Drapery Process: "Drapery" Two-Part Drapery Demonstration

[fredflickstone]

Heres a few more tutorials...Have at em...

Ron

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[Elwell]

Ron,

I couldn't help noticing the Frank Reilly "six lines" in that figure diagram. What exactly is the Reilly connection at Watts?

[LightBrownboy]

Elwell, Jeff Watts, founder and teacher of Watts Atelier studied under 1st generation students of Frank Reilly . The Reilly method is the basis for a lot of the teachings at the school. There are other methods and teachings being practiced at the school but the Reilly method is one of the main underlying ones. Hope that helps.

-Pat

[tinyhands]

just to add to what lightbrownboy said, Fred Fixler was a student of Frank J. Reilly. And Fixler later went on an started the old California Art Institute, probably a name you may have seen thrown around these forums. When Jeff went to the school, Fixler had already left, and so he studied under Glen Orbik, who had studied with Fixler for many years, and was one of Fred's main students previously. The Watts Atelier down here, whatever is left of Associates in Art in L.a. are all schools that carry that same lineage.

[Elwell]

Thanks guys, that was exactly what I was looking for. I've always been a huge fan of Glen Orbik, and looking at his work it makes perfect sense that there is some Reilly training there.

[ramoutar]

Um...I don't want to sound like a goof or anything, but what is "The Riley Method" that everyone is talking about?

I tried to Google it, but couldn't really turn up anything.

Thanks.

[tinyhands]

Well first off, if you spelled it "riley" then you won't come up with anything. Try "Reilly" as that is the correct way to spell it. But even then, frank reilly wasn't that prolific of an artist enough that you'll find info on him. The reilly method however was several things. One, for drawing, it was a system of abstractions that broke down the figure into anatomical rythems. by using a system of lines you could abstractly solve a pose. And then, for painting, it was a system in which you had 9 values of grey. Meaning, that for every color on your palette, you had 9 seperate values from straight out the tube, all the way down the value scale. Then, based on the given situation you would plug in certain values in certain areas and so on and ultimately come up with your picture. It was almost a paint by numbers and such. Hope this makes sense. This style of training has a wonderful lineage, and that schools that have taught it have a rich history, but this kind of thing is mostly in the san diego, los angeles areas.

[MadSamoan]

A little more background on Reilly, he studied with George Bridgeman and Dean Cornwell (and probably Frank V. Dumond) at The Art Student's League. Like George Bridgeman, he made teaching a priority over his illustration career. He realized that he was teaching in an era when representational drawing had become unfashionable, but was determined to teach fundamentals in hopes that future generations would carry it on until the situation had balanced out. At the time, abstract artists were all the rage, traditional representational painters were nonexistant or making a living as illustrators to pay the bills while they painted landscapes for themselves. Rockwell, Cornwell and Leyendecker were fading superstars and Sargents were collecting dust in attics. Reilly was a gifted illustrator in his own right, his professional work consisted of mostly ads and book illustrations in the same vein as Loomis and Cornwell. He's most well known for his Revolutionary War period illustrations which are very sought after by collectors. Among his students are notable illustrators like Fred Fixler, James Bama, Jack Faragasso, and John Asaro and many of their students and student's students (and so on) have gone on to successful illustration and fine art careers. Reilly's 'system' isn't the end-all-be-all there is to drawing and painting, but it communicated centuries of drawing and painting experience into a format that produced positive results for anyone with the discipline to follow through and in essence, teach themselves.

[BadMange]

Ron, the thread topic says Drapery Tutorials 1 & 2 but the tutorials themselves are 3 and 2. Are there three total, or is one just a typo?

Btw, all your tutorials are really helpful Ron! I plan on working through them during my xmas break. Can't wait!

-Bad Mange

[BadMange]

All the images are loading in the foreshortening tutorial thread, you should read the whole thread. Ron states that they are deleted images that he reposted, so they're all there. Also, you can download the images directly from Ron's website by right-clicking the image, goto properties and copy/paste the link minus the image name into your browser. You'll be taken to his file list and can download the images there by right-clicking and choosing "save target as...".

-Bad Mange

[skatay]

http://www.americanartarchives.com/reilly.htm

[memento313]

I dont think the Faragasso book is out of print- I got a copy maybe a year ago from the Art Students League store. By the way, if your an art student that lives anywhere near New York and you havent attended the Art Students League, your insane. Everyone gets in, no portfolio needed, its cheap as dirt(pay by the month), and you study with the greatest teachers alive. Its one of the few things in life thats really too good to be true but is...

[Yupa]

STIX mentioned that Faragasso's *painting* book is out of print, which you can find for some pretty good $$$ in vintage stores. The drawing book (which you probably are referring to) is still out there. But, if the painting book really has been reissued, then that's awesome.

[albehany]

thanks so mutsh

[drd]

Is the Faragasso book you guys are talking about the one with the six steps of the portrait of a woman on the front cover? If it is, I'm thinking of borrowing it from my art teacher. I know it's by Faragasso but I don't know if he has multiple books. The Student's Guide to Painting?

[Elwell]

That's the one. Definitely borrow a copy if you can. I'd suggest photocopying or scanning it, as it's really dense, and most of it will probably take a long time to sink in. You'll want to be able to keep going back to it.

[drd]

That's the one. Definitely borrow a copy if you can. I'd suggest photocopying or scanning it, as it's really dense, and most of it will probably take a long time to sink in. You'll want to be able to keep going back to it.

Thanks Elwell. I've borrowed it before, but I mostly just scanned through it the first time to look at the pretty pictures and I actually tried to learn more the second time; but after seeing how revered he is, I think it'd be a good idea to look a little deeper into it.

[CM.]

thanks for this tut. been copying a davinci drapery at skl for the past week but couldnt rly get into the breakdown of its lines and parts - ur guide rly helped :)

[teena_mom]

thanks fredflickstone helpfull !! :)

[Phlipper]

I have a scanned copy of The Student's Guide To Painting somwehere around here. Mr. Faragasso has put the new edition on hold so if it's ok with the management I'll post a link to my jpgs.

I'm self-taught in drawing and painting, and I have relied almost completely on books from Jack Faragasso and AJ Grado for the Reilly painting methodology. I'd be even farther behind without access to his very logical approach to picture making.

[Phlipper]

Oh, by the way Fred ... I printed off all your Reilly tutorials a couple years back for my Reilly/Faragasso notebooks. I can't thank you enough for all your hard work in putting them together.

[kitehiGh]

I've been paging through your tutorials and have to thank you for all the work you put in here. Really amazing stuff. Can't appreciate it enough.

[bungyx]

thank you for this tutorial. It's helpfull

[kpamir]

Drapery is the death of me.

Thanks for the tutorial.

[4ntimatter]

This is a great help, thanks very much.