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Artistic Anatomy - Dr. Paul Richer
This is my absolute #1 favourite anatomy book. I refer to it constantly
and my copy is much thumbed.
I love the victorian frenchman
model (with droopy mustache!) who posed for the drawing illustrations
and Dr. Richer's anatomical drawings are terrific. The most
important things though are the very clear descriptions of
origination, insertion, action and location. |
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Human Anatomy for Artists: The Elements of Form
Eliot Goldfinger
My next
favourite basic anatomy book is this one by Elliot Goldfinger.
The writing is good and the photos are very helpful and clear
although they are airbrush enhanced. Some of the additional
diagrams can be a bit confusing (see forearm!!!) but its
still a really great book.
Highly recommended. |
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Cyclopedia Anatomicae - Gyorgy Fehér
This is a big impressive book with really nice drawings and also
some comparative animal anatomy as well, so you get both
together. Its a bit hefty to reach down for while you are
drawing and I found one or two mistakes on origins and insertions
but its still a great achievement and a good addition to
your anatomical library. |
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Animal Anatomy for Artists: The Elements of Form
Elliot
Goldfinger
If you are interested in Animal anatomy then this new book by Elliot
Goldfinger will help. The illustrations are amazing and it
is an epic work to match his wonderful human anatomy book
as mentioned above. If you need anatomical reference for
that camel in the background of your painting, this book
will really help. |
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Anatomy of Animals - Ernest E. Thompson
This is a simpler animal anatomy
book that I have had for years. There are only a few ilustrations
but there is a good page on birds' wings and though far less
is covered than Elliot Goldfinger's book its still quite
useful and much cheaper. |
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Living Anatomy - Dr. F.D. Lockhart
This
small book was first published in 1947 by Dr. F.D. Lockhart
who taught at Aberdeen University in Scotland and its been
available ever since. It shows all the muscles in photographs
, the model being accompanied by Dr. Lockhart in various
positions. The photos demonstrate each muscle
without any enhancement. As the models were all underweight,
probably due to the food rationing which was still in place
in 1947, the muscle forms are very clear. |
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Anatomy for Artists - Sarah Simblet
Sarah Simblet studied at the Ruskin
School of Art in Oxford, England and this book is fairly
new. Her drawings are very beautiful and the photos are fabulous.
Scattered through the book are printed overlays
on acetate of whichever muscles cover the relevant skeleton
illustrations on an adjoining page, so you can easily see
how the muscles and skeletal structure fit together. Its
really an anatomical drawing course of her own devising which
she gives instruction on and not really a true anatomical
reference book but its fun to look at and you can casually
leave it lying on the coffee table when you entertain
and still look real cool. |
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Anatomy Lessons From the Great Masters - Robert Beverly Hale
Robert Beverly Hale taught at the
Art Students League in New York for years and years and everybody
loved him. His lectures are still available on badly shot
video, home movie style. In this book, he demonstrates the
muscle structures shown in various famous old master drawings.
A classic. |
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Constructive Anatomy - George B. Bridgman
George Bridgman's books are really
great for understanding the underlying cube construction
used to construct figures by many artists. Remember the 'boxes'
I talked about in class? I find his drawings a bit too much
like fifties cartoon illustrations but there's no doubting
his facility and the ease of his lines. |
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The Human Machine - George B. Bridgman
Another one by Bridgman, this time concentrating more on demonstrating
the mechanical nature of the bone structure underneath through
clear illustrations, next to illustrations of each muscle
or muscle group. |
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Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist
- Stephen Rogers Peck
Stephen Peck illustrates how joints
and muscles work by showing them as machines and making them
into various mechanical engineering drawings. Its
a good book for understanding the mechanisms for movement
in the body but his anatomical figure drawings are awful
( in my opinion) so I guess it didn't help him in the end!
However, its still a really good book for understanding how
the muscle forms work and how they can be conceptualised as machines. |
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The Human Figure - John H. Vanderpoel
This is a nice little book to have on your shelf. Last revised
in 1938, It has been reproduced by Dover Books since 1955.
John Vanderpoel's drawings are charming and though the writing
is a bit old fashioned, he gives a quick but thorough covering
of different sections of the body. His pages on the ear and
the lips are great. |
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Anatomy of Movement -
Blandine Calais-Germain
Written for dancers and physiotherapists
(by a dancer and physiotherapist!), this book explores
deeply the body's use of muscle and skeletal structure and
how we move in space. The illustrations are not beautiful
or stylish like Sarah Simblet's book but they are clear and
diagrammatic. If you want to know about movement and how
it affects muscle forms, this is for you. |
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The Artist's Complete Guide to Facial Expression - Gary Faigin
Gary's book has become a classic
for understanding the facial muscles and their role in expression.
Both the US Mint and the FBI use it as reference. He studied
and taught at the art student's league in NYC and founded
the Gage Academy of Art in Seattle along with his wife Pamela
- his drawing of her is on the cover. He also worked with
Elliot Goldfinger and posed for the facial expressions in
Elliot's human anatomy book. Recommended! |
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| About Faces - Terry Landau This
is a fascinating book about all aspects of the face -
from prehistory and anthropology to plastic surgery and where
science predicts the evolutionary changes in our face will
go in the future. A good read, as they say. |
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Albinus on Anatomy - Robert Beverly Hale
Bernhard Siegfried Albinus was born
in Frankfurt, Germany and was trained in medicine and specialised
in 1719 in Botany and Anatomy. His father was a doctor. Albinus
is perhaps best known for his monumental 'Tabulae sceleti
et musculorum corporis humani', which was first published
in Leiden in 1747 and features his amazing illustrations
of skeletons with and without muscles, standing in the weirdest
of backgrounds. Now easily available to everyone as a Dover
book. I'm sure he would be pleased. |
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Artists & Anatomists - A. Hyatt Mayor
Published
in association with the Metropolitan Museum in New York and
filled with brilliant illustrations, this tells the history
of the association of artists who were also anatomists and
how anatomical science and art were one, for it was the artists
who took it into the daylight of public life after the darkness
of the middle ages. |
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