Classical Atelier at Home

For the self taught realist artist

Foundation

To be able to paint realistically it is essential to be able to draw realistically.

Many ongoing Artists slip up doing the more complex subject of painting too early without having profound education in drawing – the easier accomplished skill. Drawing trains the eyes. Practising drawing trains perception to a high degree and sets the foundation for painting – that is working with color. Not until the student has mastered perception of form, he is able to switch to color. So learning to draw is the first step for a ClassicalAtelier@Home student.

Drawing trains the eye

Learning to draw trains the perception to a high degree and lays the foundation for painting – working with colors. Not until the student has mastered the perception of form he will be able to go on to working with color.

Form is not represented through color but through light and shade. This is the reason, we are able to watch black and white pictures and television and everything but the color can be recognized. A test on color blindness works with this principle:

test_farbenblindheit

On the left hand side you can recognize the number 74. Without the color information on the right hand side you just see dots in different shades of grey since the number is represented through color – without color the number is gone.

Black and white and every gradation in between are the essential factors of a realistic picture. The following example is a painting by Rembrandt. On the left hand side is the original – on the right hand side the same picture but only in greyscale.

rembrandt-farbe-schwarzweiss

THIS MEANS: if you want to be able to paint realistically, you need to be able to draw realistically!

But how do you learn to draw and how do you learn to draw exactly?

Well, now is the time where the Bargue Drawings come in. With the Bargue Drawings you learn to see distances, angles and lenghts – those aspects who define the general stucture of a thing. Through working with a Bargue plate you learn to see and judge these things. A Bargue Drawing is a Line Drawing – as opposed to a Mass Drawing.