Figure Drawing: Design and Invention

I can't recommend this book enough. IMO it has to be among the top 10 art books in any artists' library. The book is very thorough, accurate, concise, and a pleasure to study from and learn. Michael Hampton is an amazing teacher. He breaks down difficult aspects in figure drawing and human anatomy in an easy way for beginners to understand. Combined with his super clear color-coded diagrams, you know you are getting everything that you need to have a solid understanding of the topic. He uses references to refer to shapes of muscles (such as a goldfish or a dagger), so that students can remember easily how to approach drawing the muscles in perspective. He has enough anatomy information to aide the leaner in understanding the most important aspects that make sense to an artist. This is not a dedicated anatomy book, but it has enough information to get you started and it is such a valuable resource to get started on human anatomy for artists. Michael Hampton does the hard part of simplifying a very complex topic and he really eases it in. The information is blended nicely with how to draw the figure with amazing diagrams that will encourage you to copy and practice. During my figure drawing classes at school, our professor uses this book quite often. It is one book that is always present in class next to the overhead projector, to reach out to and use as a reference. Typically a class will be combining beginner, intermediate, and advanced (special projects) students studying the figure. This book is one of the favorite references for that range of skills. I personally have used this book extensively when I started studying and drawing the human figure and I still refer to it regularly now that I'm not a beginner. The book is filled with useful diagrams, tons of them. The text is just to the point, very focused on getting the ideas across. I have only two issues with this book: first, it doesn't contain an index. Second, it still doesn't have a volume 2! I would love to see an advanced version focusing on challenging and more advanced topics in figure drawing. Having a great teacher of Michael Hampton's caliper naturally leads to such request. If you are serious about learning figure drawing, grab this book!

The approach covered is primarily concerned with the use of line, development of form, and the simplified design of anatomy. It doesn't go into contour drawing, shading and expression. The many illustrated examples are aimed at helping students develop a feel for the form and volume of figures they draw. To that aspect, I think it does a very good job. The use of simple geometric shapes as drawing guides are simple to understand. Not only that, Michael Hampton also builds onto to those simplified mannequins with lots of clearly illustrated muscles. The muscle groups are visualised very distinctly in the examples. They are colour-coded to bring attention those that affect form when the body is in different positions. I like the part on finding landmarks -- bones that are near the skin. Colour-coded and shown very clearly, with rotating views from front to back. The book does have head drawing but the focus is on the form rather than the details of the features, although the examples do show the details. It still covers enough for for anyone to draw a decent head. One thing that's missing is the mention of figure proportions, like how many heads tall a body, length of an arm, etc. That I think will complete the book. There's nothing on bones and you won't learn how muscle works, but this isn't an anatomy reference book. That said, having an anatomy reference book to go along will be extremely helpful. This is a useful book for artists learning to create and pose their own figures. Highly recommend for beginner and intermediate artists. (More pictures are available on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

I don't know if they said "good" conditionor what,, but I boughtthis book used I think and it is as brand new as if I had pulled it off the shelf at the book store! It's really in perfect condition! This is the absolute best encyclopedia for gestures, forms and figures in all types of positions and the muscle structure in each one. I'm a nurse so it's hard for me to say if you'll need to know basic anatomy, such as the different muscle groups, but this book appears to go into depth with that as well..although it seems somewhat intermediate when the muscles are grouped and shown. I just got this book a couple of days ago along with several others so I can't give you a detailed low down. But I will say the book is very large with tons of diagrams and photos and drawings. I just flipped through it and could already know I will be referring to this book for every drawing I do that has one person or ten people in it. It is definitely a must have for artists of all types, experience, and calibers. More advanced beginners to professional artists can benefit from this book for their lifetime of drawing figures of all types. You can draw, sculpt, paint figures using this reference and using the muscle structure, positions and proportions morph them into all types of characters that can be well into the supernatural, horror, and whatever style art you are into. Get the book. If you hate it, sell it. But you won't hate it.

The book is mainly about being able to simplify the human body into shapes and then forms. It doesn't go into rendering the body, but it does have diagrams of muscles and bones. It's really good for being able to draw from imagination by breaking everything down. Also, if you're expecting this book - or any anatomy book for that matter - to replace observation and figure studies, it won't. You still have to do figure studies, books like this just help break it down. But after doing figure studies and having this knowledge, it makes it easier drawing from imagination. Also, this book won't teach how to render a figure. A rendered figure includes color, lighting, and painting/drawing technique you'd learn from doing studies. The book doesn't have much photography in it, but I like that. The lack of photos helps the reader to stop overthinking a figure and actually break it down. It really makes the exercises and ideas universal and not tied to one particular photo of a figure. The book goes from gesture drawing, to form, and then the different parts of the body. It really goes into detail with the bones, muscles, and landmarks of the body. It helps construct the body in a simple yet informative way. After that, the book goes on to drapery, and then light and shadow. They aren't the most expansive sections, but they're nice. The book really helps the reader understand form by giving exercises like wrapping and T lines and such. I honestly really recommend this book, for beginners or people new to figure drawing. This book could also help you understand Loomis' Figure Drawing Book, which I think is more for Intermediate artists (still really good, but it may be harder to understand for beginners). As for Amazon packaging and everything, it didn't come protected, but my package was mostly full and had some stuffing in it. A bit of the top of the spine is scrunched up, but it's hardly noticeable.

I'd have to agree with one of the other reviewers with regards to the fact that although the first half of this book is excellent, the second half is somewhat of a pile of dookie. There are a lot of good notes and tips on building gestures, though there never actually seems to be a systematic/step by step method to explain the logic behind the gesture building process. However, the fact that the gesture building process takes a minute or less, there is a great deal of leeway towards trial and error. As far as I can tell there aren't any notes on foreshortening, and one of the issues with the method presented in this book is that it is somewhat difficult to add foreshortened elements in this gesture method (for me at least). Despite this, I think that the best part of this book are the anatomical diagrams of the torso. The torso diagrams are awesome. Unfortunately, there isn't much worthwhile with regards to anatomy once you get past the torso anatomy section. Although the arm diagrams are pretty useful, they are not nearly as comprehensive as the those done for the torso, and as far as the legs go, the anatomical breakdown is nearly non-existent. However unfortunate this may be, the torso/back anatomy section is pretty much unsurpassed by any other anatomy text I've seen so far (that includes Bridgman/Hogarth and the number of flat-body anatomical diagrams out there). This is due to the clarity with which the forms are depicted, which is also heavily influenced by the fact that the book is of incredibly high print quality (probably why it is so expensive). I'd pay an arm and a leg for arm and leg diagrams with the same level of clarity as those done for the torso...

I PURCHASED 2 BOOKS. ONE FOR ME AND ONE FOR MY GRANDDAUGHTER (ALTHOUGH I THINK SHE IS TOO YOUNG TO FOLLOW THIS). I CAN'T EXPRESS THE JOY THAT I GET FROM THIS BOOK, ALTHOUGH I HAVE ONLY GONE ABOUT 17 PAGES IN. I HAVE SPENT MOST OF MY LIFE DRAWING AND PAINTING BUT THIS BOOK HAS OPENED UP WAYS OF DRAWING THE BODY IN A QUICK, EASY AND INFORMATIVE WAY. FOR THOSE WHO ARE A BIT SLOW AND HARD HEADED LIKE ME. THIS BOOK IS THE MACK DADDY OF ALL ART BOOKS THAT I HAVE EVER PURCHASED TO HELP OR SELF-TEACH. I WISHED I HAD THIS BOOK YEARS AGO BECAUSE MY ART WOULD HAVE BEEN LEAPING OFF THE PAGES A LONG TIME AGO. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS READ, RE-READ, PRACTICE AND PRACTICE AT YOUR OWN PACE. IN A VERY SHORT TIME YOUR WILL BE ABLE TO BRING YOUR DRAWING TO LIFE. AND YOU WILL ACTUALLY RETAIN THIS INFORMATION AND BUILD ON IT. I SUGGEST THAT WITH EACH SECTION YOU READ, GO BACK AND RE-READTHE PREVIOUS SECTIONS. THIS WILL HELP TO RETAIN WHAT YOU ARE LEARNING. YOU WILL BE SURPRISED WHAT YOU MISSED. 234 PAGES ON GESTURE DRAWING, HEAD, ANATOMY, THE ARM, HAND, LEG, FOOT, DRAPERY AND NOTES ON LIGHT AND SHADOW. THE PAGES ARE VERY COLORFUL AND THAT MAKES IT EASY TO FOLLOW.

Haven’t really put it to use, but after a brief flip through, I could immediately tell how great this book is. Tons of writing, explanations, and (obviously) drawings. Have always struggled with anatomy, so I’m very excited to find my way through this. The book and paper itself is also of very high quality.

I read the first chapter of this book and took an online class by Michael Hampton. I really wanted to read further into the book, and I'm so glad I got it. This book will fast become a classic in figure drawing right along with Andrew Loomis. First, the book is broken down into gesture drawing and landmarks of the body. This will help you structure the skeleton and will get you familiar with where the muscle masses will go later. Most importantly, gesture drawing will help you pose the body in a dynamic and natural way. The gesture is the best way to get more interesting drawings and the breakdowns in the book are easy to follow and easy to complete. The book moves on to the structure of the head and how to detail the features. With these three parts, the body is complete, and you will walk away knowing where to place everything. Then it details the features of the body like the arms, legs, hands, and feet. The instruction ends with understanding how fabric works on the body and how to use light and shade. The book has colorful and detailed illustrations and examples. The book is broken down in such a way that it will be easy to come back to sections and use those sections as reference. My only complaint is that it took me so long to add this book to my collection.

Great book, fast cargo. Thank you

Besoin pour mon fils de ce livre pour etude en art. Tres bon livre pour acquerir de bonne base. Colis livré rapidement et vendeur repond aux differentes demandes et tres sympa. Je recommande. Tres content, d autant que le prix restait raisonnable par rapport a d autres vendeurs...

Este es uno de LOS MEJORES libros que he tenido en mis manos de Figura Humana. No es tan sencillo para un principiante ya que muchas veces no se detiene a explicar nimiedades pero en general es una síntesis constructiva muy recomendable para cualquier artista que desee tener un conocimiento más amplio del tema con el método del autor que es bastante efectivo. Su aproximación al estudio anatómico difiere de muchos otros libros pues antes de adentrarse en particularidades y detalles trata de explicar conceptos del funcionamiento y la relación que hay entre las partes de la figura humana permitiendo un aprendizaje bastante intuitivo sin necesidad de memorizar tanta información de una sola vez como con otros métodos. Tengo dibujando toda mi vida, he tomado cursos, tenido maestros particulares, leído otros libros pero creo que éste título es un parteaguas en mi aprendizaje y me ha ayudado a incorporar elementos anatómicos correctos en mis trabajos de forma natural y sencilla. El papel y el terminado de las páginas es de excelente calidad, un poco grueso pero vale la pena. Totalmente recomendable, es un libro que se debe tener. Mi única queja es que el papel couche brilla con la luz y resulta en algo incomodo a la hora de estar estudiando.

Compared to the money I have paid for my art school, this is pretty cheap and yet way more valuable. It starts with gestures and everything you need to pay attention to when drawing these. Which is amazing because gestures are a fundamental skill, yet for the most part no one gives complete explanation how to approach them. So it can get frustrating and intimidating and it can lead to developing bad habits that will later translate into mediocre art. On about 25 pages Michael Hampton explains HOW to approach them and WHY to approach them that way. Instantly improved my gestures. Rest of the book is anatomy and it's pretty detailed too. Filled with illustrations showing different muscles, bones and landmarks of human body. Explaining how they interact and how simple volumes translate into body parts. There's a lot of anatomy books out there. The ones I have held in my hands were all pretty boring and underwhelming, until this one. It's well structured, detailed and offers not only direction but also reasoning for it, so you actually understand what you're doing instead of just doing what you're told. Which I believe is a more constructive way of learning.

Absolutely love this book! So much content and is perfect for both beginner and intermediate artists. Even just from the first 30 pages my anatomy and gesture drawing had reached a whole new level. Better yet my order arrived extremely early! Could not recommend enough