Foundations of Drawing

Al Gury chairs the painting department at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, where he also teaches drawing. Gury exhibits his work at numerous galleries and museums around the country.

CONTENTS 

Introduction 4 
What Is Drawing? 4 
Anyone Can Learn to Draw 8 
“Why Can’t I Draw a Straight Line?” 8 

1 Essential History of Drawing 11 
Beginnings in Prehistory 12 
The Ancient World 14 
The Medieval World 15 
The Renaissance 17 
The Baroque 20 
The Nineteenth Century 21 
Beginnings of the Modern Era 26 
The Modern World 29 
Contemporary Growth and Challenges 33 
Today 35 

2 Essential Drawing Materials 37 
Drawing Mediums 38 
Drawing Tools 68 
Paper 74 
The Drawing Studio—Furniture and Equipment 81 
Storage, Presentation, and Conservation of Drawings 84

3 Essential Drawing Skills 87 
Holding Drawing Tools 88 
Measuring 90 
Blending and Erasing 95 
Methods of Drawing 95 
Types of Line 101 
Hatching and Other Descriptive Marks 106 
Shape 108 
Depth and Perspective 113 
Closed versus Open Form 118 
Planes 122 
Tonality, Light, and Shade 122 
Texture 128 
Composition and the Compositional Frame 128 

4 Essential Aesthetics in Drawing 149 
Classicism 152 
Realism 153 
Abstraction 154 
Expressionism 158 

5 Essential Drawing Demonstrations 161 
Drawing Still Lifes 163 
Drawing Interiors and Architecture 174 
Drawing Portraits 182 
Drawing the Human Figure 191