Notes on Prints and Composition

TECHNIQUES AND COMPOSITION:

Below are some examples of the various kinds of printmaking techniques used in illustrating the natural world, along with some tips on imitating the look of each.

The presentation of the species can be done in a number of ways, as demonstrated below. Take note of the way that the information in conveyed in these prints, from a free-floating form to a fully imagined narrative. You will develop your own manner of conveying the information about the species you will include in your portfolio.

woodcuts: imitate with Micron or Sharpie pens.

Note the thickness of the outlines and internal lines. The hatchmarks tend to be thicker and more parallel due to the nature of carving into wood. Engravings allow for much more delicate lines and variety of subtle hatching or stippling techniques.

notes on composition:

Note that the creature (seal?) in the Gessner woodcut (top left) is lying on solid ground with an indication of the shadow beneath the figure and a suggestion of grass. In the remaining three illustrations, the species is free-floating. The botanical illustration in the Fuch's book (below left) is composed to fill the page. Compare this approach to the simpler presentation of the fishes surrounded by blank space in the Belon book (right column).

woodcut Illustrations from Conrad Gessner's book

woodcut from Pierre Belon's book of fishes.

Hand-colored woodcut from the book of Leonhard Fuchs.

Note that the outlines, veins, roots, and tendrils of the plant are carved out of wood, but the shading is done through hand-painting with washes, and not with the hatchmarks seen in other woodcuts.

two color printed woodcut from Pierre Belon's book of fishes.

A separate color block is cut and printed first, then the black lines are printed on top. This process could be imitated by painting a solid color beneath the black line drawing.

etching

Imitate with Micron pens.

You might indicate the tone or aging of the paper with a very light wash of acrylic ink.

note the delicate lines and multiple directions of hatching.

left: Conus marmoreus by Rembrandt

Note on composition:

Rembrandt has darkened the area behind the shell to contrast the background with the light value of the top of the shell. The background is as dark as the shadow beneath the shell. I advise you not to make the background as dark as anything on your object.

Wolf by Wenceslaus Hollar

(1607-1677)

etching

*note on composition:

Hollar includes multiple specimens on one page. They are not in relative scale and we do not know what the connection between them is. He puts the mammals on solid ground, but there is no landscape implied in the background. The other life-forms fill the page. One insect touches the rose- perhaps implying that they are found together.

Notes on composition:

Scheuchzer introduces and decorative element to his compositions by using a frame around the image. The frame contains relevant information to the image it contains. In this case, the specimen represented is man (Adam) and the frames shows details reflecting the modern understanding of fetal development. He illustrates the specimen in a Biblical landscape, drawn from the imagination. This would be a narrative style of representing a specimen, because he includes a story with the object (man).

Johann Jakob Scheuchzer (1672-1733)

Scheuchzer was a Swiss naturalist and author of Kupfer-Bibel, aka Physica Sacra, which covered plants, animals, and natural phenomena mentioned in the Bible. The book was published around 1735 and was intended to demonstrate its authenticity through the lens of natural history.

He collected fossils and studied and mapped the strata of Switzerland. He was a "diluvialist," meaning that he believed that fossils and rock strata were deposited in Noah's Great Flood.

He was a of natural theologian who believed that God had created "two books," the Book of Scripture and the Book of Nature, and that to learn about God, one should study the natural world and the Bible.

His book combined the book of Genesis and excerpts from the Bible with 760 copperplate engravings that refer to the related discoveries in natural history. For example, the creation of Adam from dust (left) is contrasted by the development process of the humans that followed is included in the frame and based on the work of Frederick Ruysch.

Below ( right ) is an illustration from Genesis 1:1 that provides a diagram of the universe including Galileo's four moons of Jupiter and the recently discovered moons of Saturn. (link to article here)

Physician and anatomist Claude Perrault introduced the study of animal anatomy to the field of natural history in 1676, when he organized dissections of animals that died in the King's menagerie. He and fellow members of the Royal Academy of Science in Paris studied animal anatomy through these dissections and he published their observations in a book called Memoirs for a Natural History of Animals.

The plates were drawn and engraved by Sebastien Le Clerc

Notes on composition:

In these illustrations, Perrault combines the species (sometimes more than one species) in a landscape with a page of their anatomical details presented in trompe l-oeil (fool the eye), as if the page were pinned to the landscape drawing.

Hand-colored engravings

hand-colored engraving:

imitate with ink washes and Micron pens. Play close attention to the delicate lines and hatching techniques.

Basilius Besler, (1561-1629) hand-colored engraving. Besler was the first to include non-medicinal plants in a botanical book and wanted to celebrate plants for their beauty.

Notes on composition:

While the shapes of the plant may be accurate, the illustration does not show us the face of the flower, which would be useful in identifying the plant, and instead emphasizes the decorative or aesthetic qualities of the leaves.

left: Jan Goedart (unknown birthdate- 1668)

He was the first to depict the developmental stages of butterflies and insects on a single page

notes on composition:

Goedart shows the various stages of the butterfly's life cycle for identification purposes.

rt: magnolia

by George Ehret (1708-1770)

Illustrator for Carl Linnaeus

notes on composition:

Ehret includes all of the parts of the plant that are useful in species identification

Central European aristocrats of the 18th century often built greenhouses to grow plants from the Mediterranean region and the tropics. Volckamer was a wealthy silk merchant with a large greenhouse full of citrus trees and flowering plants.

He illustrated his collection of botanical specimens in a two-volume set of books called the Nurnbergische Hesperides, published between 1708-14 and inspired by an earlier book by Giovanni Battista Ferrara, called Hesperides.

Notes on composition:

Volckamer features a cross section of the pineapple, not the entire fruit. It may be that the emphasis on the taste or enjoyment of the fruit, not on the identification of the species. The landscape in the background is the scene of a port, where exotic fruits were made available by landing ships. It does not seem to be important if the landscape is an actual place or a general description of port where exotic goods would be found in the 16th century and beyond.

Left: Pineapple, by Johann Christoph Volckamer (1644-1720)

hand-colored engravings by Mark Catesby, (1682-1749) Buffalo and Bald Eagle

Notes on composition:

In the Buffalo image, Catesby shows an animal species with a plant species that it would depend on for food or shelter. However, he changes the scale so that we can see the leaves and flowers in detail and to fill the page of the composition. In the Eagle illustration, he tries present the bird species in a more life-like pose and includes an element of story by including the dropped fish and osprey in the background. He also includes some features of the American landscape in the background though perspective is not quite convincing and the land disappears behind the cliffs on the distant shore. These details make the Eagle stand up independently as a narrative painting, not just a representation of a bird species.

Hand-colored lithographs

Imitate with acrylic ink washes and Micron pens OR graphite drawing OR colored pencils. Note the value (amount of light or dark) of the lines, as well as the softness of the transitions from dark to light. Again, it may be helpful to add a light wash to tone the paper.

To imitate, choose graphite or Micron pens, depending on the value of the line. In the fish above, the transition in value (grey area) around the edges of the fish could be imitated with the stippling technique that we used in the insect drawing exercise (with very small Micron pens) or with graphite pencils applied with a light touch.

Hand colored lithos from the Journal des Museum Godeffroy

left: Mississippi Kite by John James Audobon, 1839

hand-colored lithograph- note that the lines of the branch could could be imitated with a Micron pen. The birds do not have a black line around the edges and could be mimicked with graphite or colored pencil. The coloring could be imitated with ink washes combined with graphite OR colored pencil

Notes on composition:

Audobon includes some details, like the Spanish moss and insects, that provide a more natural rendering of the branch.

Chromo-lithographs

Imitate with a value study in black or sepia (in pencil or inks; stippled or in washes) and add the colors a layers of washes. Notice that the color is printed as a solid area and variation of the values comes from the black value study.

The color is printed as a solid area and variation of the values comes from the black value study.

For example, we do not see a variation of yellows on the mushroom in the top right corner- the form is described with black, gray, and white and the yellow is printed as a solid area of color beneath.

In this image, there are three layers of printing involved: Yellow, red, and black. The soft value transitions come from printing red ink on top of the yellow, and then printing the final black outlines and shading on top. Note the combination of stippling to establish value contrast and outlines that define the edges.

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