One of the foundations of learning how to draw using an academic approach, are the Bargue exercises. These lithographs, created by 19th century artist and teacher Charles Bargue, were at the core of European Fine Art Academy programmes during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Artists such as Picasso, Van Gogh and John Singer Sargent learned to draw from Bargue plates.

Close observation from life is at the core of classical art. Inspired by greco-roman sculpture, Bargue’s drawings preserve this tradition. Thus, when a student practises Bargue drawings they are learning from generations of artists who have come before. By studying Bargue, one is preserving the legacy of the classical tradition.

Bargue exercises are an excellent way to train the eye. With consistent practice, students learn to understand structure, gauge proportions and understand values to create form . These are transferable skills essential to learning to draw the figure from life.

“Careful study and the constant repeated copying of Bargue's exercises have given me an insight into figure drawing. I have learned to measure and to see and to look for the broad outlines, so that, thank God, what seemed utterly impossible to me before is gradually becoming possible now. I no longer stand as helpless before nature as I used to do.‘’

Vincent Van Gogh writing to his brother Theo

The Block in:

• How to simplify objects with straight lines and determine proportions.

• How to work from general to specific.

Create form:

• How to simplify an object into light and shadow forms.

• How to describe a subject’s planes using the correct value.

• How to recreate the fall of light or “turn” form using a value scale, from shadow to light, to create a higher degree of realism.

The Sight Size approach helps the student to measure the object that they are drawing, and reproduce it accurately on the drawing surface, i.e. the Bargue plate, will be exactly the same size as the student’s drawing.

By placing the object and the drawing surface side by side, students can quickly flick their eye between the object and the drawing, and develop their ability to see line, proportion and value correctly.

The skills learned by doing Bargue exercises can then be transferred to drawing the figure from life.