Anatomy for Sculptors Understanding the Human Figure Paperback – January 1, 1777

I've been working through the premium anatomy class at Proko.com, and while those lessons are thorough, there have been muscle groups that have been really hard for me to visualize in different positions and at different angles (hello, forearms!). With the other anatomy books I have, I'm either seeing one or a few images of a body part -- either photos or illustrations -- with arrows pointing to the muscles. It just hasn't been enough to help me understand the entire form of the muscle and how it changes with movement, and how a diagram of muscles relates to what I'm seeing on the surface. This has been especially true with the arms, where pronation or supination, or the rotation of the shoulder, really changes the entire contour. This book breaks everything down very thoroughly -- you see the body part in a particular position, then with overlayed muscles, then with cross contours that give you a good sense of the massing of the forms. And this process is repeated for lots of different angles and positions. It's extremely thorough. It also has lots of little "notes" about things to watch for, which is SO much more helpful than the chapters of text that most other anatomy books seem to have (I never read those). Other than those notes, the book doesn't waste any real estate on text, because as a reference, that's just not necessary.Could I learn anatomy entirely from this? Probably not -- I think I'd be overwhelmed. But in combination with a class that breaks things into small bits, like Proko does, it's perfect.I just got the book, but what I'll start doing as I do the assignment drawings at Proko, is looking at the model, getting a sense in my mind of what's what, and then finding an equivalent pose in the book, and really making sure I understand what all the muscles are before I begin to draw. I feel like this is finally the key to understanding for me.Yes, this book is very expensive, and I actually went and bought yet another anatomy book before finally taking the plunge with this one, which of course I wish I hadn't done. The one small criticism I have with it is that many of the photos are pretty small. I'm pretty nearsighted, so I've found myself actually taking off my glasses and putting my face 2 inches from the book so I can see all the details! I'd prefer this, though, over a less comprehensive book with fewer images (or one that's even more expensive). Great work!

The book is a great step by step introduction to human anatomy.

I got this book after not having a dedicated anatomy book for a few years. I was scared of the price at first but I have to say I'm glad I made the investment.PROS:Many clear, consice drawings with few words.I've had many books where the dime-sized drawings are drowned in a sea of blank pages coupled with countless paragraphs describing what they could've just shown. I'm an impatiant artist. I'm not here to read, I'm here to draw!This book isn't like that. It's gloriously detailed without all the bloated descriptions. It clearly shows the forms of the body with easy to understand tips. For example the do's and don't's are shown planely with an (X) or a (✓).It gets to the point.CONS:1) Mostly idealized men.Despite plenty of dedicated pages on female anatomy the models mostly lean toward male. It's not bad as there's a lot of crossover with muscle structure but the amount of either gender is like 80:20, male:female. There are even fewer pages dedicated to different body types, which is sad but expected.2) (for 2d artists) There's less of a focus on foreshortaining.This is really a book for sculptors so there's less of a focus on translating the 3d form into a 2d plain. Drawing in perspective isn't really touched on in this book. If you can handle your own perspective that isn't too bad though.Conclusion: This is a great resource packed to the brim with visual information. A great investment. I was not disappointed!

Love the book, my only small issue with it is that I wish it would elaborate more in some aspects about the body proportions but the information provided is a great starting point and also provides plenty of examples

This book is brilliantly designed. The authors do an amazing job of breaking down the human form into simplistic shapes, and then building on those shapes into the more complex forms. Previously, I'd bought a lot of medical anatomy books, but those mostly use photographs and are hard to distinguish the muscles. And they seem hell-bent on identification rather than motion of parts. Conversely, anatomy books I got for artists relied on illustrations instead of photographs. So I found I was limited to the skill and focus of the artist who illustrated the book, instead of being able to form my own focus. But this book combines all of the views... it has photographs with graph overlays so you can see the depth of the shapes, and color variations to distinguish or chunk the muscles. Honestly, best anatomy book i've ever had and an amazing lesson on outstanding Instructional Design or design in general. I was worried about the price, but I've been really pleased with this purchase.

Ordered this book yesterday after hesitating for a while because of the price. I’m very glad I decided to buy it. The book is great quality and arrived today! I already used it as a reference to draw muscles on a character. Great book to have as a tool!

There's an older review on here that criticizes the book for "censorship," but those images are for sections that illustrates arms and legs. Ignore that review.I can understand why the author "censored" genitals in these sections since the focus is on the structure of the ***arms*** and ***legs*** in that specific section.There are genitalia throughout other parts of the book, in a professional/medical context, as expected from a book on anatomy.I almost didn't buy the book because of that misleading review.