High-focus Drawing: A Revolutionary Approach to Drawing the Figure Hardcover – November 6, 2018

Great book, very helpful for anyone looking to improve their life drawing skills

I studied under McMullan in college. Before him, I'd had instructors tell me "draw this way”, "draw that way", but it all felt arbitrary– if I tried to think about what we were doing and why, I’d hit an instant brick wall. But with McMullan I was able to think about his approach as much as I wanted and it would make sense all the way to the foundation. It was a genuine breakthrough– it felt like my gears, which had been frictionlessly spinning in place for years, finally engaged with the gears around them and started propelling me forward. When I try to summarize his philosophy for people, I first describe instead a very common way to approach drawing a model, which would be to sketch out some light lines where the limbs and head are going to be, and a little grid where the face will be, etc etc, and then go in and take your time and fill out all the details- the muscles and limbs and hair and everything else. But it's that first part, the preparatory, tossed-off sketch part- THAT, in a sense, was the real drawing, the actual spontaneous reaction to what you were looking at. It was also, in a way, a safety net you’d created for yourself, and the rest of the drawing was a sort of disengaged, risk-free afterthought. But what if you could extend that initial spontaneous response, and keep walking out onto the tightrope without creating that safety net? That’s McMullan in a nutshell.Another way to describe it is that the drawing being beautiful, even the drawing looking like the model- these are just side effects of making a good drawing, not goals- and in fact, the drawings become more beautiful and look more like the model the more you let go of these goals and focus just on reveling in spontaneous, honest reaction to a model. Not that there isn’t a structure to his approach, there is, but it’s a structure that sets the stage for creative improvisation, like a jazz solo emerging from a preexisting composition.And so, while it wasn’t this book in particular that introduced me to McMullan’s ideas, I cherish my copy and I’ve bought many copies for friends and coworkers over the years. But it’s not for beginners. It’s a book for someone very talented who’s trying to push past their own limitations and is searching for some insights to fuel that push.

This book could have been titled "A Curriculum for the Experienced Drawing Student," The text encourages the student to be committed to the model and what she/he is offering by pose, physique and character. It is a republication of a 1994 text. His artwork can be seen in "Theatre Posters of James McMillan" These posters are excellent examples of how he uses the gesture and rhythm of he figure to express character.McMullan teaches the use of pencil to express drawings in line without shading. His own drawings and those of his students provide specific illustrations of how line can create the rhythm that expresses the life of the model.The introduction, far longer than I expected for a drawing text, develops the philosophy of drawing that captures the energy of the model. Historic examples are use to illustrate his point. For example a vivid drawing by Ingres is contrasted with a nude by Fortuny. The Fortuny drawing is elegant and perfectly portioned but dead, when contrasted to the energetic,even though reclining, nude by Ingres.His examples of both his student's work and his own, being short poses, often leave out the detail of hands, faces and feet.. Character for McMullan is first expressed by the rhythm of the pose, then later by the details. The drawings in the second half of the book offers clear examples of his drawing ideas and of his teaching method.I missed the opportunity to be McMullan's student but now, after studying his book,I have a renewed focus on character in figure drawing.

Great drawing the figure book...New ideas and techniques. I love this book and J McMullan's artwork and posters!

This is hardly anything revolutionary. In 1920 Dr. Paul Richer coined the term "Lignes D'Envelope' or Enveloping LInes. Sure, spirals course around the torso and appendages in a helical fashion. Heck, even the heart uses interlaced spiral muscles so that the blood isn't just pumped in two dimensions but is wrung out of the left ventricle. William Hogarth back in the 17th century described the long S-shaped line as the "line of beauty" and Leonardo called it the linea serpentinata (serpent-shaped line). Michelangelo admired it in the Hellenistic sculpture the Laocoon, possibly dating back to 200 BC. In curvaceous women, it is everywhere. Leonardo's Leda and the Swan is an exercise in displaying this.The biggest problem you will have as a realist figurative artist is finding a class or figure drawing group that mostly stages quick gestural poses of less than three minutes. Even after 90 seconds most models fade or become stiff. And since most other artists want long poses so they can fuss over their work, well there you have it. You need to throw out 2,00 gestural sketches before you get good at capturing the rhythms inherent in the figure. It's not about the product, it's about the process. Good luck.

Life changing experience from his teaching. The book will open doors for any aspiring artist. Highly recommend it.

Incredible book. It has transformed the way in which I approach art making.