r on relief blocks) has arrived at such
proficiency and has become such an important industry that it should be
mentioned here. By its means, a beautiful child-face, by Millais, is
scattered over the world by hundreds of thousands; and the reputation of
a young artist, like Kate Greenaway, made and established. The latter
owes much of her prestige and success to the colour-printer. Admitting
the grace, taste, and invention of Kate Greenaway as an illustrator,
there is little doubt that, without the wood engraver and the example
and sympathetic aid of such artists as H. S. Marks, R.A., Walter Crane,
and the late Randolph Caldecott, she would never have received the
praise bestowed upon her by M. Ernest Chesneau, or Mr. Ruskin. These
things show how intimately the arts of reproduction affect reputations,
and how important it is that more sympathy and communication should
exist between all producers. In the mass of illustrated publications
issuing from the press the expert can discern clearly where this
sympathy and knowledge exist, and where ability, on the part of the
artist, has been allied to practical knowledge of the requirements of
illustration.

The business of many will be to contribute, in some form, to the making
of pictures and designs to be multiplied in the press; and, in order to
learn the technique and obtain employment, some of the most promising
pupils have to fall into the ways of the producers of cheap
illustrations, Christmas cards, and the like. On the other hand, a
knowledge of the mechanical processes for reproducing drawings (as it is
being pressed forward in technical schools) is leading to disastrous
consequences, as may be seen on every railway bookstall in the kingdom.

In the "book of the future" we hope to see less of the "lath and
plaster" style of illustration, produced from careless wash drawings by
the cheap processes; fewer of the blots upon the page, which the modern
reader seems to take as a matter of course. In books, as in periodicals,
the illustrator by process will have to divest himself, as far as
possible, of that tendency to scratchiness and exaggeration that
injures so many process illustrations. In short, he must be more
careful, and give more thought to the meaning of his lines and washes,
and to the adequate expression of textures.

There is a great deal yet to learn, for neither artists nor writers have
mastered the subject. Few of our best illustrators have the time or t