Understanding human form and structure aids life drawing. This book provides and in-depth study of drawing proportion, muscles, joints and bones and the underlying structure of the body. The body is taken in bite-sized, anatomical sections - the head, torso, arms and legs. The book is full of line drawings; tonal, linear and mixed:body positions, even neck movements, skeletons, detailed muscles. This book is only 64 pages long, but there is so much packed into it. There are 90 illustrations in the muscle section alone. This book is part of the Art of Drawing series. This is an excellent book.
http://www.yarnsandfabrics.co.uk/2015/11/17/understanding-human-form-and-structure-by-giovanni-civardi/
* Karen Platt- yarnsandfabrics.co.uk *
December 2015
A basic anatomy is widely regarded as essential to being able to draw and paint the human form successfully. Giovanni Civardi's sensitive pencil drawings reveal bone and muscle structure in a way that is immediately comprehensible for the artist, but without ever straying into the realms of the medical textbook. In some places, this implies a degree of simplification, and it may well be that the medical student would flinch. For the purposes of depiction, however, it is pitched about perfectly and its very conciseness means that you're never going to feel overwhelmed. At the same time clear artwork, and text that only explains what doesn't explain itself, means you're always kept fully informed
* The Artist *
Sometimes I wonder how he does it. Not the drawing, I've got used to the excellence of that, I mean the way Giovanni manages to come up with new, fresh ideas that aren't endless re-workings of previous books and also to put an original slant on subjects that are not exactly under-represented in the literature of practical art.
This one, as ever, allows the drawings to speak for themselves and includes a relatively short text that really only introduces the subject and the techniques and points up the things you should be looking at and for.
What makes it different from perhaps a hundred other books on anatomy (for that's what this is) is the simplicity and the fact that it's written purely for the artist, who wants to draw the human form and merely needs its underpinnings. If it was about architecture, it would be like stopping at the foundations and relying on other books, of which there are plenty, for the above-ground structure. It's admirably simple, doesn't offer the slightest nod to the medical student (other books may not intend to, but they do) and shows you - yes, shows you - how bones articulate and how muscles link them together. There's no complicated colour coding that other books like to go in for, just sensitive, accurate pencil drawings that you can easily relate to.
The painter George Stubbs studied anatomised horses in order to be able to paint them accurately. You have this book, when is every bit as good as a rather messy hands-on experience. Be thankful, and buy it
* Artbookreview.net *
