helpful SOURCES: DRAWING
Here is a list of DRAWING sources (not as recent) that may help and inspire you. I don't list publisher and ISBN numbers because searches are easily made these days on the internet. But if you have trouble locating something, write me and I'll help. I made this list even more useful by including a brief opinion or description. I have read, or have used, or still use, every single one of these.
Basic drawing, perspective, misc:
Perspective J.M. Parramon
Another simply written and excellently-illustrated book by Jose Parramon. It's
a smaller book, but it goes beyond all the necessary basics into oblique perspectives, rendering shadows and reflections, and different lighting situations in perspective. To make your work rise to the professional level a command of situating forms in proper perspective is critical. This book will help you, also Figure Drawing For All It's Worth by Andrew Loomis has some important and simplified perspective elements for the human figure.
The Artist's Complete Guide to Facial Expressions Gary Faigin
The author uses examples from history, his own realistic work, and photographs to give us this amazing, comprehensive index of facial expressions. You will learn the six basic human expressions, muscle anatomy for the expressions, varying intensities of the expressions, and coverage of other facial states like yawning or pain. You will also learn vital, subtle differences
within the expressions, and even further your understanding of humanity in the process. It's an outstanding reference book to have, especially for commercial artists.
The Natural Way To Draw Nicolaides
I must admit I did not read this one from cover to cover. Instead I used many of the exercises demonstrated within for teaching basic drawing and figure drawing classes. Yet I know that this is a work written by a man of considerable knowledge who practiced the essence of his teachings, and did so with tremendous sensitivity and awareness. It's been a large seller since first published in 1941. I recommend this for anyone wanting to develop drawing skills from a more sensitive, fine art standing.
Creative Illustration Andrew Loomis
Not just a book on color painting techniques, this 300-page work covers the myriad of black & white techniques, working with line, color, tone, storytelling, fields for illustration, and much, much more. Like all Loomis titles they're worth their weight in gold. It is quite old-fashioned pictorially, but the lessons and methods still apply today. Long out of print, Loomis books are fairly easy to find now with the internet, but expect to pay high for them.
Every Andrew Loomis book is now available online. Do searches under Andrew Loomis and you'll find a few sources for downloading the books in pdf or .rar forms.
Figure Drawing:
Dynamic Figure Drawing Burne Hogarth
A powerful guide for anyone wanting to learn to build drawings of the
human figure in dynamic, moving poses and orient them properly in deep space. This instruction is systematically designed to help you learn to create forms without a model. You will marvel at Burne's mastery and knowledge of the human form, and this work is particularly useful for commercial artists. The only difficulty I have with his work is the figures he does often do not look like they're connected to the ground. They're missing a solidity in respect to the way they move in coordination with the ground plane. I think this may be because the foot/ankle area is too dainty, too classical for dynamic figures, and the figures are often on tip-toes which intensifies this feature.
Figure Drawing or Figure Drawing For All It's Worth Andrew Loomis
A must-have title, and likely my most recommended of all. Andrew Loomis
is the number one artist/teacher other artists most admire. Similar to most commercial art-oriented drawing methods this instruction works on a system of building the masses of forms first and accurately fixing them in
perspective into deep space without a model. His figures are totally natural and believable, and actually, many of his demonstration figures are from real models. You won't get superhero poses here, but the figures are solid and still dynamic in their own way. Because this title was first published in the 1940's the women often have high-heel shoes on. Andrew Loomis titles are hard to find, but I have heard you can download copies of this book on the internet, and original books are available on Ebay, although expect auction prices to be high ($50-$150).
Every Andrew Loomis book is now available online. Do searches under Andrew Loomis and you'll find a few sources for downloading the books in pdf or .rar forms.
Drawing The Head & Figure Jack Hamm
I use Jack Hamm's and Andrew Loomis' books for most of my reference handouts for my Sequential Comic Art classes. Drawing The Head & Figure is so loaded with cool little tips and insights it's amazing. He has many more books but this one is by far the most valuable. It's also still in print and easy to find. A must-have for any artist who does figures.
Life Drawing In Charcoal Douglas Graves
I used many of the lessons in this book for my own figure drawing classes. This title is primarily for drawing from the model, but it is also a wonderful guide for learning basic drawing skills and then applying them to what you see in the model. The instruction stresses starting with the basic masses of a form instead of building forms with line, which runs contrary to many fine art teachings that stress starting with a line gesture. Building a drawing from basic shapes and
forms first usually results in a more solid and grounded structure for the human figure. Very recommended.
Bridgman's Complete Guide To Drawing From Life George Bridgman
Bridgman has a lot of titles to his credit, this particular one collects six titles in one and is quite concise and exhaustive in its depth. If you want to know something more obscure about constructing the human figure you'll probably find it here. You can obtain amazing lessons from this one that you won't find elsewhere, but I don't find Bridgman's work to be necessary for commercial artists like I do Andrew Loomis or Jack Hamm, it's more for artists who are deeply interested in doing lots of figure studies from the model. Bridgman's figures have a very classical and sculptural look and feel to them. Although you can use it as such, if you're interested in idealizing or enhancing the figure for illustration or comics this may not be for you as Bridgman's constructive anatomy is more "realistic" rather than "idealized."
THE FIGURE: An Artist's Approach to Drawing and Construction Walt Reed
Although the instruction here is taken from a more illustrative (masses and geometric shapes) rather than fine art (expressive line gesture) approach, some fine art approaches are explained and illustrated. The illustrations are very clear and simple, and therefore easy to understand and learn from--a testament to what a good illustrator can do. Walt Reed was associated with the Famous Artist's School, the school that advertised copying a drawing that you could send in and get a talent evaluation.
Posted by Felipe Echevarria at Saturday, July 08, 2006 11:27 AM 
Categories: ART CAREER TIPS, Sources
Categories: ART CAREER TIPS, Sources
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