Figure Drawing?

 Hi,

I'm at a stage in my career that I want to break away from books and impositions to actual drawing.

I would like to know which books I should get that will aid me in this endeavour.
I did a google search and came up with alot of results... but don't know which I should get

    • To draw the human figure as well as still life (nature morte, french. And Stiillében, Swedish) is of course very important. And then perspective and the notion and feeling of space is very important.

      I have been drawing basically all my life as both an artist & illustrator, and of all great books I have seen, there is one special little book I originally got from my mother way back, that have made the strongest impression, when it comes to Figure Drawing.

      "Anatomy & Figure Drawing" by Louise Gordon. It might also be called: " The Figure in Action: Anatomy for the artist".
      Link (Copy & paste) amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0713459476/ref=sib_rdr_dp

      I have the Swedish version and it might be a bit different from the once I suggest here, but both these links are the book, but it seems split into two (2) ??
      A quick search on Amazon.co.uk gave me a link to the book. Both Paperback & Hardcover.
      Link is (copy & paste) 
      amazon.co.uk/How-Draw-Human-Figure-Anatomical/dp/0140464778/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1222097595&sr=1-3

      And this link:
      amazon.co.uk/How-Draw-Human-Head-Techniques/dp/014046560X/ref=pd_sim_b_1

      But I strongly suggest you try to go to some open classes in nude figure drawing. It will speed up your drawing skills alot. I dont know about Guyana, but in Sweden anyway its very normal to go to open classes at art schools. And you dont have to attend as a student at the school. You just come in the evenings.

      Another thing I strongly recomend is NOT to get cought up in the speed drawing the human figure to much. Learn how the human actually looks like. And then of course, one of the GREAT things in going to Cafés so much as I do, in true european coffee culture (for artists anyway...) is to actually sit with a little sketchbook and draw people and surroundings at the café. I would also suggest you start to look at buildings and the nature, and squeeze your eyes and try to see the "hidden" straight lines, which helps you see the perspective and space, which we all live in.

      If you are a concept artist I would suggest you buy books or magazines with cars, planes and buildings and draw the images you see in them.

      And dont forget an artist look at things more than just looking. Its about becoming "it" with what you draw.

        • Master Mo Jedi, truth you speak Wink

          Didnt you like my suggestions Wink
          I liked yours.

          • Thanks for such a speedy reply Stefan and Mo.

             I do have one book on hand at the moment.

            Its called "Figure Drawing for all it's worth" by Andrew Loomis. Have any one of you come across this book. Is it the right one for me to start from?

            • I haven seen the book myself, but loking at the reviews it got at Amazon, I guess its good enough. See reviews at this link:
              amazon.com/review/product/B00005VWK3/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt/105-4126547-2615636?_encoding=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

              • Stefan Lindblad said:
                Didnt you like my suggestions

                I had two of your suggested books. I gave them away (with a bad conscience...), sorry Stefan. I will explain why:

                In my opinion there always exist two types of artists in the end, and those types are clear to see when you watch them drawing: The "architectural" drawers, who build up the human figures with simple shapes like spheres and cylinders in the beginning, and the "moulding" drawers, who build up the human body as a unique shape out of light and shadows - they usually start with an outline. Every child start to draw the "architectural" way when they draw humans as stickmans, but do it the "moulding" way when it gets more complex (do you remember the first dog, horse or sheep you've drawn in your life?). I am used to draw the "architectural way, and I've never been able to learn from the drawings of Frank Frazetta (who's a "moulding" drawer of sketches), Though I love his works and adore his style.

                A good book covers both techniques. Thats because the human body is the most complex thing to draw: you'll have to learn the proportions, the behavior of muscles under the skin, the versatility of expressions and how those expressions are drawn in perspective. You can't cover only the architectural way to draw - the most "How-To"-books try to do that with spheres and cylinders, and leave the artist alone with the question of displaying volumina of muscles. This reaches just for flat-coloured comics. Some books are published by true creative artists, but they show only THEIR style of drawing as they are used to do - they show the body as a collection of light and dark brush strokes, but the reader isn't really clear how to draw a body with a pencil or a pen in the end. The chapter about perspective isn't mention in those books, too. Cause the author/the artist take the understanding of volumina or covered shapes for granted, like he is used. They forgot the most important think to teach in drawing: the skill to see.

                Another big mistake of many authors is to teach a special type of "ideal of beauty". Dont get trapped by those books, it isn't easy to get rid of once trained wrong proportions of a body. In this case you can take a wooden artist doll insted to explore the human body - thats more effective (though their arms are as long as gorilla's ones...). "Figure Drawing for all it's worth" by Andrew Loomis is a book that show the body in a typical "ideal of beauty" (the same as for male "ideal of beauty") of the 40ies, but a true "ideal of beauty" is timeless.

                I hope this was at least a useful purchase advice...

                • WOW!!! Mo, Wink

                  Okey, I still had help from the books by Louise Gordon.

                  But I learned to DRAW and to SEE by going to live nude models classes. And not only female models...
                  I used to have models coming to my own studio and for some years, about 3, I draw after a live model useally in my studio or open class somehwere at least 1-3 times a week. I loved it!! And it was great for my art.

                  I have had other books I looked and read as well, but live is what I have used the most.

                  • Stefan Lindblad said:
                    I used to have models coming to my own studio and for some years, about 3, I draw after a live model useally in my studio or open class somehwere at least 1-3 times a week. I loved it!! And it was great for my art.

                     

                    Hope you had some good looking ones there...Big Smile

                    Stefan Lindblad said:
                    I have had other books I looked and read as well, but live is what I have used the most.

                    You are right. You cant learn more than in real life, cause the "ability to see" includes the imagination to recognize 3D and transfer it into 2D. Thats the greatest challenge an artist has to master. I read this book a few years ago: http://www.amazon.com/Visual-Intelligence-How-Create-What/dp/0393319679

                    Very interessting, but more a scientist's view of recognition. There you'll also learn how optical illusions passes the brain...