The Human Head

The Human Head

In the mid nineteenth century Prof. Louis Bail was the pre-eminent advocate for teaching drawing in the schools and established a famous system of Drawing Charts to facilitate the adoption of drawing in all schools through out the country. His system was based on a series of sequential exercises taking the student through levels of both seeing of forms and reproducing them on paper.

This book is the next step for students, to bring all that they have learned to the drawing of the human head. Following the example of the Drawing Charts the lessons proceed from outlining the head, placing features on the head in proportion, then to drawing character and emotion.

It is the system that is derived from the lessons of the old masters, and its widespread adoption influenced just about everyone who wrote a book on drawing the human head since.

From The American Journal of Science, Volume 79, 1860. Miscellaneous Scientific Intelligence 5. Bails Drawing System : The Human Head, by Louis Bail, (graduate of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, in Munich). New Haven: Author, 1859. 8vo, 64 plates in outline.‹Prof. Bail has here done a great service to both teachers and pupils in the Arts in the United States. The success which has followed the Author's use of his own system in many of our higher seminaries, as well as in public classes, is the best guarantee of the adaptation of its parts to the great ends of instruction, and no doubt will secure its general adoption.

The Human Skull from the side.
The Human Skull from the front.
The Muscles of the Human Head from the side.
The Muscles of the Human Head from the front.
How to Draw the Mouth.
How to Draw Eyes from the side.
How to Draw Eyes from the front.
How to Draw Ears.
Facial Angles - 4 plates.
The Outline and Proportions of the Human Head in Profile.
The Outline and Proportions of the Human Head from the front.
The Head Looking Down.
The Head Looking Up.
Three-Quarters View of the Head - 2 plates.
Three-Quarters View of the Head looking down - 2 plates.
Three-Quarters View of the Head looking up - 3 plates.
Sample Drawings of Heads Illustrating the Principles of Drawing - 17 plates.
How to Draw a Caucasian.
How to Draw a African.
How to Draw Old Age - 2 plates.
How to Draw Infancy - 2 plates.
How to Draw Sobriety.
How to Draw Laughter - 3 plates.
How to Draw Discontent.
How to Draw Severity.
How to Draw Fright.
How to Draw Anxious Watchfulness.
How to Draw Bodily Fear.
How to Draw Weeping.
How to Draw Terror.
How to Draw Prayer - 2 plates.
How to Draw Innocence.
How to Draw a Misanthrope.
How to Draw Surprise.
How to Draw Great Pain.
How to Draw Rage.

More notes on the book at my blog post "The Human Head - Louis Bail's Drawing System."

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Here is a link to The New York teacher, and the American educational monthly, Volume 8, 1871, which advertises Prof. Bail's Drawing Charts.

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This new edition is copyright 2009, the original images in it are believed to be in the public domain based on their age and publishing date. If you have information to the contrary please email me: lifedraw2005@yahoo.com

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