pe of a tree or branch is rarely expressed by
an enclosing line in any of the Japanese prints. The key-block is often
used to describe interior form when a silhouette of colour is all that
is needed for the contour. The expressive rendering of the rough surface
of tree trunks and of forms of rock, or the articulation of plants and
the suggestion of objects in atmospheric distance or mist, should be
studied in good prints by the Japanese masters. In printed work by
modern masters--as, for example, the work of the great French designers
of poster advertisements--much may be learnt in the use and development
of expressive line.

The Japanese system of training is well described in a book by Henry P.
Bowie on "The Laws of Japanese Painting," in which many useful
suggestions are given with reference to graphic brush drawing and the
suggestive use of line and brush marks.

As part of the training of a designer for modern decorative printing,
the experience and sense of economy that are to be gained from the study
of wood-block printing are very great. Perhaps no work goes so directly
to the essentials of the art of decorative designing for printed work
of all kinds. The wood blocks not only compel economy of design, but
also lead one to it.

Even as a means of general training in the elements of decorative
pictorial composition the wood blocks have great possibilities as an
adjunct to the courses of work followed by art students. The same
problems that arise in all decoration may be dealt with by their means
on a small scale, but under conditions that are essentially instructive.
Colour schemes may be studied and worked out with entire freedom by
printing and reprinting until a problem is thoroughly solved. A colour
design may be studied and worked out as fully by means of a small set of
blocks, and with more freedom for experiment and alteration than is
possible by the usual methods of study, such as painting and repainting
on paper or canvas or wall; for the form being once established by the
blocks, the colour may be reconstructed again and again without limit.

The craft has thus not only its special interest as a means of personal
expression, but also a more general use as a means of training and
preparation for the wider scope and almost unlimited resources of modern
printing. The best use of those resources will be made by artists who
have been trained under simpler conditions, and have found their way
gradually to