Customer Reviews:
 Classical Drawing Atelier March 7, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
At 144 pages, over one-third of which are drawing examples and with wide margins around the text, this is a slim book that covers the past 600 years of atelier philosophy. Or to say it another way, Aristides narrows it down to a nutshell.
Covering briefly a variety of ideas (i.e., art history, art theory, art reference, as well as how-to), each chapter could be expanded to become a book of its own.
The real questions are:
Do you want to buy this book?
Will you refer to it 100 times over the year?
Will you be inspired?
Will you take "anything" away with you after you have read the book?
The answer will depend on your current perceptions and where you are and where you are going as an artist. If you are interested in an overview of atelier philosophy, this would be a good book to begin with.
Putting it all in context February 8, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
As a serious amateur artist who takes as many painting and drawing classes as I can, I found this book extremely useful. Aristede provides a brief history that explains how so many of the clasroom practices I have encountered evolved in the first place, and then provides instructions for getting there on one's own. It's a lovely little book. I would recommend it for adult amateurs like myself or young people considering art school and pondering what kind of school to apply to. "Atelier" is a very specific kind of training, like learning classical music the old-fashioned way (scales, practice, etc.) and probably not for everyone.
 Excellent coverage of Atelier December 1, 2007
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book is the most comprehensive on the subject in one place. An excellent reference for concepts of realistic drawing. I did think that some of the philosophy was a bit "off subject", but sometimes it is good to know what the author is thinking when writing. The author is a great living master artist and lets you in on her secret... not just practice, but careful practice and copy the masters.
Excellent Book on Drawing! November 7, 2007
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is the best book on drawing that I have ever read. EVERY serious art student and aspiring artist should own this book and read it over and over until it's memorized.
A solid collection of a good technique October 4, 2007
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
While most of the material is very elaborately done in this book. She's far from achieving photo-realism. There are a few drawings in there that are obviously idealized. If you want a more realistic aproach to drawing, you may want to sumply go with some of the old masters books.
On an up note, her idealization is very well done, but she really should stick to whats there and possibly work a bit more on the subtle details that would push her to photo-realism.
You can learn to draw very well from this book. The techniques he proposes are sound. The one thing lacking is that this is not the end all be all book of drawing books. There are others out there that surpass this book.
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