The Lebanon express. (Lebanon, Linn County, Or.) 1887-1898, 1888-06-15
WOMEN As EnoHAvEas.


the Promises and Lfmftations OF the
Work Clsz<fy Defined
Engraving to-day il not mere copy
Ing. it is an art in itself. which should
not be attempted By any persons ex-
cept those who have good acquaint-
ance with drawing. and also some
artistic talent To be sure. If any en-
graver wants TO be 8 mere copyist nf
the lines. he can earn his living His
task will be the cutting Of designs for
patent reports kind of work poorly
remunerated The Chinese copyist
has his merits. and there are manv
Chinese out of China The well-pafd
wood-engravers of TO-DAY must have
origin nality. for it is originality in =
certain sense which accrues 10 his
benefit. although he may appar sntly
only carry out the inspiration of an
other. To engrave with skill req uires
art instruction in the widest sense
There must be accuracv in drawing.
an acquain; ance with effects. a knowl-
edge of tinis. shadows. and the power
TO supplement- the crudeness or the
vagueness of the original design with
effects of ones own
A woman can make a living by do
ing what Is called fashion or stock
| work, but when ~ngravers get
into that style of work it spoiIs them
for the higher grades of engraving
Unless a woman can devote two or
three years to nothing bat practice
/ work. she might as well neTsr have
begun her career. She may get into
an Office, bus unless she is willing to
accept much less pay than .
man she will not q I'd position II
she wants to do picture-work that i.
engrave from photographs or wash
drawings, she had better make up her
mind to study three years without ex-
Jecting remuneration. Il seems nat
ural, after a woman has gone through
three years course Of engraving. 70
ask for work Mt an Office She viii in
all probability be refused The reason
given is that men are preferred Only
two or three women in New York
have come up to the high standard of
men in wood engraving One of these
has been working hari for ten and an
other for fifteen veaIs Women are
apt to be weak in style. and the first
requisite in wood engraving il
firmness and clearness A nice little
line here aud fine line there amount
10 nothing. Each line mast rep
resent something. and show that it
was not put there to fill up space
The fault with the general run OF
women engravers is that they do not
select a special kind of work.
should advise women to take special
work. and sticking TO that. they might
hen make a modest reputation Let
hem try to become landscape. figure
IT portrait engravers. bat not a;temp {
Ill three of these at one time. The
greatest com pliment that can be paid
woman is 10 tell her that she works
like man. That means she has n
mans boidness and firmness of touch
fa woman wants to become an en-
graver. she must devot SIX hours a
lay 10 her engraving. and two more
to drawing. making eight hours .
lay. Very few men OF women are
) willing to do this At first theirs
should he drawing from the cast with
charcoal i'm a broad style As the
pupil advances she must keep up her
engraving. later on drawing from
life. Drawing and engraving must
go on together.
It is good plan to take the work
of some leading engraver and study
his method of treatment i know oi
some wo men who. following this plan.
have acquired fair reputation IL
: then. 8 woman has some talens and
perseverance,. there is no reason
why she should not attempt wood
engraving 1t is however. use
less when 8 woman reaches middle age
to study engraving. Her future is too
short for that Fourteen is not toe
young for . girl to begin. for it is
easier then TO learn how to handle the
tools. have known some who have
spent their first year in acquiring z
facility with the tools 1t seems al
easy matter. but no one knows how
diff cult il is until tried. In the courss
neHd overmuch on their teachers
They are afraid to cut a face or hand
without the help of their master.
they make up their minds to cut {
r face or hand without aid. they woult
: see how much easier the next on,
could be engraved. Advice how th.
work is to be done does the pupil NOR
: good than patterns set for her. Pupili
I who rely solely upon their instructor
a never have a style of their own /
might be supposed that 1 do not favo
women as wood engravers What
b do think is this: that it is great mis-
take for so many women TO adopt tn
!. profession when they have no ialen
d for drawing. Competition exisrs- be
d cause there are so many women VIII
a work like machines -Harper's BGzar
s