Master the art of figure drawing with this practical drawing book, written by expert anatomical drawing educator Jennifer Crouch.
With more than 200 beautiful illustrations, Anatomy for the Artists is a comprehensive guide to drawing the human body with skill and sensitivity. Learn how the skeleton fits together, how the muscles and tendons work to support the body, how to achieve realistic skin texture and more. Each section is fully annotated with step-by-step explanations that will help you to create accurate images with ease.
Sections • Drawing materials • Shape and form • The skeletal form • Connective tissue, such as muscles and tendons • Articulation and movement • Pose, posture and expression • The structure of hands, lower limbs, feet and the head • Facial features and expressions
Whether you are a total beginner or looking to improve your technique, this book is the perfect reference guide for drawing the human figure.
I have read very few instructional art (drawing) books, so I don't know how this compares to what else is out there. 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. The anatomy portion is a thorough examination of skeletal, muscular, and fat systems. Crouch also spends quite a lot of time on weight distribution and movement direction for gestural poses. 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.
This book is extremely inclusive, featuring models of many body types and gender expressions. There are people of color, people with disabilities, people who use wheelchairs, and so on. Crouch celebrates human variety and how the human body changes constantly from birth to old age -- it is always beautiful and she never judges. The focus is on finding the model's bones and muscles and presenting them on the page.
She does focus on observational portraiture, aka realism, but admits her own artwork is typically more abstract. 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 specifically mention animation several times, as conveying the way bodies move is entirely necessary to the field.
I learned a lot, especially about what so many comic book artists fail to portray. 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 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.
This was okay. It's definitely more geared towards beginners, in my opinion, but it's a pretty complete guide. Nothing too special. If you have experience with drawing this won't really add anything to your life. I guess I was expecting a bit more when I picked this up. At least more drawing and examples would have been nice. It was a bit dry.
I received an eArc via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Anatomy for the Artist is a tutorial manual for human anatomy aimed at artists. Due out 1st March 2022 from Arcturus Publishing, it's 478 pages and will be available in ebook format. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.
This is a comprehensive and accessible manual. The author's background in medical illustration, physics, and teaching comes through clearly in her extensive and coherent instructions. She presents the human body in line drawings with relevant anatomical terms in glossary lists scattered throughout. 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. Relevant lessons on themes such as texture, structure, and layering, are well illustrated with short tutorials in which students can find instruction and inspiration. This would make a superlative choice for public or school library acquisition, artists/makers studio library, or home use.
Four and a half stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
5+ Stars for this anatomy and figure drawing book! I WILL be buying my own hard copy of this to keep.
Jennifer Crouch has completed one of the very best and easiest to understand anatomy drawing books available.
The tastefully done anatomy drawings, descriptive body parts, bones and muscles, as well as incredible expertise and drawing of every bone, muscle and anatomical part of the body is beyond what anyone could imagine for a drawing book.
For medical and recreational purposes, this book is a fantastic resource and learning guide. I am blown away by the thought in detail put into this 300 page book. For anyone looking to improve their ability to draw the human form in any format, THIS is the book to use. It is truly impressive.
Thank you to NetGalley and Arcturus publishing for an advanced readers copy in return for my honest opinion.
This book is absolutely fabulous, I think it is one of the best books to explain anatomy, and other aspects of drawing the human form. The chapters are very well illustrated and very easy to follow, as is the information presented - on can read the whole book, of flick to the relevant chapters that are of interest at the time - but you wont be able to help actually reading the whole book - it is so interesting. The topics also covered are skin and fat, teeth and jaw, contour,pose and gesture, proportions & human figure. capturing texture, tones and shading, musculature of the mouth - There is a whole lot more , all very much in tune with the body structure and movement. Great Book
A comprehensive guide to human anatomy and how to use it to inform your art. This book covers a good range of anatomical language then moves through the body explaining how to use anatomy to improve your art. As well as anatomy, ideas are also given on how to show different textures, e.g. of varying types of skin and hair. It's great to see a wide variety of models used, including wheelchair users, those who have had a mastectomy and those with strabismus. I'd recommend this to beginner life artists. I've never been able to draw people, but this book makes it seem much more accessible.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.
I wanted to read this book because I am an aspiring artist. I did not take art in HIgh School or College. Therefore my drawing skills are very lacking. My passion is painting and I realize that improving my drawing skills will improve my paintings. I have read a lot of books on drawing and anatomy. I found this one to be one of the best I have read. I used the illustrations as practice exercises. I would highly recommend this to any artist, beginner or advanced. It makes an excellent reference. I received this galley from NetGalley.
A detailed, thorough and easy to follow guide to drawing the human body. Twenty four clearly explained and beautifully illustrated chapters take you through every aspect of drawing the whole, or parts of, the body. Great for a beginner and more skilled artists. Thank you to Jennifer Crouch, Net Galley and Arcturus for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Honestly, it is so hard to find art books that address drawing African Americans or don't repeat the same basics over and over without elaborating or going past the shapes and leaving it at that. The amount of coverage this book gives is a godsend, love the African American rep and assistance with the art. I always struggled to find me a guide before this.
I love this book and highly recommend it as an artist's reference. So many of the pages are really helpful for various parts of the body. I also appreciate how well organized it is for use for referencing as you can find everything you need in it rather easily without having to flip through the whole thing to find the page you want.
These types of books never seem to help me any... that being said, this one does have a similar feel as anatomy books I see being recommended to artists so I think it's pretty solid.
I enjoyed the book the artist is admittedly more interested in abstract art but the approach suited my style and skill level. Great for beginners and thise wanting to focus on form.
Where was Jennifer Crouch when I was knee deep in the trenches of human anatomy when I was at university?
With clean minimalist style drawings and comprehensive coverage of human anatomy, Anatomy for the Artist is ideal for those looking to improve both their knowledge of human anatomy and their drawing skills in the process.
Special shout out to Netgalley and Arcturus publishing for this eARC.