Customer Reviews

Anatomy for Fantasy Artists: An Illustrator's Guide to Creating Action Figures and Fantastical Forms

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

4/5 stars for lack of attention to drawing clothing. Clothing (or costume) is mentioned as being quite important to your character, but is not addressed well enough. Still, it's enough to get you up and running.

This book works best if treated as a beginner's guide, for both someone new to drawing people and someone new to trying the fantasy genre. When I picked this book up, I had been toying with drawing the figure -- I had basic drawing skills and some good still-lifes, but no access to a figure drawing class. I attempted drawings based on photos. Most other "anatomy for artists" books overwhelmed me by detailing every single bone and every muscle. This one will give you a quick overview of the muscles that affect the surface of the body (both male and female), plus a pretty good introduction to facial expressions, which is a nice addition.

Good companions to this book would be:
- "Dynamic Figure Drawing" by Burne Hogarth
- "Human Anatomy Made Amazingly Easy" by Christopher Hart
For alien/non-human creatures, draw inspiration from earthly animals in "Animal Anatomy for Artists: The Elements of Form."

I think this book would work best if you take it in order: study the first half (muscles, photos of muscular models in action poses, expressions), and then study the characters in the second half as a kind of survey of possibilities.

The author does make a good attempt at describing the characters in the second half, but read the first half before studying them -- the author's remarks will probably seem dull and uninformative unless you connect it with the basics covered earlier in the book. Use the examples to help you "see" the parts and pieces more effectively as you draw.

As you practice, you'll find that you don't need this book anymore. In the future, when you want a more complete understanding of the human body, that's when you should pick up one of the "Anatomy for Artists" books.

I initially bought this book based on my impressions of some of Fabry's other work, namely his comic artwork and his published sketchbook, which is an awsome document of figure studies and the way he works.

Glenn Fabry is an incredibly skilled artist who works mostly in traditional media. Much of his work is speculative in nature and really rather appealling to a fantasy/scifi artist such as myself.

That having been said, this book contains very little content relating to his actual working process. Instead, much of the graphic content in the book is taken from other sources (NOT Glenn Fabry) to match up to text for each chapter. While the text may bring up good points, such as different body types, expressions, etc, many of the graphics that accompany these passages do not reflect the professional level Glenn Fabry's work is at - namely those which the books claims are prime exemplars of fantasy art. Instead, many such images are examples of the cliche dodge/burn/smudge/cut&paste techniques that are so often employed by newcomers to the digital fantasy art craze.

The book isn't all bad. I appreciated what Fabry content there was - namely textual, one traditional media tutorial and a few character sketches here and there. I also very much appreciated the 14 pages of photo reference for common action poses used in fantasy type artwork. These things are pretty much the redeeming points by which I rate this book.

This review is NOT a criticism of Fabry on my part. I quite enjoyed what areas of the book seemed to be plainly his. My criticism DOES lie on the 'additional text by Ben Cormack' as well as additional art direction provided by the publisher, Barron's.

It seems like quite a number of 'how to' books these days are being put together by book companies who want to capitalize on one art craze or another. Unfortunately, their method of compiling such publications has been more and more about having enough pictures to match the text, instead of encouraging experienced artists to put together a complete book themselves. Doing so has led to inconsistent art choices and thus inconsistent quality throughout such recent books.

A recommendation for true aspiring artists in this field: Look for books by Andrew Loomis and Jack Hamm. Both are old-school illustrators who wrote and illustrated their own books and packed them full with information every aspiring illustrator should know.

Thankfully, I was able to browse at this in my public library before buying it. The title doesn't reflect on the actual book. While the illustrations were clear and quiet a few were lovely the book failed to explain how the artists used anatomy and how they determined how to compose their figures. for an anatomy book, this falls horrible short. There about a handful (literally one handfull) of pages with live models. The images are of various sizes and almost on top of each other. More annoyingly for what few live model poses we are given the best are put inbetween two pages. You'll have an annoyign crease righti n the middle of the picture. It's not that hard to fill in the gaps, but certain details are lost from this type of placement.
Also when going into skeletal structures he might have used a real model skeleton instead of sketches. You don't get an adequate understanding of dimension with a pencil depiction alone. Also, most of the book is dedicated to the common characters of comics (e.g. the barabarian, the female robot, Muu the fatman, Brutus the hulk). All these characters really show are sketches at different angles with bullets with brief common sense info.
Plus the anatomy of most of the characters arenot really explored. It would have been nicer had they compared the exagerated features with realistic features.
Overall , despite some talented artists' contributions, this book fails in teaching anything abotu anatomy.

I too was initially disheartened at the lack of Fabry artwork in this book. There is a fair bit, but it is interspersed with work from a range of other artists. However, I read on regardless and must say I was pleasantly surprised.

As anyone who has ever purchased an artistic `how-to' book before will know, they are often utterly infuriating. Assumptions are made about how much time, experience and money to spend on expensive equipment you have, following the tutorials can be confusing, and frequently I get the impression the author doesn't care too much about you learning the craft.

I don't know how much of the text in `Anatomy for Fantasy Artists' is Fabry's and how much is Cormack's, but the approach is well thought out, methodical, informative, bursting with genuinely useful tips and easy to understand without being patronising. I really felt like I learned a lot, and saved myself a load of time. I have to say, as someone who has a genuine interesting in learning the craft, it was a thoroughly engrossing and refreshing read, and I recommend it to anyone in a similar position.

Probably not the best book for people who just wanna look at the pictures, but a must have for all the budding artists out there. Five stars.

When I think of the subject of anatomy I think of the human shape. And this is what this book does. It takes a really good look at the human form both male and female and then it expands on this to the limits of fantasy art by also delving into distortions of the human form in the shape of goblins, ogres, wizards, cyborgs and dwarves. This is what I was looking for in a fantasy anatomy book. How to take the human shape and expand it in new expressive ways.
Strong points: Every single page has at least ten drawings - the book is absolutely stuffed with lots of illustrations and drawing
In particular there is a strong focus on communicating action in your drawing - this stays true to the action figures part of the title.
Large section of actual photographs of a male and female in various action poses; this a real handy reference.
Some nice complete drawings of the human skeleton and human musculature - these are good references.
Special Bonus: Glenn Fabry takes you through a 19 step process of doing an actual painting from first sketch to completed painting. This really helps in understanding the process of an artist.

Weak points: the beginning sections on practicing drawing, getting inspiration and understanding light are rather sparse but I consider these to just be review like in nature .

This is a really good book but it isn't aimed at teaching you how to draw. This book is aimed more at people who have some drawing ability already and want to learn about the ins and outs of anatomy in the fantasy genre. The title pretty much says that point: It is anatomy for fantasy artists

I really liked this book, I am an animator, and have studied anatomy books in the past, this book simplifies anatomy from the biological standpoint to the artist standpoint, especailly for those involved with action and fantasy genres. It has many of the most common and used action poses and great artwork. Beware anatomy freaks, this is not an extensive and intricate anatomy book. More like great action anatomy reference to have handy. I only give it 4 stars because the model photos are not nude, but I do understand this book is very good for young artists too.

I purchased this, hoping for some anatomy guides, such as turnarounds, and proportional charts for various archetypical fantasy characters. To be honest I found this book not especially helpful. First of all it is rather skimpy on anatomy. The only sections which cover this are in the front, and there are a few charts of skeletons, and some extremely unhelpful half man/half woman charts which are very difficult to use because they do not show the entire figure but the figure spliced in half. For me this is not helpful because I need to see both sides of the body to get the figure correctly proportioned as sometimes I have problems with symmetry.

Second, this is more of a showcase for various popular science fiction and fantasy artists and a character drawing lesson sheet. If you want to copy other people's characters or learn how to draw fat men or exceedingly buff women, this might help you... However for me- Most of the characters are truly bizarre, such as the painfully ugly 'sonia the adventurer.' Ack. There is something exceedingly grotesque about her and her loud appearance and rictus smile that I must flip the pages to get past the drawing. I woudn't really characterize her as a fantasy character. Weird bodybuilder/fetish art maybe. =-)

I'm always looking for more reference material for my art notebook, and would've loved to see basic archetypical fantasy characters especially elves and the like. And some useful facial/head sketches from various angles.. But most of the art is nearly fully rendered and not useful really, as a drawing guide.

If you are just looking for ideas, and already can draw, you might find this inspirational. I find it a bit grotesque and not particularly helpful as a drawing guide.

This is a good book if you want to learn how to draw action figures that are real life people not creatures

Anatomy for Fantasy Artists is an Ok book. It has its ups and downs.

First off, this is more 'comic style' which wasn't exactly what I was after. So while I am disapointed about that, it isn't the books fault, as that is what it sets out to be.

The first couple of pages is called 'Drawing Style' which just showcases different artist's work and the different genres in Fantasy art. I do like alot of the art, and wish more of this type of art could have been explored in the book, instead of the cartoon-style it becomes.

Section One is 'Fantasy Artist's Master Class.' It shows you the skeleton and muscles on a human body, and then some facial expressions, hands and finally body language. It does seem to rush through these, for a book on anatomy. There is a page on clothing, but it is hardly any help at all.
There are 14 or so pages with photos of a man and woman in verious fantasy-ish poses, which is most helpful, and gives the book a few points. There is also a walk-through of an acrylic painting which is OK, although it does seem to spring from laying the foundation layers to completion a little too suddenly.

Section Two is called 'Cast of Characters' and basically runs through a 'how to draw' cartoon style of cliche characters in fantasy. There are acompanying them paintings by other artists showing a different representation of the cliche, which is nice. Characters include 'Sven the Barbarian', the muscular and barely dressed hero/antihero, 'Sonia the adventurer' an amazonian woman complete with red, white and blue stars, 'Circea the enchantress' with her staff and hooded cape, and 'Sovann the Werewolf', etc etc. They are drawn OK, if a bit small. These characters take up the rest of the book....

So, not much on anatomy, a few ok ideas for characters.... This book is OK overall.

I picked this book up at college, and it genuinely helped me with my studies. It's full of useful information which I could really use. Have since bought my own copy and refer to it very frequently.