[Briareos]

For artists? I don't want one picture per 10 pages of text. Is Gray's good? Does it have enough angles and illustrations for reference? What others do you guys recommend??

[itchi]

this is my personal fav.

The Human Figure: an Anatomy for Artists by David K. Rubins

[Denim Atrisun]

Read 'm and weep. The Loomis Project
There's also a 22MB+ .PDF version flying around somewhere. I know, because I have it.

[ October 03, 2001: Message edited by: Denim Atrisun ]

[Svanur]

Bridgman is good, he is very loose in his style but gets the point through. Hogarth is also good but he is a little more stylized and if you like the old Tarzan comics than Hogarth is for you

[Brain]

I've got Gray's, though it does have alot of text, and if you're a typical artist, you prolly won't read it. I do, but that's because I come from a line of medical professionals. Gotta have some kinda clue what they're going on about @;-)

There's this large book, yellow cover, really good sketches. I'm continuely forgetting the name of it, but would like to pick in up in addition to Gray's. I'll find out the name of it again and letcha know.

[Svanur]

Brain: Are you perhaps talking about Anatomy for the artist? A large yellow hardcover book that goes into detail every muscle and bone?

The book I am talking about

[frostfyre]

There's a medical reference anatomy book called "Atlas of Human Anatomy", illustrated and written by Fran H. Netter, MD Second edition published by Novartis.
ISBN 0-914168-80-0

Its fantastic because the illustrator was a physician. Its almost entirely illustrations, but does by necessity cover far more than surface anatomy. It's a wee bit on the expensive side, I was fortunate enough to get a copy as a gift.

Here's a link to amazon, they also had a single copy in the "used" book section.

Atlas of Anatomy

Loomis ranks way up there as well, as well as Bridgeman. I'm not so fond of Hogarth but there are many who swear by him. Good luck!

[spooge demon]

Get Human Anatomy by Goldfinger. The best I have seen by far, they have it on Amazon. Monumental.

I think there is no best book, all the approaches, from personal to clinical are all worthy of study. I really like Bridgeman myself. I am really getting more and more disenchanted with Loomis.

[Duncan]

If you want to check out Gray's, it's on the web.Right Here

[Anthony]

A combo of Loomis as Leonardo's notebooks was enough for me-keeping it from an artist's side, rather than a flat technical side.

[Briareos]

Thanks for all the tips, I'll know what to look for now.

[Briareos]

BTW, Loomis Project is terrible for anatomy. I want muscle structures from as many angles as possible, of as many muscle groups as possible. Loomis Project has maybe 6-7 pages of basic anatomy. I'm looking for something more advanced..

[ October 03, 2001: Message edited by: Briareos ]

[sacrelicious]

Duncan, that link to Gray's is amazing.

[Derek]

Along with Eliot Goldsmith's book, there is also a set of plaster casts he has done. They are, however, very expensive. Though if anyone is in the position to get a set, you may want to do so. Wonderfully produced, and very useful. Access to plaster casts of human anatomy and idealized geometric primitives is a must.
I know that sculptshop.com has them, and you may find them elsewhere.
My two cents on the anatomy books... you won't find one 'best of', for they are written from different approaches, each advocating a varied set of beliefs in what you need to know. I agree with the recommendations of Goldsmith's book, and definitely Peck's, along with a bit of academic study from Gray's, though you can glean enough from the others to make do. I would avoid Hogarth and Bridgman. Ultimately, you must decide what you need to know, and your work and how good you wish to be will dictate that.

[ October 03, 2001: Message edited by: Derek Smith ]

[Anthony]

Ah, I guess...surgeons and comic artists need that.

[Briareos]

Well shit... I seems like every anatomy book I look at is Male exlusive, anyone know of a book with extensive Female anatomy studies? Grrrr..

[Anthony]

That's a damn good question, I dunno if I've ever seen one! I use the Pose File series for "bulk" practise-that is, lots of quick drawings, and live people when I can, but I dunno, never seen a female anatomy book. I'm sure there is one though...right?

[Brain]

Svanur, indeed it is @:-)

[vegeta�ONAC]

Cyclopedia Anatomicae by Gyorgy Feher and illustrated by Andras Szunyoghy is awesome. full of pics of a nice overview of human and variable animal anatomy and skeletons. Also Bridgemans life drawing is good too. For comic illustration...Drawing Dynamic Comics by Andy Smith is kewlio.

[shinji69]

Look for Victor Perard's Art and Anatomy book, exclusively from Barnes&Noble. Excellent figure drawing and anatomy instruction book, and it's a very old book, too. I wonder why people didn't mention this.

And for female figure reference and anatomy, eeerrr....Pose File is not much a good one. All the models look FLAT and lighting is terrible, mostly. And They have diffrent body proportions from Caucassian women. And the photos should be LARGER. Virtual Pose don't have that many photos. For extensive figure reference, Fairburn system is the best, I think. But it's nearly impossible to find one.

Someone should publish new books about female anatomy with a lot of reference photos and stuff(diagrams, skin tones and so on). Why isn't Norm Zadeh spending his fortune on more meaningful things like this? (yeah, he publishes Perfect10. ^_^) Should have published a book like "How to draw Eastern-European female nude figure with natural breasts", with thousands of poses. ^_^;

[BlackPool]

I would suggest "Anatomy Lessons From the Great Masters." It helped be immensely both in learning the muscles and bones, but also with suggestions dealing with artistic expression. Also Cyclopedia Anatomacae (sp?) is full of useful pictures of not just Human anatomy, but of all kinds of animals as well.

[Svanur]

Brain: Got that book for christmas last year and it's very massive. The illustrations in it are gorgeous and he draws almost every bone in the body. Some pages are even dedicated to the bones that are in the spine(which you don't see when you put meat and skin on).

It's like a hybrid between an artist's anatomy book and a surgeon's guide.
If you want detailed drawings this book is right up your alley. It even names almost every muscle and bone in the body. The only complain I have about it is that sometimes the scans(or prints) are a bit too dark. Like the one who compiled this book used a little too much brightness/contrast.

[a_sh]

if anyone is interested in the loomis book, you can get a zipfile here.
It's the scanned images from the Loomis project, that i have renamed to list in correct order in windows and zipped for convienient download for you guys =)

[ October 04, 2001: Message edited by: a_sh ]