Must have book download (drawing Acanthus leaves)

[Steve Lindsay]

Elise had found this book and posted it some time ago in the google-book thread. The book is called "Guide For Drawing the Acanthus". It is dated 1886. The drawing tutorials are good and teach how to draw some of the most beautiful Acanthus leaves. I also noticed a section toward the end titled Arabesque. It is interesting to read through that.

View the book on-line


Download it as a pdf to your harddrive


There is good detail if you zoom in on the various plates.

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For additional books and video links check out Techniques and Resources



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[Doc Mark]

Thanks Steve,

This is an excellent reference book! I've only just scanned it quickly, and am looking forward to spending some time studying it closely. I love these old technical "how to" books written for the artists of the time.

Mark

[rbaptiste]

HI Steve,
Is it possible to read it or to download it for free?
How do you proceed?
Thanks
Your third link don't go ;-)

[Steve Lindsay]

Originally Posted by rolandbaptiste

HI Steve,
Is it possible to read it or to download it for free?
How do you proceed?
Thanks
Your third link don't go ;-)

Oh that is right...I forgot we had figured out in the google book thead that google blocked out non-us ip users from their on-line books.
So.....I downloaded it and reuploaded to my server. You should be able to now download it from here.

It is a 7 meg file. You can left click on it and it will load in acrobat reader, but it will load very slow because of the size of the file. It may be better to right click on the link and select "save link as" to save the file to your hard disk. After it finishes downloading, find the file on your harddisk and double click it to have it open in acrobat reader.

[rbaptiste]

Thanks very much Steve.

[jlseymour]

Great book Steve, Looked for some on line $200-$550...
Be allot easier to print and have it bound or put into folder...
Jerry

[WVEngraver]

Jerry,

You'll have to leave that new bound book in the attic for a bit to get that 19th century smell.



Steve ... pure GOLD. Thank-you very much. I've been flipping though and it is fantastic!!! There has to be a reference to palm control in there somewhere!!

[airamp]

Hi Steve,

There is a lot of info on Scrolls but not much on leaves.

This book is a gem. Thanks for the link and download

airamp

[Dave London]

Thanks Steve

[Ray Cover]

I downloaded it. What a cool freebie:banana_party:

Ray

[rod]

Steve,

This is a hot tip! Thanks!

I downloaded in no time without any problem. It is a treasure trove of reference, and should make some great reference reading!

Rod

[CJ Allan]

Great book...Thanks Steve....

[ddushane]

Great Book Steve, Just got finished going through it. Thank you for sharing this great find! Dwayne

[SpiderCurt]

I ran across the original thread while lurking around the forum. I downloaded a half dozen or so of the titles mentioned in the thread and was able to jump start my engravers library. Since I wasn't registered at the time I was unable to make a "Thank You" post. Thank you Steve and everyone else that contributed to that thread!

By the way, I had problems downloading these pdf files too. I am stuck with a dial up Internet connection and noisy phone lines. Some of the more popular file servers have started sending end of file signals during peek usage times when your download takes too long. This results in unusable partial files. I was able to work around this by downloading the book files at a client's with DSL when I went in to backup his system.

[paul66]

Hi steve

Would it be possible to download some of the other online books in your resources forum for your non US members and have them on the server for direct download ??. Myself and I think others would be most greatfull.

Yours Paul

[jimzim75]

Thanks Steve, Cool book.
It downloads okay in Canada.

Jim

[Steve Lindsay]

Originally Posted by paul66

Hi steve

Would it be possible to download some of the other online books in your resources forum for your non US members and have them on the server for direct download ??. Myself and I think others would be most greatfull.

Yours Paul

Okay, yes. I can do that with more of the books when things slow down here a little.

Here is another one for those into forging. It is called Plain and Ornamental Forging, dated 1916

Steve

[Steve Lindsay]

Hey this is interesting. Read the below quote from page 58 of this book "The Connoisseur" dated 1901. Photography must have just been invented and started to replace hand engraving.



"THE fear that the photogravure would oust the
hand-engraved plate from the market, and perhaps
make hand-engraving a lost art, if it ever had any
solid ground, may, at any rate, now be dismissed as
groundless. At the present prices high-class
engravings are so good an investment that they will
without doubt continue to be produced. The
mezzotints in Mr. Henry Arthur Blyth's collection,
which fetched nearly ^22,000 at Christie's in
March, were originally published at prices amounting
in the aggregate to less than £500; and the
published price of Val. Green's mezzotint after
Reynolds, " The Duchess of Rutland," which was
sold for a thousand guineas, was fifteen shillings.
It is not only the old engravings that increase
in value; proof impressions of the best modern
plates are fetching much more than their published
prices. Among modern engravings of which the
first state impressions have increased in price are
most of those by the late Samuel Cousins, R.A. For
instance, " The Young Dauphin," after Greuze,
published by Mr. Thomas McLean in 1877 at five
guineas, is now worth fourteen guineas. "

Steve

[Steve Lindsay]

Another interesting section of reading from the same "The Connoisseur" book. Starting on page 181

[David Jacobson]

Thanks Steve, This realy helps me out. I've been trying to forge steel leaves to look like engraved scroll work. Making the back side look as good as the front can be quite challenging.

[catnip]

My first post and it's a good'n. I've just downloaded it, my eyes are spinnin' round in their sockets, after scrollin' through it. Must take more time, when I have some to study it. It looks facinating.....Tony

[jmj]

thanks steve this has been very helpfull John

[Tom_W]

excellent many thanks. My progress is geting better.

T

[acronn]

Thank you for posting this. I am improving and having fun doing it! I started with dog tags, you know name and address, that sort of stuff. They make nice gifts and good practice, and VERY PRACTICAL if you have ever lost a dog you know what I mean. As long as they are readable, they are usable. So I embellish them as I improve.

[sabeldom]

Hello.
Excuse my English, (I am French) I research information on the constuctions of the rinceaux leaves acanthes npour engravings on arm (counsels, site internet, books, Downloadings etc.) Thank you for your assistance.
Cordially Dominique

[chantal]

hi Steve thanks for the great download! can you also do this for the book
The Art of Engraving by fred holmes rees?
I am from Holland en google doesn't support us here.
Chantal

[bubbas55]

downloaded the book this am and got started doind some of the drawing . good book but sometimes these old books are written in such a way they are at times hard to understand. thanks for the info.

[K Frei]

Thank you so much! i ahve been meaning to ask for some tips and pointers on drawing such things... i've just been so busy i havent had the time to even get on in the last month or so thanks again. i will read it.

[leschowe]

Thanks Steve, this is really a great resource.

Les Schowe

[timgraver]

thank you steve. i spend so much time and money on ed. materials a free download is a god send. ill look for more here. thank you!

[iose]

Interesting book, thanks.

By the way, there is other copy at archive.org without google's restriction.

Greetings.

[rayf24]

You can also download it from open libary

http://www.archive.org/stream/guidef...n17/mode/thumb

well worth having thanks steve

Ray

[GeneC]

I've started it, it requires a little bit of the translation, I draw with a pencil not a crayon and show is spelled shew in the book, plus a few of the words are outside my vocabulary range, which would probably do me some good to look them up. But once he gets through to me I think I have a better understanding of drawing the acanthus plant.
When printing it out select only the pages you are interested in as there are a number of blank pages added in.

[rybredd]

Thanks for this link! look forward to reading it!!

[MyisticEngraver]

Excellent addition to my collection of books. They may be old but a great source of knowledge. Thanks for the link

[Aurifex]

Nice book than you Steve.

[josephnmora]

Cool book. Thank you.

[Sam Faraway]

Steve you've struck a rich seam of gold! Thank you.