Friday, December 26, 2008

How to do life drawings


Life Drawing - Croquis de Pierre Lissac

Now available as a printed book at Lulu.com.

Drawings of Paris life by Pierre Lissac as published in the pages of La Vie Parisienne in the early part of the twentieth century. Pierre Lissac was an astute observer of boulevard life and brought wit and humor to his drawings of these ladies, artists and artist models.

Support independent publishing: buy this book on Lulu.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Les proportions du corps humain, measurées sur les plus belles figures de l'antiquité

Claude Perrault's early career was as a surgeon and anatomist. He was commissioned to prepare a translation of the ten books of Vitruvius into French by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis the Fourteenth's Minister of Finance, and the man in charge or rebuilding the Louvre. It happened that Claude Perrault's brother Charles was Colbert's Secretary. Claude Perrault was also on the three man committee to design the eastern part of the Louvre. The images here are from the Vitruvius translation.

Extensive information in the book Architectural Theory
By Harry Francis Mallgrave at Google Books, and at Amazon.com: Architectural Theory: An Anthology from 1871 to 2005


Les proportions du corps humain, Architecture ou art de bien bastir de Marc Vitruve Pollion,
Jean Martin 1547

INTRODUCTION A L’ ESTHETIQUE DES PROPORTIONS

Premier livre d'Architecture de
MARC VITRUVE POLLION



Planche VII du " Vitruve de Perrault ", 1673, détail



Planche VII du " Vitruve de Perrault ", 1673, détail

Les dix livres d'architecture

Ten Books on Architecture



The next series of images is from Gerard Audran's book on human proportions, which used antique statuary as models from which to illustrate rules of proportion of the human form



From Penny Cyclopaedia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge:
"Gerard Audran was unquestionably one of the greatest historical engravers that has ever existed. By some judges, and those not inadequate ones, the very first place has been assigned to him. His reputation perhaps rests chiefly on the celebrated series of plates after Le Brun's Battles of Alexander, respecting which the painter himself confessed that his expectations had been surpassed. It is indeed impossible to contemplate without the highest admiration the skill, intelligence, and extraordinary facility exhibited by his burin throughout those immense and intricate compositions. Although completely a master of the mechanical execution of his art, he attached little importance to that clear and methodical arrangement of lines which forms the chief point of ambition with many other engravers. His style is composed of a bold mixture of free hatchings and dots, placed together apparently without order, but rendering, with admirable effect, not merely the contours, but the mind and feeling of the painter; and his style is so entirely free from manner, that on looking at his prints we lose sight of the engraver, and are reminded only of the master whom he is transcribing. "

Les proportions du corps humain, measurées sur les plus belles figures de l'antiquité - Gérard Audran.

Wikipedia Article: Gerard Audran

Gerard Audran on Ebay

You can search for a copy at Abebooks.com. Use the search terms "
Gerard Audran
."


You might also be interested in a more complete book about human proportions from the 1800s The Sculptor and Art Student's Guide to the Proportions of the Human Form.

The Art Student's Guide to the Proportions of the Human Form at Amazon.com

Art in Theory 1648-1815: An Anthology of Changing Ideas

Dictionnaire des artistes de l'école française, au XIXe siècle: Peinture, sculpture, architecture, gravure, dessin, lithographie et composition musicale (French Edition)

Études sur les beaux-arts en France et en Italie: Tome 2. France (French Edition)

Annales du Musée et de l\'École Moderne des Beaux-Arts ou Recueil complet de gravures: École Française ancienne. Tome 1-2 (French Edition)

Lectures on the True, the Beautiful, and the Good

Dessins de sculpteurs : Tome 1, Troisièmes Rencontres Internationales du Salon du Dessin






Images from the book Vitruve, Architecture ou, Art de bien bastir, [traduction de J. Martin], Paris: Hierosme de Marnef & Guillaume Cavellat, 1572 [reprint, Paris, 1547]. More at the Standford University Website: Proportions parfaites du corps.

Architecture ou Art de bien bastir, de Marc Vitruve Pollion Autheur Romain Antique: Mis de Latin en Francoys, par Ian Martin Secretaire de Monseigneur le Cardinal de Lenoncourt. Collectible at Amazon.com.


Pour mieux lire Vitruve: Les Dix livres d'architecture (Les supplements) (French Edition)


Vitruvius on Architecture









Gerard Audran's The Proportions of the Human BodyGerard Audran's The Proportions of the Human Body

Geometrie Practique By Charles de Bouelles


Geometrie Practique By Charles de Bouelles.

You can pick up a copy on Ebay for the great price of $2850.00 or you can buy one at Abebooks,com for 9 thousand or 21 thousand. evidently a very rare book.

Published in 1555 and considered a landmark in the knowledge of geometry. What is relevant to this site is it has a section on human proportions.

De la Grandeur & stature de tous corps humains.

Height and the stature of all humans.


Geometrie Practique By Charles de Bouelles on Ebay

You can search for a copy at Abebooks.com. Use the search terms "
Geometrie Practique By Charles de Bouelles
."

Wikipedia article: Charles de Bouelles
Another webpage: dutarte.club.fr





You might also be interested in a more complete book about human proportions from the 1800s The Sculptor and Art Student's Guide to the Proportions of the Human Form.


Also available at Amazon.com: The Art Student's Guide to the Proportions of the Human Form

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Figure Drawings





From a student portfolio, here are four pages of figure drawings, probably from around 1950.
The artist's name is Joseph Honzik. 


The Technique of Pencil Drawing at Amazon.com

Pencil Drawing Techniques

Pencil figure drawings on Ebay





Related e-book
A Guide to Better Figure Drawing by Cecile Hardy
Line of Action - Drawing from the Model - Creatively
Clothing the Figure Drawing
The Glamour Girl

Saturday, December 20, 2008

How to Draw Girls - life drawings by Pierre Lissac


The Cover.


One of the full page illustrations from La Vie Parisienne, which is where the illustrations from this ebook were first published.

This one is titled Effets et Poses, it tells the story of a model reporting for work, the artist at work with the model and the final question, will the artwork be exhibited successfully at the Salon, or consigned to a street fair.

Pierre Lissac was a prolific French artist and illustrator in the early twentieth century. He worked for magazines, and illustrated books such as the Songs of Bilitis, L' Aiglon, Cyrano de Bergerac, Contes du Lundi, Le Cid est Revenu, L' Age Hereux, Le Monstre, Cantegril and many others. The images in this ebook are all from La Vie Parisienne. The magazine was originally published for the social and artistic life of Paris. It became very popular and feature risque illustrations of scantily clad ladies.

Pierre Lissac brought a unusually observant and humorous illustration style to his work in the magazine, many of his works were densely populated views of street scenes with so much going on you could look for hours to see all the activity.

The chapters are scans of individual drawings extracted from full page combinations of drawings published in the magazine. The drawings are enlarged so the reader can appreciate the detail and elegant line of Pierre Lissac. All of the drawings incorporate the humor he was famous for. The last section is a humorous look at the Salon des Artistes. The Petite Model is posing for various masters in their typical poses. I have added an appendix with copies of typical works of the artists that Pierre Lissac is spoofing and comparing the paintings to Lissac's drawings.




Here is an example, Joseph Bail loved to produce genre paintings of servants polishing brass cooking utensils. This gave him the opportunity to show off his skill with figures and his skill with surfaces by painting the shining pots and kettles. Pierre Lissac spoofs his work with a model furiously polishing a pot while sitting on a model stand.

A page from the book. In the book the image is enlarged from the full page illustration shown above to better show the observational style and line that Pierre Lissac used.

For more examples, please visit: Figure-Drawings.com.


Table of Contents

Le Coulisses du Salon - The Scenes of the Salon
Effets et Poses - Effects and Poses
Sur une Plage - On a Beach
A Jouvence les Bains - A Youth at the Baths
Paris au Mois d'Aout - Paris in August
Le Grand Maitre Juges par une Petit Modele - The Grand Master Judges a Petit Model

Links:

Cyrano De Bergerac, with illustrations by Pierre Lissac

Per diverti lo gen. Chansous lemouzinas ... 23 dessins inédits de Pierre Lissac

Le Nouveau Lazare. Roman. Compositions de Pierre Lissac (La Petite illustration. Roman. no. 345-7.)


Life Drawing - Croquis de Pierre Lissac

Now available as a printed book at Lulu.com.

Drawings of Paris life by Pierre Lissac as published in the pages of La Vie Parisienne in the early part of the twentieth century. Pierre Lissac was an astute observer of boulevard life and brought wit and humor to his drawings of these ladies, artists and artist models.

Support independent publishing: buy this book on Lulu.





Art Models 4: Life Nude Photos for the Visual Arts (Art Models series)



Art Models 3: Life Nude Photos for the Visual Arts (Art Models series) (No. 3)

Art Models 2: Life Nude Photos for the Visual Arts (Book & CD-ROM) (No. 2)


Art Models: Life Nudes for Drawing Painting and Sculpting


The Invention of the Model: Artists and Models in Paris, 1830-1870



Pierre Lissac's humorous drawing of a typical Paul Emile Chabas model.

 La Baigneuse by Paul Emile Chabas.









Paul Emile Chabas, Ninfa Loira.


Paul Chabas, Baigneuse au fond bleu Aquarelle et gouache signée en bas à gauche .

 Two Bathers by Paul Chabas