INTRODUCTION TO FIGURE DRAWING
(The Ryder Way)
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Recommended for all levels.
Comprehensive course integrating the fundamentals of technique, composition, human anatomy, and the history of drawing.
For course details see PAGE, Art Instruction: Course (Syllabus) Calendar.
Weekly 28 sessions, 3 hours. Instruction & studio practice.
Course open for individual instruction or small classes. We call these "The Drawing Fellowship".
PLUS: Drawing Jammin' Sessions (weekly). Open Studio. Drop-in. Directed practice. Introduction of materials and approaches excluded from the more limited, disciplined instructional sessions. Opportunity for the students (of the Drawing Fellowship) to encourage and teach one another. Live figure drawing hours.
REQUIRED MATERIALS, SEE BELOW.
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FEES
$80.00 per month for seven months. Payable on the first session of each month.
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REMARKS
Why Begin with Drawing?
Why the Human Figure?
Why the "Ryder Way"?
SUMMARY OF THE WEEKLY SESSIONS: The Ryder Method, Composition,Human Anatomy, History of Drawing
Exhibition of "The Drawing Fellowship
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WHY BEGIN WITH DRAWING
Drawing's relationship to painting is more and other than scales are to music. The Art of Drawing has its own glory.
Specially, drawing is not like practicing scales on the piano. (Suppose the current phrase is "skills set building.) Instead, one learns to draw for its own sake, let alone to paint. Or, better, painting is just a brisked-up way of drawing. In short, one takes Ryder's ways and method of drawing and simply exchanges the graphite pencil for the oiled-up hog bristle brush.
Has always been so. Even in classical Greece. We don't sense it because we can't see it with much of it lost or destroyed.
The notion that drawing is something to be endured on the way to painting or sculpture cheats both the nature of the art and the student artist.
Drawing cannot be reduced to a series of exercises, like scales. Yet, this false notion does touch upon a fundamental truth - that drawing is foundational to all the visual arts.
By drawing well the artist comes to term (takes ownership) with all the foundational bits and pieces: the properties of light and form; value and tone - which, in itself, is foundational to color, the properties of line and stroking (all kinds and uses), and so much more.
This is why our first course offering is an introduction to drawing - comprehensive and foundational; and that, of the human figure.
Not that oil, color and canvas are to be abandoned. We will soon be adding the same comprehensive and foundational approach to oil painting.
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WHY THE HUMAN FIGURE?
Why? Let's put it this way, because mankind is the Crown of creation. Higher than even the angels. It's this that pissed off Satan when he warred against Heaven.
Art, any art, must take man as both its subject and governor. Art is the labor of man (of men and women putting hand to canvas and stone). Art is not the begotten bastard of forces and abstraction mating between the sheets of theory and notions.
All creation must yield up to man's handling, as man, himself, must honor the nature of what he picks up to use. Art is manhandling done gloriously.
Our drawing Course (The Drawing Fellowship)) takes the human figure as the focus and measure of instruction: down to the foundational fundamentals of form, value and line.
It is said that to learn to draw (paint or sculpt) anything well (landscape, abstractions, even fields of color) one must first master the human figure.
It may not be a fast rule, but there is wise truth in this.
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We're focusing on bodily form not from a whim but from a bias rooted in the "itness" of things. This call to attend to "itness" rises from Art's own claim to creaturehood - the duty of all effort (and work) to crown what God himself crowns, mankind as the crown of all creation.
Even with subjects and themes where the human figure is seemingly vacated, bodily form hovers, undergirds the point-of-it-all. The reason and purpose of all that which is not bodily form is still for the human person. Not mankind, then for mankind. Not the human figure, then reflecting (imaging) the human figure.
Inescapable. Ever since Eden, the creation of any one thing (in those five brief days) was made for the habitat of Adam and his wife.
Art cannot escape this Word of creation. There is, by God, no leveling equality between bodily form and fields of color.
God does know. For if God remains the starting point of creation (its Word) mankind is creation's horizon.
Can't avoid it. Our instruction is designed to hover over and around the human figure - so what, get used to it!
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WHY THE "RYDER WAY"?
Why? Because, to this Artist/Mentor, Anthony Ryder connects dots long disembodied and isolated. As a basis and motive for instruction nothing more need be said.
Yet, what is the Way? It would take all 28 weekly sessions to unfold it (see Course (Syllabus) Calendar PAGE).
In brief, it is the classical atelier method with its redundacies trimmed. So focused is the course on understanding and envisioning the human figure (bodily form) that the labor in doing so guides the student in connecting those disembodied dots: value, line, light source, perspective, point-of-standing or viewing.
For instance, take perspective. The prickly issue of perspective will not be resolved by reserving a session or two to its problems, teaching directly about the subject.
The challenges of perspective (standard fare of any art course) are folded into mastering the human figure.
Learning to model the bodies of man and women on paper (from various points of viewing) builds the skills to handle the perspective problems any object of study - from landscape, still life, to the breakdown of form into fields and planes.
With the Ryder Way mastering the human figure is key to unlocking the "how to" questions of all those other disembodied dots of drawing. In fact, mastery of bodily form is the link and thread in connecting all those dots.
So threading and linking, the student, himself, becomes the master.
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SUMMARY OF THE WEEKLY SESSIONS
SECTION ONE, THE RYDER METHOD
TEXTS: Instruction based on Anthony Ryder's text, The Artist's Complete Guide to Figure Drawing. Assisted with Juliette Aristides Classical Drawing Atelier; Guide to Drawing by Faber & Mendelowitz; and William Berry's Drawing the Human Form.
INSTRUCTION AND PRACTICE: 1 1/2 hours.
MATERIALS NEEDED:
- Drawing Paper: 18x24 in, 80 lb wt., medium texture, white. No toned paper. We also do not use sketching or newsprint. The student is encouraged to keep a full record of progress from day one.
- Pencils: Graphite, grades HB, 2B, 3B, 4B. At least three pencils of each. No color pencils or pastel chalk. No charcoal. Surprised? Don't be. All will be explained at the first session. Tone and value must be mastered first before color is introduced.
- Erasers: Kneaded and "soap". At least 3 of each so a clean eraser is always at hand.
- Drawing Board: 20x26 in., with clip.
- Pencil Sharpener: Pencils need t be kept at a sharp point. Any investment will be worth the cost. Electric is the best. If you're good with the knife, O.K., The point being, don't let the chore of sharpening break the concentration and rhythm of drawing.
- Other Materials: Will be discussed during the first session.
- Drawing Jammin' Sessions: Wider range of materials will be used. See below.
- Outside Practice: Students are encouraged to pack and carry a sketchbook - all the time, everywhere, for whatever pricks the eye. Done to hone skills and for the pleasure of it. Because these are mostly "quickies" keep it simple. Use graphite. No charcoal, pastels or color pencils. Graphite is best for quick notation and to pick up where one left off. Notebook should lay flat, paper white. Don't forget a sharpener. As for pencils,. a couple of HB and 2Bs will do.
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SECTION TWO: COMPOSITION
Instruction based on David Friend's Composition: A Painter's Guide to Basic Problems and Solutions. Yes, it is a bit dated, but remains the best introduction to the fundamentals. There is a "Natural Law" to composition, a foundational nature common to all the visual arts. Our course will identify it.
INSTRUCTION & PRACTICE: 1/2 hour. Practice folded into the Ryder Method exercises.
TOPICS & SKILLS COVERED: See ART INSTRUCTION: Course (Syllabus) Calendar PAGE.
Composition is the neglected or truncated subject of most art courses. Not here! When a student has a pesky "how to draw" question, or is frustrated because something doesn't quite "look right", it is often a composition problem. There is a basic set of composition problems and solutions. We will tackle and befriend them.
The stubborn fact of composition nips even at the heels of our mortality. We, as artist and viewer, know that a fundamental truth is exposed. We feel both intrigued and answerable to it. This is so because we wish to be at ease with the world, to fit in. Our lack of ease reveals how Original Sin crowds upon composition, making it problematic. We want that discomfort relieved, disordered composition realigned and refitted. We wish for Eden's first composure.
Which brings us to the other stubborn fact, why the resolution to problematic compositions is so satisfying. Solutions to problems in composition are (near to) acts of redemption, a visual tale in the story of salvation.
To participate in such saving redemption Art must follow the Natural Law that composition itself follows. We do just that in our drawing course - follow the law. We draw (as we would paint) knowing that the liberty of the imagination is first of all, ordered.
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SECTION THREE: HUMAN ANATOMY
INSTRUCTION & PRACTICE: 1/2 hour.
TOPICS COVERED: See Art Instruction: Course (Syllabus) Calendar.
TEXTS: Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist, Stephen Peck, and Anatomy Lessons from the Great Masters by Hale, Coyle & Hale.
The "Ryder Way" does not ignore the study of anatomy, but folds it into the (learned) habit of envisioning bodily form: outside, inside, the values of light and shadow upon it, the Natural Law of its curvature nature, and so on.
There is no harm done in mastering the anatomy of male and female - and much use - knowledge of our parts, of our whole. Such knowledge seeps and settles into our way of looking-about, settles into the background of our sight as we go about the Ryder Way.
Knowing the parts and relations of eyes and limbs (using such mostly subconsciously) keeps our pencil and brush stroking attuned (and accountable) to the "itness" (the damn stubborn) reality of the human figure. The discipline keeps us under the law binding subject, artist and viewer.
Twenty-eight sessions (and of that only a segment of each) does not allow for a full study of the human anatomy. Though the student, in time, is encouraged to make one.
In our introductory drawing course we focus on those parts and relations which students tend to fr about, all the while folding the knowledge gained into the Ryder Way.
Our part study of human parts will take in both bone structure and muscle & flesh. Yet how much given over to bones, how much over to muscle & flesh?
Why is that even a question? Partially because of time, the restriction to a segment in a course of only weeks. But, mostly, the question is asked because of the Ryder Way itself.
With Ryder the focus is on the surfaces of bodily form. That attention on bodily surfaces (with all its multiples, all its relations) discriminates muscles & flesh over bones. Why not? Make sense. That is where we see our bodily lives lived.
Not that bones are to be ignored - we would all collapse flat without them!
But it is with and upon flesh that the trinity of artist, subject and viewer is made manifest.
You thought I was going to say mind and spirit! Not! For that's not what God did in Eden.
Before he spoke or walked with Adam God stirred him up from the Garden's mud and dust - enfleshed him. Unlike day and night, and all creation's beasts, God did not use his Word to create male and female but his fingers in stirred up dirt and a pulverized rib of Adam's.
God never strays far from our flesh.
With mankind, Word did not come first; it was no Logos that had to be begotten. Not at all. With man flesh came first.
So it must be with the artist.
Before any abstraction of planes, lines, fields and color comes bodily form, upon which the lives of men and women are lived.
What is seen is what we can touch. The eye roams the contours of flesh and has no itch to go deeper; for the depths of the surfaces of our bodily form are immense and enormous enough.
God thinks so, he meant it to be such. God goes no deeper than how he made us. The surfaces of our flesh is enough of a meeting place for God to touch our lived lives.
We know that because we image it, see it reflected in the meeting of man and wife. Flesh is enough.
So it is also fr the artist: yes and hair, mouth and tits, thighs and feet, and the throbbing warmth that makes it all so. This is the subject and soul of any work. Must be. Should be.
Will be in our course of drawing. We'll look deep into the contours of human flesh, storing in our imagination the make-up of every human body part and relation.
Such knowledge, nestled as second nature within out ways and methods, will guide our pencil stroking wisely. Doing all this we both image God and imagine his meeting with us along the way.
There's enough here for a thousand pictures. No need to go beyond. By staying close to human flesh, with all its quivering contours, we are doing the work of God - painting out our salvation.
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SECTION FOUR: HISTORY OF DRAWING
INSTRUCTION: 1/2 hour.
TEXTS: See links under ART INSTRUCTION: Course (Syllabus) Calendar PAGE.
TOPICS COVERED: See Art Instruction: Course (Syllabus) Calendar.
Our betters knew better - how to draw and paint. Not that they mastered it completely, or we wouldn't be tasking our own efforts. But they're worth taking a look.
That's a bit weak. It's more than peeking at the past on a whim and whimsey. We look-about what was handed to us, placed in our hands.
It fits the palm. There's a twinge of comfort nestled there. Past drawers and painters kneaded their yeast into line, form and value, raising a tasty dough. A feast for eyes.
Yet, as one feast one knows. The glory is not in yeast but in the "it" itself, the always there (since the genesis) character of line, form and value.
The yeast of the artist, however spiced and measured, hauls it forward. The nature of the art yields to his manhandling - is made manifest into an object that is (almost) unrepeatable. Yet, in spite of any claim to originality, the founding and foundation of art is till such it can only be handed on and off.
Though there is humility all around, our betters expect as to make them better.
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Our betters expect us to invite them. Will do so in our Drawing Course, use them to illustrate the Ryder Method. Hopefully, more than that. As they are used, they guide.
Nothing comprehensive. Too few sessions for that; besides, the allotted segment is brief. Enough, though, to plant (spark) seed (fire) within the student. Done, he begins to understand imagination is nourished on the achievements of others.
Can't do more than a survey of selected periods and individual artists. See ART INSTRUCTION: Course (Syllabus) Calendar PAGE.
O.K., you've noticed, some of these folks were not heavy into drawing (or, what remains provide little evidence). We pull everything down into the fundamental foundations of drawing. We have a byword for that: we look at paintings as drawing.
And, so we shall.
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SUPPLEMENT: DRAWING JAMMIN' SESSIONS
Separate. Weekly. Open Studio. Prop-in.
Directed practice of prior instructional session, but relaxed in materials and approached allowed.
The Instructional Sessions are designed to be limited in materials used and methods. In the Jammin' Sessions students may (without pushing the course's envelope to far) experiment with pastels, washes, colored pencils, toned paper - all the while focused on the overall, overarching "philosophy" that structures this course of study.
There's purpose, during the instructional sessions, for restricting the student to graphite pencil and white toned paper. The constraint sharpens mind and vision. This way the student befriends disciplines.
For those eager to introduce and experiment, the student will research the material or technique brought in. Good for them, good for the Drawing Fellowship. Doing so they, too, teach.
Towards the end, the Jammin' Sessions will be given over to live model drawing. Cast drawing? Maybe. Need too snatch up a good copy of The Dying Gaul.
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THE DRAWING FELLOWSHIP
(The Exhibition)
In describing the coming together of Mentor and Students we don't use overwrought words such as "class", "family" or "community". Certainly not the later!
We'll settle for The Drawing Fellowship. More than any other it focuses on the mutual exchange of interest and knowledge while giving place to individual labor and accomplishment.
The word "family" should never be used outside its proper, natural ends. "Community" has been kidnapped and hijacked for far too long, by all sorts of nasty folks, to be of much use.
Fellowship will do. It has a righteous, realistic ring of affection about it.
Something is gained, beyond any lesson taught, when the learning is done within the fellowship of others: the give and take, the shared observation, the looking-about from different points of standing.
In addition, a student brings something unique (unrepeatable) to the instruction - his own self. It is this that both receives and, in time, hands off what is taught. This is best (and more freely) offered and taken up with the safety (the invitation) of the Fellowship.
Unlike families, and the collectives of captured communities, fellowships are truer to the created nature of laboring man. They more easily gather together for the work at hand, and part when it is fulfilled..
With good faith and a fond farewell, The Drawing Fellowship takes its leave with an exhibition of all its works.
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TEXTS REFERENCED
AMAZON: The Artist's Complete Guide to Figure Drawing by Anthony Ryder
AMAZON: Classical Drawing Atelier by Juliette Aristides [IMAGE NO AVAILABLE]
AMAZON: Composition by David Friend
AMAZON: Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist by Stephen Peck
AMAZON: Anatomy Lessons from the Great Masters by Hale, Coyle & Hale
AMAZON: Guide to Drawing by Faber & Mendelowitz
