Next RGAA Member Meeting
Saturday, August 17, 2024, 9 am - Noon
UNM Continuing Education, North Building, Classroom 123, 1634 University Blvd NE, Albuquerque, NM 87131
Parking/ADA Access: Park in east lot behind building; enter through north door
Presentation by Alison Thomas
RGAA June Educational Program Presentation by Kathleen Keating Summary below.
The session will include a brief historical overview of drawing training methods including: Giotto, the Italian Renaissance, the 19th century Ecole des Beaux Arts, and exploring the 21st Century’s resurgence of the realistic training curriculum for artists based upon the academic traditions. The “sight-size” method of drawing, as described in Charles Bargue’s Drawing Course, will be demonstrated and pros and cons will be discussed.
Kathleen has been conducting research on the academic drawing methods as a hobby since the early 1990’s. During the summer of 2004, she attended the Florence Academy of Art and found theory put into practice by taking two courses: “Renaissance Drawing” and “Academic Drawing”. This experience profoundly impacted her ability to draw accurately in a realistic manner.. After returning home, she continued to practice these techniques and continues to learn and explore all methods of realistic art creation. She currently resides in Edgewood, NM with her husband and one rascal canine.
Requested Summary of Kathleen's presentation:
Kathleen Keating gave a well-researched slide show of the ‘Sight-Size’ drawing techniques used in the Florence Academy of Art where she spent time on 3 separate occasions over 20 years and learned classic drawing techniques used by the 19th century L’Ecole des Beaux Arts. I will summarize her key points and suggest we all try this using the link below.
She explained that historically Ateliers were studios, and Academies were clubs. Both were necessary to get commissions in order to afford the practice of being an artist. The artists start by drawing from casts, then copying master drawings, and finally using live models. (The use of casts for subjects diminished and by 1920s was hardly used after that.) Da Vinci, for example, spent 5 years studying the basics of drawing, then 5 more years where he became a journeyman who could obtain his own commissions but had to be signed off on by a Master. After one successfully completes this process they are permitted to paint.
She said that there was a hierarchy of painting subjects starting with most importantly historical works, portraits, allegorical works, landscape, animals, and at the bottom – still life. The French Salon was The place to be in order to get commissions and they had 7000 paintings submitted one year. Many famous artists were repeatedly rejected and contributed to the Avant Garde movement of art. In 1874 the Impressionists put on their own non- juried show. By 1897 women were finally allowed in L’Ecole des Beaux Artes.
Kathleen uses these tools in her technique: a vertical easel to better measure her subjects, a plumb line, a bbq skewer, a homemade cardboard frame with 1 inch grid made of string (5”x7” center) for gridding, a mirror, a black mirror, and Nitrum charcoal. She draws a vertical line in the center of her copied image, maps the key landmarks with dots on the line, then dots around the outlines of the design utilizing her measuring tools, then draws straight lines in Nitrum charcoal to outline the key shapes she is creating, then wipes it off entirely and goes back in to correctly draw the image. She was taught to stand 3x the size of the model away from the model and to make the object the same size as the drawing. She refers to the links and books listed below as references.
https://barguedrawing.wordpress.com/300-dpi/ This provides images to work with on your own.
https://archive.org/details/CharlesBargueDrawingCourse This explains the classic drawing course free!
The second link explains the steps in drawing according the classic technique. You might like to experiment with the step by step instructions on pages 20 - 24. Most of the next 200 pages are plates of classic drawings, some very famous, and Appendix 2 describes the Sight-Size Technique method of measurement used prior to the 20th century.
Ackerman, Gerald. Charles Bargue with the collaboration of Jean-Leon Gerome Drawing Course 2003
Gammell, RH Ives. Twilight of Painting, 1946
Rousar, Darren. Cast Drawing: Using the Sight-Size Approach, 2007
Rousar, Darren. Memory Drawing: Perceptual training and Recall 2013
Speed, Harold. The Practice and Science of Drawing, 1917
You Tube Courses – Bargue Drawing with Stephen Bauman
The Da Vinci Initiative
Academy of Realist Art Boston
Agenda
9:00 – 9:30 am: Check-in at greeting table
9:30 –10:00 am: Member social time: new member and guest meet and greet, announcements, and show-n-tell
10:00 – 10:30 am: Short business meeting and board announcements
10:30 – Noon: Educational program
Noon: Door prize drawing and adjournment3/16/2024