Ragged Claws Network » Art Instruction

Heads Up Follow-up: DRAWING THE HEAD AND HANDS by Andrew Loomis

RC — Thu, 26 May 2011 15:00:45 +0000

Drawing the Head and Hands (160 pages; ISBN-10: 0857680978, ISBN-13: 978-0857680976) will be the second in Titan Books’ new line of facsimile editions of Andrew Loomis’s celebrated art instruction books. The first volume, Figure Drawing for All It’s Worth, is available now, and it’s a beauty. Other volumes that have already been announced include Fun with a Pencil and Creative Illustration.

And keep in mind: you don’t have to take my word that Loomis’s sophisticated but practical course of instruction will benefit any student of art who wishes to become proficient at drawing lively human figures in deep pictorial space from imagination as well as from life. Loomis’s books have been available for free download online for several years now. So before you order, you have nobody but yourself to blame if you haven’t already test-driven the content; however, if you have already taken Loomis’s analytical concepts and encouraging words for a spin, and you have a notion that what Loomis has to offer will help you get where you want to go as an artist, now is definitely the time to buy, because I daresay that even if you are much, much younger than I am, you are unlikely to see better reprints of Loomis’s books in your lifetime — though if Titan Books also decides to publish softcover editions, you might, eventually, see slightly cheaper ones.

Heads Up Follow-up: FIGURE DRAWING FOR ALL IT’S WORTH!

RC — Sat, 21 May 2011 01:14:16 +0000

Back on 10 November 2010, I posted to alert readers to the possible re-publication, in hardcover, of the art-instruction classic, Figure Drawing for All It’s Worth, by Andrew Loomis (see Heads Up: “Figure Drawing” by Andrew Loomis).

Well, I don’t have the book in my hands yet, but earlier today I received notification from Chapters.indigo.ca that my order for “Figure Drawing for All It’s Worth” has shipped! Which is odd, because when I subsequently checked the record in the Chapters.indigo.ca catalogue, the status of Loomis’s book was given as “Preorder Today! – Not Yet Released.” But apparently being “not yet released” is no hindrance to shipment via Canada Post!

I’ll certainly update this message if and when the book actually arrives at my door. But I have to say that, right now, it’s looking pretty damn good!

UPDATE:

The good news is, the book arrived at my door about an hour ago! The better news is, Figure Drawing for All It’s Worth from Titan Books is exactly what any artist who is also a bibliophile would wish for in a Loomis reprint: hardcover, sewn binding, classic dustjacket, classic trim size (9.23 x 12.3 inches), excellent paper selection, crisp reproduction, and no silly additions. And what’s more, given the overall excellence of this reprint, the very best news is, the bottom corner of the back cover flap includes the following notice:

COMING SOON IN THE SERIES
FROM TITAN BOOKS

Drawing the Head and Hands
Fun with a Pencil
Creative Illustration

So collect ‘em all, folks! You won’t regret it.

Heads Up: “Figure Drawing” by Andrew Loomis

RC — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 19:13:13 +0000

I don’t know whether to believe this or not — other Loomis reprints have been announced before and come to nothing — but an Amazon.ca search of drawing books to be published in 2011 brings up the following:

Figure Drawing [Hardcover]

Andrew Loomis (Author)

List Price: CDN$ 46.00
Price: CDN$ 28.84 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Details
You Save: CDN$ 17.16 (37%)

This title will be released on May 31, 2011.

# Hardcover: 208 pages
# Publisher: Titan Books (May 31 2011)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 0857680986
# ISBN-13: 978-0857680983

It’s strange to think that Loomis’s legendary art instruction books are all out of print in English. I read once that the lack of reprint editions had something to do with a certain lack of interest on the part of the copyright holders; however, if the copyright holders have had a change of heart, all I can say is, HALLELUJAH!

Of course, Loomis’s books are all available for download from various sites, but I say that a book in the hand is worth a dozen on the hard drive.

UPDATE:

Heads Up Follow-up: FIGURE DRAWING FOR ALL IT’S WORTH! — in which I confirm that the Titan Books reprint is really real.

Free Art Instruction: A Few Good Links

RC — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 16:24:31 +0000

ADVICE AND INSPIRATION:

Phil McAndrew! > Super Obvious Secrets That I Wish They’d Teach In Art School by Phil McAndrew — what are the ten habits of highly effective illustrators and cartoonists? Phil knows, and if you take a moment to read his advice, you will too.

@random > From Idea Sketch to Final Painting: Kent Williams, Mother and Daughter (2009), oil on linen, 42 x 50 in. — not art instruction per se, but much can be gleaned from step-by-step process photos, and the finished work is a knockout!

ANATOMY INSTRUCTION AND INFORMATION:

Ragged Claws Network > Anatomical Reference Sheets — seven plates from an old anatomy book for art students.

Ragged Claws Network > Download Here: “Constructive Anatomy” by George B. Bridgman

ReyBustos.com > Rey’s Anatomy by Rey Bustos – a display of images that use Flash technology to interactively cross fade from photos of real and sculpted human figures to drawings of those same figures with the skin removed to display the underlying musculature.

ART INSTRUCTION BOOKS (FREE DOWNLOADS):

Some of these links are repeated in other categories.

AlexHays . Portolio > Save Loomis! — download PDFs of Fun with a Pencil, Figure Drawing for All It’s Worth, Drawing the Head & Hands, Successful Drawing, Creative Illustration, and Eye of the Painter, all for free.

ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive > Preston Blair’s Advanced Animation — a classic! The whole book is online, but you have to download it page by page.

ComiCrazys > ComiCrazys Archive for the Famous Artists Cartoon Course Category — 18 free lessons and counting; available in both PDF and JPEG formats.

Lulu > The Practice and Science of Drawing by Harold Speed — download a free PDF of the classic book courtesy of Lulu.com.

Ragged Claws Network > Download Here: “Constructive Anatomy” by George B. Bridgman

CARTOONING TUTORIALS AND TOOL TALK:

The Art of Jake Parker > Agent 44: Fixing It Old School — learn how cartoonists make art corrections in the real world.

arglebargle! > Ken Hultgren on Cartooning

ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive > Preston Blair’s Advanced Animation — a classic! The whole book is online, but you have to download it page by page.

ComiCrazys > ComiCrazys Archive for the Famous Artists Cartoon Course Category — 18 free lessons and counting; available in both PDF and JPEG formats.

comic tools > Comic Tools: Tutorials — learn about basic anatomy, balloon shapes, Kirby energy dots, perfect white-out consistency, ruling pens, cutting techniques, art corrections, scanning, and lots more.

Karmatoons Inc. > Drawing for Classical Animation — learn how to construct characters out of basic three-dimensional shapes, how to animate your characters according to time-tested principles, and how to create naturalistic movement through the use of live-action reference.

Richmond Illustration Inc! > Tom Richmond’s MAD Blog Cartooning/Caricature Tutorials — noses, hands, crowd scenes, cross hatching, and more.

The Tools Artists Use — find out what tools your fellow artists keep in their toolboxes that you might add to yours.

FIGURE PHOTO REFERENCE:

Character Designs > Photosets by Hong Ly — free figure reference for artists, licensed under a Creative Commons license, the very reasonable terms of which can be found on the Character Designs site; the 39 photosets include both nude and costumed models.

PAINTING AND DRAWING TUTORIALS:

Art Instruction Blog > A Direct Approach to Acrylic Painting by Greg Biolchini — watch as Biolchini maps out a painting, in detail, with charcoal on canvas and then elaborates and finishes the image with layers of transparent and opaque acrylic paint. Don’t worry about whether or not you like Biolchini’s style; it’s the order of operations that’s important.

Felipe’s Art Blog — Felipe’s detailed explanation (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) of Burton Silverman‘s watercolour technique alone makes this site a keeper, but don’t stop there! Felipe’s site has lots more to offer the serious student of art.

John Singer Sargent’s Painting Process (PDF) — compiled from various sources by Craig “Goodbrush” Mullins. Here’s a snippet that will surprise many who’ve been taught to do the exact opposite: “If you see a thing [such as a shadow] transparent, paint it transparent; don’t get the effect by a thin strain showing the canvas through. That’s a mere trick. The more delicate the transition, the more you must study it for the exact tone.”

The Pictorial Arts > Russell Flint’s Technique — if you think of watercolour as inflexible and unforgiving, you need to read this account of Russell Flint at work. Here, in a nutshell, is the secret: “it is an essential characteristic of Flint’s method that, though the successive washes are put on with all the freshness, sparkle and purity of which he is capable, they must be absolutely dry, stage by stage, before the drawing is proceeded with.” Choose overly absorbent paper, use mostly staining colours, overwork the washes, don’t let them dry thoroughly between applications, and lifting/corrections will be impossible.

ScottBurdick.com > Scott Burdick: Demonstrations – nine in oil, one in watercolour. Even if the subject matter is not to your taste, you can learn something here about the traditional alla prima method of working out a painting in oil from the initial block in to the final flourishes.

Sovek: The Art of Charles Sovek > Lessons from the Easel – The Basics by Charles Sovek

OTHER “HOW TO” INFORMATION:

BenGrosser.com > Build Your Own Easel! – Free Easel Plans by Benjamin Grosser.

lines and colors > Pochade Boxes by Charley Parker — includes a lot of interesting and useful information as well as links to both commercial and do-it-yourself options.

WetCanvas > Making a Canvas Board! by Larry Seiler

Anatomical Reference Sheets

RC — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 21:52:45 +0000

Nick Zuccarello put together a set of six anatomical reference sheets for a class he was teaching, and he has kindly made those plates available on his blog for others to download. The drawn diagrams are from one of Zuccarello’s “favorite anatomy books,” Strength Training Anatomy by Frederic Delavier, and the photos are from the 3dsk site. The sheets, which cover the basics in extremely condensed form, focus on the torso, legs, and arms, and at the very least, will give you a preview of what the diagrams in the Strength Training Anatomy book are like.

UPDATE (25 November 2010):

Here are seven anatomical charts from the first edition of the book, Human Anatomy for Artist Students, by Sir Alfred Fripp and Ralph Thompson, with drawings by Innes Fripp; sorry they are such low resolution images, but if only one impoverished artist out there finds them useful, it will have all been worth it:

[CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE]

Funny thing is, Human Anatomy for Artist Students is NOT currently out of print. Of course the book has long been in the public domain, so anyone could potentially publish a new edition. The only company that has done so, however, is Dover Publications (see ISBN-10: 0486447715, ISBN-13: 978-0486447711). Ah, Dover! I do love you so!

Download Here: “Constructive Anatomy” by George B. Bridgman

RC — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 18:08:19 +0000

Here’s a classic art instruction book by George B. Bridgman (1864-1943), first published in May 1920 and now in the public domain (see Wikipedia: “According to s. 6 of the [Canadian Copyright] Act the copyright of a work lasts the life of the author plus 50 years from the end of the calendar year of death“; “In the United States, all books and other works published before 1923 have expired copyrights and are in the public domain“), available from Ragged Claws Network as a free download (click the cover image):

Here are some teaser images:

Download: Six Books by Andrew Loomis

RC — Wed, 14 May 2008 20:33:07 +0000

Here’s a collection of six, classic, out-of-print books by the much-admired illustrator, Andrew Loomis, all available for download, right now, as PDFs.

Thank you, boywonder!