Customer Reviews

The Human Machine (Dover Anatomy for Artists)

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

 

 

I am a commercial artist and an illustrator in training, after coming across a lot of artistic anatomy books over the years I say honestly that this and all the George Bridgman books are the best available. A couple of reasons for this are 1) his clear and totally accurate drawings and 2) he shows us muscle groups that act together rather than just naming every single muscle and leaving it at that. Also, he uses a very visual teaching method, showing the shapes of the muscle masses that are easy to remember. I would suggest that every beginner start with Mr. Bridgman.

After purchasing too many sub-par reference books on anatomy for artists, I highly recommend the Bridgeman books. This one stresses the hinges and joints of the body and how their bending and twisting movements affect the external shape of a figure. Nobody has studied the figure as long or as intensely as George Bridgeman and it shows in the superb illustrations, many apparantly constructed from memory. For economy of line and accurate sence of under-structure, the illustrations can't be beat. Incidently, "Bridgman's Complete Guide to Drawing From Life" incorperates much of the above book, along with several others, and is a better buy. (It's also a larger format book!)

I also recommend "The Human Figure: An Anatomy for Artists" by David K. Rubins.

Even though Bridgman's anatomy books have been around for a while, I haven't seen anything better yet. This and his other books helped me tremendously. Keep in mind that these series are not a step by step instructions, they are schematics that you must study and draw at every possible angle and preferably use it as a reference for real figure drawing classes.

The illustrations are somewhat badly printed and hard to make out at times but it's still very helpful especially for the price of these books.

Four stars because of poor print quality.

Maybe 3-1/2 stars. (Idea & Layout= 5 stars. Drawing quality= 2 stars.)

Bridgman's The Human Machine is *exceedingly* ambitious in its scope, and could have been exceedingly successful to match, were it not for its *one* pretty obviously glaring problem: these drawings are exceedingly sketchy!

Originally published in 1939, Bridgman passed away in 1943. He was approximately 75 when he made this- possibly a factor in the lack of clarity throughout. If only he had made this at the height of his career(!)- This book is a perfect example of 'what could have been'.

Many people revere this work in spite of all this. It may not compare at 1st glance with the slick, computer-aided & enhanced books of today, but if you're willing to get past the obvious sketchiness here you'll find a veritable gold mine of visual information. Take the overall layout & structure for example. In my opinion, this book's presentation easily rivals that of his more polished & refined work- Constructive Anatomy, which has a more awkward interplay between its words & pictures. The Human Machine moves rapidly & logically, building the figure with simple lines first, then showing how bones & muscles interact with eachother & with the figure's simplified outline, to give an impression of the whole figure & its parts, all at once in a few detailed pages. It's this *overall* conception of the human figure that appeals to the many who give this work a chance. Bridgman applies all this to the figure's actions & mechanisms as well- it's not just about bones & muscles here, like so many anatomy books tend to be. And Bridgman's lines, though sketchy here, still tend to be an accurate record of the figure, worthy of study. He *usually* chooses his lines with the precision & beauty we've come to expect. But the overall lack of visual clarity here hurts; leaving this genius idea still somewhat unrealized.

Overall: The basic *point* of Bridgman's Human Machine is to help people to draw figures more convincingly, and from memory. To a great degree, at least in my opinion, this book still succeeds in a very effective way...

P.S. This book is definitely *not* for beginners! Only *Intermediate-level* artists need apply.

Being an artist for twenty plus years...I had low expectations for this book. However insightful, the one glaring drawback is that on several pages the art and the text are very poorly printed. Otherwise this book would be a great addition to the library of any artist.

I have had this book for forty years now. I was told as a young artist that this was THE book which would show me the way. I did find the way, my way anyway, but this book had nothing to do with it. In art circles there are certain names which it is taboo to speak critically about. Do not attempt to give this book less than five stars if you are within 50 blocks of the Art Student's League. I cannot tell you how many times I have been told "this is the greatest work on anatomy bar none! Likely the greatest work on anything !!!" What abject nonsense. I don't get it. I am forty years along now, and I just do not get why this is a good book for anyone's purpose regarding artistic anatomy. It is no more than an intro, and at that a VERY POOR one! It has nothing to do with Brigman's talent or his ingenuity. These seem just some of his notes on the subject anyway. It is no Grand work. One star. That is that! Still and all - maybe it's just me.

I've been a fan of George Bridgman's books ever since I bought Constructive Anatomy, and followed it with the 100 hands book. I found the Human Machine and ordered it because I wanted to see more references in regards to how the body movies. I'm not severely disappointed but I suppose I was expecting a bit more. I was hoping for more full body references which would separate the book from Constructive Anatomy. Unfortunately it didn't deliver.

I did find the information in this book highly useful, but I have to agree that the print quality of the illustrations can be frustrating for some people. I am not bothered by it because I want something that is loose and interpretive, but explanatory. The problem with many art books is that they get so detailed in anatomy an artist trying to learn life drawing isn't learning to interpret the information but simply copies it.

You need illustrations like this to help your juices flow and act more creatively. If everything is drawn out for you in explicit detail how do you learn to fill in the gaps and experiment? That is why I found Bridgman's books more valuable to me than the super detailed anatomy books. His methods of construction have helped me out greatly in learning to flesh out my figures from stick forms.

The other value of this book is it's price. Why waste 30 dollars or more when these books are usually 10 dollars or less? My other book is becoming worn from extreme use, but at least I know I can easily replace the book at a low cost!

There are many pages where illustrations should be that are just spattered with dots, making half of this book completely worthless. You're better finding a PDF version online.

I would strongly advise the buyer to purchase this book from a different seller/publisher (no where in this book is a publisher even mentioned....). It has writing in it (hihglighted phrases, ect.), a good deal of the text is unreadable, and many of the illustrations are incoherent. Basicaly it looks like someone poorly photocopied their personal book, or printed it from a PDF on a printer that was running out of ink, and put a fancy cover on it-which need i even mentione is not even Bridgman's work..

The book I received is a pirated copy. There is no information on any publisher. The publishing date is set to 11 January 2012, the day I ordered it. While the quality of the type is decent, the quality of the illustrations - the primary reason one orders a damn drawing book in the first place - is completely unacceptable. It looks like a book of connect-the-dots pictures; I am unable to make out, much less learn from, Bridgman's work. DO NOT BUY FROM THIS SELLER.