I always find it interesting to compare original art with the printed results. Many times publishers would use the cheapest paper and the lowest cost printer to get their 'zines on the stands. Even when printed in black and white, the original art shines through with more detail than on the printed page.
Here is an example of Ralph Reese's art for his story, "Man-Plant From the Tomb" (!) from WEB OF HORROR #2. He used an illustration board called Craftint Doubletone which enabled the illustrator to create shading using a special solvent that removed the surface of the board to show the tinting underneath. I suspect that the solvent that was used was full of toxic chemicals which is probably why it's no longer sold. This is one wiser case where its better to use a computer for the same effect!
Below are two illustrations that were used on the letters page drawn by Bernie Wrightson and Jeff Jones. The art is done with ink over graphite on Bristol board.
Thanks for posting these! I always love seeing original artwork and examining the processes by which it was done!
ReplyDeleteI've also seen an original Gray Morrow page from CREEPY #9 that went up for auction-- a nice big repro that revealed that the original work was pasted-up individual panels of Craftint Doubletone, rather than a full page of it. Not sure why Morrow did this.
You bring up the possibility that Craftint Doubletone went off the market because the solution was toxic, but that wasn't the reason.
According to a website I found while Googling to see what the solution had in it, it's true that the materials had lead in them:
"{A} patent issued to Carl Maier and William Swaysland in 1930 also listed on Craftint’s July 1948 product catalogue uses a different approach, by which a lead sulfate (lead white) pattern is applied to the paper’s surface and a soluble sulfide is brushed on where desired, turning the lead sulfate to lead sulfide, a dark compound. And if you made a mistake on the paper? Hydrogen peroxide would convert the lead sulfide back to a white compound."
And competing products used different toxic chemicals to bring out the hidden tones, like mercuric chloride.
However, the real reason Craftint Doubletone disappeared was strictly business-oriented:
"The Ohio-based Craftint Manufacturing Company offered Doubletone and a similar paper called Singletone from 1929 until they sold the product to the Ohio Graphic Arts Center, now Grafix. Grafix renamed the product Duoshade and it was available until 2009 when it was determined obsolete in the face of programs like Adobe Illustrator, and discontinued."
Given that the source includes a 1988 ad for Grafix Duoshade, the original Craftint products have been gone for quite a while.
The article also mentions that while it was easier to use than some methods, you had to be very aware of how the art would be reproduced, because it was easy to overdo, leading to looking unexpectedly "muddy" if reproduced at too small a size.
hsc
Not sure if this is okay to post, but here's the link for that article:
ReplyDeletehttps://blogs.libraries.indiana.edu/lilly/2018/01/03/craftint-doubletone-20th-century-time-saver/
hsc
hsc: Considering that the link has some historical and informative information, I think it's worth keeping. It's promotional links that I remove. And thanks for the enlightening info on Craftint Doubletone. I never had the pleasure of using it myself when I was doing quite a bit of drawing back in the day. I did use a lot of Formatt shading film -- what a pain! On a similar note, the largest -- and one of the only -- suppliers of cel vinyl paint, Cartoon Color, went out of business some years ago. It was typically the sole supplier of cel paint for the animation companies I worked for in the late 70s and early 80s.
ReplyDelete