Pen Drawing: An Illustrated Treatise

by Charles Donagh Maginnis

Art, with its finite means, cannot hope to record the infinite variety and complexity of Nature, and so contents itself with a partial statement, addressing this to the imagination for full and perfect meaning.

Genres: Art

46 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1899

About the author

Charles Donagh Maginnis emigrated to Boston at the age of 18 and he got his first job as an architect's apprentice. He later became an architect himself.

He was an instructor in illustration at Cowles art school and an instructor in pen drawing for the Boston Architectural Club, and wrote 'Pen Drawing - An Illustrated Treatise'.

Reviews

[Montzalee Wittmann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pen Drawing An Illustrated Treatise by Charles D. Maginnis is an art book that offers advice on materials (such as paper, pens, etc) , lots of different techniques to use, and other useful guidance. This is not a "how to" book, there are not step by steps if this is what you are looking for. It is more a critiquing an illustration to give the reader a better sense of how to make their art more appealing. Nice book for what it is. Some pictures to evaluate. The problem is the pictures are a bit small. Thank you NetGalley for suggesting this book.

[Kris (My Novelesque Life) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 STARS
(I received an ARC from the NETGALLEY)
(Review Not on Blog)

A cool book to look through if you are interested in drawing techniques.

[Jeremy Richardson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite dating from the end of the 19th century this was a surprisingly good contemporary read. Some of the quainter aspects; notably regarding the "modern" innovation of photography, whether architectural drawing has any merit, and the risks to mental health of emulating Aubrey Beardsley, are hilariously anachronistic, but they do not detract from some solid observations of technique and style. The fact that it is so old, lacking any influence of later, more influential works, gives it a uniqueness and freshness that is often missing from contemporary works that in greater part merely regurgitate the groundwork established by Guptill, Hall, et al. Over all a pleasant and illuminating read.

[Nathan Yoder · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book does a wonderful job of laying out the foundational principles of pen drawing in a short and concise way. You won’t find much help on drawing or composition, just pen drawing—plain and simple. It’s a beautifully succinct and incredibly helpful little book. I find myself going back to it often. I should also say that I have a 1899 edition so I can’t speak to the quality of the newer reprints.

[Rebecca · Rating 1 out of 5]

Book was not translated to kindle format properly. Images were lost either during initial conversion or due to the device I was reading it on (iPhone). Seems counterproductive to have a book about illustrations where there are no illustrations to see for the referencing.

[Leyla Johnson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an reproduction of the old book publication of the 1913, the drawing and photographs are quite good.

[Apryl Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an e-copy of the new Dover reprint in exchange for a fair and honest review on Netgalley. The content is very good; I felt as if I were attending a lecture in some early 20th century hall. BUT the quality of the facsimile was quite awful. The type is nearly illegible, and the lighter drawings hardly came through at all. If this is the case for the new print edition, then what a letdown for anyone who didn't pop over to Project Gutenberg for their money's worth!

[Sharon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought it would be more of a 'how to' draw book, and perhaps I should have read the blurb a little bit better. It's quite an old book with lots of writing and a few pictures, but to be honest, it wasn't really what I was expecting. It does go into technique and materials but none of it really interested me! Sorry!

[Alicia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. Really elegant, instructive and very useful examples.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Old, but very nice drawings.

[Agnes Preszler · Rating 2 out of 5]

I must precise that mine is not an evaluation of the content, but only the form it is presented. In fact, I simply can't qualify the content as the book is nearly unreadable (at least in the digital form I received it). It seems that the original book has been simply scanned and reprinted: the result is terrible. The same very bad quality is valid also for the images. I suggest OCR reading and checking, possibly changing also the font for a more modern one and image optimization for the pictures.
It's a pity that a probably good content is not enjoyable due to technical issues.