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	Mosna; Мосна
Country:	Serbia
Subdivision:	Bor District, Majdanpek municipality
Location:	7 km from Donji Milanovac
Coordinates	44° 26′ 29" N 22° 10′ 30" E
Area code:	030
Postal code:	19220
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An Atelier Method is a method of fine art instruction modeled after the private art studio schools of 15th to 19th century Europe. Taking its name from the French word for "artist's studio," the Atelier Method is a form of private instruction in which an artist, usually a professional painter, works closely with a small number of students to progressively train them. Atelier schools can be found around the world, particularly in North America and Western Europe.

Although the methods vary, most painting studios train students in the skills and techniques associated with the creation of representational art, creating two-dimensional images that appear real to the viewer. They traditionally include sessions for drawing or painting a nude model.

Sight-Size Method

File:Mimsariadnecast.jpg

Student sight-size Cast Drawing after Ariadne.^[1]

Ateliers emphasizing the sight-size method generally agree that the practice of careful drawing is the basis of painting. Charles H. Cecil, founder of Charles H. Cecil Studios, an atelier located in Florence Italy writes:

Fundamental to the teaching is the practice of drawing and painting from life with no recourse to photography. The sight-size technique is taught at Charles H. Cecil Studios whereby subject and image are depicted to scale as seen from a given distance. When properly understood, sight-size is not a mere measuring technique, but a philosophy of seeing. The method was used by many of the finest painters in oil since the seventeenth century, including Reynolds, Lawrence and Sargent.

In reviving the atelier tradition, R. H. Ives Gammell (1893-1981) adopted sight-size as the basis of his teaching method. He founded his studio on the precedent of private ateliers, such as those of Carolus-Duran and Léon Bonnat. These French masters were accomplished sight-size portraitists who conveyed to their pupils a devotion to the art of Velázquez. It should be noted that Sargent was trained by both painters and that, in turn, his use of sight-size had a major influence in Great Britain and America.

Charles Cecil is committed to the belief that the atelier tradition is invaluable for a renewal in figurative art...^[2]

Drawing and painting from plaster casts

Atelier students often begin to draw or paint using plaster casts as subjects. These casts are usually faces, hands, or other parts of the human anatomy. Plaster casts provide some of the benefits of live, human models, such as the presence of natural shadows. They also have their own distinct advantages: they remain perfectly still and their white color allows the student to focus on the pure, grayscale tones of shadows. This is the method that contemporary painter Jacob Collins pursues at his schools, the Water Street Atelier and the Grand Central Academy.

Sight-size drawing and painting

Sight-Size is a method of drawing and painting an object exactly as it appears to the artist on a one to one scale. The artist first sets a vantage point where the subject and the drawing surface appear to be the same size. Then, using a variety of measuring tools -- which can include strings, sticks, mirrors, levels, and plumb-bobs -- the artist draws the subject so that, when viewed from the set vantage point, the drawing and the subject have exactly the same dimensions. When properly done, sight-size drawing can result in extremely accurate and realistic drawings. It can also be used to draw the exact dimensions for a subject in preparation for a painting. Contemporary realist painter Adrian Gottlieb notes that "while professional painters pursuing a full-time career will develop an 'eye' that precludes the need for measuring devices and plumb lines (tools necessary during the training period), the observation method itself is not abandoned - instead it becomes second nature. Sight-size can be taught and applied in conjunction with a particular sensitivity to gesture to create life-like imagery; especially when applied to portraiture and figurative works."

Darren R. Rousar, former student of Richard Lack and Charles Cecil as well as the author of Cast Drawing Using the Sight-Size Approach, agrees and defines measuring in broad terms. He says that "a fully trained artist who uses Sight-size might never use a plumb line or even consciously think about literal measuring. He or she will strive toward achieving the same retinal impression in the painting as is seen in nature."^[3]

Accuracy based methods often favor the appearance the sculpture from classical antiquity, a Neoclassical painting or modern near photorealism following truth

Comparative Measurement

The comparative measurement method requires proportional accuracy, but allows the artist to vary the size of the image created. This technique broadly encompasses any method of drawing that involves making measurements primarily using the naked eye. In the early training period students may be aided by a pencil, brush or plumb line to make comparisons, but there is no transfer of 1:1 measurements from subject directly to paper.

In his essay, The Sight-size Method and its Disadvantages, the painter and instructor Hans-Peter Szameit, of the Swedish Academy of Realist Art discusses the disadvantageous of sight- size, describing it as essentially the making of a mechanically produced image limited to one size, the "sight size."

Mr. Szameit also convincingly demonstrates that the sight-size method does not have deep historical roots. He explains that those claiming past masters used the sight-size method are incorrect, basing their claims on a misunderstanding of the definition of the sight-size method.

Illusion Training

Another traditional method incorporates the use of illusions and is most often taught in conjunction with advanced compositional theory. The artist that creates illusions to fool the viewer into believing an image is accurate, need not copy exactly what is seen. This allows the artist to experiment with many options and retain what appears to be a realistic image.

In the example of Mercury Descending 1, Peter Paul Rubens has obscured the point where the legs attach to the torso. This is one factor that contributes to the ease in which he is able to successfully experiment with a variety of dramatically different leg placements (at least three sets of legs are visible). The viewer is not disturbed by an illogical attachment if the attachment is not visible and the resulting two-dimensional image is pleasing to the eye. This allows the artist to choose from a great number of very different alternatives, making his selection based on personal taste or aesthetics rather than accuracy. Artists can experiment with numerous manipulations regarding the size and placement of each part of the body and at the same time use a collection of two-dimensional foreshortening illusions to retain the appearance of realism.

In addition to parts of the body, artists rely on the manipulation of many other elements to achieve a successful illusion. These can include, the manipulation of color, value, edge characteristics, overlapping shapes and a variety of painting techniques such as glazing and scumbling.

Many of the illusions designed to mimic reality also speed the painting process, allowing artists more time to design and complete complex large scale works. Work developed this way would not begin with a drawing, but rather the placement of all relevant elements necessary for the success of the illusions as well as the composition as a whole. This lends itself to a more painterly appearance of the finished work.

As with sight-size and the comparative measurement, this method requires the artist to constantly back up to view the work. The reason for this is demonstrated by a very successful illusion image created to look like Marilyn Monroe from a distance and Albert Einstein up close1. Since images look entirely different at different distances, the artists backs up to view the work at the distance where the final picture will be viewed. If the work is large, artists are required to constantly pace back to a distance relatively far from the painting.

Rather than mimic a single style, artist skilled at the use of multiple illusions often study the technical execution and compositions of a wide variety of old masters This allows each student to pursue their own individual vision. Students of these ateliers exhibit a wide range of personal styles and increasing amounts of creative experimentation.

The Atelier of Léon Bonnat (1846-1855), one of the more liberal instructors, stressed simplicity in art above high academic finish, as well as overall effect rather than detail. Bonnat's students exhibited a wide range of styles and included: Gustave Caillebotte, Suzor-Coté, Georges Braque, Thomas Eakins, Raoul Dufy, Marius Vasselon, Fred Barnard, Aloysius O'Kelly, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.[2]

Although individual students study a wide range of old masters, many study the painting techniques and compositional skills of the High Renaissance, Mannerist and Baroque styles, including Michelangelo, Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci, Titian, Rubens, El Greco.

Notes and references

^ Mims Studios School of Fine Art", mimsstudios.com. Retrieved 7 September 2008.
^ "Atelier tradition", charlescecilstudios.com. Retrieved 7 September 2008.
^ "Sight-Size Misconceptions", sightsize.com. Retrieved 7 September 2008.

External links to sight-size Ateliers endorsed by the Art Renewal Center

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[1] Mims Studios School of Fine Art", mimsstudios.com. Retrieved 7 September 2008.

[2] "Atelier tradition", charlescecilstudios.com. Retrieved 7 September 2008.

[3] "Sight-Size Misconceptions", sightsize.com. Retrieved 7 September 2008.

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