North Star

Image: Engraving, Yellowstone Lake, signed J G Smithwick

I love to draw in Pen & Ink. I think that is because I have always been mesmerized by the beauty of old engravings that were widely used to illustrate books and magazines before photography became commonplace. My reflexive (and futile) goal is to make my drawings look like engravings, although I will never get there. This image is from an antique book I recently purchased (America Illustrated, 1883). It is full of beautiful images, but this one is special, with the brightly lit rocks against the expansive dark landscape. It is most likely a wood engraving which means the image is cut into the wood as a negative, by removing the parts that will print white. A dark line is printed by removing the wood on both sides of it. It is hugely labor intensive. Nevertheless, one of my favorite engravers, the French artist Gustave Doré produced an incredible 10,000 illustrations in his short life span of 51 years. True, he also employed several talented artists to produce engravings from his original drawings, but that’s still beyond impressive. He was commissioned to illustrate seminal books like Dom Quixote, Paradise Lost, The Divine Comedy and even The Bible.

Back to the image above, I could say it represents a beacon, or a North Star for my drawing efforts. I will never come near it, but I enjoy the ride.