Customer Reviews

Anatomy Lessons of The Great Masters (Practical Art Books)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is best used for viewing its selection of Master Drawings many of which are superb. However, its written text is filled with multitudes of factual errors and pseudo-intellectualizations. It should be noted that this book was not written by Hale; it was written by one of his students and lacks the quality of Hale's classic, "Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters." Instead, this book loses itself in unimportant, erroneous anatomical minutia which will baffle, confuse, frustrate and ultimatly demoralize the motivated reader. It greatly misses the mark in both clarity and presentation of important anatomical theory.

This is the best book you can find if you want to learn about how to sketch the human figure. Buy it and start copying the sketches inside. Over and over again! Imitating the old masters will teach you things you never dreamed of and will rub off on you when you do your own work. This book has excellent reproductions of 100 super drawings. Each drawing even has accompanying commentary. By the time you're done, you will understand like never before why the drawings work, and you will be able to look at other drawings and understand them better, as well. Stop wasting time reading this review...BUY THE BOOK!

An excellent book on artistic anatomy. Reading this one book has taught me more than some figure drawing classes. A systematic deconstruction of how the masters of artistic anatomy have integrated their knowledge into some of the greatest drawings of all time. The book goes through the drawings of famous artists, categorized by the region of the body on which the drawings are focused, and attempts to explain how extensive knowledge of anatomy has been effectively applied. It touches on how these artists could create drawings which are more powerful than merely a photographic rendering of the model through their use of anatomy.

Unfortunately, the book is very cheaply bound. Entire leaves have detached themselves from the spine, though I have treated the book very well. My copy has turned into a stack of paper and scotch tape, wrapped loosely in its former cover. Despite that fact, I still consider it worth the purchase.

I have both this book and "Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters." Both are excellent books, but if you must only buy one, get this one. It is the better of the two.

As an art student having problems in my life drawing class, finding this book in the school's library was a great discovery for me. Not only did I buy it later on, but I also recommend it to art students, or the amateur artist.

I teach human anatomy, and I draw and paint the human figure. Not until I took up studying artistic anatomy through Hale's book, especially this one, did my drawing skills and drawings and paintings zoom ahead in quality. Well worth the money, will provide hours, indeed years of reference for study.

I took an art class at the junior college and the instructor suggested copying the masters to improve drawing skills. I bought this book and copied every picture. Not only did it familiarize me with many artists I had not heard of but, over time my drawing skills improved dramatically. I am now buying collections of drawings of other artists and copying. I highly recommend the book not only as a reference but also to be used to improve skills. I have an engineering background, not art and this helped immensely.

Hale was unique. This book is as close to a top-notch artistic anatomy class as you can get without actually being in the room. Hale demonstrates how the masters portrayed human bone and muscle through a detailed examination of numerous works. By clearly pointing out how and where each artist indicated the underlying anatomical structure of his figures, Hale reveals a wide range of techniques while driving home his point that it is truly worthwhile to study this stuff until it becomes part of the artist. His mildly condescending tone is a trifle irritating at times -- but it's easy to forgive so distinguished and generous a teacher for a lack of patience with the slipshod work of the novice.

By the way: get the hardcover. This is a working book -- you'll use it again and again, and you'll want it in your studio as a ready reference. It's stood the test of time, so the investment is worth it.

Great figure drawing is a lost art. Hale de-mystifies and reveals some of the secrets and techniques of geniuses like Michelangelo, Rubens, Pontormo and Da Vinci. Pontormo's stunning "Portrait Of A Woman" is worth the price of the whole book, but Hale provides plenty of insight into form, anatomy, value. How these guys could produce such beauty with nothing more than charcoal, ink and paper is something I don't think anyone will ever be able to explain, though.

Length:: 0:18 Mins

Anatomy Lessons From The Great Masters is the sequel, sort of, to Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters (Practical Art Books). Again, 100 pieces of drawings from great masters are selected for analysing.

Compared to Drawing Lesson, this book is much more straightforward. The book is really like an anatomy reference which points you the parts of the body to look for. This pointing and labeling of parts isn't really called analyzing. It lacks the insight that goes into the creative process of these art masters. By comparison Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters really explores the thought process that goes into creating art.

While there are the usual anatomical reference drawings at the back, showing the bones and muscles from from and back views, it's not as comprehensive as other anatomy reference books.

The good thing about this book is of course the figure drawings. Most of them are sketches. It's really inspirational to look at the drawings created around the 15 century by artists like Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rubens, Raphael, and other masters.

This book is not really an essential buy unless you're buying for the drawings.

I prefer Joseph Sheppard's Drawing the Living Figure which features a similar teaching style and has beautiful life drawings.

(More pictures are available on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

The imagery in this book is excellent. One does not have to travel to all the museums that contain the artwork in order to appreciate the work of the Renaissance. There is detailed bone structures and profiles as well as musculature in the appendix of the book. The book is not as detailed in anatomical references as the work of Raynes, but it is definitely a better one than "Human Anatomy ... Elements of Form" book that I returned. The book is much more affordable for those who want to be frugal with their purchases.