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Lessons in Classical Drawing: Essential Techniques from Inside the Atelier
The practice of drawing distilled to its essential elements. The companion DVD enclosed inside, beautifully filmed in Florence, Italy, provides real-time drawing lessons so that any gaps in the learning process are filled in with live instruction.
In this elegant and inspiring primer, master contemporary artist and author Juliette Aristides breaks down the drawing process into small, manageable lessons; introduces time-tested principles and techniques that are easily accessible; and shares the language and context necessary to understand the artistic process and create superior, well-crafted drawings.
In this elegant and inspiring primer, master contemporary artist and author Juliette Aristides breaks down the drawing process into small, manageable lessons; introduces time-tested principles and techniques that are easily accessible; and shares the language and context necessary to understand the artistic process and create superior, well-crafted drawings.
208 pages, Hardcover
First published November 15, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
November 15, 2012
(More pictures on my blog)
This is a wonderful book on drawing by Juliette Aristides.
It covers the essential techniques to making a good drawing. These are subjects like understanding lines, contours, proportion, depth, tonal composition, light and shadow. They are the usual subjects taught for drawing. The text is insightful and filled with tips, supplemented by beautiful illustrated examples from artists and old masters.
This is not an immediately hands-on book where you can dive in and draw straightaway. It focuses on the understanding of different techniques. After which, each chapter ends with a guided practical lesson on learning points.
The book also comes with a DVD containing 1 hour of video with Juliette Aristides demonstrating what was taught in the book. It covers blocking in general shapes before defining them with more detail, and finishing them up with tones to give the illusion of light and shadow. The video reinforces the drawing techniques as used in real life.
This is a well written and presented book. It's really insightful.
Highly recommended to anyone learning to draw. A great value for money.
June 3, 2014
Outstanding! The definitive and best book I've ever read on learning how to draw. Principled and practical as well as beautifully illustrated and well-written. Aristedes is a modern master artist. A careful study of this book is like sitting at her feet and absorbing what she's learned over many years of careful and disciplined research. She humbly and graciously wants to pass that knowledge and wisdom on to others. If you desire to learn to draw, you owe it to yourself to get this book.
July 5, 2013
Back to basics with the drawings. It's odd coming back after years to basics like line, form and contrast. It's also surprising how much of this basic information is internalised simply by practice. If everyone received this sort of training at the very beginning, the learning process would be speeded up. Anyhow, a beautifully produced and detailed analysis of the science of drawing, with particular assistance for students of art who may never have been taught to draw. The current sickness in art schools today, as presented by the author, is that painters cannot always draw. A trip down to the library or bookstore will show racks of books on painting, but next to none on drawing. This book helps that much.
July 6, 2012
A lovely read! Sort of like a crash course in everything art from art history to step by step drawing instructions for difficult subjects. A lot of other books might also offer similar information, but it's the videos where it truly stands apart from other similar books. Juliette is an excellent teacher, IMHO; and she tries to actually show and explain what she's doing and why as she demonstrates the application of the concepts (yes, she herself draws a couple of figures). The videos really complement the lessons and, for me, it's very insightful exit formative to be able to observe how a professional goes about it.
April 20, 2022
I thought this would be another attractive coffee-table book that had some really gorgeous drawings (which it is and does), so I was pleasantly surprised at how much usable instruction there is in it. Since most readers of this book will likely have tried a multitude of drawing manuals, placing it in that context is perhaps helpful. In particular, I found it a useful course correction to the Gestalt (or anti-STEM) approach to drawing, which I will contrast to the Grid approach.
As in all such oversimplifying dichotomies, the Gestalt approach isn't totally wrong or bad. It is best exemplified by the Betty Edwards books on using the right brain. It enjoins you to still your verbalizing, analyzing left brain and stop it from stifling your artistic right brain, which will do wonders for your drawing ability if you would only let it blossom. While I'm skeptical this can be the whole picture, I do recognize this can motivate and encourage many self-critical people to try their hand at drawing and see how much more they can accomplish than they thought possible. It is rather similar to the novice effect in strength training (see Rippetoe), where a sedentary individual is surprised that any bit of initial effort actually pays off more than they would have guessed.
Grid is the yang to Gestalt's yin. The Grid approach can be subdivided into the Anatomy and the Cartesian approaches. The Anatomy approach requires you to thoroughly know how objects are geometrically structured, even internally, so you can replicate it on paper. Sometimes you can get away with not having a surgeon-level expertise if you memorize some canned summaries of the anatomy of the things you're most interested in drawing -- e.g., the human face and figure (a good example of this is the Loomis method). This is where you memorize a manageable number of rules of thumb such as: the head is a sphere with a chin plate; the face is 5 eyes wide; the hair-to-brow, brow-to-nose, and nose-to-chin distances are equal; etc. You can create some really beautiful drawings this way, but they may not be a likeness. You're essentially creating fictional AI faces and figures, recognizable as perfectly convincing humans or animals, but not as this or that particular human or animal. (We are apparently seeing a lot of such AI faces on our screens these days, and have no idea at all that they're not real.)
The Cartesian approach dispenses with subject matter expertise altogether, and simply asks you to mechanistically split the original into a myriad square cells along the X and Y axes, copy each of them robotically, and be astounded that the result actually matches the subject! This approach has the dubious distinction of being both extremely effective and extremely unsatisfying. It works -- how could it not? you're essentially mimicking a camera or a scanner, and those certainly work -- but it arguably goes against everything that a person wants when they claim they wish they could draw. It does not seem "creative". Plus you need an original 2D representation already that you can lay your soul-destroying grid on; you can't use it to draw from life.
Given all this, it's no wonder I was intrigued by the Gestalt method. It seemed like a welcome respite from the stresses of a left-brain life and job. I've read my Julian Jaynes, and who wouldn't want to tap into the divine inspiration of the right brain? The trouble is, when I actually sit down with pencil and paper, I find an unexplained ("then a miracle occurs") gap between the two verbs in "Draw what you See". What exactly is going on in the interregnum? Am I not doing some analysis after all? Am I not ultimately recording and transcribing dimensions, dealing with numbers and units, even if not egregiously so as in the Grid method? Am I really in a non-analytic, non-judgmental trance? More importantly: Why do my drawings still fail? (A Gestalt advocate would say that this kind of analysis is precisely what I'm supposed to avoid...)
Arisitides's approach, which she calls classical, seems to be on the Grid side of the spectrum, but does welcome creativity and doesn't send you off to anatomy class. It does not promise that if you will only chill and quiet your analytical mind, you will get drawing ability for free. Drawing, it turns out, is not for the lazy. It is not just about unlearning your verbal prison and being a child again. (Children, by the way, are notoriously symbolic in their drawing. They definitely don't draw what they see.)
While drawing is hard work, the book is persuasive that it can be learned. It is really about finding proportions, distances, and orientations of the various parts of a whole, but the creativity lies in the draftsperson deciding how they choose the salient parts, and in ably minimizing the amount of tedious task subdivision they have before them, or at least choosing the subtasks so that they are pleasurable to do even if hard. (If YouTube is any guide, some people can apparently get blissfully lost for hours in the act of drawing hair.) It is also useful to know that estimating angles and employing triangulation (like a surveyor) is more reliable than estimating distances (especially if your scale of drawing isn't 1:1). While you have to train your eye to see and copy angles as accurately as you can, this is no more mystical than using a T-square.
Sometimes it's a relief to know that something requires work, so you can go ahead and do it.
P.S. This book doesn't devote any words at all to what art supplies to get. I knew then that I was in the right place.
As in all such oversimplifying dichotomies, the Gestalt approach isn't totally wrong or bad. It is best exemplified by the Betty Edwards books on using the right brain. It enjoins you to still your verbalizing, analyzing left brain and stop it from stifling your artistic right brain, which will do wonders for your drawing ability if you would only let it blossom. While I'm skeptical this can be the whole picture, I do recognize this can motivate and encourage many self-critical people to try their hand at drawing and see how much more they can accomplish than they thought possible. It is rather similar to the novice effect in strength training (see Rippetoe), where a sedentary individual is surprised that any bit of initial effort actually pays off more than they would have guessed.
Grid is the yang to Gestalt's yin. The Grid approach can be subdivided into the Anatomy and the Cartesian approaches. The Anatomy approach requires you to thoroughly know how objects are geometrically structured, even internally, so you can replicate it on paper. Sometimes you can get away with not having a surgeon-level expertise if you memorize some canned summaries of the anatomy of the things you're most interested in drawing -- e.g., the human face and figure (a good example of this is the Loomis method). This is where you memorize a manageable number of rules of thumb such as: the head is a sphere with a chin plate; the face is 5 eyes wide; the hair-to-brow, brow-to-nose, and nose-to-chin distances are equal; etc. You can create some really beautiful drawings this way, but they may not be a likeness. You're essentially creating fictional AI faces and figures, recognizable as perfectly convincing humans or animals, but not as this or that particular human or animal. (We are apparently seeing a lot of such AI faces on our screens these days, and have no idea at all that they're not real.)
The Cartesian approach dispenses with subject matter expertise altogether, and simply asks you to mechanistically split the original into a myriad square cells along the X and Y axes, copy each of them robotically, and be astounded that the result actually matches the subject! This approach has the dubious distinction of being both extremely effective and extremely unsatisfying. It works -- how could it not? you're essentially mimicking a camera or a scanner, and those certainly work -- but it arguably goes against everything that a person wants when they claim they wish they could draw. It does not seem "creative". Plus you need an original 2D representation already that you can lay your soul-destroying grid on; you can't use it to draw from life.
Given all this, it's no wonder I was intrigued by the Gestalt method. It seemed like a welcome respite from the stresses of a left-brain life and job. I've read my Julian Jaynes, and who wouldn't want to tap into the divine inspiration of the right brain? The trouble is, when I actually sit down with pencil and paper, I find an unexplained ("then a miracle occurs") gap between the two verbs in "Draw what you See". What exactly is going on in the interregnum? Am I not doing some analysis after all? Am I not ultimately recording and transcribing dimensions, dealing with numbers and units, even if not egregiously so as in the Grid method? Am I really in a non-analytic, non-judgmental trance? More importantly: Why do my drawings still fail? (A Gestalt advocate would say that this kind of analysis is precisely what I'm supposed to avoid...)
Arisitides's approach, which she calls classical, seems to be on the Grid side of the spectrum, but does welcome creativity and doesn't send you off to anatomy class. It does not promise that if you will only chill and quiet your analytical mind, you will get drawing ability for free. Drawing, it turns out, is not for the lazy. It is not just about unlearning your verbal prison and being a child again. (Children, by the way, are notoriously symbolic in their drawing. They definitely don't draw what they see.)
While drawing is hard work, the book is persuasive that it can be learned. It is really about finding proportions, distances, and orientations of the various parts of a whole, but the creativity lies in the draftsperson deciding how they choose the salient parts, and in ably minimizing the amount of tedious task subdivision they have before them, or at least choosing the subtasks so that they are pleasurable to do even if hard. (If YouTube is any guide, some people can apparently get blissfully lost for hours in the act of drawing hair.) It is also useful to know that estimating angles and employing triangulation (like a surveyor) is more reliable than estimating distances (especially if your scale of drawing isn't 1:1). While you have to train your eye to see and copy angles as accurately as you can, this is no more mystical than using a T-square.
Sometimes it's a relief to know that something requires work, so you can go ahead and do it.
P.S. This book doesn't devote any words at all to what art supplies to get. I knew then that I was in the right place.
December 29, 2014
Juliette Aristides is part of the growing return to classical beaux arts training for artists. This beautifully illustrated book includes several step-by-step exercises to help the student explore the basic elements of traditional atelier practice. She also includes an inspiring DVD with the hardcover edition. While the lessons on the DVD do not correspond directly with the book lessons, they nevertheless provide additional guidance for the topic as a whole.
This type of atelier training isn't really feasible for the absolute beginner, but instead would be good to use after the student has spent at least one year studying with a good drawing instructor. Prior familiarity with basic materials, terminology, and techniques will greatly increase the usefulness of this book, since the level of these lessons is fairly complex.
All in all, an excellent book and worth the price for any serious student of drawing and painting.
This type of atelier training isn't really feasible for the absolute beginner, but instead would be good to use after the student has spent at least one year studying with a good drawing instructor. Prior familiarity with basic materials, terminology, and techniques will greatly increase the usefulness of this book, since the level of these lessons is fairly complex.
All in all, an excellent book and worth the price for any serious student of drawing and painting.
August 14, 2013
This book could be, should I dare say, a great lesson in drawing without having to attend an art class! It covers everything I learned in my first semester at art school
May 10, 2025
very fundamental and helpful with the tradecraft as well as creative aspect of art - in order to convey feelings and focus the viewer to the important points of the artwork. Aristides also writes in an accessible and fun to read voice, and the book has recommendations for other art books to go deeper into specific skills.
March 3, 2024
How many ways do I love this book?
A pleasurable read and a treasure trove of practical and inspirational artistic information.
A pleasurable read and a treasure trove of practical and inspirational artistic information.
December 3, 2018
Different from her other book in this series, this one is much more technical and useful for artists, with actual drawing methods and ideas to apply.
While I didn't see the DVD that comes along with this book, it's still an inspiring reading and I appreciate her serious approach to classical drawing and learning methods.
While I didn't see the DVD that comes along with this book, it's still an inspiring reading and I appreciate her serious approach to classical drawing and learning methods.
February 9, 2020
Very general with little “meat”
A skimming over of drawing techniques with much repetition and some obvious comments. The section on figure drawing is so limited, it should either be expanded or eliminated. This book is for the very beginner. Anyone with some knowledge of drawing will get nothing out of this book. Sorry I bought it.
A skimming over of drawing techniques with much repetition and some obvious comments. The section on figure drawing is so limited, it should either be expanded or eliminated. This book is for the very beginner. Anyone with some knowledge of drawing will get nothing out of this book. Sorry I bought it.
June 7, 2020
Breathtaking, beautiful, inspiring.
Ha, ha, I own it.
Ha, ha, I own it.
April 13, 2016
I've always wanted to learn how to draw. This was a great place to start, full of beautiful illustrations for encouragement.
March 22, 2018
Great book
I bought this book because it had great reviews and it didn't dissapoint me. Highly recommended. Looking forward to read Lessons in Classical Painting.
I bought this book because it had great reviews and it didn't dissapoint me. Highly recommended. Looking forward to read Lessons in Classical Painting.
January 21, 2024
I've been slowly working my way through a pile of instructional art books for a while now and discovered these broadly fall into two categories- repetitive technical manuals easily found in cheap editions and often recommended by those at the top of their game, and then there are the gorgeous glossy clothbound books dense with many hours worth of reading and loaded with renaissance era paintings. Beware the second one !!! There are increasing amounts of these "atelier" style books out there that will frustrate those new to drawing, bore those with a little experience and seriously damage the wallet of both. If you're looking for a lavishly illustrated nicely produced coffee table book on the idea of drawing - this is a great choice
If you're serious about actually drawing and are willing to invest your time with a more focused, progressive approach maybe try Michael Hampton, Charles Bargue, Brent Evison ( especially recommended for those starting out) , Andrew Loomis or George Bridgman.
Theres a reason these high concept "atelier" art books are practically never recommended by professional illustrators . To be fair, I can't profess to more than a few years of limited experience, it's just that the same few authors/artists/ illustrators consistently come up as exemplars of technical excellence as referenced by other professionals- see my above list- and not one of these devieat from a centuries old tradition of repetition and incremental development.
If you're serious about actually drawing and are willing to invest your time with a more focused, progressive approach maybe try Michael Hampton, Charles Bargue, Brent Evison ( especially recommended for those starting out) , Andrew Loomis or George Bridgman.
Theres a reason these high concept "atelier" art books are practically never recommended by professional illustrators . To be fair, I can't profess to more than a few years of limited experience, it's just that the same few authors/artists/ illustrators consistently come up as exemplars of technical excellence as referenced by other professionals- see my above list- and not one of these devieat from a centuries old tradition of repetition and incremental development.
February 3, 2025
This is an outstanding course in drawing! The variety of examples is quite complete, some using graphite, charcoal, white chalk, etc. I had to look up what a conté pencil is.
I took notes to help me teach drawing to high school students and for my own use. My biggest takeaways were to start sketching using light, thin lines in case you have to go back and erase. Also that sharp edges move an object forward while softer ones push it back.
Her explanation of perspective helped me better understand how to look for a horizon line, a topic I have been teaching for some years. I particularly enjoyed the section on the use of light and shadows, both form shadows and cast shadows.
I would recommend this book to anyone beginning to draw as well as to more intermediate artists.
I took notes to help me teach drawing to high school students and for my own use. My biggest takeaways were to start sketching using light, thin lines in case you have to go back and erase. Also that sharp edges move an object forward while softer ones push it back.
Her explanation of perspective helped me better understand how to look for a horizon line, a topic I have been teaching for some years. I particularly enjoyed the section on the use of light and shadows, both form shadows and cast shadows.
I would recommend this book to anyone beginning to draw as well as to more intermediate artists.
March 14, 2021
Juiette's writing on art technique is so inspiring. All her books have become a must-have in my creativity/art library. Though it's a great reference for artists of all levels, some of the concepts may be hard to grasp for beginners without a video or in-person demonstration (there is a companion DVD but haven't watched it yet).
August 26, 2019
Absolutely love this book. I have been doing art all my life, and Juliette Aristides makes it feel fresh, yet grounded in traditional methods. She is a wonderful, accessible writer, artist and teacher. The DVD included with this book is a huge bonus. Highly recommend.
April 23, 2022
Beautifully illustrated and very useful book. In essence the technique Aristides shows us is a very simple one, yet the challenge is to master it. She breaks her method down into very understandable chunks of information. One of the best instructional books I've ever read.
April 8, 2019
Very informative and easy to read drawing guide :)
January 10, 2020
much theory, little prtaicality
August 26, 2021
Very low signal to noise ratio in this book, too much fluff and personal anecdotes. But, a lot of good illustrations. DVD is not that bad either.
November 7, 2023
JULIETTE ARISTIDES ART BOOKS ARE THE BEST
Of all the books that I have read about drawing and painting non can compare to JULIETTE Aristides books. I have learned so much.
Of all the books that I have read about drawing and painting non can compare to JULIETTE Aristides books. I have learned so much.
November 13, 2024
3.5 rounded up. I think I got more beginner-level value from the author's Classical Drawing Atelier. Still fine. Way more technical and less practical that I was expecting or looking for.
April 10, 2025
The space between us feels like a promise waiting to be fulfilled. Shall we make it happen, with a slow, mindful touch?
September 9, 2013
Juliette Aristides is brilliant in her art as well as her teaching skills. The way she brings forth the points she’s trying to make are easy to understand and clear as a bell.
In this book, Aristides highlights important topics that any beginner artist will require in their art. These are issues you are constantly faced with whenever you draw and making a good practice of them early will help you through your journey.
She begins with putting down basic lines and contours, and then leads on to different relationships in your art, composition, and finally, lighting and shadows.
I highly recommend this book!
Check out more reviews at Kredentis Blogs
In this book, Aristides highlights important topics that any beginner artist will require in their art. These are issues you are constantly faced with whenever you draw and making a good practice of them early will help you through your journey.
She begins with putting down basic lines and contours, and then leads on to different relationships in your art, composition, and finally, lighting and shadows.
I highly recommend this book!
Check out more reviews at Kredentis Blogs
July 5, 2014
This book teaches classical drawing lessons that emphasize learning drawing principle before starting drawing practice. This book comes with a DVD on how to draw. I really enjoyed watching the instructor. And I learned a lot from the DVD. The book has many helpful photos and diagrams. I would categorize this as a good textbook for drawing students. If I could afford to go to Juliette Aristides classical drawing atelier in Seattle Washington I would go in a heartbeat. She is a very talented instructor.
December 2, 2012
Classical Drawing Atelier by Juliette Aristides was a wonderful book, and this book makes an excellent companion to that one. Once again, there are excellent examples and insightful text throughout. The included DVD brings to life many of the approaches touched upon within the book. I would love to see more in depth coverage of shading techniques and values - especially on the DVD - a time lapsed lesson would be invaluable, to show how the graduation of tone is laid down.
September 25, 2016
A good reference book, but...
I get annoyed when reading too many "when I did this and that...", "when I went to somewhere..." or "when I studied with so-and-so"... No, I'm not a fan in those personal life stories from an art textbook.
Besides, there's not too much update or new perspective from the author's other book on Classical Drawing Atelier. The DVD seems a bit redundant but at the same time not informative enough.
I get annoyed when reading too many "when I did this and that...", "when I went to somewhere..." or "when I studied with so-and-so"... No, I'm not a fan in those personal life stories from an art textbook.
Besides, there's not too much update or new perspective from the author's other book on Classical Drawing Atelier. The DVD seems a bit redundant but at the same time not informative enough.
January 5, 2017
An excellent book on drawing for someone with a rudimentary knowledge of drawing and some experience. A beginner might be a bit confused, but it still works well for an absolute beginner if this was the only book they were going to read on drawing. The video goes well with it, and I took copious notes from this book for my own class room.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews