students
are taught in most cases as if they were to become painters, when the
only possible career for the majority is that of illustration, or
design. The masters are, for the most part, well and worthily occupied
in giving a good groundwork of knowledge to every student, as to drawing
for the press. There is no question that the best preparation for this
work is the _best general art teaching that can be obtained_. The
student must have drawn from the antique and from life; he must have
learned composition and design; have studied from nature the relative
values of light and shade, aerial perspective and the like; in short,
have followed the routine study for a painter whose first aim should be
to be a master of monochrome.

In the more technical parts, which the young illustrator by process will
require to know, he needs personal help. He will have a multitude of
questions to ask "somebody" as to the reasons for what he is doing; _for
what style of process work he is by touch and temperament best fitted_,
and so on. All this has to be considered if we are to keep a good
standard of art teaching for illustration.

The fact that _a pen-and-ink drawing which looks well scarcely ever
reproduces well_, must always be remembered. Many drawings for process,
commended in art schools for good draughtsmanship or design, will not
reproduce as expected, for want of exact knowledge of the requirements
of process; whereas a drawing by a trained hand will often _look better
in the reproduction_. These remarks refer especially to ornament and
design, to architectural drawings and the like.

The topical illustrator and sketcher in weekly prints has, of course,
more licence, and it matters less what becomes of his lines in their
rapid transit through the press. Still the illustrator, of whatever rank
or style, has a right to complain if his drawing is reproduced on a
scale not intended by him, or by a process for which it is not fitted,
or if printed badly, and with bad materials.

But the sketchy style of illustration seems to be a little overdone at
present, and--being tolerable only when allied to great ability--remains
consequently in the hands of a few. There is plenty of talent in this
country which is wasted for want of control. It plays about us like
summer lightning when we want the precision and accuracy of the
telegraph.

The art of colour printing (whether it be by the intaglio processes, or
by chromo-lithography, o