themasteryofdrawing(julianashtonartschoo

The Mastery of Drawing (2007)

The Americans

This term we will be taking a close look at a group of well-known teachers from twentieth century America who have greatly influenced the way life drawing is taught throughout the world today. Not all were born in the United States (Vanderpoel was Dutch, and Bridgman was born in Canada), but all were primarily active in the US, in fact mostly in New York and Chicago. All shared the belief that life drawing was founded, not on visual copying, but on constructional thinking and a thorough knowledge of anatomy. In particular we will examine, compare, and test out in practice the various mass conceptions of the body devised or promoted by these teachers.

JOHN H. VANDERPOEL (1857 - 1911) was an instructor at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1880 to 1906. His beautifully illustrated book The Human Figure is readily available as an inexpensive reprint by Dover. The book takes an understanding of human anatomy largely as read, and focuses primarily on the expression of that anatomy as surface form. It makes rather difficult reading unless you take the trouble to first find the illustration that each chunk of text belongs with; apparently the text and illustrations were better connected in earlier editions.

Vanderpoel, John H., 1908. The Human Figure.

Images and extracts can be seen online at:

GEORGE BRANDT BRIDGMAN (1865 - 1943) had an enormous influence as a teacher for nearly fifty years at the Art Students League of New York. His own training was under Gerome at Ecole des Beaux Arts and Gustave Boulanger. His students included many major twentieth artists/illustrators, as well as several of the most influential teachers of their own generations, notably Kimon Nicolaides, Frank Reilly, Andrew Loomis, and Robert Beverley Hale. Bridgman remains directly influential through his books on drawing and artistic anatomy, most of which are available from Dover.

Bridgman, G.B., 1920. Constructive Anatomy

Bridgman, G.B., 1924. Bridgman's Life Drawing

Bridgman, G.B., 1926. The Book of a Hundred Hands

Bridgman, G.B., 1932. Heads, Features and Faces.

Bridgman, G.B., 1935. The Female Form

Bridgman, G.B., 1939. The Human Machine: The Anatomical Structure and Mechanism of the Human Body

Bridgman, G.B., 1942. Drawing the Draped Figure: (the Seven Laws of Folds)

The most important books for us will be Constructional Anatomy (for Bridgman's survey of the entire body) and Bridgman's Life Drawing (for his fundamental concepts of drawing). A single volume posthumous compilation, Bridgman's Complete Guide to Drawing from Life (1952), is also readily available and inexpensive, although the reorganization has garbled some sections.

Two of Bridgman's books are also available as free DjVu/pdf files from archive.org (unfortunately the sketchier illustrations are poorly reproduced):

ANDREW LOOMIS (1892 - 1959) studied with Bridgman at the Art Student League and at the Art Institute of Chicago, and was a professional illustrator in the vein of Norman Rockwell (another Bridgman student). He is best known today for his series of six instructional books, written in a chatty style, and illustrated with his delightfully dated but extremely competent drawings and paintings.

Loomis, Andrew, 1939. Fun With a Pencil.

Loomis, Andrew, 1943. Figure Drawing For All It’s Worth.

Loomis, Andrew, 1947. Creative Illustration.

Loomis, Andrew, 1951. Successful Drawing.

Loomis, Andrew, 1956. Drawing the Head and Hands.

Loomis, Andrew, 1961. Eye of the Painter and Elements of Beauty.

Most of these titles were best sellers in their day, but all have been out of print for many years. Although still under copyright, they have long been widely available as pdfs on the internet (just try googling "Andrew Loomis" and "Parent Directory"!). This availability has helped the books to become highly influential among a new generation of illustrators and concept artists of all kinds, as anyone familiar with forums such as those of conceptart.org would attest.

Another Bridgman student, ROBERT BEVERLY HALE (1901 - 1985) like his teacher conducted classes for more than 40 years at the Art Students League of New York, where he was an instructor in drawing and lecturer in artistic anatomy. He was also Curator of the American Painting and Sculpture Department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Lecturer in Anatomy at The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. Much of his teaching is summed up in the two books listed below. A third book, Anatomy Lessons from the Great Masters (1977), attributed to Hale and Terence Coyle, seems to have had less input from Hale; it contains some obvious errors and is continually getting lost in minutiae. An important aspect of Hale's teaching that is only touched on in the books is his system for learning to draw the figure from the imagination by memorizing the construction of each part in relation to a box-like framework. At present this system is published only in a very expensive series of videos of his classes made a couple of years before his death.

Hale, Robert Beverly, 1964. Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters.

http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/0823014010/002-1737755-1760062

Hale, Robert Beverly, 1985. Masterclass in Figure Drawing.

Hale videos:

http://www.jo-an.com/art_video.htm

BURNE HOGARTH (1911- 1996) studied at the Chicago Art Institute from the age of 12 and began working professionally as a cartoonist from the age of fifteen. His highly dynamic and three-dimensional style can be seen in his famous Tarzan comic strips and books. He was also a dedicated educator, and in 1947 he cofounded what is now the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York. His approach is well documented in his six instructional books, all of which are still in print in paperback, some in attractively revised versions.

Hogarth, Burne, 1958. Dynamic Anatomy.

http://www.amazon.com/Dynamic-Anatomy-Expanded-Burne-Hogarth/dp/0823015521/ref=sr_1_4/002-1737755-1760062

Hogarth, Burne, 1965. Drawing the Human Head.

http://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Human-Head-Practical-Books/dp/0823013766/ref=sr_1_5/002-1737755-1760062

Hogarth, Burne, 1970. Dynamic Figure Drawing.

http://www.amazon.com/Dynamic-Figure-Drawing-Practical-Books/dp/0823015777/ref=sr_1_1/002-1737755-1760062

Hogarth, Burne, 1977. Drawing Dynamic Hands.

http://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Dynamic-Hands-Practical-Books/dp/0823013685/ref=sr_1_3/002-1737755-1760062

Hogarth, Burne, 1981. Dynamic Light and Shade.

http://www.amazon.com/Dynamic-Light-Shade-Practical-Books/dp/0823015815/ref=sr_1_6/002-1737755-1760062

Hogarth, Burne, 1982. Dynamic Wrinkles and Drapery.

http://www.amazon.com/Dynamic-Wrinkles-Drapery-Solutions-Practical/dp/0823015874/ref=sr_1_2/002-1737755-1760062

We will also be referring to four living US-based teachers who have made extensive instructional material freely available on the internet. All share a belief in the importance of visualization in drawing, and most of are of considerable interest both in their own right and as examples of the influence of the teachers we are studying.

GLENN VILPPU (1936- ) has taught drawing in numerous venues since 1978, mostly connected with the animation industry. He has produced educational materials in the form of videos, DVDs, and CD-ROMs, as well as books, most notably the Vilppu Drawing Manual, an summary of which can be seen online at Animation World Magazine:

KEVIN CHEN (1977- ) works primarily as a concept artist working on computer games, but has taught drawing at such places such as Gnomon, the LA Academy of Figurative Art, the Art Center College of Design, Disney, and DreamWorks Interactive since 1997. Some collections of his demonstrations for classes can be found online at:

MICHAEL MENTLER (1903??- ) is based at his Society of Figurative Artists (SOFA) in Dallas, Texas. He has been working on a book and instructional videos for some time, and has been generously sharing his stylish anatomical drawings on the forums of conceptart.org and SOFA. Mentler is voracious in his influences, but the prime one seems to be Hale. One of the many reasons to look forward to Mentler's publications is that it appears that a version of Hale's system of visualizing each part of the body in a box-like framework will finally become readily accessible.

Hanging Flesh, Book One and Two:

The Book of Bones

RIVEN PHOENIX (1971 - ) produced a 43-hour online anatomy course consisting of 227 YouTube videos, which he now sells as a set of five DVDs. About 20 of these videos, and short excerpts of the rest, are still available for free viewing online. From the free content they appear to be concerned primarily with systems for memorizing the proportions of the body, but without Hale's instinct for balance between simplification and over-elaboration. His online autobiography (currently deleted) stated that his fan base "is reported to number in the millions". Hmm.

Phoenix, Riven. Drawing The Human Figure From Your Mind

http://inventiontocompletehumanbeing.blogspot.com/

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