Looking for a book/site that covers fat...

[Alzorath]

Basically...I've been hunting high and low and haven't found anything that really covers fat on humans (or any beasts) in any real detail. I was wondering if anyone had any helpful signposts they could toss up that covers the subject. (I'm a visual/tactile learner...so a strong picture based method would be preferred, but truthfully I'd be glad for anything at the moment even though text is harder for me to learn from)

While I do try and use references as much as possible, I'm mainly looking for different methods people use to display these aspects when they don't have a reference available.

Also the issue doesn't alude me, as to how it's usually hard to find a wide enough assortment of the different body types and such - for some reason most references I see are either 'relatively thin', 'muscular', or 'very fat' - I've yet to find good references that are 'pudgy' (ie not thin, average, or muscular, but just a bit overweight). I'm fairly confident in my ability to create the 'fat rolls' and such, since it's simply soft squishy mass under skin, it's the positioning that's giving me trouble (especially in the non-torso regions - such as arms/necks/legs/face), and the 'pudgy' body types (where you don't really have rolls yet unless they're leaning heavily in a direction)

I've tried several different searches on google/yahoo/dogpile/msn/etc., as well as on several forums and came up with about squat... although I could just be Mr. Dunce at searching for them (spent about 3 days searching in my free time for references - total of a few hours). I'm able to find muscle anatomy/skeletal anatomy/etc. all fairly easily...just this one subject seems to be eluding me, and frustrating me to no end (I'm trying to understand fat better so I can do some 'non-comical' overweight characters - which using gut instinct and memory seems to keep giving me ).

Any help is appreciated since it's the only thing about anatomy that I want to study yet am having a hard time finding, the rest have been fairly easy to find *especially skeletal*... (I put this here because it seemed most appropriate to me - since it is about refining work, and maybe someone else can get some use out of it)

[Gilead]

Well depending on how gutsy you are you could just find someone who looks like what you're looking for and ask them to model for you.

A life drawing class at the community college is likely to give you more average body types, and is not that much more expensive than a couple books.

Short of that, go sit in the food court at the mall and sketch people. But spend more time looking at the model than at your paper. That's how you'll learn.
I'd reccomend the beach, but Oklahoma's not known for it's beaches.
good luck,

[Dizon]

Get Stephen Rogers Peck's Atlas of the Human Anatomy for the Artist.

[Autarkis]

I'm pretty sure that Artistic Anatomy by Dr. Paul Richer has a section on fat tissues on the human body.
Or at least when I did an ecorche, my teacher kept mentionning it in the book and what a sad fact we didn't have time to get into it. I havent had the time yet to go into that though!

[Patton Art]

go on an all McDonalds diet for a month, then just use the mirror.

[Idiot Apathy]

http://www.3d.sk/

[unknown_epiphany]

just take pics of me lol im the pudgiest bastard i know and yet im oddly satisfied=) plus i never am cold!

[cgfuller64]

Unknown and I are rare, in that we are very genetically advanced and thusly evolutionarily ahead of our times with regard to the impending ice age. hee hee I'm so big I was baptized at Sea World!

Sorry but thats one of my favorite mama jokes from my youth and it seemed to fit.........

[DavePalumbo]

A life drawing class at the community college

exactly what I was thinking. Lucky for you, you live in America, the land of plenty...

[Alzorath]

Thanks for the replies, and sorry for the slow response.

About the Community College Suggestion - I already went through most of the Bachelor's in Art program (Fine Art/Studio Art depending on who you ask) at the nearby university (the rest are a good few hours drive away :p) - although I didn't finish the complete cirriculum (switched to Business, but moving down to Texas due to RL in the next few months - and will likely try to get into another University there). Where drawing from a model is great, and can get you many different views, it doesn't get you inside to understand HOW the fat is formed and distributed throughout the body (basically I need to know a bit more 'under the skin' information ).

I will be sure to check out the books mentioned, and from what I can tell by different reviews they're both excellent books.

Again, Thanks for all the responses.

[Dizon]

Thanks for the replies, and sorry for the slow response.

About the Community College Suggestion - I already went through most of the Bachelor's in Art program (Fine Art/Studio Art depending on who you ask) at the nearby university (the rest are a good few hours drive away :p) - although I didn't finish the complete cirriculum (switched to Business, but moving down to Texas due to RL in the next few months - and will likely try to get into another University there). Where drawing from a model is great, and can get you many different views, it doesn't get you inside to understand HOW the fat is formed and distributed throughout the body (basically I need to know a bit more 'under the skin' information ).

I will be sure to check out the books mentioned, and from what I can tell by different reviews they're both excellent books.

Again, Thanks for all the responses.

I heard Richer's book can be turgid. I own Peck's and so far I've no problem with it. Very easy to read. Not that I'm discouraging you from the former. That's also a pretty popular book.

[Autarkis]

I heard Richer's book can be turgid. I own Peck's and so far I've no problem with it. Very easy to read. Not that I'm discouraging you from the former. That's also a pretty popular book.

Richer's book is turgid, but it's full of really detailed anatomy work. I'll look up Peck's

[DavePalumbo]

it doesn't get you inside to understand HOW the fat is formed and distributed throughout the body

one thing to remember though, different people distribute fat in different ways. Some pack it on the hips and thighs, some grow a gut, some have big flabby arms, there's no standard really. There's a general average, but everyone's different. I've known people with pudgy faces and normal bodies, people with slender faces and huge asses, people who were totally normal but for a whole lotta belly. I think just watching regular people will still get you a very good understanding.

[CoNTRoL]

WARNING!! fat undressed woman-
http://www.useloos.com/gallery/album13

i was looking at this gallery for reference when i found the above
http://www.useloos.com/gallery/album03

[Ilaekae]

Try googling for medical/health sites, or a medical publisher that may have books on diet, fat distribution, obesity, etc. It's a major health concern, so I'm guessing a major reference source would be any place that supplies info to the medical/health fields would be a good bet.

[Flynt]

Alzorath,

The book,

Human Anatomy for Artists: The Elements of Form
by
Eliot Goldfinger

Has a section that diagrams where the fat pads are located on both male and female bodies. It sounds like just what you might need.

His book is the most complex but probably the current authority in human artistic anatomy.

good luck