Studio: international art (58.1913)

Wood-Engraving for Colour

though he follows in principle the technique of the cordant hues by an harmonic balance and corn-
Japanese woodcutters and printers, he seems never pensation, making a colour-creation of design."
to tire of experiment in the development of his own Again, if you ask Mr. Giles as to the number of
practice. He thinks his methods out for himself, printings from wood-blocks required in an attempt
Unlike his fellow-workers, he prefers the wood of to render the fulness of nature, he will tell you
the Kauri pine from New Zealand to the customary that these usually resolve themselves into about
cherry or pear, than which he finds it is more thirty or so, though the blocks from which these
available. It can be got of any width up to about thirty printings are done number only about eight,
four or five feet, and though it may not be good that is, from plank-boards cut on either side,
for hundreds of impressions, as the harder woods making the eight board-faces or blocks. Each of
are, it can be depended upon for fifty. It is softer these eight board-faces may contain as many or
for the inexperienced cutter to work, while for the as few colour-shapes as the nature of the design
expert it is as good as cherry; sycamore, by the way, demands. In printing, these colour-shapes are
being very hard to prepare, since the grain keeps conceived as colour-pattern, in the same spirit as
coming up. Another matter in which Mr. Giles in intarsia design, with this addition, that each
goes his own way is in the use of starch-paste colour-shape requires especial attention. If print-
instead of rice paste for mixing his powder-colours, ing-shapes could be arbitrarily selected in number,
Like most enthusiasts, Mr. Giles is always ready four would be about the limit for each board; but
to talk about his craft, if he finds an attentive and in practice this is never the case, for one desired
interested listener—and certainly, if one wants to colour-shape is usually fouled by another. The
learn something of the artistic colour-printer's intended rhythm of order being destroyed, the
methods, it is well to listen to Mr. Giles. As to colour-shapes are cut on the boards in the order
colour-schemes, for instance, he will tell you that they will best fit, so as to save endless blocks. In
" simplicity of treatment should always be one's laying water-colour washes on these shapes prior
aim, achieved, not with any archaic affectation, to printing, it will be found that before the last
but as a pleasure-giving

inspiration, to awaken i .

latent memories in others.

The day's mood should E|HP^W^«.-.-;gE HhShhI

suggest the colours. Do BJb

not the rosy tints of a JBmti !^'"iaKlSfiPs?jtcSl

summer's noon deepen aEhfHi gjflitoJETBBE^C^ ^^^^ESBK^sSfiS

into purple at eventide, 9pT ■»^gjgSBr^S||B

to darken into the ulti- WF^^B^^tW^SS^SSSpV^'' /J^P^F^^S'i

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 "swans" by alien w. seaby