Customer Reviews

Force: The Key to Capturing Life Through Drawing

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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I just bought this book and I find it's full of really valuable information - the sort that's rarely taught at art schools in figure drawing classes. Art classes more often focus on the contour of the body, or the mass of it, and rarely teach how to convey the energy of the body, which is so essential to making figure drawings that "live" - that have that "wow" factor. This book illustrates really well, how to see the rhythm inherent in the human form and how to use that knowledge to create forceful, dynamic drawings.

I simply can not put into words, what this book can do for a struggling artist. This and "The Animators Survival Guide", Scott McCloud's Trilogy on comics, and a good book on anatomy, are the only books you'll ever need on drawing. The offer wisdom and guidance that no "How to draw" book ever will. These guys all have been in the artistic trenches, experienced it all, and impart to the new generation wanting to do this stuff, how to do it. I'm not even an animator, more a comic artist who doesn't draw comics, but every time I hit a block or wall, these books give me the inspiration to push beyond "Great". They give me the much needed kick in the rearend, leading from "I draw" to "I am an artist".

All you'll ever need are these books, and I would suggest that ANY artist buy this book, and the others mentioned right this minute. The Preface to this book is enough to break down many walls a beginner or intermediate artist might be behind, and when they come crashing down?

You'll draw like you never thought you could ever have.

This was a gift for my niece who is an artist and she absolutely loved it.
She said she couldn't wait to use the book and that it gave her so many ideas. Highly recommended.

This book is great for beginners. It has many sketches that students can use for ideas about techniques and style. My only disappointment I had was the quality of the scans/pictures of some of the sketches. Some were a little dark, and hard to read. The paper is also somewhat flimsy. Other then that, it's a great book for those who are trying to learn how to capture movement in a form. Highly recommended!

This was a very good book. It was very helpful to me and I've learned a lot of valuable info of this book. It tells you how to express force and form and how to use rhythm. Its is a lot of information to comperhend but just read and focus. I defiantly suggest this as a good read for any one interested and serous about art.

note: I know a issue I sometimes have a habit to skim through an art book and say "Wow these images are all sketchy and not my type of art this won't help me!", you know, judging the book by its cover in a literal sense. At first you may get this assumption with this book, but DON'T! Reading it you will realize there're is A LOT of great information stored in the pages with techniques shadowed by famous Disney animators (as you comment "that doesn't look like Disney!?"....EXACTLY) this book will be useful to ANY artist. From realistic to anime!

He shares his great knowledge how to observe figure...
Great teacher, and great art work, great person.

If you have chance to take his drawing classes, take his classes.

The focus here is primarily on the use of assymetry through straight and curved lines to show the direction of force in the body. This is covered in other books, but not this extent. Other methods treat this material as secondary to contour and gesture, here it is the focus of a drawing. The book is filled with excellent ,forceful examples of using rhythm, shape, and line to bring out the life in a subject.

There is one weakness here. The author does cover many things beginners need to know, but goes over them very quickly. While a beginner could learn from this book, perhaps a little experience with the basics would be helpful before coming to this book.

The author is an animator and besides appealing to other animators, his clean style would appeal to those interested in sketching or reportage, a subject which the author devotes a whole chapter to.

A very useful book to give more life and energy to your illustrations and animation drawings!

This book is full of exciting and animated figure drawing. Just thumbing through it and admiring all the fabulous artwork is a treat. However, the lessons about figure drawing are also worthwhile.