[650] 



USEFUL PROJECTS. 



Improvements in the Aquatinta 

 Process, by tvhich Pen, Pencil, 

 and Chalk drawings can be 

 imitated. By Mr. J. HasselL* 



[From the Transactions of the Society 

 for the Encouragement of Arts, &c. 

 Vol. XXVIII. for 1810.] 



SfR. 



PERCEIVINGthevariousme- 

 thods of imitating drawings 

 and sketches in the'graphic artfall 

 short of an accurate imitation of 

 the black-lead pencil, I determined 

 on an attempt some years since, 

 which, after repeated experiments, 

 I flatter myself, I have fully esta- 

 blished. 



The manner is totally new, and 

 solely my own invention. By the 

 method I adopt any artist can 

 sketch, with a black-lead pencil, 

 his subject immediately on the 

 copper ; and so simple and easy is 

 its style, that an artist can do it 

 with five minutes study. 



By this manner, the trouble in 

 tracing on oil paper, and other re- 

 tracing on the etching ground is 

 avoided, and the doubtful hand- 

 ling of an etching-needle is done 

 away, as the pencilling on the 

 copper is visible in the smallest 



touch. It has also another per- 

 fection, that by using a broader 

 instrument it will represent black 

 chalk, a specimen of which I pro- 

 cured Mr. Mann, the landscape- 

 painter, to make a trial of. I 

 have herewith sent the said speci- 

 men, marked C, and Mr. Munn's 

 name is affixed to the same. This 

 subject he actually drew upon 

 copper, under my inspection, in 

 less than twenty minutes, the 

 time he would have taken, per- 

 haps, to do the same on paper ; in 

 fact, it can be as rapidly executed 

 on copper as on paper. 



It is particularly pleasant for co- 

 louring up, to imitate drawings, 

 as the lines are soft, and blend in 

 with the colour. It is a circum- 

 stance always objectionable in the 

 common method of etching, that 

 those so tinted can never be sufH- 

 ciently drowned, nor destroyed, 

 and always present a wiry hard 

 effect. 



It is equally adapted to histo- 

 rical sketching, and might be the 

 means of inducing many of our 

 eminent painters to hand down to 

 posterity their sketches, which, at 

 present, they dechne from the irk- 

 some trouble attending therepeti- 



* The Society's silver medal and thirty guineas were voted to Mr. Hassell for 

 his communication. 



