My atelier curriculum begins with drawing a sphere, in graphite, according to very specific standards. The sphere is always drawn in three stages: Contour, Shape, and Form.
When an artist takes the time to perfect the sphere, they find their ability to draw and paint any subject has significantly advanced.
Any specific struggles an artist has with the sphere will be echoed in all their other artwork: A misshapen circle, misjudged values, inability to control the drawing media, or inability to conceptualize the 3-dimensional form in space are all issues that will weaken every other drawing and painting the artist attempts.
Therefore, we apply the exact same method for every drawing that follows in the course of study.
After the sphere students move on to rendering "Bargue Plates". (Bargue plates are instructional drawings designed in France in the 19th century to be copied by art students).
When a student has completed one or more Bargue plate copies, they are ready to begin a Cast Drawing, which is a drawing of a plaster cast of a sculpture by a historic master.
It often takes 50-200 hours to complete a Bargue plate or cast drawing with this method. It's important for students to slow down and take their time to really understand the shapes and forms of their subject.
However, as we all know, it's rarely practical to have this much time to capture our subject. So as we advance, we naturally begin to adapt the concepts that have been ingrained by classical drawing to shorter time frames and less static subjects.
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Hi Cynthia, Many ateliers teach primarily in charcoal, but I follow the lineage of Jacob Collins' Grand Central Atelier, and Ted Seth Jacobs and his former student Anthony Ryder, who all teach with graphite.
My students copy their Bargue plates (not the spelling - not Brague :) ) with graphite, and do their first cast drawing with graphite. After that, students can choose to continue with advanced cast drawings with graphite, or switch to the exercises I teach for charcoal and white chalk, or move to my indirect oil painting exercises. There are pros and cons for teaching in either medium (and vigorous defenders of each), but especially for my online students working from their homes in my online atelier, it's…
Hi Sadie! I have a question about the Braque plates. The book advises that the copies & drawings be done in charcoal. Do you recommend this, or do you recommend the super pointy pencils you use in your atalier classes?
Hi Francesco, If you would like to draw/paint with correct proportions, and show light on the form and accurate color when painting, classical training will help you.
Sadie
If what I want to paint is a certain figuration but not classical realism, the method it teaches would still be useful.
I hope you understand me, my English is very bad.
Thank you.