Douglas Johnson - Art Models 10: Photos for Figure Drawing, Painting, and Sculpting

The best way to improve in most things is to practice. This is especially true in art. To practice, you need qualityreference material that inspires you. Thats what the Art Models series of books, disks, and website are all about.Art Models 10 is not a how-to book. It is more of a what-to book, with photos for figure art. It can be usedby students for practice, professionals for finished works of art (which can be sold), or by anyone who needsa quality figure reference.

For students, it might not be obvious how you benefit from pose photos. For that reason, we wanted to providean example of how you can use pose photos to improve, plus give you an extra incentive to start using the photosright away. So we have included an exercise at the beginning of the book to get you started. It is designed forintermediate students. For beginners, you can see our book Figure Drawing Studio by Butch Krieger which has practical,hands-on exercises that he learned over a career as a professional artist. FDS also has more of our referencepose photos.

The poses were chosen by a group of art instructors, which we hope will make the collection genuinely useful forboth students and experienced artists. One of the artists gave his thoughts on the selection process. He saidhe looked for:

• Mood/expression
• Dynamic action/torsion
• Dramatic shadows
• Compositional dynamics between multiple figures
• Personality
• Graceful/elegant
• Traditional classical poses
• Strong sense of depth
• Sometimes, basic simplicity

"I avoided obscured contours and eclipsed body parts. I also decided to include only nude models. Overall,I looked for variety in poses and model types and lighting."

The following art teachers helped select poses for this book. We are sincerely grateful for their time and expertise!

• Butch Kriegerwww.butchkrieger.com
• Pauline Adairwww.paulineadair.com
• Steven Hugheswww.primaryhughes.com
• Rickey Lewislewisartdesigns.com
• Scott Barneswww.artandwater.com
• Gillian Lee Smithwww.gillianleesmithartist.com

Recognizing that students might want to keep expenses as low as possible, we have chosen to separate the printbook from the Companion Disk for Art Models 10. This allows us to dramatically reduce the cover price even whileincreasing the number of pages.

Our goal was to make a very affordable book that is genuinely useful on its own. That led to making the photosas large as possible and putting one pose per page for the full body poses. If space allowed, we put two viewsof the pose (the Companion Disk typically has 24). There are roughly 100 distinct poses. In addition, sectionson hands, feet, and faces give close-up views of these notoriously tricky areas.

If you do get the Companion Disk, the name of each pose appears right after the photo and can be used to find the poseon the disk.

Please let us know what you think of these choices by writing to us at contact@livemodelbooks.com.

Butch Krieger, a self-taught artist, originally established himself as a courtroom Illustratorin the 1970s and 80s. Since then he has become known best for his innovative portraitureand figure drawings. See more of his work at www.butchkrieger.com.

In this exercise, we wanted to give you a small sample of how you can use pose photos to improve your skills. If you like this article, you can find much more in the book Figure Drawing Studio by the author of this exercise, Butch Krieger.

The objective of this exercise is to teach you the technique of modeling. In the lexicon of the artists techniques, to model means to use tonal contrasts (shading) to create the illusion of a three-dimensional form on what is actually a two-dimensional surface. Modeling is also called chiaroscuro, particularly when done with dramatically strong contrasts, such as with the image that you will be using in this exercise.

As you undertake this effort, keep in mind that this multi-layered approach is not a style of drawing nor a method for creating drawings to frame and sell. It is a skills-training exercise for mental and manual techniques, as well as judgment. You can later use this skill to make presentable, marketable works of art.

The materials that you will need for this project are as follows:

• Graphite pencil(s) #2 and possibly a softer lead (e.g. #6) for darkest areas. For my demonstration I used just one pencil, which is the Ebony Jet Black Extra Smooth.
• Kneaded eraser.
• Drawing paper, pad or board of your choice.
• Sheets of velum or tracing paper. If you have no experience with drawing on velum and tracing paper, particularly along with a kneaded eraser, I suggest that you experiment and practice with them before undertaking this exercise.