Human Anatomy Made Amazingly Easy?

**Divine Oblivion** · November 19th, 2008, 08:19 PM

'Kay, I bugged my art teacher yesterday about wanting to learn the underlying bone structure of the human figure. She looked around for a bit, and then told me she'd get a book from her personal library at home.

Okay. No problem. I caught her today and she pulled out a book called, "Human Anatomy Made Amazingly Easy" by Christopher Hart. And, it's very simplistic, if even a bit "cartoony", (though it has the realism element in it.) but not you're average grade-school, "How to draw" books.

Though it's not confusingly in depth about the subject of human anatomy, it has a lot of useful info', but I'm still curious, does anyone have any experience with this book? Or it's author? Just want anothers opinion before I commence learning from it... The style kinda set me off and made me think of Batman...

... Damn my mind goes weird places sometimes.

**Mirana** · November 19th, 2008, 08:26 PM

The Christopher Hart books are for little kids. He's made a successful living out of a whole line of "how to draw" books...whether or not he can actually draw the things he's teaching.

Use the search function and read one of the many, many anatomy book threads for suggestions.

**Divine Oblivion** · November 19th, 2008, 08:32 PM

Oi vey. *Facepalm*

Thanks Mirana. :3 I'll go poke around for said threads. (And finally buy those anatomy books I've been putting off..)

EDIT: AAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! The, "How to Draw Fantasy Creatures" book in that lineup has lens flare. Good God.. xD

**Flake** · November 19th, 2008, 08:33 PM

There are a lot of "anatomy book" threads in this forum. Go search.

Anatomy is not amazingly easy, people are weird shapes.
They are generally symmetrical though, so that's half as complicated as it could have been.

To save you a bit of time I'll tell you now that 80% of people will say "Peck, Bridgman, Loomis, Bammes, Richer", some will say "Burne-Hogarth, Tiner, Simblett", very, very few will suggest "Hart".

**Divine Oblivion** · November 19th, 2008, 08:39 PM

Indeed, people are weird shapes... I just thought the book was rather asinine when I flipped through it, because I almost felt I was being demeaned/written off as a child by my teacher. Though this most likely was not the case, I still felt it.

Hunting around right now, coming up with some very useful tips on these forums and some more books to add to my wishlist on amazon. :3

**Flake** · November 19th, 2008, 08:48 PM

The Loomis books are still up on Acids site. "Figure Drawing" as I remember has a decent overview of anatomy. It's not a dedicated book like Peck or Bridgmans work but it's a helluva lot better bet than Hart.

http://acid.noobgrinder.com/Loomis/

Legal copyright grey area but I've never been slapped for posting it by admins before, grab them all before someone changes their minds.

Read them mind, don't just look at the pretty pics.

**Divine Oblivion** · November 19th, 2008, 08:57 PM

Of course! Thank you Flake. :3

...

"2. You're not here to draw pretty pictures." *Snerk*

**Divine Oblivion** · November 19th, 2008, 08:58 PM

Of course! Thank you Flake. :3

...

"2. You're not here to draw pretty pictures." *Snerk*

**Blist** · November 19th, 2008, 09:05 PM

The one I'm using is 'Anatomy for Artists' by Barrington Barber. I think it's pretty nice too

**DSillustration** · November 19th, 2008, 10:25 PM

For the beginner artist, I think the Christopher Hart books are pretty decent.
Actually, I think the one you mentioned is probably one of his best.

It's not going to turn you into Rembrandt, but it's certainly a good starting point and the fundamentals are quite sound.

Don't dismiss it so early.
Learn what he's got to teach, and then check out some Loomis and Bridgeman to further your development.

**BubbaGump** · November 19th, 2008, 10:34 PM

^^I disagree. Doing studies from the book gives you a ton of bad habits which are impossible to shake off. I flipped through that book and for God's sake, Hart tells you not to draw the upper lip of a man as it'll make him too feminine.

Are you guys forgetting he's written almost a dozen how to draw manga books? Don't take anything he learns. Ever. Study Loomis and Bridgman and start off with the right fundamentals.

**Mirana** · November 20th, 2008, 08:44 AM

This is why I said he was for little kids...say middle school and under. Mid-middle school through high school I was using Bridgeman and other "adult" anatomy books. You can build quite a foundation off of what you learn in HS and it's best the foundation be real life, imo.

I actually recommend picking up a book with real nudes in it to just DRAW from, and not a book telling you how...

**J Wilson** · November 20th, 2008, 01:29 PM

Any good solid anatomy book that helps you break the figure down into somewhat generic mannikins is a good place to start. It's really just a process to get you thinking about the over all shapes. Once you have the basic idea, you apply it in whatever way suits the subject. The exact specifics that you find in each book changes from artist to artist, so use which ever feels best to you, or borrow from a few different ones to get your own.

**Mirana** · November 20th, 2008, 03:02 PM

But how many kids understand the underlying idea and just go straight to copying meaningless (to them) shapes?

**Divine Oblivion** · November 20th, 2008, 07:29 PM

Oh, trust me, I'm not here to copy and learn from one of those, "How to Draw!!!" books. : | I've gone through enough of those as crappy Christmas gifts to realize it's just a load of BS.

I bought myself a couple of anatomy books - "Figure Drawing Without a Model" by Ron Tiner (If it ain't any good - oh well. I only spent nine bucks for a used copy. I'm cheap.) and, "The Art of Animal Drawing: Construction, Action Analysis, Caricature" by Ken Hultgren. (Again, cheap, but the reviews were good on the book...)

Meh, I'm just sniffing around, trying to find something I can easily reference other then myself standing in front of a mirror - clothed or otherwise, when I'm at home.

Drawing from life, as well, but I want to actually understand how it all works when I'm drawing and sketching from life, instead of just drawing what I see.

**Flake** · November 20th, 2008, 08:10 PM

Originally Posted by A'mihisss

"Figure Drawing Without a Model" by Ron Tiner (If it ain't any good - oh well. I only spent nine bucks for a used copy. I'm cheap.)

That's a rather splendid little book. Nine bucks well spent in my opinion.

Not an anatomy book as such but still well worthwhile.

Dude can draw, explains things well I thought.

**rpace** · November 21st, 2008, 01:12 AM

I was actually disappointed when I first got my copy of Tiner's book.

It's actually a great "first" book, but it doesn't add anything if you've already used Loomis, Peck, Bridgman and others of a more thorough approach.

The more time I spend with it the more I appreciate Faragasso's book Mastering Drawing the Human Figure (based on Frank Reilly's work). I didn't know these tips and bits I was gleaning from other, older artists over the years all came from Reilly until just a few years ago. If I had the time and freedom to relocate, I'd probably study at the Watts Atelier just to immerse myself in an institution that embraces his work the way they seem to.

~R

**CCThrom** · November 21st, 2008, 11:54 AM

Hultgren is a good buy! At least it is if you're not opposed to a somewhat "cartoony" approach... the guy was a Disney animator after all... he really knows animal mechanics. Personally, I like the more stylized anatomy teachers as long as the foundations are good. I find that a bit of graphical stylization makes things more clear. Not everyone agrees with that though.