Product Description

Great for the beginner and the expert, this book offers readers exercises to improve their work.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6007 in Books
• Published on: 1990-02-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Review
"...not only the best how-to book on drawing, it is the best how-to book we've seen on any subject." -- Review

Review
"...not only the best how-to book on drawing, it is the best how-to book we've seen on any subject." (Whole Earth Review )

About the Author
Kimon Nicolaides was born in Washington D.C., in 1891. His first contact with art was a subconscious familiarity with the oriental objects imported by his father. He decided early that he wished to paint, but he had to run away from home to study art because his parents were unsympathetic to the idea. He supported himself in New York by whatever came to hand - framing pictures, writing for a newspaper, even acting the part of an art student as a movie extra. His father was finally won over by his obvious seriouness and financed his instruction at the Art Students' League - under Bridgman, Miller, and Sloan.
When the United States entered the first World War, Nicolaides volunteered in the Camouflage Corps and served in France for over a year, receiving a citation. One of his assignments, involving the study of geographical contour maps, first opened up for him the conception of "contour" which constitutes Exercise One in this book.
After a period of work in Paris (1922-23), he was given his first one-man show by the famous Bernheim Jeune gallery there. Back in New York, he held his first exhibit at the Old Whitney Studio Club, now the museum, and settled down to painting and teaching. As a painter, choosing to work painstakingly and exhibit seldom, he became known to the critics gradually but unmistakably for "the range of his work," "originality of technical approach," "richness of mental concepts" and his "eager, restless pursuit of new aesthetic experience."
As a teacher, during the next fifteen years, he became, as the Art Digest put it, "second father" to hundreds of students who passed through his classes at the Art Students' League of New York. Scrupulously honest and high-principled, endowed with humor, richness and warmth of personality, sanity and balance, his extraordinary talent for human relationships grew with his wide contact with increasing numbers of students. Although he died in 1938, at a tragically early age, he left behind a tremendously devoted following of brilliant young artists, as well as the unique and concrete system of art teaching presented in this book.

Customer Reviews

If you need help with your drawing...
Nicolaide's book has stood the test of time and has helped a lot of people learn to draw .I learned how to draw by drawing a lot.Nicolaide's approach is geared towards a large volume of drawing and so I favor that approach .No one learns to draw well by not drawing!More drawing = more progress . Don't let the schedules scare you off.Draw as much as you can and try to absorb the principles contained herein. And most important of all have fun!

The Natural Way to Draw
This book is tedious and time consuming but WOW the results! I started with Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain (Edwards) and then moved on to The Natural Way to Draw. Edwards book (I loved it too) explains drawing in a very logical way whereas this book takes you into "the experience of drawing". If you are serious about pursuing drawing and have the time to follow the lessons in this book on schedule... I strongly recommend it! You will be amazed at how fluid it will make your drawing. I am a perfectionist and get hung up on the details... now the pictures just flow out.

Sometimes, the tried and true is still the best.
This classic drawing text belongs on the bookshelf of any artist or art educator, right next to Peck's Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist (Galaxy Books). I mention Peck's book here specifically because, like Nicolaides, it is often decried for being dated. Indeed, older works do occasionally present some problems; I have to apologize to my students for Peck's antiquated terminology in the section, "Distinctions of Race," for example. Nicolaides presents no such difficulties, but is nevertheless often regarded as too tough, too rigorous, too old fashioned.

Certainly, compared to The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain: A Course in Enhancing Creativity and Artistic Confidence, which I have not used but have perused, Nicolaides asks a lot of his students: twenty-five sections, each requiring fifteen hours of work. This amounts to 125 three-hour sessions, and demands the rigorous work ethic of a Twentieth-Century, industrial era technician. The second paragraph of the section, "How To Use This Book" begins, "I assume that you are about to embark upon a year of art study..." and is meant to be taken seriously. A student who is dedicated to learning to draw, and is willing to commit him- or herself to spending three hours a day, two or three times a week, for a year in order to do so, will find no better guide I have encountered than this book. Educators will also find many exercises in this book which can be incorporated into a semester's lesson plans, and this is how I use this book.

The rigid instruction of this manual is unadulterated by unnecessary, dubious psychology, nor does it pretend to be quick and easy. Many "How to Draw" books are essentially shorthand, teaching quick tricks designed to allow a student (or hobbyist) to produce passable results in very little time, by following formulas or copying, step-by-step, from a master drawing. Nicolaides doesn't speculate into scientific or pseudoscientific topics outside his area of expertise, nor does he pretend that learning to draw, to truly draw from observation rather than imitation, can ever be quick and easy.