Harley Brown’s Eternal Truths for Every Artist

Posted on August 18, 2007

Harley Brown's Eternal Truths for Every Artist

Phew, long title to spew out but in all honesty it has been one of the best book purchases I have ever made.

It has a wealth of information ranging from drawing to composition. I have learnt more from this one book than any of the other 6 other art books I have at my disposal. I cannot recommend it enough.

Speaking of recommending, my good friend Robin Morley recommended this book to me. I searched high and low for it but since it has been out of print for so long it took me a long while to find a new copy that wasn’t over priced.

Then as fate would have it I found it at a price I was willing to pay over at Alibris.com. Someone over at the Wetcanvas forums points to Dakota Art Pastels site where the book is readily available and it is only $24.99USD. Needless to say I had a sinking feeling as I could have bought it for much less. Ugg… After I received the book, though, that sinking feeling disappeared as the book is worth what I paid. Looks like it has been confirmed that Dakota Art Pastels no long have the book available for sale.

(Some of the points that have made the most impact to me were his statements that:

“Accuracy is not a dirty word”. In other words, you have to plan the painting out first. Measure twice, then paint. As he says, “Painting becomes much, much easier, more fun, when you’re right on the money from the start, and because you’ll no longer be reworking, your paintings can become as spontaneous and vital [as it can be].”
Value is the most important aspect of a painting. “When values are right, it doesn’t matter what the colour you put in!”
Colour! I really like his approach to using the Munsell System for colour over the traditional colour wheel. I am going to have to try this and see what the results are. Basically the Munsell system has 5 primary colours, not just tree. Along with that, the colours change as it move toward the centre, changing chroma, depending where on the value scale the pigment is. Now, due to the 5 primary colours both complimentary and triad (discord colours as he calls them) colours change. Blue’s complimentary is no long orange, it is yellow-red. Reds is blue-green. The triad of blue is not yellow and red it is red-purple and green-yellow. The whole idea is that the Munsell system will improve your results over the traditional primary model. Test will tell.

Beyond those ideas I have listed the book is filled with a lot more great information no matter what your medium. His medium of choice in the book is pastel which makes it ideal for us pastelist!

Overall I cannot recommend this book enough. I hope you have my luck in finding it at a reasonable price!

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Anatomy and Realism Reference Books

Posted on August 14, 2007

If I am not drawing and sketching then I can at least spend my time reading about it. :)

I spent some time in my local Chapters store and found two more good books on drawing the human form.

Secrets to Drawing Realistic Faces by Carrie Stuart Parks is the first book. As well as having the ever repeated notions on proportions, I picked it up as it has a lot of good detail orientated information. Focusing on specific shading, creases and using reflected light.

Human Anstomy Made Amazingly Easy by Christopher Hart is also good as it is more orientated toward the freedom of the pose. It covers others areas of anatomy along with muscle and bone structure and gives you a good look into what makes our bodies up and why they look the way they do.

I hope to be posting some more sketches and painting later in the week.

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Face and Figure Books

Posted on August 10, 2007

I recently added two new books to my collection to aid in my drawing the human form. One is called “Drawing the Head and Figure” by Jack Hamm, and the other in a little unconventional - “Strength Training Anotomy” by Frederic Delavier.

The strength training book was recommended by Tony O’Regan from my drawing class, as the book has great illustrations in it for understanding the human muscular and skeletal structure underneath the skin.

Strength Training Anotomy Drawing the Head and Figure

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Drawing Face and Figure Workshop

Posted on August 1, 2007

Face and Figure Header

Last Sunday I took a drawing face and figure workshop as I have always wanted to be able to draw the human form. The workshop was put on by Tony O’Regan at The Shadbolt Centre for the Arts in Burnaby.

The class was fantastic! Easy to follow with a lot of information on proportions and formula for drawing the face. Muscle structure plays so much of a role in the details of the face that we went over all the major structures and muscles for a better understanding of what we were drawing.

The figures were a blast as well. Emphasis was on body gesture more than full detailed antomy. It made it so much easier to understand the human form doing it this way. Once I am more comfortable drawing gestures I’ll move on to more of the human form.

Here are some of the results from the class.