Human Anatomy for Artists: The Elements of Form [Hardcover]

Eliot Goldfinger (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 7, 1991 | ISBN-10: 0195052064 | ISBN-13: 978-0195052060

The power of the image of the nude--the expressivity of the flesh--has inspired artists from the beginning. An understanding of human form is essential for artists to be able to express themselves with the figure. Anatomy makes the figure. Human Anatomy for Artists: The Elements of Form is the definitive analytical work on the anatomy of the human figure.
No longer will working artists have to search high and low to find the information they need. In this, the most up-to-date and fully illustrated guide available, Eliot Goldfinger--sculptor, illustrator, scientific model-maker, and lecturer on anatomy--presents a single, all-inclusive reference to human form, capturing everything artists need in one convenient volume. Five years in the making, and featuring hundreds of photos and illustrations, this guide offers more views of each bone and muscle than any other book ever published: every structure that creates or influences surface form is individually illustrated in clear, carefully lit photographs and meticulous drawings. Informed by the detailed study of both live models and cadavers, it includes numerous unique presentations of surface structures--such as fat pads, veins, and genitalia--and of some muscles never before photographed. In addition, numerous cross sections, made with reference to CT scans, magnetic resonance imaging, and cut cadavers, trace the forms of all body regions and individual muscles. Information on each structure is placed on facing pages for ease of reference, and the attractive two-color format uses red ink to direct readers rapidly to important points and areas. Finally, an invaluable chapter on the artistic development of basic forms shows in a series of sculptures the evolution of the figure, head, and hands from basic axes and volumes to more complex organic shapes. This feature helps place the details of anatomy within the overall context of the figure.
Certain to become the standard reference in the field, Human Anatomy for Artists will be indispensable to artists and art students, as well as art historians. It will also be a useful aid for physical and dance therapists, athletes and their trainers, bodybuilders, and anyone concerned with the external form of the human body. With the renewed interest in figurative art today, this will be an especially welcome volume.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Brilliant.... Exquisite drawings.... Detailed descriptions.... Beautiful and extensively labelled photos of models."--American Artist

"Very thorough and well presented."--C. Moone, University of Colorado at Denver

"Extremely detailed and well illustrated. The drawings of bone structure, isolated muscle, muscle groups, followed by corresponding photographs is very useful. Section on mass conceptions compared with photographs is excellent as well. I can't imagine a more detailed reference for figure study."--Alan Hall, Mohave Community College

About the Author

Eliot Goldfinger, a renowned sculptor and illustrator, developed the anatomy program at The New York Academy of Art and has been an instructor at The Art Student's League in New York City.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (November 7, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195052064
• ISBN-13: 978-0195052060
• Product Dimensions: 12.1 x 8.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #17,728 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #19 in Books > Arts & Photography > Study & Teaching
  • #23 in Books > Arts & Photography > Drawing > Figure Drawing
  • #71 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Biological Sciences > Anatomy

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Awesome reference, October 2, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Human Anatomy for Artists: The Elements of Form (Hardcover)

This is an extremely exhaustive book and well worth the price. As far as I know, there exists no more comprehensive book on how every muscle interconnects in the human body -- it is truly an encylopedia of the human anatomy.

A few things keep me from giving it a 5 star review.

1: Goldfinger's illustrations are fair, but not masterful, particularly those of the human face.

2: Strangely, there are almost no fully rendered full-body illustrations or even any fully rendered "body part" illustrations -- almost all the good sketches are of isolated body parts alone. For example, there isn't any fully rendered muscular illustration that encompasses both the upper arm AND the lower arm(!) There ARE full body illustrations, but only in a more schematical form.

3: There are no "application" illustrations of the anatomy in case studies such as bending, posing, flexing, etc. Most of the examples are in prone positions.

Granted, much of this information can be taken from any number of other anatomy books, particularly Richer's "Artistic Anatomy," which this book is largely based on and I also highly recommend.

Nevertheless, as a reference guide to the human body, this book has no peer. If you truly want to understand how the muscles of the body interconnect, there is no better alternative. This book is obviously a labour of love.

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the best anatomy reference available, October 27, 2002

By 

drollere (Sebastopol, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Human Anatomy for Artists: The Elements of Form (Hardcover)

this text served me extremely well as i learned figure drawing and is the best anatomical reference i have ever seen, a genuine encyclopedia of anatomy. however, artists should be warned that the approach is analytical (anatomy is broken down into its elements) rather than illustrative (anatomy is presented as pictures of different poses). goldfinger (a sculptor) attempts to explain surface form structurally, from the inside out -- starting with individual bones, then joints, then all visible muscles, facial features (eye, mouth, nose, ear), fat pads, surface veins and arteries, skin folds and finally a gallery of "mass conceptions" of the head, hand and full figure as blocks, continuous planes, cylinders, ovoids and photographed models. (some internal musculature is omitted because it does not affect surface form, but there is extensive information and photo documentation on the facial expression of emotions, largely based on the classic research by ekman and friesen.) this "inside out" approach also determines the content of the 1 to 3 page descriptions of each bone and muscle. in the section on muscles, four diagrams show the skeletal muscle attachments, isolated muscle form, form within surrounding muscles, and surface appearance in lean models, usually from two different points of view. schematic diagrams analyze muscle form into its basic shapes, or show the mechanical effects of muscle contraction. the text is often heavy going but presents unusually detailed and clear explanations of muscle attachments, action, form and interaction with other muscles or joints. there is also much information not available anywhere else, and all sex differences in anatomy (for example in the abdominal musculature and hip bones) are described in the text. goldfinger's goal is to provide the artist with the information necessary to identify the bones and muscles contributing to surface form in any model, any physique or any pose, and i have never found it to fail that purpose. for a breezier and visually more attractive approach, simblet's book is preferable.

85 of 99 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Too many parts, not enough bodies, November 7, 2000

By 

Cathy (Fort Bragg, CA, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Human Anatomy for Artists: The Elements of Form (Hardcover)

Detailed -- and disappointing. There are too many written
descriptions, too many line drawings, too much wasted space (large
margins, half-blank pages) and not enough photographs. The first
photograph appears on page 65. Prior to that, over half the pages are
primarily, or entirely, text. A randomly selected passage (p. 37):
"The tibial platform is divided into medial and lateral condyles.
Their top surfaces have elongated shallow facets. These facets
articulate with the medial and lateral condyles of the femur..."
Much of the text throughout the entire book is of this type.

Other
minuses include the paucity of body positions, and the dearth of
ethnicities and body types. Although the body PARTS are seen from the
front, back, and side, there are no bodies DOING anything. There are
no old people, no children, no fat people, no thin people, and except
for one light-skinned black man, no people of races other than
Caucasian. There is very little depiction of male and female
differences, although there is some descriptive text of them.

While
the book description says it includes genitalia, there is extremely
little of it -- hardly enough to mention. There is one photo of a
circumcised penis from the front, and one from the side; and the same
of an uncircumcised one. There are two frontal views of the
"female pubic region", one shaved and one unshaved, both
with legs tightly together. All of these photos are on one page, and
that is the extent of the "genitalia", unless you want to
include the page with female breasts. This page has four photos:
female breasts from the the front, in 3/4 profile, and from overhead,
and one male nipple. Oh yes -- genitalia is also included in the two
pages (only two!) of full body photographs. These two pages contain
eight photos, four male and four female. Each sex is seen from the
front, back, 3/4 front profile and 3/4 back profile. (These same
views are given of a male head, but there are no corresponding photos
of a female head.)

The book goes through the body part by part, the
usual format being one page of illustrations facing a page with
corresponding descriptive text. The illustrations usually include a
drawing of the underlying skeletal structure of the body part under
investigation, and next to it two more drawings, one of which adds
just one muscle, while the other adds the entire muscle group; finally
there is a photograph of the part. The photographs are rather small,
often less than an inch and a half wide. (Many of the margins are two
and a half inches wide.)

One plus is the 39 pages devoted to facial
expressions, although, again, more than half of these pages are
text-only (again with large margins and lots of blank space), and even
the pages of illustration contain only one or two expressions per
page, usually a front and a side view of the same expression, in the
usual format of skeleton + muscle drawings + photograph.

This is not
really a bad book, just not worth the money. I wouldn't have bought
it if I had examined it first. A better choice for the working artist
(especially if s/he is anywhere near the "starving"
category) would be Stephan Rogers Peck's "Atlas of Human Anatomy
for the Artist". Peck's book ... has much of the same
information as the ... Goldfinger book, and includes many useful
features not found in the more expensive book. Check out the reader
reviews on it!