more studies

These are more studies of masters...I am learning a lot from them so intend to do more and get better. Was reading about C. Bargue today and of the C@st Drawing/ Szing method. If you haven't read about it before (or purchased the really expensive book which I literally saw on Amzon for $2000 today :-S), essentially in the 19th century, there was a four year course that artists would take where they would learn to draw academically; by measuring scale and proportion to accurately interpret volume, light, shadow, etc. It would be four years of only drawing from casts. Only when the artist was proficient in draughtsmanship to interpret the casts as accurately as possible was the artist allowed to draw an actual live model. Wow, how far we've strayed from that. There are actually (and very rarely) places where I live that teach this, and I think that it is quite fascinating. As the girl (whose blog I read and who teaches such a course) was saying, it is a great tool in finding out your bad habits (do you make things too round, too thin, etc). Anything where a person can doublecheck and attempt to eliminate those bad habits sounds great to me :) There seems to be a tendency in so many artforms (photography, art, music) to stylize and someone said to me that style or 'talent' is really what you do with the tools; your application, but that has to be within the constraints of understanding the rules and how to use the tools (ie the craftsmanship of drawing/painting or how to play an instrument or expose a photo or light) proficiently. Because if there are no standards, we are really just not lowering the bar for the artform, but for the subsequent generations of artists. Incidentally, this form of drawing by Bargue was what was used by the masters and passed on from master to apprentice. So again...the notion of responsibility and passing on the integrity of an artform. Anyways, enough of my philosophy. Working on improving....