#drawingmanual

Today’s drawing lesson is how to draw a dog!

This self-instructing drawing manual entitled “The Youth’s New London Self-Instructing Drawing Book: containing A Series of Progressive Lessons, with Instructions for Drawing Rural Scenery, Architecture, the Human Figure, Animals, etc.” was published in 1839 and illustrated by Nathaniel Whittock (1791-1860), who was a prolific writer of instruction books on drawings and other subjects.

Now follow these instructions.

“Commence the outline with the skull, which is that part of the drawing beginning at the ear and ending at the top of the nose. Make a number of very faint outlines, till you are certain that you have obtained a correct one; then proceed with the nose, bringing the line down to form the right jaw. Afterwards, draw the outline of the end of the tongue and the fore teeth, bringing the line under the jaw to the throat. In forming this outline do not think any thing about drawing a dog, but suppose you are drawing the exact shape of some inanimate mass placed before you. ..”

The Excellency of the Pen and Pencil: Classical Drawing Manuals from the Collections of the Fine Arts Library.

September 1– December 1, 2017

Our new exhibit showcases some of the splendid examples from classical drawing manuals from the collection. The human figures are considered the most difficult, and as these drawing manuals show, artists and art students learned to draw the features separately by looking at historical examples and copying them. We wish we could display every page from these magnificent manuals, but we decided to focus on human figures and facial expressions for the display. 

The Excellency of the Pen and Pencil: Classical Drawing Manuals from the Collections of the Fine Arts Library.

Figure drawing manuals, visual guides designed to teach artists how to observe and draw the human body, began to appear in manuscript form in the Renaissance period. By the sixteenth century, printed versions of drawing manuals were published, providing both professional and amateur artists with engraved models and exercises to help them perfect their skills. The Fine Arts Library’s collections include a number of such manuals, among them the handful of examples chosen for this exhibit. Some of them show clear signs of use, with handwritten owners’ marks and the blank pages of manuals used by the owners for practicing their - often still undeveloped - skills as draftsmen.

Page shown with actual drawing done by the owner Carracci, Annibale, 1560-1609. Essemplare del dissegno di Anibale Carraci ed altri autori celebri. Pavia: Baldassare Comino, [1780].