Classical Drawing Atelier: A Contemporary Guide to Traditional Studio Practice

I teach drawing, painting and design and stumbled across this book when looking for the Bargue book. The book is well written with several useful exercises.

Additionally, a clear rationale is presented for teaching academic drawing to the beginning art student as a means to better express their ideas.

I work at the New York Academy of Art (NYAA). Several of the images were made by NYAA instructors and alumni. An additional copy has been added to our library.

JC

I have quite a collection of art books that I keep as reverences and browse into every now and again. I bought this book as I taught that it might be good, and since I am always looking for `that knowledge' of fine art schools, but since I do not have the time and money to attend to classes, I try to study by myself. Few books ever give me the satisfaction of buying it, and most of the time I end up gathering some information which is either irrelevant or keep on reading the same text from book to book, with just a few words that make it different from all the others. But this one is sooooo different. I have found what I have been looking for in the last couple of years. Can't believe this book is so cheap!!! The pictures are massive, the knowledge is wicked and the style is simply out of this world! If you're into classic fine art, this book is a must, whether you re a beginner or a professional artist.

When I first came across this book on Amazon the name Juliette Aristides seemed familiar to me; when I discovered that I had seen her work at the John Pence gallery in San Francisco a while back I just had to buy her book. Besides, I've been a working artist for over a quarter of a century with a have a passion for realistic figure drawing and I often read "how to draw" books for pleasure. So I pre-ordered through Amazon and was delighted when the book arrived and I'm still delighted after having read it.

In her introduction the author writes "This book was written with the aim of reintroducing basic or fundamental principles of art. The principles laid out in this book, when studied in both successful works of art and through exploratory exercise, will hone one's powers of observation, cultivate awareness of visual subtleties, foster discipline of both eye and hand, and build the skill and technique required to create strong, successful artwork of any style or genre."

The principles Ms. Aritides espouses have their origins in Greek classicism which, after having inspired the Italian Renaissance, were then reinterpreted and codified into a systematic course of training and study by the French art academies of the 18th and 19th centuries.These methods were brought to the US by returning American students who had studied in the ateliers ("atelier" means a workshop or studio, especially an artist's studio) of French academicians and painters. With the birth of Modernism these principles fell into disrepute in modern art education. Ms. Aristides and other contemporary classic realists hope to reinvigorate these principles by reintroducing atelier training as an alternative art educational method to those methods now found in university art programs. The contemporary atelier movement hopes to do this by taking art training out of the classroom and returning it to the artist's studio. Concerning this she writes "Atelier instructors believe that combining direct observation from life with knowledge of historical skills will revitalize the arts of our times."

As well as being a "how to" drawing guide this book doubles clearly as a manifesto of sorts. Not only does the book offer practical drawing instruction, it places these lessons in a historical, social, and philosophical framework. To me this gives the book a welcome depth one seldom finds in this sort of book.

The book is divided into four parts and ten chapters.

Part one: Welcome to the Atelier. This consists of one chapter titled "A historical perspective, artistic training in the Twenty-first Century" in which the author provides a brief, incisive overview of the history of the atelier movement's origins and history.

Part two: TIMELESS PRINCIPLES has chapters 2 through 5. They are: 2. Design-Nature and the Golden Ratio; 3. Line: Two-dimensional Dynamics; 4. Value: The world in black and white; 5. Form: The third dimension. The chapter on the Golden Ratio may be tough going for the math challenged, but it's worth the slight effort required. I had no problem with the math, but some of the author's philosophical conclusions are dubious. She makes some suspect claims of a crypto-creationist nature linking an absurd Pythagorean mystical numerology and the Platonic notion of ideal forms to an underlying "creative intelligence" behind the concept of an ordered universe. These irritated my scientific materialism. Deduct one star.

Part three: TIMELESS SUBJECTS presents chapter 6 through 9. They are: 6. Master copy drawing, learning from the past; 7. Cast drawing: lessons from master sculptors; 8.Figure drawing: man as the measure; 9. Portrait drawing: window to the soul. The subjects here are dealt with in historical and aesthetic terms.

Part four: PUTTING THEORY INTO PRACTICE presents chapter 10: Atelier principles, Finite principles, Infinite applications. This chapter provides practical step by step instructions addressing sphere drawing, master copy drawing, cast drawing, reductive drawing, & portrait drawing.

An appendix, bibliograpy, & index are included.

The author writes in a clear and concise prose that illuminates her subject. Ms Aristides also has thoughtfully, in both senses of the word, peppered her book with quotes from other artistic luminaries. I read many art instruction books and I can't recall ever enjoying reading another as much as I enjoyed reading this one. Actually, I would claim that "Classical Drawing Atelier" is more of an art reference, art history, and/or art theory treatise than an art instruction book.

This well designed and arranged book is lavishly illustrated with many reproductions not only of the author's drawings but with many fine examples drawn by historical and contemporary masters. The reproductions range from small captioned illustrations to large single page illustrations to illustrations that bleed to the page edge. These alone make the book worth owning. Add this fact to the author's detailed, systematic approach to improving one's drawing skills and factor in the bargain price Amazon is charging for the book, one has a very high value to cost ratio.


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I've had the pleasure of studying with Juliette and am witness to her wealth of knowledge about art history and technique. I'm very excited that she put as much energy in this book as she does in each painting or drawing. In it, she offers a brief history and some great excersizes that will help improve everyones understanding of art. As explained in the book, those paintings that stand the test of time all share the same basic principles. Juliette covers those beautifully. The images are inspiring as well. I'm stoked to add this book to my library!