Customer Reviews

Anatomy: A Complete Guide for Artists (Dover Anatomy for Artists)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

A very usefull, and easy to understand book. The indiviual areas of the body, such as arm, hand, torso, head, etc... are givin there own chapter. Each chapter will start with the drawings of the bones and many diferent views of them, excellent and acurate pictures. Under each example picture is a good amount of information about the picture. After the bones have been explained and drawn, from several angles, the muscles are drawn onto the bones, usually one muscle or muscle group at a time, with the same amount of detail as the bones. Then at then end of each chapter there are drawings of the area of the body complete. This shows the reader/artist what, and how the body looks like it looks with the muscles movement, and the bones they are attached to. There are also exmples of the facial areas, and emotions. Again this is a very usefull, detailed, and informative book for the artist, on how the body works, and how to draw acurate anatomy.

If you find Bridgeman a little too loose, Peck not fully clear, and others a little too medically oriented ... this might be the anatomy book for you. I have either bought or borrowed EVERY drawing book there is, and for anatomy this is the best thing out there for me. The companion text - "Drawing The Living Figure" - is also indespensable for the different views of exterior appearance built by the interior structure. Though there is always the possibility they're not your cup of tea, for most students these two are perfect and will teach you everything you need to know about artistic anatomy without costing an arm and a leg.

I found that the range of poses and angles for noses, eyes and the mouth were very useful. I also thought that it was a lot less like a medical book than some, which from my point of view was good. The charcoal/chalk images are fine for gaining an idea of where you want to go, but they do lack detail. I think this book is an ideal reference book but should be used in conjunction with others.

One of the reasons I enjoyed this book is that the author was able to demonstrate more clarity over the muscle and skeletal books. I have several other anatomy books where it becomes too medical.

I think the problem is that people are looking for a beautiful style in anatomy books. I think that is the WRONG approach. You're supposed to learn how to draw anatomy, not look for pretty illustrations. Get a coffee table book if that's what you're looking for.

The book demonstrates with enough clarity if you find Bridgman too sketchy and others too boring.

There are some drawbacks to the book if you're looking to understand how different joints move, but there will never be that ONE anatomy book that makes you able to draw. The illustrations done matter, but rather how you can understand and PRACTICE.

Many artists just give up expecting a book will be the end all. I've received many books and I'd recommend this book to an intermediate that gets beyond understanding the blocks and cylinders construction and want to push their artwork further.

Just an editing note. Someone had asked for reference of the Pelvis, and I had scanned various anatomy books such as Peck's, Jack Hamm's and Sheppard's. They found Sheppard's illustrations to have the most clarity and understanding.

I've been collecting anatomy for artists books for awhile and this is the best one in my collection to date. I like it because it shows each body part's bones, tendons/connective tissues and muscles from several different angles. It also includes drawings of the body parts' external views in several orientations. The drawings are done with scientific detail but are clearly meant for artists to use in rendering the human form with understanding of its structural underpinnings. I've copied illustrations from this book in my sketch book as observational practice and this has improved my life drawing. A worthy addition to your art practice library!

An excellent book on artistic anatomy which looks at the bones and muscles schematically as well as with and without skin. Some of the sections are a little vaguer than I would like. In particular, I'd like to see more discussion of supination and pronation of the lower arm.

This book is for more advanced artists who already have a good grasp of perspective and scale. There is alot on how to depict the musculature of figures which is great but I'm not there yet! I am keeping the book because as my skill increases I'm sure I will get more use out of it. This book is not for beginners but more intermediate to advanced. The instruction is great and the illustrations are beautiful, a great value!

Anatomy: A Complete Guide for Artists
Easy to use , accessible guide to anatomy for artists. All the basic proportional relationships and ratios for artistically rendering figures. Seperate discussions for hands feet etc. My wife is primarily using this for doll sculpting.

If you are interested in drawing the human form this book, in my humble opinion, is not only a wonderful place to start, but also an excellent reference and workbook to practice drawing from. It covers Arm, hand, leg, foot, torso, neck, head, and builds up each part from bone to full surface anatomy from several views and several positions (flexed, relaxed, turned in or out, etc.).
The complete figure is covered in the last chapter.
A bargin at twice the price!

First of all you can't beat the price of the figure drawing book. All around its shows examples of the figure, bone structure, and even muscle and vein structure.

Some of the drawings are not the best but they are simple and easy to draw and get a feel for the figure.

One thing I really like about this book is that is has a great deal of drawing of different mouth poses for differnt emotions it also has differnt types of ears and noses which is really good to refer to if you don't have someone standing in fron of you. It has all of you typical figure drawing stuff like the torso, the head, hands and feet and so on. It has great drawings of bones and the skeleton.

I would recomend buying a second book with more body poses and use this more for a reference. But for the price its worth it.