John also encourages you to be more creative in your figure work. It shows how an understanding of anatomical form is vital to drawing all types of figures. All shapes and sizes are covered, from overweight and underweight to heavily pregnant. An essential book for reference and inspiration, the book provides insight into drawing real people, not just the anatomically 'correct' shapes. He brings his hallmark technical detail and accessibility to the subject of which he is a leading exponent. This would make a superlative choice for public or school library acquisition, artists/makers studio library, or home use.ĭisclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.Leading painter John Raynes' new book brings clarity to the anatomy of the human body in relation to the way we draw and paint it. Relevant lessons on themes such as texture, structure, and layering, are well illustrated with short tutorials in which students can find instruction and inspiration. There are lists which include anatomical/medical spatial directions and an abbreviated list with Latin prefixes, but they're accessibly defined and not at all intimidating. She presents the human body in line drawings with relevant anatomical terms in glossary lists scattered throughout. The author's background in medical illustration, physics, and teaching comes through clearly in her extensive and coherent instructions. This is a comprehensive and accessible manual. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. Due out 1st March 2022 from Arcturus Publishing, it's 478 pages and will be available in ebook format. Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.Īnatomy for the Artist is a tutorial manual for human anatomy aimed at artists. I would absolutely recommend this book to comic artists, as well as anyone wanting to learn to sketch people but who don't have the resources (due to lockdown or otherwise) to take a life drawing course. Crouch doesn't call out comic art it's only that I'm really familiar with it and how bad anatomy and physiology is epidemic to the genre. I learned a lot, especially about what so many comic book artists fail to portray. She does specifically mention animation several times, as conveying the way bodies move is entirely necessary to the field. In essence, this book is about teaching a foundation in observational drawing so you can break those rules in interesting ways after you've got a grounding in the basics. She does focus on observational portraiture, aka realism, but admits her own artwork is typically more abstract. The focus is on finding the model's bones and muscles and presenting them on the page. Crouch celebrates human variety and how the human body changes constantly from birth to old age - it is always beautiful and she never judges. There are people of color, people with disabilities, people who use wheelchairs, and so on. This book is extremely inclusive, featuring models of many body types and gender expressions. She clearly shows how to use construction lines to develop proportion and describes the layer by layer process of building from nothing to a fully formed portrait. Crouch also spends quite a lot of time on weight distribution and movement direction for gestural poses. The anatomy portion is a thorough examination of skeletal, muscular, and fat systems. However, I found it very beginner-friendly, and I imagine it would be very helpful for experienced artists wanting to explore/get better at life drawing. I have read very few instructional art (drawing) books, so I don't know how this compares to what else is out there.
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