Education
In his youth, Bridgman studied the arts under painter and sculptor Jean-Léon Gérôme at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and later with Gustave Boulanger.
( "Excellent. The most valuable, detailed anatomical stud...)
"Excellent. The most valuable, detailed anatomical studies (which are also beautifully drawn) of all parts of the figure." — American Artist "The best book on artist's anatomy available anywhere." — Art Students League News Countless artists and students since the 1920s have used this and other books by George B. Bridgman (for nearly 50 years a teacher at the Art Students League in New York) for a solid foundation and understanding of human anatomy. They have found, and continue to find, that his unique way of discovering the vitalizing forces in the human form and realizing them in drawing carries the student pleasantly over one of art's most severe hurdles. Bridgman's superb anatomical sketches, of which there are nearly 500 in the book, also bring clearly to fruition his lucid theories of how to draw the human body in its structure and its complex movements. Constructive Anatomy, an anatomical reference guide for the working artist, sculptor, and student, graphically shows important parts of the human body, both in motion and in repose — hand, wrist, thumb, fingers, forearm, arm, armpit, shoulder, neck, head, eye, nose, ear, mouth, chin, trunk (front, side, and back), pelvis, hip, thigh, leg, knee, ankle, foot, and toes. Drawings of bone and muscle structure of the working of the joints and the interrelation of the various parts of the body are mainly concerned with movement of all sorts — movements that are described in detail as well as illustrated. The bending, twisting,and turning, creasing and interlocking of the various parts of the body are represented in drawing as the wedging of masses in specific ways that are clearly defined by Mr. Bridgman. Every artist will save tedious hours of research with this simple but effective approach, and will be delighted with its directness and fervor.
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( Mr. Bridgman states unequivocally in his introduction t...)
Mr. Bridgman states unequivocally in his introduction that before preparing this book he had "not discovered a single volume devoted exclusively to the depicting of the hand." Apparently Mr. Bridgman has appreciated what few others have felt — the human hand's great capacity for expression and the care that the artist must take to realize it. The hand changes with the age of the person, is shaped differently according to sex, reflects the type of work to which it is put, the physical health, and even the emotions of the person. To represent these distinguishing features, to capture the expressiveness of a particular pair of hands, the artist must understand the construction, anatomy, formation, and function of the hand. There is probably no better instructor to turn to for this understanding than Mr. Bridgman, a well-respected artist who for nearly 50 years lectured and taught at the Art Students League of New York. In this volume, a full text is accompanied by many illustrations depicting virtually every aspect and posture of the human hand. He first considers the back view of the hand, the wrist bones, the tendons, the muscles, the hand bones, the arch, and the veins; and then those of the palm. Throughout he pictures the musculature at work beneath the surface of the skin. He continues by showing how the muscles operate on the thumb side and on the little finger side when each is the center of force; how the thumb and fingers are constructed, their freedom of movement, joints, and complete anatomy as well as views of them straight, bent, and flexed; how the knuckles are formed, what shapes the fist can take and how flexible it can be; and he concludes with illustrations of the total movement, either turning or rotary, of the hand in its various positions. The 100 illustrations the author has selected perfectly define the regions of the hand so that any artist, beginning or experienced, will increase his mastery of it. Better rendering of the human hand is sure to add new expressiveness to your human figures along with new forcefulness and new interest.
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( Certainly one of the most difficult, often neglected ar...)
Certainly one of the most difficult, often neglected areas of art study is the correct rendering of heads, features, and faces. This volume, prepared by an expert in the field, is devoted exclusively to just that. With its clear, concise text, its almost 200 excellent illustrations, and its overall life-drawing approach, the book provides valuable guidelines on how best to portray faces, features, and heads. There is probably no better instructor to turn to than George B. Bridgman. He brings to the subject both his expertise as an artist and his fifty years' experience as lecturer and teacher at the Art Students League of New York. Throughout the book, he places as much emphasis on perspective and planes as on anatomy. In this way, you'll develop a more precise understanding of each feature, the head and face in general, the relationship between features, and the relationship between a specific feature and the face or head. Mr. Bridgman's consideration of the head includes such topics as the head at eye level and below eye level; planes of the head; and round and square forms. Four features — eye, nose, mouth, ear — are dealt with in detail. Sections on light and shade, comparative measurements, and principles of cube and oval construction further enhance the scope of the book. The finely executed drawings complement the textual material, illustrating all important concepts. Of special value is the author's inclusion of the work of famous portrait artists. Vermeer, Hals, Rembrandt, Reynolds, Louise Elisabeth LeBrun — these are the people who made portraiture a master art; and you'll be able to study, up close and at your leisure, the qualities that let their work achieve the status it did.
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In his youth, Bridgman studied the arts under painter and sculptor Jean-Léon Gérôme at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and later with Gustave Boulanger.
Bridgman taught anatomy for artists at the Art Students League of New York for some 45 years. Foreign most of his life Bridgman lived in New York where he taught anatomy and figure drawing at the Art Students League of New New York Among his many thousands of students were the American cartoonist Will Eisner and Norman Rockwell.
In his autobiography, My Adventures as an Illustrator, Rockwell spoke highly of Bridgman.
His successor at Art Students League was Robert Beverly Hale. Bridgman used box forms to represent the major masses of the figure (head, thorax, and pelvis) which he would tie together with gestural lines and produce to create "wedges" or simplified interconnecting forms of the body.
Artists who studied with Bridgman include: Frank J. Reilly, McClelland Barclay, Emily Newton Barto, Creative Commons Beall, Gifford Beal, Dane Chanase, Richard V. Culter, Chon Day, Will Eisner, Elias Goldberg, Robert Beverly Hale, Clark Hulings, Jack Kamen, Deane Keller, Andrew Loomis, Anita Malfatti, Paul Manship, Peter Max, Frank McCarthy, Earl Moran, Kimon Nicolaïdes, Corrado Parducci, Ulysses Ricci, Norman Rockwell, Ernie Schroeder, Archie Boyd Teater, John Vassos, Edmund Ward, Franklin Brooke Voss, Bessie Callender, and Lorenzo Homar. Jackson Pollock"s sketchpad features work from Bridgman"s books
( Certainly one of the most difficult, often neglected ar...)
( "Excellent. The most valuable, detailed anatomical stud...)
( Mr. Bridgman states unequivocally in his introduction t...)
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.