Customer Reviews

The Book of a Hundred Hands (Dover Anatomy for Artists)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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!

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.

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.

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!

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.

This is a very good book to teach you how the hand works. It demonstrates how the muscles pull and knuckles jut or decline depending on the position of the hand. It also demonstrates bones and ligaments well, how each finger has three hinge joints, except the thumb, which only has two, where the palm is fleshy and where it lies flat. Reading through the book can help you gain a better understanding of the anatomy of the hand.
Unfortunatley this book does fall short in some aspects, some of the images are so sketchy and blurred, it is difficult to tell that they are hands, much less to practice from the drawings and achieve the desired results. Following the examples in the book will not improve the clarity of your drawings of one of the most difficult subjects: the human hand. But the anatomy lesson makes this book worth getting anyway.

George Bridgman was arguably the finest anatomy teacher at the Art Students' League in NYC, and taught some of the greatest American artists of the last century. This book is a collection of sketches and lectures from his other writings, devoted to the structure of the hand. Unlike a straightforward anatomy book, Bridgman breaks down the hand, providing visual cues for artists to gain understanding as they draw from life. This is not a visual reference for those looking for a swipe file of hand gestures and anatomical references (hint: You already have two of those at the end of your wrists), but an explanation of how to construct the hand and how the structures of each part make up the whole. 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. If you use this book solely as a shortcut and swipe file, you will get some useful techniques, but will ultimately be disappointed.

Length:: 0:39 Mins

I bought this book after previously purchasing Bridgman's Constructive Anatomy [Paperback], and I've been extremely pleased with both. This book features work by an artist I grew to trust during my years at art school (and still reference as a professional). The book features pages full of hand sketches in various poses and stages of completion. The anatomy is near flawless and the sketchiness is well preserved. I did not think it was too medical in its approach as anatomical flavoured books often are. I found it easier to draw from these sketches than a photo, since so much is already interpreted for you. So if you're having troubles on your overall form and silhouette and/or need to brush up on your anatomy, this book is a superb (and cheap) resource. I recommend buying The Best of Bridgman: Boxed Set (Boxed Sets/Bindups), you get The Book of a Hundred Hands, plus Bridgman's Life Drawing & Heads, Features and Faces. I bought them separately over time, but wish I'd just have gotten them all at once.

This book is good for learning to draw different hand positions. It contains different values and details on drawing all kinds of hands. It's a good learning tool for beginning artist and it's worth the price.