he illustrator's best protection
against this tendency, his whole armour and coat of mail, is to be _an
artist first and an illustrator afterwards_.

This is the sum of the matter. Perhaps some of the examples in this book
may help us, and lead to a more thorough testing of results by capable
men.

"SKETCH."

It will be interesting here to consider the material of which one number
of an illustrated paper (_Sketch_) is made up, and how far the artist
and wood engraver have part in it. From an economic point of view it
will be instructive. I take this "newspaper" as an example, because it
is a typical and quite "up-to-date" publication, vieing, in circulation
and importance, with the _Illustrated London News_, both published by
the same proprietors. In one number there are upwards of 30 pages, 10
being advertisements. There are in all 151 illustrations, of which 63
appear in the text part, and 88 in the advertisement pages. Out of the
text illustrations, 24 only are from original drawings or sketches. Next
are 26 _photographs from life_ (several being full pages), and 13
reproductions from engravings, etc., reproduced by mechanical
processes--in all 63. Some of the pages reproduced from photographs are
undeniably good, and interesting to the public, as is evidenced by the
popularity of this paper alone. In the advertisement portion are 88
illustrations (including many small ones), 85 of which have been
engraved on wood; a number of them are electrotypes from old blocks, but
there are many new ones every week. The reason for using wood engraving
largely for advertisements is, that wood blocks print more easily than
"process," when mixed with the type, and print better (being cut deeper
on the block) where inferior paper and ink are employed. But this class
of wood engraving may be summed up in the words of one of the craft to
me lately:--"It is not worth _L_2 a week to anybody."

[Illustration: No. XXX.

MISS KATE RORKE. (FROM "SKETCH.")

(_Photographed from life by H. S. Mendelssohn_. _Reproduced by
half-tone process_)]

Thus it will be seen that in the "text" part of this newspaper
two-thirds of the illustrations are produced without the aid of artist
or wood engraver!

To turn to one of the latest instances where the photographer is the
illustrator. A photographer, Mr. Burrows, of Camborne, goes down a lead
mine in Cornwall with his apparatus, and takes a series of views of the
workings, which could