How to Draw the Human Figure
Subtitle: The Drawings of Grace Young
By: Tom Richardson
Publisher: Tom Richardson Design
Published: October 12, 2008
ISBN-13: 9780982167816
First sentence: The inspiration for this book is a journal of drawings by Grace A. Young who graduated in 1928 from the Philadelphia Art School, which she notes on the cover of her journal
Description: This book is based on the figure drawing notebook of a young student in Philadelphia in 1927 and 1928. It illustrates the methods of drawing the figure which were used at the time, and will be interesting to anyone learning to draw the figure today. The drawings show the work of a confident and talented artist who was studying a new course of drawing from the figure. Formerly students at the school had draw from casts and prints and studied the rules of perspective. The book includes all the drawings from Grace Young's notebook plus examples of the knowledge of figure drawing from the time.
Notes: This book was inspired by the figure drawing notebook of Grace Young a student at the Philadelphia School of Art in 1927 and 1928. The school was the first among a group of women's design schools found in the 1800s. The drawings show the work of a confident and talented artist who was studying a new course of drawing from the figure. Formerly students at the school had draw from casts and prints and studied the rules of perspective. Lectures in anatomy were started at the school in 1920 given by George B. Bridgeman. Bridgeman's classes in New York City were so large that students were turned away.

Emily Sartrain, the principal of the school in the early 1920s expressed her belief in the study of figure drawing, "Even if the designer never needs to reproduce the human form, constantlyas it occurs in decoration, yet if he has neglected to study it, his combinations will be hackneyed, his curves poorly drawn. This is sufficient answer to the question why we have established a life class."
Table of contents: value: Grace Young; value: Anatomy of the Human Figure; value: Proportions of the Human Figure; value: Posture; value: Drawing the Hand; value: Drawing the Head; value: Drawing the Feet; value: Drawing the Body; value: Drawing the Human Figure Using an Outline; value: Drawing Action Figures; value: Shadows; value: Twenty Minute Drawings; value: Memory Action Drawings; value: Second Semester Drawings; value: Sources