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The Book of a Hundred Hands (Dover Anatomy for Artists) Paperback – June 1, 1971

by George B. Bridgman (Author)

41 customer reviews

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Mr. Bridgman states unequivocally in his introduction that before preparing this book he had "not discovered a single volume devoted exclusively to the depicting of the hand." Apparently Mr. Bridgman has appreciated what few others have felt — the human hand's great capacity for expression and the care that the artist must take to realize it. The hand changes with the age of the person, is shaped differently according to sex, reflects the type of work to which it is put, the physical health, and even the emotions of the person. To represent these distinguishing features, to capture the expressiveness of a particular pair of hands, the artist must understand the construction, anatomy, formation, and function of the hand.
There is probably no better instructor to turn to for this understanding than Mr. Bridgman, a well-respected artist who for nearly 50 years lectured and taught at the Art Students League of New York. In this volume, a full text is accompanied by many illustrations depicting virtually every aspect and posture of the human hand. He first considers the back view of the hand, the wrist bones, the tendons, the muscles, the hand bones, the arch, and the veins; and then those of the palm. Throughout he pictures the musculature at work beneath the surface of the skin. He continues by showing how the muscles operate on the thumb side and on the little finger side when each is the center of force; how the thumb and fingers are constructed, their freedom of movement, joints, and complete anatomy as well as views of them straight, bent, and flexed; how the knuckles are formed, what shapes the fist can take and how flexible it can be; and he concludes with illustrations of the total movement, either turning or rotary, of the hand in its various positions.
The 100 illustrations the author has selected perfectly define the regions of the hand so that any artist, beginning or experienced, will increase his mastery of it. Better rendering of the human hand is sure to add new expressiveness to your human figures along with new forcefulness and new interest.

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Product Details

Series: Dover Anatomy for Artists
Paperback: 175 pages
Publisher: Dover Publications; New edition edition (June 1, 1971)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 048622709X
ISBN-13: 978-0486227092
Product Dimensions: 0.8 x 6.5 x 9.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #35,059 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #9 in Books > Arts & Photography > Drawing > Specific Objects
- #26 in Books > Arts & Photography > Drawing > Figure Drawing

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Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Mr. Bridgman states unequivocally in his introduction that before preparing this book he had "not discovered a single volume devoted exclusively to the depicting of the hand." Apparently Mr. Bridgman has appreciated what few others have felt—the human hand's great capacity for expression and the care that the artist must take to realize it. The hand changes with the age of the person, is shaped differently according to sex, reflects the type of work to which it is put, the physical health, and even the emotions of the person. To represent these distinguishing features, to capture the expressiveness of a particular pair of hands, the artist must understand the construction, anatomy, formation, and function of the hand.
There is probably no better instructor to turn to for this understanding than Mr. Bridgman, a well-respected artist who for nearly 50 years lectured and taught at the Art Students League of New York. In this volume, a full text is accompanied by many illustrations depicting virtually every aspect and posture of the human hand. He first considers the back view of the hand, the wrist bones, the tendons, the muscles, the hand bones, the arch, and the veins; and then those of the palm. Throughout he pictures the musculature at work beneath the surface of the skin. He continues by showing how the muscles operate on the thumb side and on the little finger side when each is the center of force; how the thumb and fingers are constructed, their freedom of movement, joints, and complete anatomy as well as views of them straight, bent, and flexed; how the knuckles are formed, what shapes the fist can take and how flexible it can be; and he concludes with illustrations of the total movement, either turning or rotary, of the hand in its various positions.
The 100 illustrations the author has selected perfectly define the regions of the hand so that any artist, beginning or experienced, will increase his mastery of it. Better rendering of the human hand is sure to add new expressiveness to your human figures along with new forcefulness and new interest.
Dover unabridged republication of the original (1920) edition.

About the Author

Canadian artist George Brandt Bridgman (1865–1943) studied at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris and taught at New York City's Art Students League. Generations of students have learned the principles of anatomy and figure drawing from his books, which rank among Dover's most popular art instruction texts.

Customer Reviews

(41)

3.8 out of 5 stars

5 star		17
4 star		7
3 star		11
2 star		3
1 star		3

See all 41 customer reviews

It's an okay source, but if I had to pick between this and another source, I would have gone with another.

Kyanzasu

If you use it as a guide to enhance your life drawings, you will learn a great deal and improve your understanding of the human hand's construction.

Mike Harris

For instance- In learning to draw from memory, I started by copying smaller hands, working my way up to bigger & better detail.

"extreme_dig_cm"

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful

Excellent beginning to intermediate book at a good price

By A Customer on January 19, 2004

Format: Paperback

There are two excellent books that I know of that focus specifically on the anatomy of the hand for the artist. I was given this book early in my aspiring art career by my grandmother (an accomplished artist) but lost it some while later. I had forgotten the title and ended up buying Hogarth's "Drawing Dynamic Hands" as a guide after failed attempts to locate this book again. I would actually recommend getting them both, but start with this book first. In the end I got alot out of both, but there were many times using the Hogarth book that I missed "Hundred Hands".
Hogarth's style of illustration in all of his books is much more imbellished by his use of soft shading to illustrate volume. His look is extremely useful but it can also be an obstacle to a beginning to intermediate student since end result is a more stylized appearance. With Hogarth's books, the student can find themselves inadvertently adopting the look of his images in their own style.
Bridgeman's illustrations are much more loose and sketch-like. He uses little or no shading but his understanding of volume and structure rivals Hogarth's. The simplicity of his examples are much easier to get started with. He accomplishes just as much if not more with a few loose lines as Hogarth's vivid shading. More importantly the sketch-like quality can be much less intimidating early on.
While it's true Hogarth's book is definitely nicer to look at, I believe Bridgeman's is a much better learning guide for starters. The price of this book also makes it affordable to use them as compliments to one another if you decide get both.

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20 of 22 people found the following review helpful

One of my Top 3 Bridgman books- great in drawing from memory...

By "extreme_dig_cm" on April 2, 2006

Format: Paperback

Mainly for intermediate-level artists- it's actually *GREAT* for enthusiastic beginners. It has a little bit of *everything* depicting hand construction from memory. It's also great for general improvement; a few tips & tricks- an *excellent* reference for all working artists.
The genius of Bridgman, at least for me, is mainly in his construction of heads & hands. The genius in Bridgman is that he selects important lines & planes: He emphasizes the *essential*. His drawings aren't always eye-poppingly 3-D, and to me, that's actually a good thing. They're mainly simplistic- yet amazingly effective. There's *great* power in this simplicity here! Here's the formula I use: copying Bridgman + photos + my favorite artists= success(!). And this book represents his best work on hands- even *better* than his Complete Guide, which includes much of this material. In fact, this book, *along with photographs*, has enabled me to draw hands completely from memory in an amazing range of angles & views! And it's helped me quicker than any other book on the market; quicker even than Burne Hogarth's incredibly popular Drawing Dynamic Hands. The design & layout here are really among Bridgman's best. If you flip rapidly through these pages, initially you might not be impressed. But if you take the time to look at each page, you'll notice some drawings are a bit better than others. Some of his best drawings are his smallest(!). For instance- In learning to draw from memory, I started by copying smaller hands, working my way up to bigger & better detail. I started by copying pages 119 & 101- it's amazing what just a few lines can teach! Many pages are like this: simple, easy, and effective; for beginners, intermediates & up. In short: My Highest Recommendation- 5 STARS!

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24 of 28 people found the following review helpful

Book of Hands

By A Customer on December 9, 1999

Format: Paperback

This is a fantastic resource for any artist wanting to understand the human hand. Bridgman breaks down the hand to basic shapes and then builds up to the rendered hand showing you along the way how the bones, muscles, tendons and veins relate to the overall shape of the hand. I highly recomend any of Bridgman's books for a better understanding of drawing the human body.

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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

A Very 'Handy' book!

By Tex on April 18, 2004

Format: Paperback

This is a superb little book to have around the studio at all times. Although there are one or two better books on the subject of drawing this most difficult of body parts (Burne Hogarth's 'Drawing Dynamic Hands' is the best), there is nothing to match this one for sheer value for money.
While Bridgman's illustrations are a little sketchy for my taste, you can't beat the sheer convenience of having a book containing one hundred different hand positions around when you need a quick reference for a particular hand position...and all for under eight dollars. What more do you want? A chocolate cover?
Great illustrations, good, informative text, a handy size, and great value for money. What are you waiting for?
Buy this book now!

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25 of 34 people found the following review helpful

Useful, but photographic reference would be better

By Christopher Griffen on August 22, 2000

Format: Paperback

Bridgman gets a lot of credit for his mastery as an illustrator. Nevertheless, as a tool this book would have been more useful with photographic references of hands in various positions. By using Bridgman's illustrations as a guide, you end up simply aping his style to some extent. The end result is like when you photocopy a photocopy: a little grainier, much muddier version of the original.

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10 of 13 people found the following review helpful

What is this book for?

By jessicaelizabeth on May 27, 2002

Format: Paperback Verified Purchase

Certainly not for helping you learn to draw hands! I bought this book to help me to understand the difficult anatomy of the hand, but it's just a collection of very rough line sketches reproduced on a small and grainy scale, with basically no instruction. There's no denying Bridgman was a master, but I can't get practical information out of his loose sketches. Sometimes I can't even tell what position a hand is in, much less use it as a reference. A book of photographs, or a drawing tutorial, would be a better choice for someone at the beginning or intermediate level. I haven't found a whole book devoted to the hand yet, but the few pages of information in "Drawing the Head and Figure" (ISBN 0399507914) are fifty times more useful to me than this book.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

Great For Any Level Artist

Purchased this for my art major son. He had said drawing hands was giving him a bit of a problem. He has been using this book, and the Andrew Loomis hand book, for a month. Read more

Published 5 days ago by Living In SoCal

Four Stars

Good for reference but a bit sketchy and some over defined muscles.

Published 7 days ago by Shelby Sawyer

A beautiful book which may not fit everyone's need.

BUY THIS BOOK--

This should be the only sentence needed...if you were an intermediate-upper level artist/art student seeking to turn professional. Read more

Published 10 days ago by ouroboros

not what i expected

it's okay

Published 2 months ago by susan

One Star

Not recomended

Published 3 months ago by Pablo Parra

Great book for artists looking to hone their craft

My daughter's art teacher recommended this book and she loves it. Apparently hands are very difficult to draw and this book really helps.

Published 3 months ago by YogaMom

Compare to the other art instruction books I have, ...

Compare to the other art instruction books I have, this one is a SO SO book, an old style instruction; but some contents in there may help some.