"America's most famous artists have spent a lot of their time, thought and energy in putting down for you in words and pictures all the ideas and methods they use in making pictures....we are confident you will find it fully expresses the man and his work, and is designed so you can readily understand his way of thinking about picture-making."

The Famous Artists School's Advanced Program which started in 1948 consisted of eleven separate volumes/binders each written and illustrated by a different faculty member (John Atherton, Austin Briggs, Stevan Dohanos, Robert Fawcett, Peter Helck, Fred Ludekens, Al Parker, Norman Rockwell, Ben Stahl, Harold Von Schmidt, Jon Whitcomb). It only lasted for a few years before school president Albert Dorne cancelled the program due to low enrollment and had all the material incinerated (according to an instructor at the school at the time) resulting in the scarcity of the remaining volumes.

This volume is Fred Ludekens' contribution to the Famous Artists School's Advanced Program. A 98-page course written and illustrated entirely by this illustrator (1900-1982) who lived in California most of his life and specialized in Western & Southwestern scenes & subjects. He assisted Albert Dorne in creating the original Famous Artists basic course in 1948, hence his late addition to the Advanced Program (Dorne never completed his advanced volume before closing down the program).

Lessons include: my approach to pictures; research; preliminary work; drawing procedure; making an advertising picture; making an illustration picture; pictures I like and why; black and white; the dramatic picture; etc.

As with all our copies of the Famous Artists Courses, we have verified the contents and completeness of this volume.

• All the pages are present including all the color plates.
• Pages are clean but have age toning. Some ringholes show mild wear/stress but none are torn.
• The one-page assignment sheet is missing, but a facsimile is included.
• The binder is lightly worn along the edges and seams. The rings and metal parts have mild pitting or rust. The rings close tightly.