Animal Painting and Anatomy
Drawing is "the very essence of all pictorial art," and this book approaches the challenging art of animal painting from the point of view of accurate representation of animal subjects on canvas. Combining useful information on important anatomical features with direction on how to handle the subjects and how to express their forms and postures, the author has produced a complete, inexpensive, at-home course in animal painting and anatomy.All aspects of animal drawing and painting are covered: drawing from life; anatomy in relation to drawing (not surgical anatomy, but a precise knowledge of the visible structure and movements of animals); characteristic movements of animals and suggestions on how to capture them in your picture; composition (design, restraint, rhythm, balance of light and shade, relative scale of animals and landscape, foregrounds); painting and color. 36 illustrations, mostly sketches by the author, depict horses, pigs, cows, dogs, and other animals in various life positions and movements. A long, detailed discussion of the anatomy of animals completes the book. Here Mr. Calderon describes all the structures of animals that are of significance to the artist: the vertebral skeleton, the bones and muscles of the head, the muscles of the vertebral skeleton, the fore-limb and its muscles, the muscles attaching the shoulder blade to the trunk, and the bones and muscles of the hind limb. 208 drawings accompany these discussions and show you how anatomy is related to surface contours and techniques of shading.
Animal Sketching
Alexander Calder, the renowned sculptor and inventor of mobiles, here brings his characteristic simplicity of line and spirit of movement to the art of animal sketching. The purpose of the book is to help the student to draw animals as he or she sees them. Noting and practicing the way Mr. Calder captures the emotions and attitudes of animals in a few quick lines, the student can quickly obtain a lasting groundwork in animal sketching that will before long become second nature. These full-body sketches and enlarged details, in rapid, expressive brush-and-ink, of animals from the farm, the zoo, wildlife, and the home, in characteristic poses and movements, reveal both the action and portrait aspects of the art. There are 12 sketches of horses in action (drawing wagon or plough, racing, etc.); 10 drawings of cats, luxuriously asleep or alertly watchful, stretching or crouching; 14 drawings of dogs (many different breeds) in a variety of poses ― lying down, sleeping, sitting, running, sniffing the air, feeding puppies; 11 drawings of lions and other big cats, pacing, lying down, or crouching; 7 sketches of monkeys, jumping and gesticulating; 23 drawings of deer, stooping, sitting, running, etc.; 27 drawings of birds of many different species ― owls sitting, ducks waddling, etc.; and 18 sketches of cows grazing, sitting, swishing tails, and feeding calves. Also included are drawings of seals, elephants, squirrels, kangaroos, and a bear. Because of the simplicity of Mr. Calder's approach to sketching, this book can easily be used by even the youngest of students. There are no difficult techniques to master here, no roundabout methods of construction, but just an insistence on drawing things as the student sees them, with undogmatic (and delightful) assistance from an undisputed master of the simple expressive line. It is unlikely that there is any more pleasant way to study such a fundamental branch of pictorial art. Unabridged and unaltered republication of third (1929) edition.
The Human Machine
What is the difference between art anatomy and Bridgman's concept of the human machine? The human machine is the body as not only a fixed framework but also as a complex work of art which moves and was designed to move. In over 400 drawings, George B. Bridgman demonstrates the machine through the presentations which made him a gifted lecturer and teacher in his nearly fifty years at the Art Students League in New York and which gave life to drawings by his many students during those years. All skeletal and muscular systems are fully identified, and all are shown in front, back, and side views.The Human Machine begins with the framework of bones. In each section (head, neck, hand, arm, forearm, elbow, trunk, shoulder, back, scapular region, pelvis, hip, thigh, leg, knee, foot, and toe as well as the combinations of the major sections working together), George Bridgman starts with the skeletal components of the system; then he adds the muscles, shows the changes in the muscles as the body moves and, finally, shows the appearance of the bodily section in action. At the title implies, Bridgman, throughout, supplements his anatomical work with comparative drawings of simple machines. The anatomical approach to figure drawing is the foundation for the study of human form, and as in his other books on figure drawing, Bridgman's Life Drawing and The Book of a Hundred Hands, Bridgman's approach to the subject is important and unique. The Human Machine will give students and serious artists the conception of the human structure as the complex of beautiful machines it is, and will show how bone and muscle structures are solely responsible for our movements and for the shapes which we, at various times, display.
Anatomy for Artists
Portraying the living human form, not only with anatomical accuracy, but so that it conveys motion, emotion, and vitality is one of the greatest challenges faced by the artist. In the studies in this volume, famous artist and art instructor Reginald Marsh brought his genius to bear on the complex problem of life drawing. Delving into the work of the great masters (Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael, Rubens, Poussin, D羹rer, Holbein, and others), Marsh simplified, abstracted, adapted, and reinterpreted their work into a collection of drawings both immensely interesting and instructive to the practicing artist and the student. The 209 pages of drawings in this volume show the human body in a wide variety of positions, viewed from many different angles. Marsh directs special attention to those angles, aspects, and physical positions which are the most difficult to portray. His great talent, coupled with a rare ability to instruct others (Marsh taught at the Art Students League for many years) gave him unusual sensitivity to the concerns of the artist in life drawing: his concise commentary on the drawing points up the problems addressed in each -- tone, movement, proportion, composition, etc. The front, side, back, head, arms and hands, legs and feet, and full figure drawings are all included. A separate section on the problems of proportion explores 7, 7 1/2, and 8 head schemes, providing an unusually workable and lucid treatment of the topic for the practicing artist. The body and parts of the body are drawn in skeleton, tissue and muscle, major bone structure, and as they appear in life. Marsh studied medical anatomy as well as the work of the great medical artists in order to perfect his knowledge of human anatomy. All of the hundreds of drawings, figures, and details of this volume have been excellently reproduced in this edition. The last 95 drawings in the book are all original studies by Marsh, never before published in book form. These casual, light-hearted drawings (mostly of female nudes) illustrate both Marsh's seemingly easy mastery of the techniques of life drawing, and his characteristic lusty, Rubenesque style. Because they are so distinctly in his own style, these drawings highlight the great scope and knowledgeability he has shown in the earlier instructive studies. Those who know and admire Marsh as an artist, as well as anyone who wishes to learn to draw from life, will find this volume indispensable.
Elements of Dynamic Symmetry
Is design intuitive or is it consciously and methodically worked out? Are there basic rules governing design that, when learned, will facilitate the creative process? These questions have been asked by artists, art historians, and art critics throughout the ages.Convinced that design was not purely instinctive, Jay Hambidge (1867-1924) spent much of his life searching for the technical bases of design. He found his answer in dynamic symmetry, one of the most provocative and stimulating theories in art history. Hambidge's study of Greek art convinced him that the secret of the beauty of Greek design was in the conscious use of dynamic symmetry -- the law of natural design based upon the symmetry of growth in man and in plants. But Hambidge, who was not only a theoretician but also a practicing artist, did much more than analyze classical art and its principles of design: he worked out a series of root rectangles that the artist, using the simple mathematics supplied in this book, can easily follow and apply in his own work.Originally published as a series of lessons in Hambidge's magazine, The Diagonal, this engrossing book explains all the basic principles of dynamic symmetry. Part I sets forth the fundamental rectangles with their simple divisions based on the proportioning law found in nature; Part II explains compound rectangles, many of which were taken from or suggested by analysis of objects of Greek art. Whether read for its historical importance in art theory, for its illuminating insights into Greek art, or for its practical value to today's artists and commercial designers, The Elements of Dynamic Symmetry has much to offer anyone who is interested in the principle of design.
Figure Drawing
While there are any number of anatomy texts and handbooks for artists, this is one of the few available studies that approach the art of figure drawing from the point of view of the draftsman. Though it does provide a fund of information on all important anatomical features and functions, the book stresses how the figure-sketcher should handle his subject, how he should actually put down surface lines and prominences on paper. It is an immensely practical guide for the student. The text covers all aspects of drawing the human form. An important introductory section deals with methods of drawing and the proper proportioning of the body. Then the author treats the various parts of the body in full detail: head and neck (over 100 pages on facial features, etc.), the trunk (chest, abdomen, vertebral column, breast, pelvis, shoulders, etc.) and the upper and lower limbs and digits. A final discussion takes up the topic of drapery, the main points of support on the body, and various styles of representing the folds and forms of garments. Three hundred seventy-seven figures, mostly sketches by the author, but including some examples from classical times and famous artists, illustrate the text. These figures show undraped men and women of all ages and types in various positions and movements and from all angles (full front view, profile, three-quarter view, rear view, etc.) so that the coverage is as thorough as possible for the student. Other drawings show and identify muscles and elements of the skeletal system and indicate their relation to surface contours. A clear and readable account with many helpful suggestions on sketching technique, the book offers a nontechnical, inexpensive home-study course or supplementary text for the beginning artist. Those art students who derive little or no benefit from anatomy courses would do well to study this volume. Unabridged, unaltered republication of original edition.
An Atlas of Animal Anatomy for Artists
"Highly recommended as one of the very few books on the subject worthy of being used an an authoritative guide." -- Design "Illustrators, sculptors, and taxidermists who draw or model animals will welcome this new revised edition." -- Natural HistoryHere are 288 remarkably lifelike drawings of animals, furnishing artists and students with an easy-to-follow method of instruction in the drawing of horses, dogs, lions, cows and bulls, stags, and goats. So detailed and so accurate are these drawings that this book has long been a classic work of its kind. The animals are shown in three ways: external full views and dozens of details (paws, head, eyes, legs, etc.); beneath-the-skin drawings of musculature and of the positions and insertions of each muscle; and skeleton drawings of the bone structures that support and determine surface contours and configurations. In addition, special cross-sections dissect those portions of the animal -- such as the head and limbs -- that are most important to the artist. For this edition, Lewis S. Born of the American Museum of Natural History collected 25 plates from George Stubbs's Anatomy of the Horse, long unavailable; Straus-Durckheim's Anatomie Descriptive et Comparative du Chat; and Cuvier and Laurrillard's Anatomie Compar矇e. These plates, as fully annotated as the plates that make up the original book, supplement Ellenberger, Baum and Dittrich with anatomical drawings of the monkey, the bat, the flying squirrel, the rat kangaroo, the seal, and the hare. Mr. Lewis also provided a new preface and added to the annotated bibliography, which now contains 66 items.
