Drawing the Human Head (Practical Art Books) (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Among all the subjects which the art student is called upon to draw, none is more complex than the human head..." (more)
Key Phrases: facial slope, facial mass, cranial mass, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, Moderate Facial Slope (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

In 300 extraordinary drawings, Hogarth shows how to draw the head from every angle, age the face from infancy to old age, and delineate every feature and wrinkle.

About the Author

Burne Hogarth’s (1911–1996) remarkable career spanned over 60 years. He wore many hats in the worlds of fine art, art education, and art publishing. He is most famous for his internationally syndicated Sunday newspaper color page feature “Tarzan” (1937–1950) and for his illustrated adaptations of the Edgar Rice Burroughs novels Tarzan of the Apes and Jungle Tales of Tarzan. A co-founder of the School of Visual Arts in New York City, Hogarth remains one of the most influential figures in art education today.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Watson-Guptill (February 1, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823013766
• ISBN-13: 978-0823013760
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #39,625 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Generally useful, avoids some obvious pitfalls, December 5, 1999

By	E.J.Barnes (Amherst, MA) - See all my reviews

Although taking a formal course of study in human anatomy will give you greater depth in drawing the human head as far as proportion is concerned, this book does go into more depth than a course would in terms of facial features.

Burne is of the old school in the sense that he probably learned such terms as "dolichocephalic" and "brachiocephalic" in the earlier part of this century, when these labels were commonly applied to ethnic groups. But he ably avoids this obsolete view by demonstrating these head types have examples in a variety of racial and ethnic groups.

This very variety of ethnic facial examples is the greatest strength of the book. I've seen too many comic books try to portray a multi-cultural cast without knowing how!

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A popular standard in learning to draw heads from memory..., June 1, 2006

By	"extreme_dig_cm" (Chicago, Il USA, Amazon.com Fan!) - See all my reviews

...A popular, intermediate-level effort- It's definitely *great* for memory drawing, and it's recommended *mainly* for this reason...

In recent decades there have been 3 main teachers in learning to draw heads from memory. For cube-based construction we have George Bridgman. For ball/sphere-based construction we have Andrew Loomis. And for oval/ellipse-based construction, we have the famous teacher of the Dynamic Drawing series- comicbook artist Burne Hogarth. Many of today's Japanese animation & comicbook instructionals are using these very same principles, along with some of the teachings by the Famous Artists School. My current interest is in oval & cube-based construction, and it's exclusively *oval-based* construction that is emphasized in this book.
For me, the *best* section in this book is the 2nd of its 6 sections- which is oval-construction simplified. It's just 21 pages out this book's 160- but it's actually worth getting if you're interested in drawing from memory. The rest of the book, in my opinion, is mainly filler- to justify an entire book on this subject. In fact, Burne Hogarth's 1st book, Dynamic Anatomy, gives us a *very* brief intro into this exact same oval-based construction, and I think many people will prefer getting Dynamic Anatomy for this reason. I highly recommend getting the *original* version of Dynamic Anatomy- since I'm not a fan of the new, 'revised and expanded' version available today.

Really, the *main* sections in this book that seem interesting to me are that 2nd, 5th, and maybe 6th sections. In the 5th, many different head-types are depicted and compared, including about 30 specific ethnicities- giving this book a somewhat 'international' feel. The 6th section is a 'gallery' of heads as shown in ancient sculpture, as well as more modern western art. It's interesting information overall; just not really necessary in learning to draw heads from memory. In short: For *beginners*, I highly recommend Drawing the Head and Figure by Jack Hamm in addition to this. For everyone else, this book is *moderately* recommended.
P.S. For photo-reference of different ethnicities, check out Facial Expressions: A Visual Reference For Artists; also here on Amazon!

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Decent enough, glad I bought it, August 6, 2000

By	Mars Tano "marstano" (Oceanside, CA USA) - See all my reviews

As another reader said, I'm not particularly fond of Hogarth's style, but this is a useful book (for what it covers). Content is limited in breadth, but goes into good depth on multicultural features and aging. I would have liked to see more examples of females, though, especially aged female faces.