DRAWINGS AND REPRODUCTIONS 1. Value of illustrations.—According to an old Japanese proverb, "a picture is worth a thousand words." In the early days of advertising illustration, an untrained person could produce a picture which, tho of slight artistic value, had attention and interest value because of its novelty. Today, however, art as well as copy demands greater technical skill and more care in expressing an idea in order that it may carry a definite message.
The rapid multiplication of illustrations and copy would be impossible without the aid of modern dupli cating methods. Obviously, the advertiser who un derstands how his illustrations can be reproduced to the utmost advantage is best able to judge the power of his copy.
Because of the great importance of art in modern advertising, advertisers often go to great expense in obtaining suitable work. Art filing systems as well as art reference libraries are being introduced. The American Lithograph Company has been twenty-five years in collecting its reference data. One adver tising agency has files of about 7,000 clippings under such headings as babies, automobiles, city scenes, and more .than one hundred other subjects. It has samples of the work of more than six hundred artists, whose names are filed and cross-filed under various headings to show the kind of work they do, together with price quotations and time requirements.
2. Tendencies in advertising is a strong tendency among modern advertisers to employ artists of note to do the illustrating. This began when Sir John Millais' picture "Bubbles" was sold to the pro prietors of Pears' Soap for £2,200. Artists of , reputation had always refused to do advertising work before this initial consideration of commercial art in a more favorable light.
Many advertisers also demand that the artist "sign" the picture while others feel that this distracts from its advertising value.
3. Styles of the matter of illustration, favorable effect is the advertiser's ultimate aim. The
means of pictorial representation are the line, the dot, the tone, the mass, the drawings, the painting and the photograph.
4. The satisfactory effect is most simply and easily secured by the use of the line. The line drawn illustration is easily reproduced, and generally retains its individuality and charm in print.
John W. Harland, in "The Printing Art" says : surfaces, and of producing on paper the effect of atmosphere, often called chiaroscuro, or aerial perspective.
Third, line affords the best possible means of representing "texture," i.e., the substance of the surface itself.
5. Stipple, tones and masses.—When dots instead of lines are used, the process as well as the effect is called "stipple." Stipple effects are much used in clothing and furniture advertisements. The tinto graph or "Ben Day" process has given stipple a prominent part in the production of tints in advertis ing.
The use of tones of varying intensity is a third means employed by the artist. The brush is ob viously a more difficult tool to use than the pen.
The use of mass is seen in the silhouette and in the half-silhouette.
6. Pen the hands of a skilled com mercial artist, the pen is a most effective instrument. With it, the entire advertisement may be produced.
Pen drawings are usually well adapted for all ad vertising purposes. The mechanical processes favor the pen-drawn line. Lines can be reproduced ex actly, and the contrasts and softness of the drawing are truthfully reproduced in the zinc etching.
Pen drawings are not successful in reproducing in tricate patterns or pictures with a great amount of detail. Where detail rather than mass is desired in the illustration photographic illustration is usually preferable. The alternating black and color pages of the mail-order catalog illustrate this point. Car pet sundries, stair rods and the like are pen-drawn, whereas rugs are photographed from the originals and reproduced in color.