AL GURY chairs the painting department at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, where he also teaches drawing. Gury exhibits his work at the F.A.N. Gallery and has shown at the National Academy of Design in New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and numerous other galleries and museums around the country. He is the author of Alla Prima: A Contemporary Guide to Traditional Direct Painting and Color for Painters: A Guide to Traditions and Practice. He lives in Philadelphia, PA.

CONTENTS

Introduction 4
What Is Drawing? 4
Anyone Can Learn to Draw 8
“Why Can’t I Draw a Straight Line?” 8

1 Essential History of Drawing 11
Beginnings in Prehistory 12
The Ancient World 14
The Medieval World 15
The Renaissance 17
The Baroque 20
The Nineteenth Century 21
Beginnings of the Modern Era 26
The Modern World 29
Contemporary Growth and Challenges 33
Today 35

2 Essential Drawing Materials 37
Drawing Mediums 38
Drawing Tools 68
Paper 74
The Drawing Studio—Furniture and Equipment 81
Storage, Presentation, and Conservation of Drawings 84

3 Essential Drawing Skills 87
Holding Drawing Tools 88
Measuring 90
Blending and Erasing 95
Methods of Drawing 95
Types of Line 101
Hatching and Other Descriptive Marks 106
Shape 108
Depth and Perspective 113
Closed versus Open Form 118
Planes 122
Tonality, Light, and Shade 122
Texture 128
Composition and the Compositional Frame 128

4 Essential Aesthetics in Drawing 149
Classicism 152
Realism 153
Abstraction 154
Expressionism 158

5 Essential Drawing Demonstrations 161
Drawing Still Lifes 163
Drawing Interiors and Architecture 174
Drawing Portraits 182
Drawing the Human Figure 191