Excerpt
Our challenge in writing the third edition was to maintain the virtues of previous editions, with their emphasis on the absolute beginner, while increasing the usefulness of
Drawing: Space, Form, and Expression for students who have progressed beyond the fundamentals of drawing. With reference to adapting our book for more advanced study, the major change in this revised edition is the addition of a chapter on drawing the human figure. In developing this new chapter, our goal was to condense material appropriate to an introductory figure class into a manageably sized text for life drawing students. Organized around the principle of drawing the human form "from the inside out," this chapter starts with analyses of the bony and musculature systems, and a discussion of gestural response to the figure as a means to summarize bodily form and to test layout. It concludes with a detailed examination of the narrative potential in figurative art.
The third edition also features extensive revisions of three chapters that appeared in earlier editions. "Visualizations: Drawing from Your Imagination," a chapter tailored for students who wish to expand their source material beyond observed reality, benefits from enhanced practical guidelines to conceiving envisioned drawings and also from a memorable collection of invented images, over half of which are new. Inspirational works of peers are once again concentrated in the chapter "Portfolio of Student Drawings." This chapter showcases 24 sustained drawings, selected from 16 schools and departments of art nationwide. By devoting a chapter solely to student works, accompanied by a text that examines the form and content of each image, we attempt to furnish realistic benchmarks of quality and ambition for the student reader. The wholly revised chapter, "Portfolio of Contemporary Drawings," anchors the art and craft of the drawing tradition in the twenty-first century. By exploring today's trends through images drawn by leading contemporary artists, advanced students may begin in earnest to associate the drawings they make with the streams of theory and aesthetic practice that define art now.
Left intact in this new edition is our commitment to showcasing a vital mix of old and new masterworks. The richness of these images selected from across the arc of history not only serves as an essential complement to the written word, but each image stands on its own as an exemplary visual model, able to teach volumes through the silent power of significant form. Looking to strengthen and diversify the graphic definition of our book, we have for this new edition replaced nearly half of the artworks (not counting technical illustrations), including over 40 new student works dispersed throughout the text.
As in the first two editions, the organizational principle of our book is to proceed from the most basic information to the gradual introduction of more sophisticated concepts. Arranged into 14 chapters, this revised and expanded edition may be divided into two interrelated halves that more clearly echo the learning curve experienced by undergraduate art students. Chapters 1 through 7 lay the foundation for "the facts of seeing." In the first five chapters the dual nature of the picture plane is given special emphasis, first as an imaginary window onto space, and second as the literal flat surface upon which one draws. This approach is aimed at fostering an awareness of the natural union of drawing and design, while demystifying the systems of proportion and perspective. Chapters 6 and 7 retain their focus on the depiction of three-dimensional form by urging students toward an understanding of the structural properties of form through diagrammatic analysis, and the observation of surface phenomena as revealed by light. Chapters 8 through 14 are geared for students who have completed basic instruction and are ready to more deeply investigate matters of expression. Covered in these later chapters are the expressive values of formal and subject-matter narratives, the applied and aesthetic dimensions of color in drawing, the use of imaginative source material, empathic responses to the human figure, and critical questions embedded in the modern/postmodern debate.
The scope of our revisions may exceed expectations for a new edition, but entering into this project we felt the need to renew our purpose. The extensive modifications were not purchased without toil, in stretches unremitting. But we were buoyed by our goal: to have the third edition be received as a complete guide to drawing, one that will serve art students from the onset of their foundation classes through their final drawing projects as seniors. In the largest sense, then, it is our hope that Drawing: Space, Form, and Expression will take its place among the essential texts as a prized resource companion for serious students of drawing.