Stylus

“ It may here be noted that there was a tendency to curves so long as the characters were scratched on bamboo tablets with a metal stylus. With the invention of paper in the first century A.D., and the substitution of a hair-pencil for the stylus, verticals and horizontals came more into vogue.
The second step was the combination of two pictures to make a third; for instance, a mouth with something coming out of it is "the tongue," 舌; a mouth with something else coming out of it is "speech," "words," 言 ”

“ In this receiving apparatus the current causes another stylus to pass over a sheet of sensitised chemical paper such as we have here. The receiving stylus passes over the paper here synchronously with the transmitting stylus in Chicago. The impression which each stroke of the receiving stylus makes on the paper is black or light, according to the length of the very quickly changing vibrations of the electric current. White spots on the photographic print come out as black spots here on the sensitised paper over which this stylus is passing, and vice versa. ”

“ To employ any other kind of ink except one of natural origin like the juice of berries which soon disappeared, was forbidden by prevailing religious customs. Such conditions naturally merged into others, in the shape of "ink" substitutes for writing; the stylus, with its accompanying sheets or tablets of ivory, wood, metal and wax came into popular vogue and so continued for many centuries, even after the employment of ink for writing purposes had been resumed. ”

“ To make the record, some soft or plastic material, like wax, or tinfoil, is caused to move along so that the point of the stylus makes impressions in it, and the vibrations of the diaphragm cause the point to traverse a groove of greater or smaller indentations. ”

“ Thus the sign for “king” was25 a rude drawing of a man crowned; this was scratched on the surface of the soft clay with a pointed tool. One can quite understand how these characters could be constructed with a series of impressions in much less time than it would take to draw them in outline. Then again it must have been much easier to draw on the soft clay in this way. A square-pointed stylus was used for this purpose, and, with the wedge-shaped impressions thus produced, the characters could be formed quite easily. ”

“ The silk cord attached to the pencil regulates the current which controls another capillary glass tube-pen at the other end of the line. The receiving pen moves simultaneously with my stylus. It is the same principle as the pantagraph, cut in half as it were, one half here, the other half at the other end of the line, two telephone wires in this case connecting the halves. ”

“ The mode of operation [pg 230] is very simple. The cylinder is revolved; and the point of the stylus, when there is no sound agitation in the funnel or mouth-piece, makes a smooth, continuous depression in the tin-foil over the spiral groove. But when any sound is thrown into the mouth-piece the iron disk or diaphragm is agitated; this agitation is carried through the stylus and written in irregular marks, dots, and peculiar figures in the tin-foil over the groove. ”

“ From the description it will be seen that if the surface of the foil on the transmitting cylinder were entirely insulated the receiving stylus would merely draw a number of parallel lines on the paper corresponding to the turns of the screw, and separated a distance corresponding to the pitch of the screw and the angle through which it is turned at each operation. Four different rates of advance may be given to the stylus, corresponding to as many different angles of advance that may, by appropriate mechanism, be given to the screw. ”

“ In the patent in suit such independent means are dispensed with. The stylus is made to engage with the grooves in the record tablet, is vibrated laterally by its undulations, and guided or propelled at the same time with its diaphragm attachment across the face of the tablet, the successive portions of the groove reproducing the sound waves, which are transmitted to the air. ”

“ But there are material difficulties connected with such a plan, the chief being the ready translation of its product into the ordinary notation. Some inventors proposed to substitute for the friable pencil a metal stylus and black carbonized paper. ”

“ To prevent loss of time it is necessary to have a full-sized cartoon in readiness so that the drawing can be at once transferred to the coat of wet plaster as soon as it has been laid. Vasari speaks of these cartoons in § 77, in the second chapter on Painting, ante, p. 213. The use of the iron stylus for impressing the lines of the drawing on the wet plaster is to be traced in some of the later Italian frescoes. ”

“ The artist must “know how to grind colours, to use glue, to fasten the linen on the panel, to prime with gesso, to scrape and smooth the gesso, to make reliefs in gesso, to put on bole, to gild, to burnish, to mix temperas, to lay on grounding colours, to transfer by pouncing through pricked lines, to sharpen lines with the stylus, to indent with little patterns, to carve, to colour, to ornament the panel, and finally to varnish it.” ”

“ It is necessary to place the print upon the drum in such a manner that the stylus draws away from the edge of the lap and not towards it, and the metal prints should be of such a size that when placed round the drum of the {19}machine a lap of about 3/16ths of an inch is allowed. ”

“ When you press the point on paper to write, the needle falls back just enough to let out what ink is needed. The flow stops the instant the pen ceases to touch the paper. The special advantage of the stylographic is that the mere weight of the pen is sufficient pressure, and therefore many hours of writing do not tire the muscles of the hand. The advantage of the fountain pen is that it has the familiar action of the gold pen, and that it will adapt itself to any style of handwriting. ”

“ Blue ink, elastic pen-holders, and broad-nibbed pens, were altogether incapable of ameliorating the affection or mending the scrawling, irregular handwriting that resulted from it; and so essential is it that the hand and mind should work together in a kind of rhythm, in order to form a good style, or to preserve it when formed, that any affection of the nerves of the arm that breaks up this rhythm is nearly as fatal to the poet, essayist, and novelist, as to the artist or the pianist ”

“ But it is a matter of practice mainly, and the pen you usually write with is apt to be the best medium for practice at first. In fact, we are particularly anxious to have our reader not worry about pen technic. Let him realize that he might wish to put his drawing upon the chalk plate, in which case he would make a tracing of a photograph, and, placing it upon the chalk, press upon it with a hard-pointed pencil, and thus transfer his outline into an indentation on the chalk. ”

“ The artist conveys it to the paper, not by means of a pen or pencil as in Europe, but by means of a brush, either in outlines of the utmost delicacy and precision, to be filled in with colour where needed, or else in broad masses which receive no further contour, but on the contrary are the embodiment of the greatest imaginable freedom of artistic touch. ”

“ But [Pg 243] you ought not to be impatient with your pen and ink; for all great painters, however delicate their perception of colour, are fond of the peculiar effect of light which may be got in a pen-and-ink sketch, and in a woodcut, by the gleaming of the white paper between the black lines; and if you cannot gradate well with pure black lines, you will never gradate well with pale ones. By looking at any common woodcuts, in the cheap publications of the day, you may see how gradation is given to the sky by leaving the lines farther and farther apart ”

“ Probably one of the first things that will strike us, on inspecting many styles of drawing, is the fact that while some draughtsmen expend enormous labour in filling the whole design with multitudinous strokes of the pen, others obtain effect by a very few lines and great expanses of white paper. A great number of strokes rapidly put in, in the manner of shading with pencil, and a few bold lines slowly and deliberately drawn, constitute the two chief differences of style. ”

“ Even in drawings made with full flowing brush or pen, there will be modulations in the strength of the ink, or occasioned by the surface of the wood or paper, in every stroke, by which the, sensitive artist in the heat of work cannot help being influenced, and which will lead him to give a bloom, a delicacy, to his drawing, such as a print can never possess. ”

“ It is a good thing to accustom yourself to hew and shape your drawing out of a dirty piece of paper. When you have got it as right as you can, take a quill pen, not very fine at the point; rest your hand on a book about an inch and a half thick, so as to hold the pen long; and go over your pencil outline with ink, raising your pen point as seldom as possible, and never leaning more heavily on one part of the line than on another. In most outline drawings of the present day, parts of the curves are thickened to give an effect of shade ”

“ The other period was that in which written characters were made with liquids or paints of any kind or color. The liquids (inks) were used in connection with a pen manufactured from a reed (calamus) , while the paints were "painted" on the various substances with a brush. The writing executed with both of these instruments was on materials like the bark of trees, cloth, skins, papyrus, vellum, etc.
The ancient as well as modern pens, though of many sorts and kinds, are to be classified under two general heads, those which scratch and those which use an ink. ”

“ The cuttings usually show groups of children, reminding us of Buck’s work of contemporary date; or of animals, sometimes alone, and sometimes set in a landscape of such elaboration that one wonders how so great an effect can be packed into the two square inches of paper, which is often the size of the complete silhouette picture. It would be unusual to find so much and such accurate detail in a pen-and-ink drawing; the fact that the picture is cut out with a pair of scissors or a penknife makes it the more extraordinary. ”

“ The cumbrousness of our method of writing no doubt strikes us all at times. In our mechanical age it is wonderful that no further advance has yet been made towards simplicity. What an apparatus is this of pen, ink and paper! The invention of steel pens goes but a little way to wards improvement. ”

“ Glass, ivory, and plaster, oil-painting, smoke-staining, and Indian ink, all were used one by one or together. There is no evolution and gradual development to trace in the art and craft of the silhouettist; the pictures come before us like the shadows that they are, each process appearing and disappearing. Sometimes the same man worked in half a dozen different processes, using now one and now another, according to the taste or purse of the sitter, or guided by his own judgment as to the suitability of his subject for this or that medium of expression. ”

“ Study the work of the best illustrators, noting the tone-scheme and the placing upon the page.
ETCHING Etching, pen drawing and pencil sketching are line-arts. The needle, pen and lead pencil are tools for drawing lines, and there is much reason in Whistler's contention that tone and shading should not be attempted with them. The tool always gives character to work, and the best results are obtained when the possibilities of tools and materials are fully appreciated. If a sharp point is used in drawing, it will produce pure line, whose quality may reach any degree of excellence. ”

“ Observe also that there are very few things which are totally without luster; you will frequently find a light which puzzles you, on some apparently dull surface, to be the dim image of another object.
63. And now, as soon as you can conscientiously assure me that with the point of the pen or pencil you can lay on any form and shade you like, I give you leave to use the brush with one color,—sepia, or blue black, or mixed cobalt and blue black, or neutral tint; and this will much facilitate your study, and refresh you. But, preliminary, you must do one or two more exercises in tinting. ”

“ Even the most ignorant in art work could trace a shadow when thrown upon white paper on a wall or specially made screen, and if the full life-size were considered too large, the Singe, pantograph, or other contrivance could reduce its size; then only scissors were required, and the silhouette-by-machinery maker felt himself to be as gifted as the black portrait painter, or the freehand scissor-cutter, whose work we describe in another chapter. ”

“ By minimum of thickness it must not be understood that the very thin hair lines, quite impossible of reproduction with a pen, are meant—as head lines should present an imitation or reproduction of actual pen writing. The very delicate engraver's work proves discouraging to the pupil because impossible of reproduction. ”

“ A half-tone can be put on to a line block during its manufacture. All that the draughtsman has to do, is to indicate by blue pencil lines those parts on which he requires the dots, which give the half-tone, to be placed, and to select the pattern of the stipple he desires to be used. The result may appear somewhat mechanical since the dots are regularly arranged, but a drawing sometimes may be considerably improved by this means if used with judgment. ”

“ In printing from the pen design, the following must be observed:—
Even if the stone has been inked-in uniformly and well with a good color, the impression can be spoiled in various ways: if the paper has not been dampened as required by the nature of the color and the power of the press; if the pressure is not in proportion to the consistency of the color; if the scraper is not even, and if the leather is not properly stretched. ”