Monday, January 30, 2012

Juliette Aristides Classical Drawing Techniques


Lessons in Classical Drawing: Essential Techniques from Inside the Atelier by Juliette Aristides. Contains a companion dvd.

Lessons in Classical Drawing: Essential Techniques from Inside the Atelier

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Percy Crosby Figure Drawings


Figure drawings by Percy Crosby, author of the Skippy comic strip. 
See it on Ebay.

Skippy, by Percy Crosby, with Illustrations by the Author
Skippy and Percy Crosby

The Human Figure - David K. Rubins


David K. Rubins wrote a book titled The Human Figure an Anatomy for Artists in 1953. It was published by The Studio Publications, Inc. Some of the best drawings are on the end flaps, one is shown here.

The Human Figure: An Anatomy for Artists
A revised version was published in 1975 by Penguin.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Victorian Sketches


New Book - this is a rediscovered sketchbook by an unknown artist who drew and painted these sketches between 1892 and 1898. More pictures from the book at Figure-Drawings.com.

View sample pages or get the eBook at Google Books.


Victorian Sketches: A Victorian Sketchbook by an Unknown Artist - Buy the Book at Amazon.com

Saturday, January 14, 2012

John Marshall - Anatomy for Artists


 John Marshall wrote a book called Anatomy for Artists and published it in the 1800s, the prints shown are from the third edition published in 1890. The drawings are by J. S. Cuthbert.

 You can see a copy at Google eBooks.

Anatomy for Artists Original Edition by John Marshall

Anatomy for Artists reprint

Other Anatomy for Artists books at Amazon

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Walter Tyndale

Walter Tyndale was an Engish painter, and illustrator. Shown is an illustration of 3 Egyptian women paying instruments derived from an image from the tomb of Nacht at Luxox, Egypt. Wikipedia article.
An Artist in Italy: Written and Painted by Walter Tyndale, R. I. [1913 ]

Below the cataracts, written and illustrated with sixty plates in colour

An artist in Egypt

 The print is for sale on Ebay

Friday, January 6, 2012

Cartooning for Profit by David Rand


One of the home instruction schools popular in the 1940s was David Rand's Cartooning for profit. Shown is an example of Blocking Out the Figure with Simple Shapes.
"Pay close attention to each part of the figure," he writes, "as you read its description here. Starting with Figure 1A, Lesson 10, the head ...has been constructed by the two circle method.
"Figure B represents the neck and shoulder muscles. Try to visualize the shape of the neck as a stovepipe of cylinder which is bound from the shoulders on either side by a triangle representing the shoulder muscles. This shape seldom varies.
"Now refer to Figure C. Notice how the arm can be simply described by means of two tapering cylinders of equal length. A more detailed description of the arm will be given  little later in this lesson, but you should study the position and points of movement at the present time.
"Next Figures E and F represent the torso or trunk of the body. The upper position is a wedge-like keystone shape, which is about twice as wide in the front as in the side. The top of this keystone shape represents the span of the shoulders from where the lines taper downward and outward.
"The hips and surrounding portion of the torso may be represented by a cup-like shape, Figure F, or as a section cut fro a ball. The flat part of these cup shape forms the front of the body. The curved surface represents the back. In a direct front view the shape varies according to the angle of vision...
"Figure D, which represents the breast of the female figure, may be likened to a small cup which in convex These forms should be place about halfway in the Figure E, keystone shape.
"Figure G, representing the leg, may be divided into two tapering cylinder shapes, similar to the arms, but much larger and tapering..."

Cartooning for Profit a Complete 34 Lesson Course in Cartooning & Art - Complete Set of 7 Books Sections 1-7, Lessons 1-34 By David Rand - 1968 - Cartoonists' Exchange

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Drawing People for Fun

 
Roger Vernam wrote and illustrated a book called Drawing People for Fun and published it in 1943. He really does make the process engaging and fun through the use of simple techniques to develop your skill.

The illustrations shown give several of his building blocks to drawing the figure.

Plate III - Learn to think of the torso in terms of two separate block forms that move independently of one another.

Plate IV - Action of the torso: look immediately for the curve of the spinal column, the slant of the shoulders and hips, the rotation of the body due to the twisting of the vertebrae.

Plate XVIII - Life class studies: notice the frequent recourse to the block form convention.



Another blog with more illustrations is at The Pictorial Arts.

You can buy a copy of Drawing people for fun at Amazon.com

He illustrated a number of books for children you can see some here: Roger Vernam's books at Amazon.com,  for instance Antelope: A Navaho Indian Boy [My Indian Library].