Customer Reviews

Figure Drawing Without a Model

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Mr. Tiner really opened the world of figure drawing to me. I have purchased other figure drawing books, but this one stands head and shoulders above them all. This book is dedicated to the human figure and covers it from head-to-toe!

If someone is serious about developing the skills to be able to draw from their imagination - then purchase this book. The humans figure is a world unto its self and certainly takes practice. Tiner leads you by the hand and illustrates what he preaches.

Don't be mislead though... This book is a tool through which hours of practice and applying your newfound knowledge, will bring you to the level of mastering the human anatomy. To achieve what Tiner has illustrated, it will be a life long process.

Just flipping through the book, will inspire any illustrator or casual artist. The book is chalk full of wonderful illustrations and really guides the artist down the right path.

Others topics covered are picture composition and graphic narrative. Invaluable tips on body types, facial expressions, and bone structure. The majority of the book is centered around instructing the artist on the path to drawing the human figure from ones own memory. Tiner certainly accomplishes that!

I found Tiner's book on the library shelf. I couldn't put it down. I finally decided to purchase it to cease the increasing late fees. Tiner writes to his audience in first person; I felt he was sitting there next to me personally giving me tips, encouragement, and support. His artwork pleases the eye, giving a visual to work off of. Overall, this book is one of my favorites. Pick it up, and you will know why.

Have you ever asked for help on learning how to draw and as an answer someone told you "draw a lot"? Well, that is what this book basically says. Even though it is a good and obvious truth that one should draw a lot in order to be good at it, it isn't going to help you learn that much. One needs tips, on anatomy, foreshortening, lighting, clothing on wrinkles, facial features etc in order to learn to draw. This book contains little if not none. The illustrations in this book are almost nonexistant. He did show a couple pictures that proves that he himself can draw, but nothing really that you can copy to memorize so you can draw yourself. As you can probably tell, I did not like this book at all. However, i might be able to give you some tips on books that might help you out. First and most important, dynamic anatomy by Burne Hogarth, head and figure by jack hamm, foreshortening by Burne hogarth, wrinkles and drapery, burne hogarth, and there are many more out there i am sure. This book never cut it, didn't give illustrations or tips, if you are uncertain though i recommend going to a library and figuring out if this book is right for you before spending money on it.

This is a wonderful and amazing book. Any artist into figure drawing should have this book on their shelf! Helps on how to draw figures from memory. Contains wonderful sketches and illustrations by Ron Tiner.

Not a beginners book but for someone who has mastered the rudiments of draughtsmanship, this is a goood guide to taking the next step...drawing from memory. The quality of Tiner's drawings should inspire anyone wanting to go beyond mere copying of the figure.

I LOVE this book. I recommend it to all my students who are interested in conceptualizing the human figure. Ron Tiner is absolutely spot on. I had to buy my first 3 copies out-of-print and used, I am SO glad it's been published in a new edition!!

Not exactly what I expected, but a interesting book nonetheless.

I especially enjoyed the first half of the book(and it was the reason I got it).
This is not a clean cut "how to" book, this is not a beginner's book either.

It is general guide, from the viewpoint of a veteran British illustrator, for those who already know how to handle a pencil.

As I said before, an interesting book.

Ron Tiner's book is a gem. Starting with the design of the book it's self. It's a hardback book with a wire ring binding. A conventional is hard to keep open if you want to draw or view a page. This book is designed to open and lay flat and that's handy. Inside are pages full of great direction and advice on how to improve at the art of drawing. Both beginner and intermediate level artist will get something from this book. This book has material you'll go back to again and again. Anyone interested in drawing for comics will find this book essential to learning how to draw from thier imagination.

Fun and informative, what else can you ask for in an instruction book?

Length:: 0:18 Mins

I'm disappointed by this book. For a figure drawing book, it sure doesn't teach much about drawing the figure.

Yes, it touches on the essential topics like anatomical structure, proportion and movement. But it really just mentions the bare minimum, and not really in a helpful manner.

In the section of hand drawing, it explains briefly what the hand is made of and gives a tip on drawing your own hands. It ends with what I think is suppose to be the technique:

"Think of the palm as a flat square shape with a curved outer edge from which the four fingers radiate; to the basic shape is added, on one side, a fleshly and very flexible wedge shape in which the thumb is rooted."

That's all there is to drawing hands. No mention of the size of the hand, relative proportion of the fingers and other stuff. There are multiple illustrations but none really helpful -- just like looking at one's own hands.

Most important about figure drawing is about posing the figure. Simplified skeletons and blocks are used to help with posing. In the fleshing out part, muscles are drawn onto the stick figures. But it's really hard relate how the muscles are drawn especially when examples of muscles and form are few and only briefly explained.

Other sections suffer the same problem. It talks much about drawing but doesn't teach much about the actual process of drawing. Some of the tips are high on the abstraction ladder and needs to be expanded into with impossible-to-not-understand examples. The general advice is "Practice, practice, practice." Anyone can give that advice.

The book does include additional topics like expressions, perspective, composition, graphic narrative. But those topics aren't core to figure drawing.

Ultimately, this is a very general figure drawing book that I won't recommend it. I'm giving this book a 1-star rating because I find it really hard to imagine, with what's taught, that anyone will be able to comfortably pose and draw a simple figure.

It seems that there are some good reviews for this book on Amazon. I'm shocked. Maybe this book isn't a figure drawing book. In that case, I'll give it a 1-star rating for the misleading title.

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