BARGUE LESSON PLAN

BY MANDY HALLENIUS www.mandyhallenius.com

AND JULIETTE ARISTIDES www.aristidesarts.com
With support from
LEON LOWENSTEIN FOUNDATION, INC.
ART RENEWAL CENTER www.artrenewal.org
GAGE ACADEMY OF ART www.gageacademy.org

BARGUE LESSON PLAN

Charles Bargue was instrumental in creating a late 19th century drawing course. Bargue
believed that when students copied drawings by trained artists, that their own observation
skills significantly improved. Additionally, Bargue believed that drawing from antique
sculptures taught design and taste to budding artists, so many of his copying plates show
these subjects.
Students can still learn a great deal from these copying plates today. This lesson is designed to
combine the drawing concepts learned in the envelope, line, and value lesson plans in order to
produce a technically solid copy of a Bargue plate.
The objective of this lesson is to copy a Bargue plate to the best of the students ability. Using
an envelope will set the proportions for the student copy. Using straight lines with accurate
angles will help the drawing copy to closely resemble the original. Closely observing values
will keep the light and dark organization in the drawing similar to the value organization
in the original Bargue plate. All of these concepts must be practiced in concert in order to
produce a technically competent copy of a Bargue plate.
The two Bargue plates in this lesson plan are already broken down into steps for students to
follow. The first step shows the original envelope that Bargue started his drawing with, as well
as a few, big, major, straight lines of the subject.
The second step shows a more fully developed block-in drawing that again uses big, major,
straight lines.
The third step shows a rendering of the subject with a clear organization of values. Notice that
in the shadow portion of the Bargue plates that there is no area lighter then the darkest area
of the light portion. Notice in the light areas that there is no value darker than the lightest
area of the shadow areas. This maintains the value organization of the Bargue plate.
STEP 1

STEP 2

STEP 3

MATERIALS:
Paper
Pencils
Kneaded Erasers
Skewers
Bargue Plates
Drawing Board
PROCEDURE:
1. Tape the Bargue plate (there are three Bargue plates, you want to tape the one that shows
the shading onto your board) and a piece of paper side by side on your drawing board.
2. Using your skewer, measure the height of the image on the Bargue plate.
3. Mark this height onto your drawing paper.
4. Using your skewer, measure the width of the image on the Bargue plate.
5. Mark this width onto your drawing paper.
6. Look carefully at the envelope on the first of the three Bargue plates, and try to recreate
this on your drawing paper. Make sure that your envelope coincides with your height and
width measurements.
7. Look carefully at the second of the three Bargue plates. Notice how the image is broken
down from the envelope using big, straight lines. Also, notice how some lines have
coincidences. Try to recreate the exact same number and angle of lines onto your drawing
paper.
8. Observe values on the third Bargue plate carefully. Find the darkest values on the Bargue
plate, and shade these in on your drawing paper.
9. Working from the darkest values to the lightest values, draw the values that you observe
from your Bargue plate onto you drawing paper.

BARGUE PLATE ASSESSMET

Envelope

Lines

Values

TOTAL
NOTES:

3 POINTS

4 POINTS

5 POINTS

Envelope uses
curved lines or
many lines. The
envelope does
not efficiently
describe the
subject.

Envelope uses
straight lines
but could be
simplified by
using fewer
lines and/or the
envelope has
too much space
between itself
and the subject.
Line angles
are sometimes
accurately
observed.
Most lines are
straight. Some
big major lines
are used in the
drawing.
Most values
maintain a
hierarchy.

Envelope uses a small

number of straight
lines. Envelope
efficiently describes
the subject. Envelope
closely hugs the
subject.

Few line angles

are closely
observed and/
or lines are
curved. Many
insignificant
lines are
included in the
drawing.
Few values
maintain a
hierarchy.

Line angles are

accurately observed.
Lines are straight.
Big, major lines are
used in the drawing.

Values maintain a
hierarchy. There are
no values in the light
areas that are darker
than the lightest areas
in the shadow part.
There are no values
in the shadow part
that are lighter than
the darkest part of the
light areas.

POINTS
EARNED