Until the 1880s, pictures in magazines had to be reproduced by means of carved wooden blocks.
The best kind of wood was an end-grain boxwood from Syria. The boxwood trees were fairly small, so even the best chunks of wood weren’t much larger than a few inches in any dimension. To make a large reproduction of, say, 16 x 20 inches, you had to clamp together as many as 20 smaller blocks into a seamless whole.
The sample above was engraved by Henry Wolf from a painting by Homer Dodge Martin, a Hudson River School painter.
If you had a short deadline, you had to get a team of artists, each working on a separate block. A 4x5 inch block could take 12 hours or more to cut. A full page illustration could take a whole week to engrave.
Pieces of wood were prepared by sanding them smooth, and painting them white. Then the artist drew the image in India ink directly on the block, or transferred it from a separate drawing.
The engraver, sitting at a high table under bright light, took the artist’s drawing, and cut away all the areas between the lines.
A good engraver made all the difference in the final printed result. Their role was so important that engravers signed the printed piece on the opposite corner from the original artist. Relations between artists and engravers were often strained.
Engravers could use arrays of small dots and dashes to suggest textures like hair or foliage. The detail above created by Timothy Cole, who did a whole series of interpretations of French painters. This one is based on Jules Delaunay.
Note the soft tonal transitions around the eyes and the mouth, the sensitive changes in line direction, and the delicate white specks even in the darkest darks.
The samples in this post were published in Century magazine in 1909, well after the photographic halftone process had become established.
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Some of this information is based on the book “Great American Illustrators” by Susan Meyer.
The three shadows get progressively narrower as they go back, which helps suggest depth. Sunlit figures are arranged to stand out in front of the darker tones.
In November of 1980, I did this plein-air gouache painting of the Landmark Hotel in Las Vegas.
Rather than looting and desecrating the occupied mansion, the soldiers have paused to enjoy a song by Schubert.
We can see from his spurs that the singer is a cavalry officer. He has “Bildung”—education and breeding. He might be the younger brother of an estate whose eldest son inherited the title and the land, leaving him little choice but to become an officer in the military.
Another soldier lights the lamps as the evening approaches. Valuables such as the clock remain on the mantle remain undisturbed. In the background, a soldier chats with the concierge of the house as the daughter watches with wide eyes.
Rather than burning the furniture, as billeted soldiers often do, one of them was sent on a detail to gather sticks and pine cones to start a fire in the hearth. His pants and boot soles have been inexpertly patched, indicating that he has been away from his home town for a long time.
Last night plein-air painter Marc Hanson began a project of painting a month of nocturnes. His goal is to paint two paintings from observation every night in September. He'll post each day following and share his experiences.
Last night he went through a lot of bug spray, and gave a lot of thought to how much light to use on his work.
The sample above was engraved by Henry Wolf from a painting by Homer Dodge Martin, a Hudson River School painter. 
A good engraver made all the difference in the final printed result. Their role was so important that engravers signed the printed piece on the opposite corner from the original artist. Relations between artists and engravers were often strained. 
Engravers could use arrays of small dots and dashes to suggest textures like hair or foliage. The detail above created by Timothy Cole, who did a whole series of interpretations of French painters. This one is based on Jules Delaunay. 
This is the last week of the Dinotopia exhibition at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach Florida. This coming Sunday, September 5 is the last day.
U.S.A. customers can order a signed, official museum poster for $20.00 plus $3.50 for postage/handling. Payment should be by check payable to “The Dinotopia Store” PO Box 693, Rhinebeck, NY 12572. If you like, download an order form here.
Who took a bite out of my sketch of Billy yesterday?
It was Lucky, caught in the act!
