LIFE
DRAWING
A
Journey to self-expression
Bridget
Woods
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Achieve accurate proportions with exercises that work
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Use line and tone in ways that will give your drawings movement and life
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Deepen your awareness of body structure
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Experiment with different tools, marks and textures
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Choose your own visual language and develop a personal style
Page 160 £260 Page 82 £250
Page 147 £250
280
x 220mm
192
pages
328
black & white photographs
ISBN 1 86126 598 0
Paperback £16.99
Bridget will be selling signed copies of her book, now in second print, at the special discount price of £14.99 at her exhibitions (see diary). If you can’t come to these exhibitions and would like to buy, or borrow, a copy, please ask your local artshop, bookshop, library or college to stock it. It is now distributed in U.S.A., S.A., and Australia. If you are already enjoying this book, please recommend it to your friends, family and any of the above both here and abroad and even write a review on www.amazon.co.uk and especially www.amazon.com !
Available online from:
Reviews
The Crowood Press
£13.59 online at www.crowood.com
or Telephone 01672 520320
the artist May 2004
Tackling one of the most difficult subjects in art tuition requires not just experience but the ability to help students marry careful observation with passionate involvement. There is nothing that needs more guidance than the link between artist and life model, for we come to it with a host of preconceptions, and usually a certain timidity about the naked human body.
So it is a genuine delight to discover this engaging manual by Bridget Woods. It manages to cover every aspect, from how to find or organise a life class, and how long the model might be expected to stay still, to exploring individual responses in taking apart a single study and creating a variety of moods and images.
From the first paragraphs, this book challenges the standard format. It ignores shaded cones and cubes, and centres every illustration, even the first, fundamental creation of marks, on the figure.
Chapters of basic instruction are a joy to see; crouching, stretching, lying, dancing —the models and the sketches spring off the page, and would surely make the most ham-fisted beginner desperate to get started.
Yet there is quiet and quite complex teaching going on; exercises are set, their purpose explained and benefits noted so that the students can judge for themselves where they have gained and when more practice might be needed.
Perspective and anatomy, those boring necessities, are handled equally well. True, there are geometrics, with the body seen in triangles and points of balance and counterbalance, skeletal structures and muscles, but they are taught through drawings of human beings, not mechanical diagrams. The figure in movement is particularly intriguing, with multiple shapeshifting, both realistic and abstracted into a blur of arms and legs.
There is so much to be savoured in this book that the journey suggested in the subtitle could be undertaken by any student or aspiring teacher, new or experienced.
The shelves in the art section of most libraries are bulging with
teach-yourself-to-draw titles, or on almost any other subject in terms of
how to express yourself in some artistic manner.
Occasionally, something special arrives and one of the latest books most
worthy of mention in my opinion, is 'Life Drawing' by Bridget Woods.
Most artists accept the need to develop the skill to draw as a fundamental
gateway to many artistic applications and this internationally acclaimed
artist is an excellent example.
With carefully devised lessons, Bridget Woods guides the beginner through
the brambly thickets that await the would-be artist.
Knotty problems besetting the inexperienced, such as perspective, tone, body
structure and other pertinent matters are covered with the assurance of the
experienced teacher that this author is known to be.
Bridget's academic pedigree includes her recognition as a tutor in several
colleges in the south of England.
A beginners confidence, together with their visual awareness, may be built
up progressively, made accessible through superb examples of
photograph-to-finished-drawings.
Illustrations, both photographic and drawn, are beautiful,
inspiring and clearly chosen by an artist with a keen eye for
precision in the choice of relevant material.
Interlaced with a warm philosophical style, here is a book that will be
appreciated not only as an efficient art tutorial, but also for its
encouragement to understand and value the act of drawing itself.
This book is so exciting. Lavishly illustrated with drawings by Bridget and her students, past and present, she offers many ways of drawing - from the classical to the comical. Her enthusiasm is palpable. Her pedagogy is remarkable.
This is a thrilling book. As our American cousins say "Go Buy It".
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Derek Mundell from Reykjavik, Iceland
We are presented with a huge selection of books on Life Drawing, but this one by Woods has no equal. Whether for the novice, advanced student or teacher, this book provides invaluable and exciting exercises which are marvellously illustrated both by the author and her students. All who have tried their hand, eye and brain at life drawing, are familiar with the difficulties of drawing what you see. This book helps you through it and encourages the development of a personal interpretation of the pose. |