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The illustrator Andrew Loomis (1892-1959) is revered among artists - including comics superstar Alex Ross - for his mastery of figure drawing and clean, Realist style.
His hugely influential series of art instruction books have never been bettered, and Figure Drawing is the first in Titan's programme of facsimile editions, returning these classic titles to print for the first time in decades.
Hardcover
First published June 1, 1943


Slimness in figure drawing has become almost a cult. What the artists of the Middle Ages considered voluptuous appeal would be plain fat today. Nothing will kill a sale so quickly as fatness or shortness. [...] If my figures seem absurdly tall, remember that I am giving you the conception accepted as a standard.
The term "talent" needs clarifying. To any[one] who has slaved to acquire skill in [their] art, it is most irritating to have [their] ability referred to as a "gift." Perhaps there is one genius in a hundred years or more who can achieve perfection by "divine inspiration." I have never met such a [person], and I do not know any successful artist who did not get there by the sweat of [their] brow. Again, I do not know of a single successful artist who does not continue to work hard.
[...] Talent, in its underclothes, is a capacity for a certain kind of learning. Talent is an urge, an insatiable desire to excel, coupled with idefatigable powers of concentration and production. Talent and ability are like sunlight and a truck garden. The sun must be there to begin with, but, added to it, there must be plowing, planting, weeding, howing, destroying of parasites--all have to be done before your garden will yield produce.