Drawing The Female Figure

Stylish, almost mannerist figure drawings along with a clear and inspiring text by an artist who was one of the premier fashion illustrators of his day.

From the first chapter:

Why life drawing? Why, long after artists have left the Art Schools and become successful, do they still attend classes and draw from life? Why is it that life drawing is the basis of teaching at most of the principal Art Schools all over the world?

Drawing from life is the acid test of draughtsmanship. It is to drawing what the great classical ballets are to ballet dancing. By it you compare the abilities of one artist with another - and even one generation with another, because life drawing presents exactly the same problems to us as it did to the old masters.

This standard of comparison is used because, of all the things an artist draws, the nude human figure is the most difficult, and especially the female nude figure. Obviously, everything you draw is difficult if drawn sincerely, but in the case of the human figure, should you make even the slightest mistake it will be apparent at once. Everybody has a very clear idea of what a human figure should look like and therefore any deviation from this will be noticed at once - the legs are made too short, they will say, or that arm is too thin and couldn't bend like that. When you are drawing a tree you may draw three more branches on the tree than were really there but nobody will quarrel with your drawing on that account if the tree is reasonably tree-like.

1. LIFE DRAWING
2. TECHNIQUE
3..THE APPROACH
4. DRAWING THE MODEL
5. FORESHORTENING AND PERSPECTIVE
6. METHODS OF DRAWING
7. ANATOMY
8. HISTORY
9. THE MODEL
10. BEAUTY
11. CONCLUSION