Brian's Bargue Line Drawing

During the last figure drawing session at the Academy of Realist Art, one of our students, Brian Krasinski, focused on trying to assimilate the characteristics of a Bargue line drawing. He made a line drawing from the figure using the style of the line drawings you see in Charles Bargue’s “The Drawing Course.”

Through methodical study, Brian developed a list of 21 concepts that he found consistently repeated in all of the Bargue line drawings from the book. This list contained observations about cast shadows, contour lines, interior form lines, line characteristics, and drawing procedures.

Brian was moderately general about the anatomical forms he drew – only showing the major forms. He tried to minimize the number of lines used by emphasizing longer flowing lines. This effective self directed study by Brian netted him a beautiful drawing and reinforced ideas about line that he can use for all of his future drawings.