes prior
to printing, it will be found that before the last

BY ALLEN W. SEABY


29I