Customer Reviews

Vilppu Drawing Manual

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Glenn Vilppu is a master at communicating the "fundamental tools not only to aide us in drawing but in seeing." I have taken several life drawing classes which were competently taught, but Mr. Vilppu's book greatly augmented the classes bucause he is highly adept a explaining the process so that I now have a much clearer grasp of both the "what" and the "how to".

It seems to me that many art instructors are so visually oriented that they cannot clearly articulate what it is that they are doing. Mr. Vilppu uses both words and pictures to clearly communicate basic figure drawing tools. The book includes numerous examples supplemented with helpful explanations covering everything from gesture through basic procedure to anatomy , modeling and even atmospheric perspective. Accompanying video tapes are also available for each of the 12 chapters. I have viewed 4 of these tapes and they are even better than the book!

I studied with Glenn Vilppu for two years at the American Animation Institute and I can definitely say that his teaching methods really improved my ability to draw the human figure. This book will teach you how to UNDERSTAND the construction of the human figure so that you can create any pose from any angle without have to draw it from life.

Additionally, I find his system of breaking down body measurements far more accurate and flexible that the traditional 7 and a half heads method that many teachers rely on.

Highly recommended from an extremely thankful student!

Besides Nicolaides' Natural Way to Draw, this book is really all the elements it takes to do drawing in about 13 lessons. If you have mastered all 13 lessons, you really will have become a great artist. Each lesson builds up on the previous one, and your suggested not to move on until you feel you are ready for the next one. Combine this manual with his series of DVD's and you pretty much have art school in a box. I am not even kidding about that either, the DVD's are literally him teaching in the class as well as demonstrations of him doing the drawings and models to draw from. You get to see a real master at work, and then you will have the confidence to do it yourself as he describes.

This is not a quick fix book like Edwards' Right Side of the Brain, this is the real deal as far as learn to draw books/ series are concerned. I liked Nicolaides' book as well starting out, although I feel that not enough people take it seriously due to the amount of work required. Believe it or not your going to arrive at doing the same amount of work even if it takes you a lifetime to discover that. It is best to do your blind contour and form studies, etc. now so you dont have issues later with the natural element to drawing. Although this Drawing Manual does not deal with such things, that would be how you should acquire the feel of the thing anyway.

From the beginner to veteran, this book is a wonderful addition to any artist's library. Vilppu has an unbelievable teaching technique that explains construction easily and clearly for those who learn by text or visually. Going through simple skeletal construction, circular and block forms an artist can easily develop leaps and bounds from prior use of this book. Fourty dollars spent on a book that is clearly priceless.

This is an excellent book. Vilppu focuses on gesture drawings for the most part and builds from there. You will learn how to construct the figure: torsos, arms, legs, and briefly hands.
A great book for both illustrators and animators. Highly recommended

my only irk is that this doesn't really teach how to draw the head. for that, ya might like Andy Loomis' Drawing The Head and Hands.

Irk aside, I love this book and, since I've practiced drawing the spheres, cylinders, and cubes alot before following this, I found I was able to learn and adapt to the methods extremely well.

What Glen Vilppu does is amazing. He starts with the teaching gesture drawing, then moves onto spherical forms & overlapping, cubes and manipulating them, merging the spheres & boxes, and cylinders. Those methods alone, and analyzing forms, will allow you to draw anything. The two anatomy sections aren't bad, although I wish more was taught regarding the feet, head, and facial features. Even three pages for each area would have made this even better.

What I personally recommend is practice those three shapes alot (google "Ten Minute Drawing Techniques" for that and more), then move onto this. Learn all the methods, analyze the drawings, and draw from them. "Don't copy, analyze" as Glen will say. Then look for whatever anatomy or figure drawing book that best suits your needs in progressing.

While not perfect, this is a must have.

This book is great enough to be considered the bible of figure drawing. It breaks down the thought process of drawing into step by step learning process. THe videos are even better as it covers each chapter as if your in the class learning from him. The videos are way better but the book complements it. They go hand in hand. Nowadays, he's even made Dvd's trainings on anatomy figure drawings. YOu can get those directly from him at his site. Another great book would be andrew loomis but that book is pretty much out of print and cost way too much.

I had this manual in my cart basket for weeks before I finally hit the send button. I've always been skeptical of the cult type ravings associated with many of these self published tutorials, particularly when they're not covered by amazon's return policy, but I got a chance to leaf through a copy and thought it would be helpful even if it didn't live up to the hype. After having a chance to study it in some detail I thought the best review I could offer would be to answer a couple short questions that I had before I ordered my copy that nobody else addressed.

1) Is it worth $40? Yes, as long as you're willing to put in the work which requires reading, thinking and LOTS of drawing practice. If it's just going to sit on your bookshelf, don't buy it.

2) What makes it different from other drawing manuals? Essentially it's the foundation of all the Villpu teaching material (more about this below) and offers a progressive approach to developing line and form. It will not make you a great draftsman if you neither work at it, nor have the requisite elementary skills. Unlike most "drawing manuals" this effort is pretty much about drawing exercises of the type you'd be exposed to in a university life drawing class. No pretty color pictures of art materials or chapters on "framing your work" nor any other page wasting component that fills up the bulk of most Watson-Guptill or NorthLight books. It's all about drawing in a progressive manner, so if you're not up to standing in front of a drawing board for hours at a time sketching ovoid head shapes with an ellipse for eyes you probably shouldn't go down this road. Finally, You should be aware that Glenn Vilppu comes from an animation background (Disney) rather than a classical academic one. The only notable difference this suggests is his insistence on a committed work ethic on the part of his students AND a specific emphasis on drawing from one's imagination rather than just imitating the model form. This is a huge differential given all the published material extolling drawing what one sees.

3) What are the downsides? With the book, nothing. But you should be aware that the Villpu teaching studio is a tour de force of American capitalism. There are follow-on books, dozens of DVD's all complimenting the various manuals as well as lecture/demos of specific subjects, in studio courses, European drawing/painting tours (Italy July/11), workshops, etc. So if you are the addictive type prone towards spending tons of money on instructional material, you might be biting off more than you can chew. On the other hand, if you are in self control and can target those areas of your skill set that you want to improve upon this system can be a big help.

Am I glad I ordered the manual? Absolutely. My rating of the book on it's own as a teaching manual is five stars. As a matter of fact I really don't know a better one, though the Loomis material is every bit the equal in my opinion. The only negative is my perception of the big business approach to art instruction. If any of you have a self taught musical bent, or know someone that does, the Villpu studio is a little like Happy Traum's "Homespun Music" or Stephan Grossman's roots empire; lots of peripheral teaching material going in and out of print. Go to the Villpu website and read through the offerings and decide if you want to sign on for this type of instruction. If you don't, I'd still recommend the "Drawing Manual" as it stands on it's own as a rigorous workbook.

For the fundamentals of drawing, this is the book. Glenn teaches a different technique than most other masters (or current teachers even) ever have, whereby you learn to really understand the gesture the model is taking and draw from that, rather than attempting to copy the lines and shadows that you see as you observe the model. This enables you to then draw from memory or imagination. It also creates a drawing that captures more of the "life" of your figures.

There is a brief introduction to anatomy, but it is really only enough to get you started in your understanding. For anatomical or advanced figure drawing, you will want to look at the other available products. Other books on this subject: Head Drawing Anatomy Volume 1, and Drawing Hands and Feet. He goes into the human anatomy in detail on DVD, which is much easier to learn from than a book, and covers each section of the body in apx 1.5 hour each.

Great book that basically anyone can use to learn how to draw the figure. Quality is low as its all b&w and highly pixellated and unprofessional appearance, with segments of text missing, but the missing text is contained on a piece of paper that came with the book, but if you look past all of the imperfections you have a diamond in the (really) rough.