This text discusses the key principles of drawing, focusing on three main methods: drawing from the studies of great masters, from sculptures, and from live models or nature. It emphasizes the importance of beginning with simple drawings, such as head ovals, to understand the placement of facial features. The text outlines how students should progress through copying studies from the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture.
PRINCIPLES
Regarding the organs employed in this process, and how to develop a long and continual habit with them. The whole practice of drawing is reduced to three key elements: drawing based on the studies of great masters, drawing from sculptures, and drawing from live models or nature. We will expand on these three methods in the following sections.
Drawing Based on Studies of the Great Masters
The first drawings given to young students to copy are usually made from nature by a skilled Master. The second plate in this collection shows head ovals seen from the front, three-quarters, profile, looking up, looking down, etc. This is where a student should begin; they must practice drawing these with pencil until they grasp the divisions and lines upon which the eyes, nose, mouth, ears, etc., are positioned. This well-understood principle enables one to assemble a head, whatever its situation. They will then copy all the parts of the head, taken separately, represented on plates 3, 4, 5, and onwards, which offer a selection of studies made by the most skilled artists of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, very suitable for serving as models for those who wish to learn the art of drawing. These first twelve plates are engraved by Mr. Pasquier, after MM. Dandré Bardon & Boucher. There are five plates of eyes in all kinds of positions, three plates of ears,