Bridgman’s Life Drawing

In this book, Mr. Bridgman, who for nearly 50  years lectured and taught at the Art Students League of New York, explains in non-technical terms and illustrations of finely rendered anatomical drawings how to best to find the vitalizing forces in human forms and how best to realize them in drawing. Every point of instruction and principle is illustrated in one of nearly 500 of Mr. Bridgman’s own “life” drawing.

Mr. Bridgman begins by examining movement. After abstracting the main masses of the body – head, chest and hips – into their rough geometrical equivalents, he gives complete instructions for building a simple model which mounts these masses on wire. By manipulating this scale model, the student may observe how these masses move in space and into what relationships such movement brings them.

After that, the author tackles the actual problems of drawing the human figure in motion. He first covers simple drawing and building of the figure, then balance, rhythm, turning or twisting, wedging, passing and locking and the more complex relationship of the masses – distribution, light and shadow, mouldings (concave and convex), proportions and measurements, moveable masses . From here instructions move to specific areas of the anatomy: the head and features, including the neck: the torso, front and back view; the abdominal arch; the upper limbs, hands and fingers.