[Timotheos]

Hello,

I hope that this is a good place for my question .

I really want to know how i can start in drawing anatomy. I'm already searching one and a half month searching for it, but it's just very difficult for me, because i also study. I also bought Bridgman's Complete Guide to Drawing from Life, but i just don't understand anything of his drawings. And i got the book figure drawing for all it's worth, by Andrew Loomis. But that's also not what i want. I want to learn everything from basic to advanced. So for anatomy i also want to know how to draw muscles etc.

I hope that someone can help me! I already spend more than 20 hours of searching :\

Thanks in Advance!

[MC1986]

I'm sure I'm gonna get flamed for this, but I honestly think Bridgman is WAAAAYY overrated. Some people find him useful, but I always find his drawings messy and hard to dissect. I'd recommend Figure Drawing: Design and Invention by Michael Hampton as a starting point, because he uses a more simplified, construction-based approach to anatomy as opposed to textbook anatomy. I'd also suggest any of Glen Vilppu's instructional DVD's. He uses a similar approach, but breaks it down one step at a time. I found it extremely useful to actually see a demonstration of the drawing process, as opposed to just reading about it.

Once you get a firm handle on the basics of drawing the figure (ie proportions, volume, movement, construction, foreshortening, etc), you can move on to a more advanced anatomy text to serve as reference. My personal favourite is Classic Human Anatomy by Valerie Winslow, but there's also Stephen Rogers Peck, Eliot Goldfinger, Joseph Sheppard, David K. Rubins, Daniel Carter and Michael Cortney, etc. Also, any of Gottfried Bammes' books----they're in German, but the illustrations are an amazing source of reference.

Good luck!

[mindbender]

First of all: Bridgman was Frazettas teacher and teacher for X other master draughtsmen, which automatically makes him a legend.

Second, Bridgman is not intended for beginners. I personally believe that one could reread and study his "Life drawing" for a lifetime and find new things each time. You should start with this one since it's much more structured than the compilation of his six books. Some of the things he discusses is almost at a philosophical level ("rhythm" for instance).

Third, I know I read an article on how to get more out of Bridgman by adding tone to the studies. I'll see if I can find it...brb...

Ok, here it is. Gist's recommendations on how to study Bridgman

Fourth: You seem to have quite a list of books. Did you mention Jack Hamm? His "Drawing head and figure is clear and logical" (as is all his books really)

Fifth - and most important: If you're a beginner it's probably more important that you DRAW a lot. From life, yourself in a mirror, your own hands, feet, sculptures, copy master paintings, draw from photo, but DRAW something every day. Once you get into that habit you should worry about studying this-or-that.

Try to draw what you want to learn from memory: A leg for instance. Does your drawing look like a leg? If you can't decide start posting your drawings and we'll try to find what's wrong and how to make it better. Look at your own leg. In what way is that different from your drawing? THEN go to the theory books (Bridgman or whatever appeals to you most and look up the theory on leg construction). Copydraw from the book. Copydraw and draw some more. Then see what you learned by drawing a leg. Repeat until happy, then do the same thing with an arm and then every part of the entire body.

Sixth: Start drawing now!

Seventh: Post your drawings here

Best of luck, getting all those books says a lot about your ambition. But don't forget: Draw, draw, draw, read, draw draw, draw, read - not the other way around. Looking forward to following your progress

Here is my own attempt at writing some lessons on how to study Bridgman - if you use Google translate it might be useful:

Study Bridgman

[AnnaB]

I found this nifty website: scott-eaton.com to help with a lot of that. Often, a community college has life drawing classes. My local art institute also has "classes" where artists just sit to draw models, no teacher really, more of a place to hire models and draw.

He also has a database for bodies in motion, which anatomy books don't have (as often.) Once you know your basic anatomy, you'll know which specific muscle is effected, for instance, when you see these. I find some anatomy for artists books annoying because they are drawn and look drawn. I'm not one for dissecting bodies, but when the figure looks so sketched I wonder what gets lost in the translation artist-to-artist.
.scott-eaton.com/category/bodies-in-motion