Interfaces ()
Teaching Portraits with Method – the Technology of Grids, Compasses and Proportions in British Drawing Manuals
Abstract
Manuals teaching how to draw a face and figure were translated into English from their original Dutch, Italian and French, and altered to focus especially on the skills of transferability, and the use of measurements in the practice of picture copying. The texts on proportions and ideal ratio were often misinterpreted while the accompanying plates were often mistaken for ready reckoning tables or copy plates. The resulting unworkability of some of these lessons did not however greatly impact the popularity of these manuals. Gridded illustrations and plates laden with measurements became regular fixtures, luring the amateur-customer with the promise of easily reproducible designs for accomplished results. The geometricized drawing of the face made reproducible projections the basic toolbox of the portrait painter and artisan, ruler and compass in hand.
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