Customer Reviews

Anatomy for Artists (Dover Anatomy for Artists)

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Marsh's book is fascinating and as some of the reviews attest, a valuable resource for the serious artist. However it's important to know what you're getting for it has limitations and may not be what some people want, particularly the beginning artist.

The book contains several hundred copies, drawn by Marsh, of anatomical studies by masters such as Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Duhrer and others. The book is systematic: the copies are grouped by perspective (side, front, back), feature (head, arms, feet) and includes a section on proportion along with a hundred or so of his own sketches.

This is not a good book if you are just starting to learn anatomy. Marsh has a loose style and since he is providing a copy of a study (sometimes a copy of a copy, "from Kollman's copy of Michelangelo") the result is an artistic game of telegraph. Portions of some sketches will just not make sense if you are trying to discern specific joints and muscles. In other sketches there will be bulges and curves that I simply cannot line up in a systematic way with specific muscles.

For the same reason this is not a good resource for making your own copies. If you are serious about becoming an artist you should certainly follow in Marsh's footsteps and make copies of as many masters as you can find. It is excellent practice and a vital way to understand the fundamentals of the human figure. But go to the originals, not this book.

The value of Marsh's book only becomes apparent, after you've acquired some artistic fundamentals. The book provides a comprehensive view of how one artist viewed the human figure. The "sloppiness" of his sketches is no longer a drawback, but in fact one of their key values, providing examples of how form can emerge from seemingly random marks.

Anyone who thinks the R. Marsh is "sloppy" does not know or understand the artist. If you ever stood in front a Marsh 24x30 ink life drawing sheet you might change your mind. His drawings are done from life, in ink, as a direct interpretation and have never been surpassed by any other modern day artist. Anyone who works with the figure in their art work would give anything to understand the model half as good as Marsh did. His anatomy book was done from standing in front of master drawings, in front of sculptures, gallery paintings and memory. They were not done at one time for this book, but over a lifetime of study and then assembled. They are not tracings, or accurate medical anatomy references nor are they meant to be. They were used to help him with the figures in his paintings. Copying art work has been a traditional way to learn from a Master that is not around anymore to teach. To make an exact copy of any art is to miss the point of the lesson. It should be interpreted by you and your hand, hence the word "study". Anyone who thinks this is book is not up to par needs to go back and look at the hundreds of ringed sketchbooks, tempera paintings, and frescos of a man who made a living drawing and painting his whole life. You might even want to pick up one (1) of his life drawing sheets for about $25,000 if you are lucky enough to find one for sale.

This book contains sloppy drawings of other people's work. I have found it the poorest source for information about drawing. Since I have reproductions of many major artists, Marsh's copys are a real disappointment. Also I have had students discouraged by this book. It may have been valuable in the 40s when other sources were unavailable, but now there is little value here.

This is the go-to book for serious artists. I you want to learn to draw figures, this is the best place to start. If you are a beginner, it will help you to understand the human body, if you are an accomplished artist, it will be an always-by-your side reference.

This book reflects the discerning eye and historical knowledge of this very remarkable artist. It is a resource for anyone who is interested in drawing the body. Reginald Marsh died more than 50 years ago. But his remarkable NY Custom House frescoes, complicated paintings and fine drawings live on to influence the rest of us. I have the original book and have given the Dover copy to many people.

this book is wonderful. I cannot understand anyone giving this masterpiece a bad rating, unless they are not an artist.

When I first purchased this book, I was an artist without formal training looking to improve my understanding of human anatomy. I found this book disappointing at the time and of no real use to me, as it is basically a collection of the author's sketches and visual notes without any real text or commentary. Many of the sketches are loose and even sloppy, and as copies of master artists' work I would have found seeing the original works of more value. Some pieces here are noted as being nothing more than "3rd hand copies", which makes one wonder just how accurate these copies really are to begin with.

Later, after taking several portrait and figure drawing classes, I have found this book of more use, at least as a reference to keep on hand for anatomical notes while working from a live model. But I still would not really consider this book an essential part of my art library, as there are more detailed and better-drawn figure reference guides out there to be used instead. I definitely would not recommend it to another beginning artist, where truly the best way to learn about anatomical drawing is to have the opportunity to work from life, and see things with your own eyes that are hard to accurately see in photographs or other drawings.

This book is designed to be only a guide for artists in the drawing of human anatomy. It is useful to illustrators, particularly in the fields of commercial illustration and animation. My wife and I have numerous friends within these fields who have found this work indispensable.

Having taken and witnessed several dozen art courses at local universities within Virginia (my wife holds a BFA), I would comment on the teaching of art. Many art teachers want their students to imitate their own preferred styles, rather than to let the student express themselves. They will give poor grades to those who defy them -- my mother, my wife, and several of our friends have experienced this firsthand. This is not teaching, it is academic stifling and snobbery.

Artists should not imitate Marsh's style, or anyone else's, including their teachers. It is a poor teacher who does not understand this. If students have had problems with this book, it is probably due to the teacher's lack of ability to teach the subject properly.