Drawing the Draped Figure

Many art students and professionals have mastered the art of depicting unclothes figures, but still have trouble accurately rendering clothing or other forms of draped cloth. Part of the problem – before this book came along – was that there was a lack of concise and simple instructions on the subject, and much that was written was too vague to be helpful. This comprehensive, well-illustrated book was created to solve the problem.

In these pages, George Bridgman- a long-time instructor at New York’s Art students League and one of the nation’s foremost teachers to figure drawing – offers expert advice on depicting draped figures. “Clothing is none other than a drapery arranged around a body that is beneath it. To express the multitudinous forms it takes, one should learn to express in a direct way the different characters of folds, for each one plays its individual part as distinctly apart as actors play their different characters upon stage.”

Students learn the characterizations of 7 different kinds of folds and how to render them, including pipe, zigzag, spiral, half-lock, diaper pattern, drop and inert folds. mastery of these principles is the key to realistic portrayal of garments, as well as the proper rendering of cloth in still life.