Customer Reviews

The Figure: The Classic Approach to Drawing & Construction

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

 

 

I have used this book for about a week and am totally impressed with the results. Before, I did not like to draw hands or faces or lips, now, I find them amazing and a great adventure to draw. I would recommend this book to any one who has never drawn the human figure in a proper way, it's a great way to learning how to. I would like to thank Walt reed for being such a good person as to allow us to know what he knows and sharing all his knowledge. Learning how to draw the human figure is not scary as I thought, I now have discovered a new world of excitement and fun through the use of a simple pencil and paper. Oliver Gonzalez.

When I review DRAWING books, the first question I ask is, "Is this for BEGINNERS?" Because I feel an obligation to the book buyer to provide good information, and also to prevent a beginning student from being discouraged, and feeling that they are defective, or ....just cannot get it.

It does not seem to occur to the buyer that many authors just cannot teach. Instinct seems to suggest that that if book gets published, it must contain credible instruction by someone who knows how to teach, and everyone seems to desire to cash in on the Big Bucks market of HOW-TO-DRAW. It may seem surprising that this is just not so. Perhaps as many as half of all drawing books are not very good for beginners. I know. I've gotten familiar with most of the books on the market, and I know what I'm looking for in good instruction.


I've purchased over 25 drawing books from Amazon.com, and own the most popular titles of the HOW-TO-DRAW genre. Walt Reed's "The Figure" rates in my top four choices.

It is not "wordy" and "overly intellectual" nor does it presume to teach ZEN or YOGA, or "Drawing on the Artist in your Brain". This book sticks to the subject and it is darn good.

It is chock full of illustrations, and does not throw you to the wolves; but takes you step-by-step through proportion, basic shapes, and finally, detailed drawing. Of the books using the classical (best) approach to drawing, I rate "The Figure" one of the top five books on figure drawing. The price is "right" too. This book doesn't even cost twenty bucks!

One of my favorite figure books(!)- If you've ever seen the bestselling How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way, a major teaching that stands out is its emphasis on spheres, cubes, and cylinders when learning to draw anything & everything, including the human figure. Well this is *exactly* what Walt Reed's The Figure is essentially all about. The teachings here were developed in & represent the Famous Artists School, and the figure basics here are really excellent yet standard fare. I've even seen some of these principles repeated by recent Japanese animation & comicbook instructionals. Yes, these principles are definitely great; it's the style & way these principles are communicated that makes this book seem a little bit dated. Reed's instruction here is presented with a combination of work by various artists and black & white photos of nude models, giving this entire effort a very mixed-media effect in its overall design. It was created in 1976, and while the photos are generally well done, the models here look very much to be from that time, and maybe even earlier. Also included: drawings, etchings, paintings & sculptures; all by various masters in the history of western art. Add to this the book's physical dimensions- 9" x 12" x 1/2"- and this is really not a simple looking how-to-draw type book. Yet the teaching here really *is* simple & effective! It's basically about building the figure with cylinders, although spheres & cubes are depicted as well. My favorite aspect of the book is Reed's own drawings & instruction, which demostrates the simplified figure accompanied by a wealth of helpful hints, tips & tricks. These instructions are also shown along with the photos of models to help reinforce principles by drawing from life. Hands & faces get special attention. We even get a little on basic light & shade and a section on figures in action! Usually, it's books that present a unified look & style, like the ones by Bridgman and Hogarth, that tend to look a little more timeless in my personal opinion. But Walt Reed's The Figure is fantastic in its actual *effect*, and that's really, basically the most important thing. It's a worthwhile book to add to anyone's collection! P.S. Parts of this book were included in an 8-1/2" x 11" x 3/8" compilation entitled Basic Figure Drawing Techniques, edited by Greg Albert. This compilation is printed on better quality paper, and includes material from 5 current books. In my opinion Reed's contribution is the best. Also- Another great, 5-star work for beginners: Jack Hamm's excellent Drawing the Head and Figure. Highly recommended!

This is an excellent book. It covers a lot of information with large illustrations and photographs. I use this book daily for help with my illustration assignments.

This book was very easy to understand and follow. A great book to learn how to draw figures!

This is a very easy to use, clear and practical guide to constructing the figure from imagination.

"Classic approach" here simply means the methods that have been handed down from the Masters of the renaissance, where art and science came together. For instance, ideas of perspective, which are analytical and mathematical, were applied to art to create realism.

Similarly the constructive approach is based somewhat in the lines of geometry, and attempt to reduce all objects and forms to be a composition of a few basic forms. This resulted in the usage of sphere, box, cylinder etc. to construct any three dimensional figure, including of course the human figure. There were no hard and fast rules as to what these basic forms were. Some would use cones, cuboids etc.

This book is a very clear exposition on the use of constructive approach to drawing the figure.

The Figure is analyzed using the basic forms first, to get a sense of proportion, relationships etc.

The idea of using two glasses (glasses with which we drink water etc.) as the two parts of the body: the upper torso and the pelvis, is amazingly an effective tool, in studying the relationship of these two major forms of the figure. same is done to study the upper and lower arms, upper and lower legs.

The book aids in seeing the figure as made up of these simple forms, which results in clear understanding of the underlying structure which is easy to cast into memory, and can be applied both in life drawing as well as drawing from imagination.

There are parts of the book that deals in details about the body and the movable parts. the possible movements of individual parts, in relation to the others, such as how much the arm can swing, or the degree of freedom of each part of the leg, are invaluable lessons, that are very explicitly laid down using the simplified figure.

Eventually the book takes us to an application of anatomy, though not a anatomy book, this teaches how to use a simplified skeleton to setup the figure and move towards more realism.

If we go through this book, one can be assured of getting a "solid" understanding of the figure, in very simplified terms yet powerful enough to create stunningly realistic figure from imagination.

One would learn from the book, apply this knowledge when drawing from life or photo reference, and then internalize that knowledge and start creating figures purely from imagination.

Walt Reed was part of the amazing Famous Artists School of the 50-60s. The Figure drawing lessons in those courses are pretty much what is contained in this book. I would think this book contains a bit more than those lessons, more reference images, and more instructions.

This is a must have in the figurative artist book shelf.

This book was suggested by an art teacher and I can understand why. It's great for beginners, showing how to get started on drawing the human body.

This book covers the basic structure and form of the figure for beginners. It shows a relatively simple way to construct the figure and simplifies the hands and feet. It doesn't include technique and also should include more proportions (it touches on proportions here and there, but not in depth). Overall I think this is nice introductory book for you to get started drawing the figure.

A thorough, though somewhat dated work on the constructive approach to figure drawing. It's still a useful reference for practitioners of this method, though styles, methods, and preferences have changed over the years. Other excellent references for realistic figure drawing include Ryder The Artist's Complete Guide to Figure Drawing: A Contemporary Perspective on the Classical Tradition, Civardi Drawing The Female Nudeand Sheppard Drawing the Female Figure.

I was disappointed when I reviewed this book. It is more straightline drawings with no rendering.