Drawing and Sketching in Pencil

332 Pages·2007·19.49 MB·English

by  Arthur L. Guptill

To ALBERT E. MOORE
WHO TAUGHT THE AUTHOR THE VALUE OF TRUTH
IN REPRESENTATION AND PERSEVERANCE
IN EFFORT. THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED
IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT.
Bibliographical Note
This Dover edition, first published in 2007, is an unabridged republication of
Sketching and Rendering in Pencil, published by The Pencil Points Press, Inc.,
New York, 1922.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Guptill, Arthur Leighton,
1891-1956.
[Sketching and rendering in pencil]
Drawing and sketching in pencil / Arthur L. Guptill; with a preface by Howard
Greenley.
p. cm.
Originally published: Sketching and rendering in pencil. New York: Pencil
Points Press, 1922.
9780486136486
ISBN-10: 0-486-46048-7 (pbk.)
1. Pencil drawing—Technique. 2. Architectural rendering—Technique. I. Title.
NC890.G8 2007
741.2’4—dc22
2007017033
Manufactured in the United States by Courier Corporation
46048702
www.doverpublications.com
PREFACE.
AN ARTISTIC conception is susceptible of translation into graphic expression
through a variety of media, but by a certain universality of custom, or perhaps
more accurately of convenience, the familiar lead pencil has achieved a
significance derived from its immediate association with all forms of pictorial
delineation. One may speak of it as a kind of staff upon which the artist or the
draftsman leans most heavily. But this popular acceptance or recognition has,
curiously enough, failed to carry with it an equivalent degree of appreciative
comment or of authoritative instruction in the technique of its individual
employment. Therefore, an examination of the text and illustrations contained in
this volume must be of special and compelling interest to any one of artistic
profession or aspirations, for in his accomplished and excellent interpretation of
the potentiality existent within the pencil, Mr. Guptill is practically a pioneer.
By far the greater acknowledgment must be given, however, to the very
definite stimulus contained in this volume toward a really effective educational
development among architectural draftsmen. The atelier system which offers an
inexpensive means of acquiring certain architectural training, based on the
general principles of instruction at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris,
nevertheless, stops short of completeness from the lack of stress placed on the
important element of free-hand drawing. Great emphasis is properly laid on the
solution of the plan and its presentation but the adherence to the mechanical
method more or less predicated in the drawing of the two-dimensioned plan, has
been carried with almost equal insistence into the study of the three-dimensioned
elevation. Out of this practice has grown a kind of formalized T-square and
triangle “indication,” much in vogue, and with scarcely more suggestive value
than the working drawing produced with the other mechanical paraphernalia of
ruling pens, compasses and dividers.
Most draftsmen avoid the blunted pencil point as they would a plague. A large
part of their time is spent in sharpening the pencil to the length and sharpness of
a needle. With such an implement their horizon is narrowed down to the
production of scale drawings and the conventionalized sectional hatchings
indicative of various materials. Form expressed in the graceful, flowing suavity
of line becomes a remote possibility under such conditions.
If I am dwelling with some insistence upon the value of free-hand drawing, it
is not in disparagement of instrumental drawing, nor with any view to its
neglect. It is rather in the desire to build something more vital and engaging on
this foundation of mechanical skill which will result in the draftsman becoming
ever increasingly more of a draftsman that I most earnestly recommend this
book. Mr. Guptill has with every evidence of success endeavored to assist the
draftsman out of this automatic conventionalized indication into the realm of
appreciation of the greater artistic possibilities lying within himself. To suggest
to others a way of increasingly beautiful accomplishment is obviously no slight
contribution. This volume is a plea for better instruction in free-hand drawing
and for the thorough perception of its value.
The illustrations accompanying the text, by their variety and excellence of
selection and their orderly arrangement, furnish in themselves a basis of
suggestion to students which should awaken the most enthusiastic response.
The initial and almost certain discouragement which the making of a drawing
from life connotes, inevitably becomes an emotion of compelling interest once a
grasp of the elements of form and contour has been accomplished. I know of no
way in which artistic capital, in the sense of facility and sureness of drawing, can
be obtained better than by drawing from life and the transition from the plastic
model to the rendering of the static architectural ornament enables the student to
embody in his drawing the spirit of the design with a sureness and a refinement
of detail not possible to one who has not passed through the former experience.
There is some distance to be travelled along the road of artistic endeavor
before the student can express his personality in the composed statement of the
artist. Mr. Guptill has, I think, in pointing out the road and contributing to its
illumination, wisely kept away from the indication of style. His insistence has
been in the line of encouragement of a greater fluency of speech in the language
of pencil technique and of the assistance that intelligent conventionalization can
render in the presentation of form and of color and of materials.
New York City.
HOWARD GREENLEY.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Dedication
Copyright Page
PREFACE.
Table of Figures
FOREWORD.
DRAWING AND SKETCHING IN PENCIL - PART I.
CHAPTER I. - FIRST CONSIDERATIONS
Chapter II. - THE ESSENTIAL EQUIPMENT
Chapter III. - OBJECT DRAWING IN OUTLINE
Chapter IV. - OBJECT DRAWING IN LIGHT AND SHADE.
Chapter V. - FREE-HAND PERSPECTIVE.
Chapter VI. - CAST DRAWING
Chapter VII. - LIFE DRAWING
Chapter VIII. - SKETCHING ANIMALS
PART II.
Chapter I. - ARCHITECTURAL CONSIDERATIONS
Chapter II. - STARTING THE WORK
Chapter III. - INDIVIDUAL STYLE
Chapter IV. - METHODS AND LIGHTING
Chapter V. - COMPOSITION AND DRAWING FROM PHOTOGRAPHS
Chapter VI. - GRADED TONES
Chapter VII. - THE REPRESENTATION OF SMALL BUILDINGS
Chapter VIII. - THE REPRESENTATION OF DETAILS
Chapter IX. - INTERIORS AND FURNITURE
Chapter X. - OUTDOOR SKETCHING
Chapter XI. - ACCESSORIES
Chapter XII. - DECORATIVE TREATMENT
Chapter XIII. - LARGE BUILDINGS
Chapter XIV. - CONCLUSION
Art Instruction
Table of Figures
Figure 2
Figure I
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 6
Figures 7
Figure 8
Figure 9
Figure 10
Figure II
Figure 12
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Figure 19
Figure 20
Figure 21
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Figure 27
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Figure 31
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Figure 33
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Figure 52
Figure 53