n refining and improving the design.

This is a most legitimate and practical use of "process" for
illustrating books, architectural and others, which in artistic hands
might well be further developed.

Of the illustrators who use this process in a more free-and-easy way we
will now take an example, cut out of the pages of _Sketch_ (_see_
overleaf, p. 155).

Here truths of light and shade are disregarded, the figure stands out in
unnatural darkness against white paper, and flat mechanical shadows are
cast upon nothing. Only sheer ability on the part of a few modern
illustrators has saved these coarse ungainly sketches from universal
condemnation. But the splashes, and spots, and stains, which are taking
the place of more serious work in illustration, have become a vogue in
1894. The sketch is made in two or three hours, instead of a week; the
process is also much cheaper to the publisher than wood engraving, and
the public seems satisfied with a sketch where formerly a finished
illustration was required, if the subject be treated dramatically and in
a lively manner. If the sketch comes out an unsightly smear on the page,
it at least answers the purpose of topical illustration, and apparently
suits the times. It is little short of a revolution in illustration, of
which we do not yet see the end.[16]

The bookstalls are laden with the daring achievements of Phil May, Raven
Hill, Dudley Hardy, and others, but it is not the object of this book to
exhibit the works of genius, either for emulation or imitation. It is
rather to suggest to the average student what he may legitimately
attempt, and to show him the possibilities of the process block in
different hands. It may be said, without disparagement of the numerous
clever and experienced illustrators of the day, that they are only
adapting themselves to the circumstances of the time. There is a
theory--the truth of which I do not question--that the reproductions of
rapid sketches from the living model by the half-tone process have more
vitality and freedom, more feeling and artistic qualities than can be
obtained by any other means. But the young illustrator should hesitate
before adapting these methods, and should _never have anything
reproduced for publication which was "drawn to time" in art classes_.

One thing cannot be repeated too often in this connection: that the
hastily produced blotches called "illustrations," which disfigure the
pages of so many books and m