Effects of Visual Referents upon Representational Drawing of the Human Figure

Abstract

This study examined the effects of two- and three-dimensional visual referents upon selected aspects of representational human figure drawing by first-year public high school students. Three intact drawing classes were randomly assigned to three factor levels: (a) drawing instruction and practice from live models, (b) drawing instruction and practice from photographs, and (c) drawing instruction and practice from copies of master drawings. All groups received identical lessons exclusive of the visual referent for 15 days. Subjects were posttested with all three types of visual referents. Raters objectively evaluated the technical use of proportion, foreshortening, value, texture, line, and gesture in each posttest. Findings suggest that the three referents, in terms of supplying information to learn the specified art elements, are not significantly different. This conclusion focuses attention upon the need to reexamine the traditional notion that representational figure drawing should be taught and practiced only from life.

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