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George Brant Bridgman

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Constructive Anatomy: Includes Nearly 500 Illustrations (Dover Anatomy for Artists) Paperback – June 1, 1973

by George B. Bridgman (Author)

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Part of: Dover Anatomy for Artists (38 books)

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"Excellent. The most valuable, detailed anatomical studies (which are also beautifully drawn) of all parts of the figure." — American Artist

Constructive Anatomy, an anatomical reference guide for the working artist, sculptor, and student, graphically shows important parts of the human body, both in motion and in repose — hand, wrist, thumb, fingers, forearm, arm, armpit, shoulder, neck, head, eye, nose, ear, mouth, chin, trunk (front, side, and back), pelvis, hip, thigh, leg, knee, ankle, foot, and toes. Drawings of bone and muscle structure of the working of the joints and the interrelation of the various parts of the body are mainly concerned with movement of all sorts — movements that are described in detail as well as illustrated. The bending, twisting, and turning, creasing and interlocking of the various parts of the body are represented in drawing as the wedging of masses in specific ways that are clearly defined by Mr. Bridgman.

"The best book on artist's anatomy available anywhere." — Art Students League News

Countless artists and students since the 1920s have used this and other books by George B. Bridgman (for nearly 50 years a teacher at the Art Students League in New York) for a solid foundation and understanding of human anatomy. They have found, and continue to find, that his unique way of discovering the vitalizing forces in the human form and realizing them in drawing carries the student pleasantly over one of art's most severe hurdles. Bridgman's superb anatomical sketches, of which there are nearly 500 in the book, also bring clearly to fruition his lucid theories of how to draw the human body in its structure and its complex movements. Every artist will save tedious hours of research with this simple but effective approach, and will be delighted with its directness and fervor.

An anatomical reference guide: Constructive Anatomy covers every angle of the body – from head to toe – in motion and repose. In addition to detailed drawings, artists, sculptors, and students will find insightful descriptions of body movements and how each part works together.
Drawings of body in motion: Explore the structure of bone and muscle and how they work together. Learn how to draw complex poses across various movements, from bending and twisting to creasing and interlocking. Easily understand how limbs interact with each other to create fluidity in your art.
Detailed illustrations: Get up close to key body parts such as hands, wrists, fingers, arms, shoulders, heads, and eyes. Enhance your artwork by capturing intricate details that may otherwise be overlooked.
For all levels: Whether you're a beginner or professional, this book offers something for everyone! Learn fundamental movement principles to accomplish a realistic representation of your subject matter. With informative diagrams, you'll be ready for your next masterpiece in no time.

Part of series

Dover Anatomy for Artists
Print length

192 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Dover Publications
Publication date

June 1, 1973
Dimensions

6.5 x 0.47 x 9.17 inches
ISBN-10

0486211045
ISBN-13

978-0486211046
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From the Publisher

Constructive Anatomy

An anatomical reference guide for the working artist, sculptor, and student

An anatomical reference guide: Constructive Anatomy covers every angle of the body – from head to toe
Drawings of body in motion: Explore the structure of bone and muscle and how they work together.
Detailed illustrations: Get up close to key body parts such as hands, wrists, fingers, arms, shoulders, heads, and eyes.
For all levels: Whether you're a beginner or a professional, this book offers something for everyone!

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"Excellent. The most valuable, detailed anatomical studies (which are also beautifully drawn) of all parts of the figure."—American Artist
"The best book on artist's anatomy available anywhere."—Art Students League News
Countless artists and students since the 1920s have used this and other books by George B. Bridgman (for nearly 50 years a teacher at the Art Students League in New York) for a solid foundation and understanding of human anatomy. They have found, and continue to find, that his unique way of discovering the vitalizing forces in the human form and realizing them in drawing carries the student pleasantly over one of art's most severe hurdles. Bridgman's superb anatomical sketches, of which there are nearly 500 in the book, also bring clearly to fruition his lucid theories of how to draw the human body in its structure and its complex movements.
Constructive Anatomy, an anatomical reference guide for the working artist, sculptor, and student, graphically shows important parts of the human body, both in motion and in repose—hand, wrist, thumb, fingers, forearm, arm, armpit, shoulder, neck, head, eye, nose, ear, mouth, chin, trunk (front, side, and back), pelvis, hip, thigh, leg, knee, ankle, foot, and toes. Drawings of bone and muscle structure of the working of the joints and the interrelation of the various parts of the body are mainly concerned with movement of all sorts—movements that are described in detail as well as illustrated. The bending, twisting,and turning, creasing and interlocking of the various parts of the body are represented in drawing as the wedging of masses in specific ways that are clearly defined by Mr. Bridgman.
Every artist will save tedious hours of research with this simple but effective approach, and will be delighted with its directness and fervor.

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.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Dover Publications; Later Printing Used edition (June 1, 1973)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 192 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0486211045
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0486211046
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.7 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 0.47 x 9.17 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #17,014 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #10 in Human Figure Art (Books)
- #14 in Drawing Specific Objects
- #19 in Figure Drawing Guides

Customer Reviews:
3,425

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George Brant Bridgman

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George Brant Bridgman (1865–1943) was a Canadian-American painter, writer, and teacher in the fields of anatomy and figure drawing. Bridgman taught anatomy for artists at the Art Students League of New York for some 45 years.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

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4.6 out of 5

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one lonely person, less lonely with book

Great handy reference book

Reviewed in the United States on December 19, 2023

Verified Purchase

I use this all of the time when I am in class and to carry around to study. It is a smaller-sized book, so it fits easily into my bag. It is concise and well-written, making it easy to connect the writing to the many illustrations. It is a great book for any artist interested in anatomy to have.

2 people found this helpful

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LordRaptor

Took a while to figure out, but I'm glad I bought it

Reviewed in the United States on October 18, 2009

Verified Purchase

In fact, I can safely say that this really is the most important book on artistic anatomy one can learn from. Many seem put off at first glance (I know I was) and say one of or all of the following...

1 - "the drawings look sketchy sometimes"
2 - "the anatomy seems exaggerated"
3 - "the look might "cramp" your style"
4 - "will copying the drawings really teach me anatomy?"

Well, after having gone through the book once, reading how others go through it, working on form & exercises, and since I'm going through it again, I'll address these points.

----------
1: The "sketchiness" isn't there for the sake of being rough. Those lines & curves are there to show the rhythm and flow of how this part leads into that part. Keep in mind that not every drawing in the book is like this.

2: The anatomy isn't really exaggerated. Consider that Bridgman's approach is on how muscles wedge into one another. If you study form, can analyze it, and can combine verious forms with overlapping, and then look at the drawings, things will click. The forms of various muscles stand out to show how the wedging works and sometimes the muscles happen to look flexed, that's all.

3: This was an odd comment I read at [...], and there's no way that going through this will "cramp your style." If this is the first anatomy book you're considering, and if you've never gone through a drawing book at all, then you don't have a style. Don't worry about finding your style if you're just starting out - take the time to learn foundational principles & techniques, and make that your goal.

4: I imagine that alot of people would think of copying like this: "Draw this line, put that curve right here, draw the line next to it, now move the pencil over here and draw this curve, repeat." Don't do that. It wasn't until I had a better grasp on form & the "classical approach" when things began to click. Once you learn the fundamentals of rhythm & gesture, observing angles, form, and "sculpting in the paper," use that understanding to analyze not only subjects for life drawing, but also drawings. As Glenn Vilppu says, "Don't copy the model, analyze it."
---

With that said, this book will show you anatomy as a set of forms, how they look from different views & actions, and, overall, how everything fits together. It's the perfect book to pull out once you can draw those geometric skeletons. Take your time and understand the text as Bridgman will explain what you're looking at. Analyzing the drawings is one thing, but the text does mention a lot of aspects on how the anatomy works.

There is one flaw in the book, and that is the layout. I found myself having to flip between a few pages to look at the right drawing with the appropriately labeled parts so I could flip back to the text and better understand the stuff. This got a little frustrating but if you're patient, you can pick up alot of things from this. Like I said, take your time.

38 people found this helpful

Helpful

Saritas Boutique Shop

Such a good human anatomy book

Reviewed in the United States on September 14, 2023

Verified Purchase

I really like this drawing book because it really clearly guides you to be able to sketch some human anatomy parts really easily. And I keep paper tabs on pages I saved to go back to, & practice more in the future.

Helpful

Nyx

A review for student artists

Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2012

Verified Purchase

As an art student, I've perused quite a few instructive anatomy books. I was suggested Bridgman by a teacher who ranked him as simply the best. A lot of the reviews here seem to focus on quality of reproduction, so I'm going to focus on the original product. By the way, get Dover.

Pros:
As stated universally. Bridgman runs through the all the major body masses ranging from something as large as the trunk, to something as minuscule as the septum of the nose.

He shows the human form in various stages of muscular undress, ranging from skeletal to fully skinned. There are often numerous angles and perspectives from which to study as well, and proportions are helpfully laid out in block form for the larger masses.

Speaking plainly, I haven't found a book that does better than what Constructive Anatomy does.

Cons:
Formatting is a little awkward. Text that pertains to a whole section appears on the first page of the section, and the following pages are wordless. This makes it mildly frustrating to follow the words of wisdom that Bridgman is no doubt divulging. Which brings me to another drawback.

The vocabulary matches the book's age. Expect a great deal of Latin nouns. Despite having a pretty firm grasp on bone and muscle names, I found myself lost on numerous occasions. Consider the following text, describing the armpit:
"Its rear wall is deeper, since the latissimus attaches farther down the back; thicker because made of two muscles (latissimus and teres major), and rounder because its fibres turn on themselves before attaching to the arm bone."
This would be an extremely minor annoyance if not for the complaint mentioned above. Much of the text is disassociated with the illustrations, forcing you to either flip back and forth, or try to follow along in your head.

My final con is what irked me the most. There is no female anatomy to speak of, and neither does Bridgman speak of it. For an anatomy book, this is a severe drawback. I understand the age of the book may have made such depictions taboo, but we're talking about half the population here. Bridgman's men are patently bony. Not as a synonym for thin, as they are exceedingly thick, but his bones have a tendency to protrude and take the shape of geometric objects. This is of course very beneficial to students, and his drawings are pure joy to duplicate, but you can imagine how hard it is to transfer this knowledge to the neglected sex. Anatomy books have a tendency to prioritize subjects approximately in the following order: the Male figure, the Female figure, the effects of age and finally, the child. Bridgman focuses solely on the first of the queue.

My conclusion is thus: Bridgman's Constructive Anatomy is an excellent manual for building men of young to middle age. The description applied to it most often seems to be "it's a great starter book." I would contend that the male and female figures are so different as that one cannot "start" with a male figure, and end up with a female figure. Consequently, Constructive Anatomy is not a great starter book for understanding the female structure.

Despite the cons I have stated, I have given the book 4/5 stars. Why? Because I knew of these drawbacks before I purchased the books, and purchased it anyway. The score is not some form of self-punishment for making a mistake, but a rating of the material I knew and wanted. I only list the cons so that future purchasers may know them as well, and make a more evaluative judgment.

48 people found this helpful

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Gomez

Yippee

Reviewed in the United States on September 26, 2023

Verified Purchase

YALL BUY THIS RN ITS THE MOST HELPFUL THING IN THE WORLD 10/10 personal and friend favorite. All these books are so great to learn from! Another personal and friend favorite!!

2 people found this helpful

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nsarwar

Highly recommend

Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2023

Verified Purchase

Excellent book for putting the human body into perspective. Highly recommend. Thank you

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Luis Lopez

Great

Reviewed in the United States on October 25, 2023

Verified Purchase

I already had a pdf version, but buying it physical is also great.

Helpful

HONEST reviewer

Great guide for artists

Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2023

Verified Purchase

This is such a helpful textbook that has begun to open my eyes to the movement of the human body. My drawings are less stiff after this book!

2 people found this helpful

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n☆☆

otimos desenhos

Reviewed in Brazil on September 18, 2023

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um otimo livro, os traços sao lindos e impecaveis, chegou rapido

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Thomas

Excelente edición

Reviewed in Mexico on November 4, 2022

Verified Purchase

Es un buen libro te incita a enseñarte más sobre la anatomía, los materiales son normales, si fuera un libro de solo consulta sin duda esta es una buena opción; sin embargo preferia la versión de pasta dura.

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Madison Beckwith

Lovely book

Reviewed in Canada on September 21, 2022

Verified Purchase

I got this anatomy book for myself, I was reccomended this book from a YouTube video in order to improve my anatomy skills in art. This book had no flaws, shipped fast, all for a decent price. It goes into heavy detail on the functions of both muscles and bone structures, but provides clean sketches on the next page over.
I'm 16, would reccomend this book if you were looking for improvement and basic knowledge on human anatomy.

One person found this helpful

Billy

Flex your skills

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 21, 2024

Verified Purchase

I learned more in a few pages in this book than the whole of other books like this. If you're going to learn anatomy, start here. It can be quite difficult to get your head around some of it as it's quite theoretical as apose to exercise based but it gets to the core of the subject and sticks in your mind. If like me you just like looking at pictures it may take a few months to read but it is worth it. It's better than going to all the bother of trying to buy a cadaver and skinning it in the basement.

Seyit Ali Araci

Tolles Buch

Reviewed in Germany on December 17, 2023

Verified Purchase

Sehr tolles Buch, muss man aber echt verstehen können.

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Constructive Anatomy

An anatomical reference guide for the working artist, sculptor, and student

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George Brant Bridgman

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From the Publisher

Constructive Anatomy

An anatomical reference guide for the working artist, sculptor, and student

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About the Author

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Customer Review: Genius

About the author

George Brant Bridgman

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