Kimon Nicolaides, photograph attributed to Ben Ross, 1930s

Kimon Nicolaïdes

1891–1938 · United States

Researched by Daniel Bilmes, painter and educator.

Kimon Nicolaïdes taught drawing as a way of learning to see. His method, codified in the posthumously published The Natural Way to Draw (1941), is a year-long course drawn from his classes at the Art Students League. It puts sensory experience over structural formula. Students begin with two core exercises: slow, tactile contour drawing, where you imagine your pencil is touching the form, and rapid gesture drawing, which catches the subject's action and energy. The course runs on a strict schedule, alternating exercises to build momentum and perception. Nicolaïdes treated the finished drawings as by-products, valuing the learning above all. His method is foundational for many artists, though there is an honest debate about whether its intuitive approach suits absolute beginners without some prior grounding in structure.

ProcessDirect TemperamentObserver LineageAmerican

Signature moves

Draw the contour by touch, not sight

Moved the pencil slowly on the paper as the eye crept slowly along the edge of the model, imagining the pencil point was actually touching the form.

Why it matters · The exercise, often called "blind contour," trains a tactile connection to the subject. The point is not a good drawing but the experience of observation, forcing you to slow down and report what your eye feels along the form, not what your brain thinks a body looks like.

Kimon Nicolaïdes, The Natural Way to Draw, "Contour Drawing", 1941

Draw the gesture to catch the action

In one-minute poses, used a rapid, continuous line to catch the movement and feeling of the pose, not its static appearance.

Why it matters · Gesture drawing trains you to see the whole action at once. Instead of assembling parts, you report what the body is doing. It is the opposite of the slow contour, and it teaches you to grasp the life and energy of a subject before its details.

Kimon Nicolaïdes, The Natural Way to Draw, "Gesture Drawing", 1941

Follow a strict, scheduled practice

Organised the method into a year-long course of fifteen-hour schedules, alternating exercises like contour and gesture to build momentum.

Why it matters · Nicolaïdes held that momentum was everything. The schedule makes you practice different ways of seeing in a structured way. It treats drawing not as an act of inspiration but as a discipline built through consistent, varied effort, like an athlete's training.

Kimon Nicolaïdes, The Natural Way to Draw, "A Working Plan for Art Study", 1941

Draw from memory in quick studies

Watched a pose for a short time, then turned away from the model to draw it from memory, an exercise he thought most important of all.

Why it matters · Memory drawing forces you to grasp the essential information of a pose. You cannot copy, you have to understand. That builds the visual vocabulary you draw from imagination with, because you have practised holding a clear mental image of the form.

Kimon Nicolaïdes, The Natural Way to Draw, "Memory Drawing", 1941

Put the experience above the drawing

Treated the finished drawings as by-products of the effort, the real goal being the student's increased knowledge and perception.

Why it matters · This frees you from the fear of a "bad" drawing. If the goal is the learning, every attempt is a success. It resets the purpose of practice from producing artefacts to building a new way of seeing, where mistakes are a necessary part of the work.

Kimon Nicolaïdes, The Natural Way to Draw ("the job of the teacher is to teach students how to learn to draw"), 1941

Studio

Light: He advised against direct sunlight or spotlights, preferring concealed or multiple overhead sources for an even, undramatic light on the model.
Position: Sitting on a straight chair, very close to the model, the drawing board leaned against another chair. He recommended against using an easel.
Session length: His book is built into three-hour lessons, simulating his classes at the Art Students League, where he taught from 1922 to 1938.
Tools: Cheap materials: cream-coloured manila wrapping paper and newsprint · 3B or 4B pencils, a fine point for contour and a blunt point for gesture · Wolfe carbon pencils and lithograph crayons for the later exercises · An eyeshade, to hold the focus on the subject
Notes: The method was built around the live model, students placed to see the pose from every angle. When no model was available, he had you draw anything: an old shoe, a flower, your own hand. The emphasis was always on the act of observation.

Source: Kimon Nicolaïdes, The Natural Way to Draw, 1941

Palette

Ground: Cream-coloured manila wrapping paper for the contour studies, and cheaper newsprint for the thousands of gesture drawings.
Colors: Yellow Ochre · Burnt Sienna · Permanent Blue · Lemon Yellow · Viridian or Hooker's Green
Blacks: 3B and 4B graphite pencils · Wolfe carbon pencil (2B or 3B) · Black drawing ink · Black watercolour
Medium: A drawing pedagogy in pencil and ink, with watercolour introduced in the later exercises. He taught drawing, not oil painting, and the record leaves it there.
Quantity: Not applicable to a drawing teacher; left blank rather than guessed.

Source: Kimon Nicolaïdes, The Natural Way to Draw, "Materials", 1941

Workflow, from blank canvas

1. Start with contour and gesture
Begin with the two foundational exercises: slow, tactile contour drawing to connect with the form, and rapid gesture drawing to catch the action.
Why: These two opposed exercises train different modes of seeing. Contour teaches slow, careful observation; gesture teaches you to take in the whole movement at once.
2. Follow the schedule
Hold to the book's schedule, alternating exercises for set stretches of time (say thirty minutes of gesture, then thirty of contour).
Why: The schedule builds momentum and stops you getting stuck in one mode. It is a structured plan for developing your seeing, not just for making pictures.
3. Bring in weight and modelled drawing
Once contour and gesture hold, take up exercises for the mass, volume, and solidity of the figure.
Why: This adds a third dimension, moving from the edge (contour) and the action (gesture) to the substance and gravity of the form.
4. Practise memory drawing
Watch the model for a short time, then turn away and draw it from memory. Nicolaïdes thought this a crucial step.
Why: It trains you to hold a clear mental image and understand the form rather than copy it. It is the bridge to drawing from imagination.
5. Postpone anatomy and detail
The study of specific muscles and surface detail is deliberately held back until the student has put real time into the foundational experiences.
Why: The method builds the power to perceive form and action first. Detail on a weak foundation is useless; detail on a strong perceptual grasp brings it to life.

Refusals — what they would not do

Refused to teach "how to draw," insisting his job was to teach "how to learn to draw."
Refused to prize the finished drawing, calling it a by-product of the more important experience of observation.
Refused to start from anatomy or structure, holding it back until a foundation in contour and gesture was built.
Refused expensive supplies for the exercises, recommending cheap paper and pencils so nobody feared "wasting" materials.

Reference

Primary source: The live model, watched at close range. When no model was to hand, any natural object, your own hand, or even an old shoe would do.
Photography: He worked from life. The method is about direct, multi-sensory observation, which a photograph cannot replicate.

Exceptions

The drawings in his book are demonstrations of the method, not studies from a specific model in a specific session.

Lineage

Every teacher and student below sits on the site-wide teacher-student map.

Teachers

George Bridgman · at the Art Students League — Academic construction of the figure. Nicolaïdes's method is often read as the counterpoint, sensory experience over structural formula.
John Sloan · at the Art Students League — A leading figure of the Ashcan School, focused on American realism and scenes of daily life.
Kenneth Hayes Miller · at the Art Students League — Taught classical composition and Renaissance technique applied to modern urban subjects.

Influences

The French atelier model of the Art Students League, where students chose their masters and worked independently.

Students

Mamie Harmon, his student and collaborator, who posthumously compiled and edited The Natural Way to Draw.
Revington Arthur, an American painter and educator.
Ben Ross and Muriel Walcoff, who studied with him at the League in the early 1930s and kept a close friendship.

In their own words

“Learning to draw is really a matter of learning to see, to see correctly, and that means a good deal more than merely looking with the eye.”

— Kimon Nicolaïdes, The Natural Way to Draw, 1941

His core philosophy, stated at the start of the book: drawing is an extension of perception.

“You should draw not what the thing looks like, not even what it is, but what it is doing.”

— Kimon Nicolaïdes, The Natural Way to Draw, 1941

The key instruction for gesture drawing, action and energy over static appearance.

“The sooner you make your first five thousand mistakes the sooner you will be able to correct them.”

— Kimon Nicolaïdes, The Natural Way to Draw, 1941

Pushing students to take error as a necessary part of learning, freeing them from the paralysis of perfectionism.

Techniques and practices

contour-drawing

gesture-drawing

cross-contour-drawing

memory-drawing

drawing-as-sensory-experience

scheduled-practice

Where they trained and taught

The Art Students League

Questions and answers

What is The Natural Way to Draw?

A famous drawing-instruction book by Kimon Nicolaïdes, published in 1941 after his death. It lays out a year-long course from his teaching at the Art Students League, built on exercises like contour and gesture drawing to teach students how to see and experience form.

What is contour drawing in Nicolaïdes's method?

A slow exercise where your eye moves along the edge of a subject and your pencil moves at the same pace on the paper, as if it were touching the form. It is often called "blind contour," but Nicolaïdes actually had students glance at the paper now and then to reorient, just never to draw while looking.

What is gesture drawing?

A very fast exercise, often done in a minute or less, using a continuous, roaming line to catch the action, movement, and feeling of a pose. The goal is not to draw what the subject looks like, but what it is doing.

Is The Natural Way to Draw good for beginners?

There is a debate about it. Nicolaïdes meant it for everyone, beginners included, and many find it frees them from being tight and precious. But some students feel its focus on intuition can frustrate without some grounding in structure, and that it works best for those who already have a little drawing experience.

Did Kimon Nicolaïdes teach with George Bridgman?

Yes, they were contemporaries and colleagues at the Art Students League of New York, and Bridgman was in fact one of Nicolaïdes's own teachers. Their methods are often read as two philosophies: Bridgman's constructive, block-based approach against Nicolaïdes's sensory, experience-based one.

What materials do you need for The Natural Way to Draw?

Nicolaïdes recommended cheap, common materials to keep practice fearless. You need manila wrapping paper, newsprint, and 3B or 4B pencils. The idea is to use materials you are not afraid to spend on thousands of practice drawings.

If this painter is your match

You believe drawing is about learning to see, not just making a picture. You are drawn to practice as a discipline, a scheduled effort to build a new kind of perception. You want to feel the form and catch the action, and you are willing to make five thousand mistakes to get there.

Borrow this: For one hour, alternate exercises. Start with ten one-minute gesture drawings on cheap newsprint, using a fast, continuous line to catch the model's action. Then switch to a single twenty-minute contour drawing on better paper, letting your pencil creep along as if it were touching the form, and do not look at the paper. Repeat.

Adjacent painters

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio1571–1610

A painter who blacked out every window but one, refused preparatory drawing entirely, and built each canvas back to front, painting foreground figures over backgrounds that were still wet.

Carolus-Duran1837–1917

A bravura portrait painter who threw out academic underdrawing, taught his students to attack the canvas with a loaded brush in the first sitting, and built a face from flat tones of matched value set side by side like a mosaic.

Charles Webster Hawthorne1872–1930

The founder of the Cape Cod School of Art who taught painting in colour spots, posing backlit figures outdoors and working them with a putty knife, mass before detail.

Carel Fabritius1622–1654

Rembrandt's most independent pupil, who reversed his master by laying cool, light-toned grounds, setting a sharply lit figure against a pale wall, and who died young when the Delft gunpowder store exploded.

Shared the workbench

Other researched painters who used at least one of Nicolaïdes’s techniques.

Robert Henri1865–1929

The charismatic Ashcan School teacher who painted the "spirit" of modern life in rapid, expressive brushwork, blocked the big masses first, and refused academic finish for emotional truth.

Primary sources

Kimon Nicolaïdes, The Natural Way to Draw: A Working Plan for Art Study, 1941. The definitive text on his teaching method, compiled posthumously by Mamie Harmon. The source for all the exercises and his philosophy. [link]
Mamie Harmon Papers Relating to Kimon Nicolaides, 1935 to 1985. Archival records at the Smithsonian holding Harmon's materials on the book's publication, confirming her crucial role. [link]
Art Students League of New York, LINEA essays. The League's journal, for the history of his teaching career (1922 to 1938) and his place among contemporaries like Bridgman and Sloan. [link]
Letter from Kimon Nicolaïdes to Ben Ross, July 16, 1935. A primary document showing his personal encouragement of students. Held in a private collection.

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