Anatomy for Sculptors Understanding the Human Figure

I got this book after not having a dedicated anatomy book for a few years. I was scared of the price at first but I have to say I'm glad I made the investment. PROS: Many clear, consice drawings with few words. I've had many books where the dime-sized drawings are drowned in a sea of blank pages coupled with countless paragraphs describing what they could've just shown. I'm an impatiant artist. I'm not here to read, I'm here to draw! This book isn't like that. It's gloriously detailed without all the bloated descriptions. It clearly shows the forms of the body with easy to understand tips. For example the do's and don't's are shown planely with an (X) or a (✓). It gets to the point. CONS: 1) Mostly idealized men. Despite plenty of dedicated pages on female anatomy the models mostly lean toward male. It's not bad as there's a lot of crossover with muscle structure but the amount of either gender is like 80:20, male:female. There are even fewer pages dedicated to different body types, which is sad but expected. 2) (for 2d artists) There's less of a focus on foreshortaining. This is really a book for sculptors so there's less of a focus on translating the 3d form into a 2d plain. Drawing in perspective isn't really touched on in this book. If you can handle your own perspective that isn't too bad though. Conclusion: This is a great resource packed to the brim with visual information. A great investment. I was not disappointed!

This book is brilliantly designed. The authors do an amazing job of breaking down the human form into simplistic shapes, and then building on those shapes into the more complex forms. Previously, I'd bought a lot of medical anatomy books, but those mostly use photographs and are hard to distinguish the muscles. And they seem hell-bent on identification rather than motion of parts. Conversely, anatomy books I got for artists relied on illustrations instead of photographs. So I found I was limited to the skill and focus of the artist who illustrated the book, instead of being able to form my own focus. But this book combines all of the views... it has photographs with graph overlays so you can see the depth of the shapes, and color variations to distinguish or chunk the muscles. Honestly, best anatomy book i've ever had and an amazing lesson on outstanding Instructional Design or design in general. I was worried about the price, but I've been really pleased with this purchase.

I've been working through the premium anatomy class at Proko.com, and while those lessons are thorough, there have been muscle groups that have been really hard for me to visualize in different positions and at different angles (hello, forearms!). With the other anatomy books I have, I'm either seeing one or a few images of a body part -- either photos or illustrations -- with arrows pointing to the muscles. It just hasn't been enough to help me understand the entire form of the muscle and how it changes with movement, and how a diagram of muscles relates to what I'm seeing on the surface. This has been especially true with the arms, where pronation or supination, or the rotation of the shoulder, really changes the entire contour. This book breaks everything down very thoroughly -- you see the body part in a particular position, then with overlayed muscles, then with cross contours that give you a good sense of the massing of the forms. And this process is repeated for lots of different angles and positions. It's extremely thorough. It also has lots of little "notes" about things to watch for, which is SO much more helpful than the chapters of text that most other anatomy books seem to have (I never read those). Other than those notes, the book doesn't waste any real estate on text, because as a reference, that's just not necessary. Could I learn anatomy entirely from this? Probably not -- I think I'd be overwhelmed. But in combination with a class that breaks things into small bits, like Proko does, it's perfect. I just got the book, but what I'll start doing as I do the assignment drawings at Proko, is looking at the model, getting a sense in my mind of what's what, and then finding an equivalent pose in the book, and really making sure I understand what all the muscles are before I begin to draw. I feel like this is finally the key to understanding for me. Yes, this book is very expensive, and I actually went and bought yet another anatomy book before finally taking the plunge with this one, which of course I wish I hadn't done. The one small criticism I have with it is that many of the photos are pretty small. I'm pretty nearsighted, so I've found myself actually taking off my glasses and putting my face 2 inches from the book so I can see all the details! I'd prefer this, though, over a less comprehensive book with fewer images (or one that's even more expensive). Great work!

Photos arw very detailed. It’s on high quality paper and also has a high quality print. Would recommend for artists and aspiring artists looking to study the human figure.

This is by far one of the most useful anatomy bools I have ever read for artists. But more specifically it is a must read for aspiring digital sculptors or traditional sculptors alike. There are plenty of anatomy books that just break down muscles and bones but this is the first one that has done an amazing job at breaking down how the muscles interact with each other to produce various shapes, and where bones and muscle meet to produce landmarks that we all know but may not truly understand who they move and interact. All this is very important when you are doing a realistic sculpt, as a 2D artist or painter you can visually fake it, but in 3D when you move around the form it may look great from the front but terrible at an angle or if the wrong light is hitting it.

Best anatomy book I have, hands down. And a have quite a few.

Very detailed book. I highly recommend it to anyone that is trying to learn anatomy the correct way

An awesome anatomy book to add to any collection. It’s great for intermediate and beginner artists. I had ordered the hardcover version because I had read other reviews that the paperback one would get damaged in shipping. It still got a little dings here and there on the corners/edges, the only reason I’m giving it 4 stars instead of 5. But overall the book is in good shape. It’s not your average anatomy book. It breaks everything down for the reader to understand things in 3D perspective if they want to explore things like sculpting, woodworking, and 3D modeling. There’s lots of good references in there for just about anything you need human reference related. It shows how muscles interact when they move too, which is a nice bonus and landmarks to remember for the determined student. Overall, as someone with over 10 years of experience in art, I’d highly recommend getting this book. It’s worth every dollar.

very good

El mejor libro sobre anatomía que he comprado jamás. Encima viene adherido a una página donde se actualizan referencias cada muy poco tiempo. Muy recomendable.

Most outstanding book. Clearly explained. Luckily I am able to grasp. But I have my limitations too.

Libro utilissimo anche per la pittura!!!!! Un po' lunghi i tempi di consegna anche se nei limiti previsti. Delivery time may be shorter!!! 😀

Although this book is quite expensive, it is worth the price paid in my opinion. It is easy to follow with lots of diagrams and explanations, breaking down various muscle groups and general structure. I am an illustrator/artis and have found it invaluable for working out how to do dramatic figure poses and making them look correct.