BargueDrawings

ElegantMedia Drawing

the master teacher and student relationship in classical art

on finding animal shapes to aid in sight training:
http://grandcentralacademy.blogspot.com/2010/10/finding-shapes-part-1.html

how to sharpen charcoal:
http://www.aristidesatelier.com/blog/how-sharpen-charcoal

i’ve now a copy of it From an interesting book i can't find, or when i do it costs an arm + leg.
Charles Bargue Et Jean-Leon Gerome: Drawing Course
apparently it was on sale via the Dahesh Museum but has since gone out of print. désolé. [http://www.daheshmuseum.org/shop/index.php] found on amazon.

Here’s a brief run down of the technique the book recommends, step by step:1

1. Tape up the drawing and your paper side by side, on a vertical drawing board at about head height. You’ll be drawing standing up.
   
2. Tape up a plumb line so it hangs vertically down the middle of the drawing, in the same position on the drawing as the vertical construction line on the schematic. Now draw a corresponding vertical line down the middle of the paper.
   
3. Stand back a given distance from the drawing, say six to ten feet. Mark where you’re standing with some tape on the floor. Always view the drawing and measure from this same point, viewing it from a different angle may distort the relationships between your measurements.
   
4. Pick out the highest point on the original, and sight across the drawing to the plumb line. From that point, sight across to your paper and judge where the corresponding point would be on your vertical construction line. You can use another plumb line held horizontally for this. With your eye fixed on the spot on your paper where your mark is going to go, walk over and mark it.
   
5. Go back to your viewing point, and see how close you are. Keep adjusting till it looks right.
   
6. Once you’ve got the vertical measurement, unless the point is on the construction line, you need to get the horizontal measurement for it, i.e. how far away horizontally is it from the vertical construction line. Do this by holding your hand-held plumb line, a ruler, or whatever, horizontally, and judge the distance on the original between the point and the vertical construction line. As before, walk over and mark it on the drawing, adjust and correct as necessary, but only look at the drawing from your spot marked on the floor.
   Do the same with the lowest point on the drawing, and for the furthest left and furthest right points. Join the four points.
   
7. Now you have the basic dimensions of the drawing. Don’t move on until you’re sure those points are right. Then you can start adding more points, describing the main shapes of the drawing. Use the schematic to pick out points to measure to.
   
8. Carry on adding points and drawing the shapes outlined by them, gradually refining the drawing, working from larger shapes to smaller, until the outline is done.
   
9. Adding tone would come next. I can’t say much about that yet since I’ve only just started doing it on plate three. Guaranteed it’s not going to be simple figuring out how though.