Ben-Day dots

El Cap de Barcelona, a 1992 sculpture by Roy Lichtenstein, who employed Ben-Day dots in his paintings

The Ben-Day dots printing process, named after illustrator and printer Benjamin Henry Day, Jr., (son of 19th Century publisher Benjamin Henry Day)[1][2][3][4] is a technique dating from 1879.[5] Depending on the effect, color and optical illusion needed, small colored dots are closely spaced, widely spaced or overlapping.[6] Magenta dots, for example, are widely spaced to create pink. Pulp comic books of the 1950s and 1960s used Ben-Day dots in the four process colors (cyan, magenta, yellow and black) to inexpensively create shading and secondary colors such as green, purple, orange and flesh tones.[7][8]

Ben-Day dots differ from halftone dots in that the Ben-Day dots are always of equal size and distribution in a specific area. To apply the dots to a drawing the artist would purchase transparent overlay sheets from a stationery supplier. The sheets were available in a wide variety of dot size and distribution, which gave the artist a range of tones to use in the work. The overlay material was cut in the shapes of the tonal areas desired—i.e. shadow or background or surface treatment—and rubbed onto the specific areas of the drawing with a burnisher. When photographically reproduced as a line cut for letterpress printing, the areas of Ben-Day overlay provided tonal shading to the printing plate.[9][10]

The use of Ben-Day dots was a hallmark of American artist Roy Lichtenstein[5][11] who enlarged and exaggerated them in many of his paintings and sculptures. Other illustrators and graphic designers have used enlarged Ben-Day dots in print media for a similar effect.

See also

References

  1. ↑ G.H.E. Hawkins (1914) "Ben Day Effects", Newspaper Advertising, pp. 17-21, Advertisers Publishing Company, Chicago
  2. ↑ Edmund F. Russ (Oct 1919) "The Ben Day Process", Western Advertising, Vol. 1 No. 9, pp. 5-&c, Ramsey Oppenheim Co., San Francisco
  3. ↑ Benjamin H. Day (1905) How to work it: a manual for the use of the Ben Day rapid shading mediums and its registry attachments, Benjamin Day, NY
  4. ↑ Cormack, Bridget (January 18, 2012). "Lichtenstein's little dots to prove a big draw". The Australian. Retrieved 2012-06-27.
  5. 1 2 Churchwell, Sarah (February 23, 2013). "Roy Lichtenstein: from heresy to visionary". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 2012-06-27.
  6. ↑ W. Livingston Larnard (1921) "How and When to Use Ben Day", The Printing Art Vol. 37, No.4, pp. 305-312 (See also: pp. 30, 216, 218, 347, 463)
  7. ↑ "The Use and Abuse of Ben Day" (Jan 6, 1920) Business Digest and Investment Weekly, Vol. 25, No. 1. pp. 10-11, Arrow Publishing Corporation, NY
  8. ↑ Success in Commercial Art (1920) Meyer Both College of Commercial Art
  9. ↑ Gilbert P. Farrar (Sep 18, 1913) "Strong Displays by Use of 'Ben Day' Process", Printer's Ink, Vol. 34, No. 12, pp. 33-36, New York
  10. ↑ Willard C. Brinton (1919) Graphic Methods for Presenting Facts, The Engineering Magazine Company, NY
  11. ↑ Monroe, Robert (September 30, 1997). "A Pioneer of Pop Art movement". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The Associated Press. Retrieved 2012-06-27.
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