What does academic drawing mean. Portrait Drawing Basics

Mastery gives true freedom in creativity. And it doesn’t matter at what age a person decided to learn to draw: at 20, 40, 50. Paying due attention to academic drawing, he will soon be able to depict on a sheet of paper or on canvas what he wants. What advice can you give to a beginner draftsman?

1. Try not to treat an academic drawing course as boring. "school". When you learn to accurately convey on paper cubes, cones, balls - you can take on any story. Take a closer look at the surrounding objects: they are based on ordinary geometric figures.

The easiest thing for beginners to do is figure frames made from wire. Having undertaken to depict them, it is easiest to see the shape of an object, to comprehend the laws of perspective. There may not be such frames at hand, but in an art school or art studio they are sure to be.

2. Layouts. Of great help to those who are just mastering the art of drawing will be models of the same geometric shapes made of paper or cardboard. They should be light so that the artist can better see the chiaroscuro. It is desirable to put a lamp next to the layout. Then the shadows will turn out to be the brightest and most distinct. You can mark with an arrow - where the light comes from.

3. Literature. Even if you are studying at an art school or studio, it will be useful to have at home special literature on academic drawing. The artist must work regularly, as they say, "not a day without a line." A mentor will not always be there. In this case, books will be of great help. As a rule, all of them are illustrated. You will read about shadows, tonal relationships, perspective, and much more, complete the suggested exercises.

The best choice will become:

• book Nicholas Lee"Fundamentals of Academic Drawing"
• work Bert Dodson "Keys to the Art of Drawing"
• Betty Edwards "Discover the artist in you."

4. Dishes. Having learned how to draw wire frames and paper models, you can move on to a more difficult task - to depict porcelain or earthenware. It is advisable to take the simplest - white or light colors, without ornaments and other decorations. Your goal at this stage is to accurately convey the shape of the subject.

5. Tools. High-quality working tools will become real helpers for you. IN this case It's just a simple pencil and eraser. Must have pencils varying degrees softness. The lead can be sharpened with a very good sharpener, but a scalpel is even better.

Eraser artists usually cut diagonals. Are obtained sharp corners, with which you can remove the failed small parts. Also, every professional has nag. You can buy it in specialized stores. With the help of a soft mass, it is easy to weaken the shadow by several tones, remove unnecessary lines.

6. Techniques. One of the most important tasks is to learn how to apply strokes. Constant training, special exercises will help to quickly master the necessary skill. On any clean slate paper, try to quickly draw long straight lines. The secret is that you don't have to keep track of every inch you "pull". Just connect two marked points.

A lot of such lines can fit on a sheet. Practice until the paper appears black. Even better, if it is possible to fix the sheet on easel. In this case, you will train not only hatching, but also the correct position of the hand.

7. Mentor. In mastering academic drawing, a mentor will be of great help to beginners. You should not choose it, focusing solely on big name or the prestige of an art school. Remember - next to the teacher you should feel comfortable. Teacher will be able to answer all your questions, he will patiently help you sort out difficult moments for you. A lot of useful things can be learned from video lessons and special literature.

8. On initial stage don't be afraid to draw badly)). Do not give up - rarely something is given immediately. Exercise Constantly - remember how much time dancers devote to rehearsals, how many hours musicians spend playing instruments. No one will force you to publish your first work. Save them for yourself. Months later, when you open the folder with pictures, you will see what big way passed, how much they learned.

9. From simple to complex. Do not rush to take on those things that are still difficult for you. If, as soon as you start studying, you sit down to draw a portrait of a friend or decide to depict a city landscape, the result can be disappointing and discourage you from attending academic drawing classes. Meanwhile, it skills training you need now.

I would like to remind you once again - only by acquiring the necessary skills, you will be able to realize your creative plans fully. And these tips will help to bring to life our teachers of academic drawing at an art school INSPIRATION By address: Moscow, Gateway Embankment, 2/1, building 4.

In the curriculum of educational institutions that train artists, there is always such a subject as academic drawing. This is the ability to convey the volume and texture of an object with the help of chiaroscuro.

The meaning of academic drawing

The works of those artists who have studied this discipline can always be distinguished - they look professional. Amateurs can only copy environment. Professionals have the opportunity to let their imagination run wild and draw an object from any angle, without even seeing it in front of them.

In the course of mastering the basics of academic drawing, you will learn artistic literacy. As a result, abilities will develop: you will confidently reflect on paper everything you have planned. It is very important that the classes take place in the classroom, under the guidance of a mentor. There are many nuances in staging objects, creating the right lighting, choosing the best angles.

How to correctly compose a composition, build a drawing, arrange it in shadows, work it out in tone, give texture - this can only be taught by a knowledgeable teacher who uses all the possibilities of the studio: a large selection of objects, draperies, the presence of the necessary lighting. In some educational institutions and amateur circles, classes academic drawing minimized. But if in the future you want to create not some abstract things “for yourself”, but real paintings - still lifes, portraits, landscapes - then you need to spare no effort to comprehend fine arts.

What is taught during the course?

During the academic drawing lessons, you will master:

the laws of perspective;

the skills of arranging objects on a sheet of paper;

ability to correctly reflect proportions;

the art of arranging chiaroscuro and conveying the texture of objects.

In the first lessons, you will learn how to draw three-dimensional figures- cube, cylinder, sphere. At the same time, you will master the techniques of chiaroscuro. How the light falls, where the deepest shadow lies, how to apply hatching correctly - mastering these skills will help you depict objects in the most realistic way. The tasks will become more and more difficult, because the correct geometric shapes in surrounding life do not meet. Chiaroscuro will take center stage. Without it, it is impossible to convey neither the volume nor the texture of objects. Before, it took years to master the science. Today, thanks to the developed teaching methods, you can get the necessary knowledge for a short time.

myths

Myths often prevent novice artists from starting classes in academic drawing. You will have to work according to a clear scheme. No self-activity is allowed. Yes, in the beginning you will be taught how to draw the simplest geometric shapes. But, having mastered the basic knowledge and skills, you can depict the surrounding objects by creating your own compositions. It is difficult to learn academic drawing, you need talent. In fact, you just need to have certain knowledge and be able to apply them in practice.

However, it is better to master science not on your own, but under the guidance of a teacher. He will explain, show and help to avoid mistakes. You need to study for many years, otherwise nothing will work. Basic knowledge can be mastered in a short time. It will take a few sessions for you to master the basic principles. How much time and effort you devote to further improvement depends only on you. The process of learning academic drawing is boring. When you draw geometric shapes, you will have to show yourself as attentive and thoughtful students. The more successfully and faster you master the skills, the sooner you can move on to an exciting creative process.

Work materials

The main tools in the classroom for academic drawing will be simple pencils. In order to correctly convey light and dark shades, the texture of objects - slates must have different hardness.

You will need hard pencils(working in the light), medium soft (midtones) and soft (shadows). Very soft pencils used for sketches and sketches. You will also need a sharp knife for sharpening leads, 2 erasers - soft and harder. A tablet or board, and also buttons to secure the paper. Drawing paper is used in the classroom, it is also useful for a novice artist to have a notebook for sketches.

In support of practical exercises with teachers, you can also study special literature. One of best books for beginner artists - "Fundamentals of educational academic drawing" by Nikolai Lee. The publication discusses in detail the theory and practical issues of visual literacy. Training tasks on academic drawing are given. And they are arranged in sequence - from simple to complex.

Having carefully studied the book, the reader will get acquainted with the basics of composition, get the necessary information about perspective and proportions, comprehend the basics of chiaroscuro, and will have an idea about anatomy. He will form volumetric-spatial representations, and as a result of the exercises, graphic skills will improve. The textbook will benefit the most different categories of readers- and students of art universities, and students of specialized schools, and just amateurs. Do not be afraid to start classes in academic drawing. Patience and perseverance will definitely pay off.

The craft of a good draftsman is based on 2 basic things: the ability to control your hand and the right vision. If you want to create or design websites, then you can’t do without special training.

The next 6 sections of the article, in fact, are the first step in this direction - you will learn how to learn how to draw and where to start. Immediately after that, proceed to the second part of the topic and go on.

This is a translation of a note from Medium by Ralph Ammer (all graphics are his own).

Advice. For the next 6 tasks, use one type of pen and one type of paper (for example, A5).

Hand dexterity - two workouts

The first two moves are about controlling your hand. You should fill your hand, and also learn to coordinate the vigilance of the eye and the movement of the brush. Mechanical practices are great for beginners. You can later use them to try out new tools. They also allow you to relax and take a break from mental or physical work. So, how to start drawing correctly.

1. Lots and lots of circles

Fill a sheet of paper with circles different size. Try not to overlap the circles.

Learning to draw circles is not as easy as you might think. Note that the more circles on the paper, the more difficult it is to add the next one. Draw them in two directions and as many as you can.

Advice. Shake your hand when it starts to cramp, do this after each set.

2. Hatching - creating a structure

Fill in a sheet of paper with parallel lines.

Diagonal lines are the easiest for us, as they correspond to the movement of our wrist. Note that the left-hander prefers the opposite direction of strokes than the right-hander. Take a look at your favorite artist (in my case, Leonardo da Vinci) and try to guess which hand he wrote with?

Try other stroke directions. Have fun with the hatching process. Combine different strokes and enjoy how the paper is covered with various shadow spots.

Advice. Do not rotate the paper. It is very important to train your hand in different directions.

So, after we have trained the hand, we need to do exercises on the eyes!

Perception - learning to see

Drawing is primarily about seeing and understanding what you see. People often assume that everyone sees the same thing, but that's actually not the case. You can always improve and develop the quality of vision. The more you draw, the more you see. The following four tricks will make you expand your view of familiar objects. This is exactly what they begin to learn to draw in different courses.

3. Contour - show me your hands!

Do you see these different fascinating contours of your hand? Draw them on a piece of paper. Do not try to recreate everything, choose only a few of the most interesting ones.

Whether you're drawing a person, a plant, or your favorite animal, you create the outline of what you see. Outlines define the body or object and make it possible to recognize the pattern. The task is not to immediately display all existing distinctive features but to learn to see them!

Even if you know the shape of an object, it's still worth taking a closer look and re-examining it.

4. Chiaroscuro - apply light and shadow

Draw a piece of fabric. Start with the outlines, and then use your hatching skills to find the chiaroscuro transitions.

This exercise will help you learn how to convey light and shadow on paper. I must admit that this is not the easiest way for beginners. Keep in mind that it is not necessary to make perfect chiaroscuro transitions. The fabric is a playing field to practice the skills learned in the previous lessons. Plus, you will also understand how to learn how to draw chiaroscuro using only your hand.

Advice. You can do curved hatching to create shape, and cross hatching to achieve deeper shadows that resemble the texture of fabric.

Advice. Close your eyes a little while looking at the fabric. You will see a blurry image of the fabric and increased contrast between light and shade.

5. Perspective - Cubes in 3D Space

Let's draw cubes! Follow simple steps.

A drawing in perspective is a projection of a 3D object into 2D space (your sheet of paper).

Building a perspective is a separate science, which is unrealistic to be fully considered within the framework of one article. However, we can have some fun with a simple technique that gives us an intuitive feel for the magic of drawing in perspective.

Step 1. Draw horizontal line. This will be the horizon.

Step 2. Put two points along the edges of the line - two invisible vanishing points.

Step 3. Draw a vertical line anywhere.

Step 4 Connect the ends of the vertical line to the vanishing points.

Step 5: Add Two More vertical lines as below.

Step 6 Connect them to the vanishing points.

Step 7 Now use a black pencil or pen to trace the cube.

Repeat steps 3 to 7 for as long as you wish. Enjoy building! Have fun drawing, then you will succeed. You can shade the sides of the cube.

Advice. When you draw cross lines, it's best to overlap one line slightly over the other, so the shape is more visible.

Mastering perspective drawings will help you create the illusion of depth. And most importantly, you will teach your brain to see and recognize three-dimensional space. This is a great practice for how to start drawing from scratch without any skills.

Even if you decide to ignore the rules of perspective and make “flat drawings”, this knowledge will never be superfluous, but on the contrary will help expand your horizons and sharpen your visual receptor.

6. Building a composition - why here?

Do 5 different drawings one object. Position the item differently each time.

As you create various options positioning your subject on paper, try to trace how this changes its connotation - meaning.

The author Ralph Ammer has a few more interesting articles, but it is this one that you need to watch first in order to understand where to start drawing with a pencil and not only. In the comments, I would like to see your opinion about the pros and cons of the presented methodology. Which exercises really gave you pleasure, which did not? What else do you want to know on the topic or, perhaps, you have your own experience on how to learn to draw from scratch - write all this below.

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Friends, today I have 2 news. I'll start, traditionally, with not the most pleasant. Well, not for everyone, but perhaps for those who are looking forward to a watercolor course. The training has been delayed a bit.

I don't know what to name as a reason. For some reason the course this moment, which is called, "does not go." Either the footage is not saved, then the sound disappears without a trace in the finished video, then the camera breaks ...

In general, it seemed to me that it was worth putting the work on pause for a while ...

In the meantime, the watercolor course is laid back, I decided to switch to something no less interesting. What exactly? For example, I'm very interested academic drawing.

You may remember that in, which I recently offered to take, there was a question about what topics of courses or trainings you are interested in. And among other things, there was an answer "Academic Drawing". To be honest, I did not think that someone would choose this option, I included it just out of curiosity.

And - completely unexpected for me! - 53 people out of 121 answered that they are interested in academic drawing.

Why is this surprising. During the time that I have been working on the site, I have got the impression that most of the people who are looking for drawing lessons on the Internet do not want to study seriously, in a sense, professionally. And what do they want? I don't know... Maybe just to keep myself busy or kill some time? (I foresee a storm of indignation .. No, I do not mean you personally, I know that my longtime readers study very seriously).

academic drawing it is a professional education system. And I am very glad that among my readers there were many who are interested in this.

But still, suddenly we understand by this term several different things?

Let me talk about some of the misconceptions associated with academic drawing, or myths. And then about the basic principles of academic drawing.

Myth 1. academic drawing- work on assignment, at the institute or at an art school. Unlike a drawing on a free theme.

In fact, academic drawing is a system realistic image objects based on their design features.

And, in principle, it does not matter what and where you draw. It is almost always possible to guess from a drawing whether its author studied academic drawing. This is especially noticeable in the popular Lately portraits from photos. Because without such a skill, a person simply copies tonal spots, and the form can “float”. If the artist has learned to draw professionally, he first of all begins to build a portrait, and arranges the spots in accordance with the construction. Perhaps he will have them somewhat different than in the original photo, but the form will look correct and convincing.

Myth 2. Academic drawing very difficult to learn.

In principle, it is clear why such an impression is formed. I also saw voluminous drawing textbooks recommended for studying in art universities. But you see, drawing is movement. What can be shown very easily is much more difficult to explain in words. Try to describe, for example, "the dance of the little ducklings" in such a way that a person who has never seen it would be able to dance, guided by your description. Guess you'll have to use "multi-bookaf" as teenagers say)

Education in the Soviet Union was really mass and generally accessible. And the system of academic training in drawing was built in such a way that anyone could be taught to draw. There is no cumbersome theory that requires cramming. All the theory needed to draw a still life, for example, is the knowledge that parallel lines intersect at the horizon, and circles look like ellipses in perspective. There are a few more rules, but they are also simple and easy to understand.

Myth 3. Academic drawing you have to study for many years.

Once again, this is a practical discipline. The same as dancing or driving a car. You can master the basic principles and movements in just a few lessons. And years of practice hone skills. It is clear that someone who has been driving a car for 10 years does it somewhat better than someone who has just received a license. And so - yes, you can learn all your life.

Myth 4. academic drawing- a very boring job.

It's hard to argue here. At first, until it turns out very well, maybe it’s really not fun. Because they start training with primitives - they draw a cube, a ball, prisms. And I want, for example, a portrait.

But, it's like scales in music. The Flight of the Bumblebee is much more interesting to play, but if the fingers have not gained fluency as a result of playing "boring" scales, the Flight of the Bumblebee will not be fast either.

Basic principles of academic drawing.

1. The design of the object is of paramount importance. At the same time, the constructive construction is inseparable from the cut-off modeling. That is, chiaroscuro is distributed over the object in strict accordance with its structure and shape.
2. Each subject can be represented as a set of basic geometric shapes: ball, parallelepiped, cylinder. If you know how light is distributed over the surface of these simple shapes, you can draw any complex shape. Actually, that's why students draw plaster primitives.
3. The artist paints in planes. That is, all semitones occupy their own section of the plane. Where are the boundaries of these planes, you find based on the design of the object. I don’t know how to explain it more clearly, this is just the case when it’s much easier to show than to tell ...
4. Chiaroscuro and design are worked out simultaneously, on the entire plane of the sheet. That is, there are no "white spots", as in the case when you first draw one piece, then another. Drawing at any stage can be considered complete.
5. The work is carried out from the general to the particular. First large shapes and planes, then details. That is, if you are drawing a portrait, for example, you do not start with the peephole, but with the general shape of the head. And the little things like eyelashes or moles are generally outlined at the very end, when the drawing is ready.

Well, here, perhaps, all the information necessary to understand what lies behind the definition of "Academic Drawing".