Category: Tools & Techniques

The Blind Leading The Blind

.Reading time 7 minutes.
Kimon Nicolaides, header

The Natural Way to Draw Kimon Nicolaïdes book “The Natural Way to Draw” has long been a staple of lower school art instructors. The one exercise that seems to get the most abuse is the blind contour. Once again we have a piece of the puzzle taken out of context of the whole program. Sort […]

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Sight-Size Critique

.Reading time less than 1 minute.
Bargue, Sight Size, header

“In time it became very clear to me that teaching the sight-size method was a bad idea; instead of being beneficial this method was harmful to the students. I found this method to be a mindless, mechanical transfer process, which retarded the development of the student’s artistic eye: development of which is based on seeing […]

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The Bargue Debacle

.Reading time 35 minutes.
Charles Bargue - Homer, header

Breakdown in Classical Tradition Many current ‘realist’ ateliers and academies use the Charles Bargue Drawing Course and a tool to teach beginning students how to draw.  This is based on the misconception that the purpose of the course was to teach artists how to draw.  Nothing could be farther from the truth and the record […]

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