Artistic Anatomy: The Great French Classic on Artistic Anatomy

Book supplements and complements if you're taking Life Drawing. Remember this is built more of a textbook so expect a lot of writing and note taking. The bone structure study is towards the end if you dont like wordy books this one is half and half. Around 80% text in rough estimate. If you're not taking life drawing skip this book, this one is for learning structure, proper proportion in class study/home study class assignment. I hate to say but if you're not getting actual course help you this book will cause a headache. Pros: Very helpful close bone structure to learn anatomy, very high details of frontal and back, even individual parts. Great for art students in life drawing. Con: Not for beginners, or someone not in life drawing. It will confuse many because it will appear as a medical skeletal/muscle/ muscuskeletal form study book. If you want a good start Try Gary Simmons- The Technical Pen for intermediate and advanced. The Cross hatching pen bible. Andrew Loomis Art books especially How to draw hands and heads & anatomy, great for starters and intermediate alike. Has great exercises. look up Sycra and proko art studies on Youtube, extremely helpful to advanced and beginners and alike. Overall free art lessons ranging from concept, focus study, skeletal, poses, gesture, and color theory.

This book was used as one of two texts in my art school figure study class included in our school portfolio of supplies. It is also a text used in an ecorche course at another art school. My highest recommendation, is to study this book, along with Frank Netter's medical anatomy book focusing on the osteology and myology sections that apply to artists, leaving behind the details that do not apply to artists. The illustrations in that book are second to none. Also, as many other good artistic anatomy books you can find, as the more you understand, the better. Lastly, get a good poseable medical skeleton. Yes, save up for it, like I did. It is absolutely essential. A realistic sculptor of the human figure must know the body from the inside out. Pictures alone in books are not enough. You must see the structure of the body in the round. Then I reccommend getting Bruno Lucchesi's "Modelling the Figure in Clay, A Sculptors Guide to Anatomy". Do the exercises using this book , your skeleton as a model, putting on the bones and muscles, one by one. This is a spectacular learning experience to build your own ecorche (flayed) figure.

This book gives detailed explanations about the skeleton, skeletal muscles and human morphology. Don't get rebuked by the illustration's style which was done in about yr 1889 by Paul Richer in indian ink I suppose. Recent books like 'Strength Training Anatomy by Frederic Delavier' have more polished color illustrations and is very useful as a complement to Mr Richer chef d'oeuvre. Last century's books about anatomy are usually better than current ones as this difficult subject was given thorough study in universities. It's easy to understand why the older generations were better figure artists! In this book you'll find what makes up the prominences and bulges under the skin. What could have been added though is some real photos of the nude to highlight the lights and dark of the human body. Overall, it's a fantastic book for this price and it deserves its 5 stars!

This book has been a tremendously helpful reference in my arsenal of anatomy books. Very detailed illustrations and descriptions that help if you're looking to expand into serious understanding of the communication between different areas of the human body. It is also a larger format book which makes it visually easier. I wish I would have had this back in school.

If I could give 10 stars, then I would. At first this book looked dated (1889) and overly textual. Then I started keeping track of the comprehensive coverage and was astonished. I have dozens of anatomy books for art and medicine. I became peeved by the simple things you want to know that are not in most anatomy books. But, the French classic had them all. First: it has the artwork of fit normal people unlike others (e.g. Hogarth, Bridgeman) who specialize in grossly exaggerated figures. Second: the movement plates which examine normal articulation are there as opposed to atelier poses Third: the veins, fascia, and tendons from different views Fourth: the discussion of proportions from different models. Fifth: the examination of morphology of folds, creases, etc. Sixth: The orthogonal views of individual bones and muscles allowing you to see the dimensionality Seventh: examination of fat (not obese!) And so on. You get the idea. Excellent book! You want the large plates in the printed version of this paperback book. Do not get a reduced size kindle version!

Half the book is way technical great for the student! Recommended to me for sketching & learning the names of the bones, nice book!

Used this book for Human anatomy studies of various forms, areas of the human body. It is very detailed, including a full and complete illustration of every limb of the human body with names of boney landmarks as well as for every individual legment. A great guide and analysis to drawing the Human form and functions. Highly recommend for all students and artist. Also includes pages full of back ground info of the human body as well. A Well known Anatomy book and anatomy dictionary.

Richer’s anatomical illustrations remain helpful as ever for technical identification, but that’s more suitable to medical doctors and scientists than creative artists. The same author’s follow-up book on female morphology is much more insightful, and attractive, for aspiring figure artists.