Reddit reviews Constructive Anatomy (Dover Anatomy for Artists)

Thanks! I highly recommend New Masters Academy, they have a free trial and also Cyber Monday sale ($11/month for 3 months). I'm not sponsored by them but they are by far the best resource for anatomy I've come across. I recommend going through Rey Bustos's Anatomy first, then Glenn Vilppu, then Steve Huston once you know your muscles.

As for books, Thieme's Anatomy is great, and Bridgman's Anatomy is also great (bridgman only if you're more advanced though otherwise it'll confuse you). All other anatomy books are pretty lackluster tbh, compared to having an instructor teach you. I've actually talked to Glenn Vilppu in person and he recommends medical anatomy books + observing the body and coming to your own conclusions, over artists' anatomy books.

Observe how the body works as a machine, for example observe how body weight is applied to the legs. Or how your thigh bone always sits at a 15 degree angle when standing. Or how there's a slight inward curve to your shinbones. Or how your inner ankle sits higher than outer. Lots of details like that add so much to believable anatomy.

Do lots of figure drawings, know your muscles and bones and where things attach, and you'll be set :)

edit: one thing NOT to do - is to spam figure drawings without knowing your muscles/attachments/bones. I did this for 1-2 years, and ended up with the before picture. Get your anatomy knowledge first then go into figure drawing KNOWING your stuff. You'll learn way quicker.

Your sculpting technique is fine but your anatomy is atrocious.

The rib cage and abdominal musculature anatomy is off. You don't just have abdominal muscles on your lower trunk. Also the abdominals should have a limited width. To the nipple line would work but your nipples are set out too far. They should be in the mid clavicular line but you don't have any clavicles. The 6 pack is nice but the hole in the top one would hurt as it's not present in real life and is where the xiphoid under the bottom of the rib cage should be. So your abdominals are to high and too wide and too bulky. There should also be one long one below the navel which is way too low. The pecs attach to the sternum and manubrium and go to the inside of the arm. That's what forms the axilla (armpit). The lat in the back and the pec in the front. So along the sternum the pecs should go outward not downward. Also that deep line separating the pec from the shoulder would sever the pec muscles from the arms. That is not existent in normal anatomy. People do tend to shift there humerus foward but that is an abnormality caused by bad posture and muscle imbalances. There is no rib cage giving the upper trunk its form. The serratus muscles are just sliding downward and fading out instead of inserting onto the ribs along the lateral side under the axilla. You've created a new muscle under the arm that doesn't exist. The deltoid muscle is nonexistant in the front and top and is in the wrong place on the back. There are three heads to the deltoid. The anterior (front) middle (on top) and posterior (rear). They blend together midway down on the lateral side of the humerus at about your cutoff. The posterior one attaches to the spine of the scapula where your attaches to nothing. The anterior attaches to the lateral aspect of the clavicle (which you don't have) and the anterior acromion. The middle attaches to the lateral acromion. The upper traps also go outward from the nuchal ridge on the skull to the acromion on the top of the shoulder then down the back along the spine of the scapula to the spinus' of the vertebra. The lower trap is also on the spine of the scapula to the vertebra and the lateral aspect goes down diagonally to the 12th vertebral spinus process. So you have no lower trap. The lats sweep up from the lumbosacral fascia which starts along the upper boarder of the illium (which again does not exist) moving laterally and inserts onto the humerus in the same medial groove the pec inserts into. You con't have any lats either. You also don't have any paraspinal muscles along the spine and you have no posterior hip fold where the glut medius is. I could go on and on.

You NEED to read a book on artistic anatomy. I love Bridgeman's books. They would be great for you due to your focus on muscles.

The Human Machine (Dover Anatomy for Artists)

Constructive Anatomy (Dover Anatomy for Artists)

You MUST start with the bones. Get a GOOD inexpensive or free skeleton. Put it in a separate collection and use it as a reference so you know where the bones are and can attach the muscles appropriately. Once you know your anatomy that will be superfluous or only needed as a check. But you really REALLY need to learn anatomy if you are going to do this kind of work. It LOOKS good but anyone who knows anatomy will go "nope, it's not right". When you create art about a subject always keep in mind that somewhere in your audience there will almost always be a content expert. Like me. An an artist, I always strive to impress them. If I make a spaceship, I keep in mind as best as I can the physics involved. You con't need the math. Just like in art anatomy you don't need to know the innervation of the muscles like a doctor would need. You need to know enough that you can sell your art to an expert. Keep that in mind as you do all your art. That is one thing that will separate out the pro from the amateur. There is always artistic license ... but not with human anatomy. Even is you're doing an anime or cartoon, the best artists embed their knowledge in the subtle way they do their linework or design their mesh. That's why we buy it.

I hope that helps. Don't give up or get frustrated. Your sculpting technique is good. Your knowledge must match. One thing I learned doing art is that a good artist researches and expands their knowledge about not only their craft, but their subject matter as well. Do that and you can only get better.

Good luck.

couple of things.

One, with the watercolors. Suggest things. Don't outline them. Things in real life don't have outlines. They have shadows behind them, or darker colors.

Two, take your phone number off your site. Unless you feel comfortable with it up there, and it's a throwaway number.

Three, keep drawing. Every day. And if you're really interested in portraits or the human figure, get an anatomy book. Bridgeman has a huge one called Constructive Anatomy. Get some tracing paper and trace the book 3 or 4 times. You'll see a difference almost immediately.

Good luck!

Keep it up! I want to recommend two books to you. The first was used as the curriculum in my Figure Drawing class: The Natural Way to Draw - Nicolaides

The other is called Constructive Anatomy and takes the mystery out of those trouble spots like hands and faces.

Proko is probably the best for this on Youtube. His website is good too. Constructive Anatomy is a nice cheap book. I have Figure Drawing: Design and Invention which I really like, but it's a bit more expensive. The author also has a good website

Looks pretty good!

In the future, I'd suggest that you try to think structurally, building up basic forms before you try to solidify your contours. A professor I had in school used to repeat to us, "Earn your edges." What that means is that you should understand the forms that are in your image, and then define your contours based on those. What's a sphere? A cube? A cylinder? A combination of any of those? A distortion of those? Where is the cheekbone? The eye sockets? What can you break the shape of the bridge of the nose down to?

Obviously, you're not really going to know any of that just by default! That's when you bring in reference as you need it! Whenever you attempt to draw something, look references up for it. If you're drawing an ocelot, try looking at photos of them from various angles. See if you can discern what forms make up their heads. If you're not squeamish, you might even consider finding pictures of their skulls to really understand the underlying structure. Draw them as close to the references as you can! Start your sketch lightly and decide "This is a cube. I can take this cube and remove chunks to make the head shape. Here's a wedge shape. It fits here." After you've got this lightly drawn in, move on to darker pencils and start refining your edges. You can use those forms you defined to start deciding where light will go and how it'll behave on your drawing!

If you haven't already, I suggest you pick up copies of George Bridgman's Constructive Anatomy and Louise Gordon's How to Draw The Human Figure: An Anatomical Approach. Both of these books are chock full of information about breaking things down into simpler shapes and understanding what goes on under the skin of a figure, which is very applicable to anthro art!

Focus on anatomy, and work from life. Other people have commented on the jarring juxtaposition of a giant cartoon/anime head on a more realistic body. It's time to move past those kinds of mistakes

If you want to develop a style, learn the rules first. If you want to get good there's no shortcuts. You need to get past making mistakes like what's happening with the far shoulder. Grab an anatomy book and learn muscle forms, and practice being consistent in your style throughout the whole image.

And a note on anime, I know it's a popular thing and it's fine to be influenced, but trends change. 25 years ago Don Bluth/Disney cartoon was cartoon standard. Who knows what will be the dominant influence 25 years from now. All cartoonists and animators that have any measure of success in their career can draw realistically. I like to suggest George B. Bridgman, but draw from life as much as possible. The more you learn, the easier abstraction becomes.

Keep going, good luck

IMO go lower in resolution. Focus on form first before you do any detailing. I would also highly suggest diving into this book and making it everything you think about:

https://www.amazon.com/Constructive-Anatomy-Dover-Artists/dp/0486211045

edit: another great one: https://www.amazon.com/Dynamic-Anatomy-Expanded-Burne-Hogarth/dp/0823015521

Books, books and more books. Or courses.

I like to draw anime and I spent a few years just photocopying.
https://www.instagram.com/chrissyatsea/
The problem with that is that it made me better at copying not composing. Also I didnt like to get off my comfortable areas. I didnt know why the artist drew it like or how they did it. I just copied it. Like if you are copying a math problem you dont know what it means at all. So you need to be taught why it works like that. Unless of course you are gifted.<br /> <br /> So there is a good handful of books out there to help you with such things.<br /> <br /> The whole case on books is that if you arent a talented or gifted artist youre gonna have to do what we normies do best. Learn the fundamentals. Gifted people are gifted with the ability to just do and not know. Since we arent we start here.

Another thing to ask yourself if you arent willing to commit atleast an hour or more a day or atleast a good amount of hours a week on drawing is this: &quot;Does this just sound good or do I really want it?&quot;<br /> <br /> Here is a few books<br /> <br /> http://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Right-Side-Brain-Definitive/dp/1585429201<br /> http://www.amazon.com/Keys-Drawing-Bert-Dodson/dp/0891343377/ref=pd_sim_14_5/189-6540426-4014231?ie=UTF8&amp;amp;dpID=51BQ2AW%2BCWL&amp;amp;dpSrc=sims&amp;amp;preST=_AC_UL160_SR124%2C160_&amp;amp;refRID=181BN40T9TTX026F0EBF<br /> <br /> I am currently working with anatomy on George Bridgman Books.<br /> <br /> http://www.amazon.com/Constructive-Anatomy-Dover-Artists/dp/0486211045/ref=pd_sim_14_1?ie=UTF8&amp;amp;dpID=51vQXcL6ZyL&amp;amp;dpSrc=sims&amp;amp;preST=_AC_UL160_SR107%2C160_&amp;amp;refRID=13K2R2Y1Y6FZD3BJCBKK<br /> <br /> (Oh yeah try to find all the PDFS to these if you can`t afford them. I know that sounds wrong but these books are bestsellers if that makes you feel any better..)

Ah, thanks, I've fixed the link. Which is a great start; grab the book he refers to and start doing his exercises based on drawing out of it, or freeze-frame classic WB and MGM cartoons and draw off of those the same way.

Also take some life drawing classes! Apply what you learn about construction from John K to drawing humans; it's possible to get to a point where you can get down the essentials of a pose in less than 30 seconds and reconstruct a lot of it from basic drawing principles later on. If you can find a life drawing teacher who works out of the Glen Vilppu curriculum that would be great, his methods are pretty well-loved among teachers of life drawing for animation, and will equip you with some serious skillz.

James Gurney's books on drawing are also pretty awesome and inspirational, he approaches the problem of drawing stuff out of his head in a much more realistic way.

I am also a fan of Bridgeman's Constrictive Anatomy and Andrew Loomis' Figure Drawing for All It's Worth, both of these could be found (along with the Preston Blair animation books) in the library of every single person I knew in animation school.

If you can afford it, consider taking some art classes, online or off. A degree in art is stupidly over-expensive, but having the obligation of A Class that you are Paying For can be a good kick in the ass to draw draw draw draw. I don't have any recommendations for those offhand, my schooling was back in 1995 at a place that no longer exists.

In general: if there is art you like, try ripping it off! Don't just trace it though, reconstruct it from first principles using basic construction methods, and think about why and how the artist applied their stylizations.

ALSO. Carry a sketchbook. Draw in it. Change your habits: instead of taking out your phone to check Twitter or Reddit or whatever, take out your sketchbook and draw something. Maybe something in view, maybe something out of your head. It doesn't matter what, just keep working at it. And ask yourself what's wrong with drawings after you do them; try to not make the same mistakes twice.

Also here is a serious PRO TIP that I picked up from my time in animation: put that mechanical pencil you probably use to write and draw with away, grab a wooden #2 pencil and hold it so that the side of the point touches the paper, instead of the very tip. This will force you to draw with your arm rather than your wrist, which will (a) result in much more fluid strokes once you get the hang of it (b) make it far easier to do your initial rough blocking in of shapes lightly, then switch to the tip of the point to nail things down, and (c) vastly reduce the risk of being visited by the Carpal Tunnel Fairy.

The biggest thing is to DRAW. Make it the thing you do when you're bored. If you don't have any ideas for things to draw, draw some cubes. Or draw your hand, hands are HARD to draw and also super expressive, and almost everyone has one available to use as a model. Put it in some pose and reduce it to boxes/tubes/whatever, then build detail, keep doing until you have to do something else, or get an actual idea for a thing you wanna draw.

The second biggest thing is to CRIT YOURSELF, and get others at about the same level as you to crit you. Let go of your ego; if people say your drawing is terrible that doesn't mean anything about you, it just means you have things to learn. Listen to what they say and try to not make the same mistakes again. Yes, I know I said that already. It's important. Tell your ego to sit down and shut up.

Hope that helps!

Probably Bridgman. George Brant Bridgman. Heard great things about his books, though I can't say I've added them to my collection yet. Here are some links to them on amazon.

Box set of three books(Bridgman's Life Drawing | The Book of a Hundred Hands | Heads, Features and Faces)

Constructive Anatomy

The Human Machine(Has quite a few bad reviews concerning the print quality, I'm afraid.)

Bridgman's Complete Guide to Drawing from Life(This one is kind of a combination of all his other books, taking the best from each of them, though leaving some bits out.)

I highly recommend Constructive Anatomy by George Bridgman. It's been the go-to book for learning figure drawing and has been used in college anatomy classes for decades.
Go get a big pad of newsprint and some charcoal sticks or charcoal pencils and redraw Bridgman's drawings. You will pick anatomy up incredibly quickly. And to keep it more interesting, skip around the book.

The best books I ever read and studied on anatomy were the old ones written by George Bridgman. In fact, I just ordered two of them so I could refresh my knowledge of anatomy. He looks at anatomy from a very sculptural point of view and shows you how to draw every bone and muscle from any angle you can imagine. Highly recommend.

http://www.amazon.ca/Constructive-Anatomy-George-B-Bridgman/dp/0486211045/ref=pd_sim_b_1

oh yeah dude. there's plenty out there. don't be afraid to look into it. Some great books to get, but you just got see which ones would work for you. I don't know the level you're at so... I recommend this one for anatomy. Helped me out a bunch

http://www.amazon.com/Constructive-Anatomy-Dover-Artists/dp/0486211045/ref=pd_sim_b_2

I've been trying to strengthen my anatomy and proportions over the last 6 months or so and the only advice I can give to this is draw draw draw. Don't worry about it looking wonky but if it does, find out why and see what you can do to improve it.

There seems to be a point when a light bulb just goes off and all of a sudden you understand how to get consistent results of how you want things to look and translating it to the paper/screen.

Check out these, I've found them pretty useful:

http://www.amazon.com/Bridgmans-Drawing-Dover-Anatomy-Artists/dp/0486227103

http://www.amazon.com/Constructive-Anatomy-Dover-Artists/dp/0486211045/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418314804&sr=1-1&keywords=Constructive+Anatomy

My favorites are "Human anatomy for artists" by Eliot Goldfinger & Constructive anatomy by George Bridgman.

Goldfinger is very accurate but can be quite dry to read, Bridgman isn't as accurate but is great at describing structure and retaining the gesture.

Drawing on the right side of the brain is a good start, there's a reason people keep on recommending it for you!



Andrew Loomis's books is also good (all free there in digital form)

Constructive Anatomy by George Bridgeman

Imaginative realism by James Gurney more about painting and finishing, better for more advanced stuff.


Other than that, just draw things! Just anything and everything, it will help!