The Vilppu Drawing Manual - A Book Review

Well I'm doing something quite strange with this review... The book happens to be free! Go figure right? Wow I'm so awesome *my perfect sarcasm* . So please enjoy this review and feel free to download it (quite literally).

Burne Horgarth: Dynamic Figure Drawing

Image provided by: Amazon

I like drawing naked people. It's a fact.

Now let's start this review. Dynamic Figure Drawing by Burne Hogarth is a relatively popular book considering it's an art book. Chances are if you ever had an art teacher or looked around on forums someone has recommended this book. So why are you reading this? Good point. I don't know. Maybe it's because my little reviews give you a jolly chuckle - either way you're bored enough to read this so let’s get on with it.

How to Draw Vampires - A Book Review

Image Provided by Amazon.

*Stops Sparkling* - Ah well... That's kind of embarrassing really... 

How to Draw Vampires is a book written by Mike Butkus and Merrie Destefano. The illustrations shown in the book are by Mike Butkus. And no. They don't sparkle. However that is not the most surprising part about this book, the most surprising part about this book is the fact that it is really really good. Really. So lets begin this review!

100 Ways to Create Fantasy Figures - By Francis Tsai

Time for another book review (yaaaaay...). This is yet another book from the company Impact, which is surprising because I suppose that means they have a fairly good line up of published books... 100 Ways to Create Fantasy Figures is written by and uses illustrations from Francis Tsai.

Bold Visions: The Digital Painting Bible - by Gary Tonge

Image owned by Gary Tonge and Impact

I have returned and I thirst for the blood of pomegranate juice. I fucking love that stuff.

Today's review is one of great interest to probably many of you looking to get into digital art. After all if you want to do freelance or concept art this would be important to you. Bold Visions: The Digital Painting Bible is written by Gary Tonge and uses his drawings/paintings within the book.

Figure Drawing (for all it's Worth) by Andrew Loomis - A Book Review

Image provided by Amazon

Alright time for another book review. Mainly because I don't feel like drawing at the moment and life isn't really going the way I planned it. After all why else would I do a book review?

Okay so, Figure Drawing for all it's Worth by Andrew Loomis is probably one of the greatest beginner books you will ever lay your eyes on. Nuff said.

But in all seriousness Andrew explores the very broad subject of drawing the figure, such as the hands, feet, drawing a person in perspective, proportion, etc. I've seen plenty of garbage books and Andrew does a fantastic job simplifying the human figure without making it look like a child drew it. He also shows some general processes that artists use in order to draw their figures and he explains it in text very well. If you are completely knew to figure drawing this book helps you build your foundations. Does this mean you will be a pro hax artist? No. Far from it really. This book is an amazing piece of work with great tips and inspirational text  but (in my humble opinion) the only way to get really good at figure drawing is to draw from life or lots of reference from photographs (and of course anatomy books, drawn or real). Does that mean you should not get this book? I would recommend getting it just because of the tips and how he simplifies the human form. Drawing from this book will help the beginner grab a basic understanding of how the human body works and allows the beginner to create a sort of image of how to start the figure before he begins.

Please remember though practice is what makes an artist good. Not the amount of books he has lying around (take me for example :3).

So you can either buy the book here or to the left in the side bar. - And as a bonus I would also recommend looking at Drawing the Head and Hands from Andrew Loomis as well. It's an amazing book that goes into a more in depth look into the (well obviously) head and hands. Great reference, great tricks and helps a lot in my opinion. Click here to get it.

Anatomy for the Artist - A book review.

From amazon

From Amazon

*Stops playing Starcraft* - Oh why hello. Today I will be reviewing Anatomy for Artists a book written by Sarah Simblet and photographed by John Davis.

Now there are many many books that talk about anatomy that artists can use for reference and for information. However not every book is meant for an artist and often contains more information than reference that one can use. This book however is meant for people who like pretty pictures and muscles.

Before continuing though I would like to say that the book does a fantastic job with telling you how muscles work (in text form) and that doing a little bit of reading never really hurts. 

The photography in this book is absolutely amazing. I love it. I think they oil up some of their models in order to show more groves on the surface. I can literally see almost all of their back muscles. The photographer really knew what he was doing when he chose his models and took their photos.

Now as for the illustrations: They are alright. I mean yes they are well done but they are not really the main focus in the book. There are a few sketches of hands, skulls and the like but they do not really make up much of the book. They do have some handy little drawings of muscles under the skin though and I find those to be useful.  So anyone really looking for anatomy reference with lots of drawings should look elsewhere. However I do like the full front and back view of the skeleton that is drawn near the front of the book. It's always great to have one of those handy.

Well to conclude this massive (end sarcasm) review I would like to say that this book is great. The models are one of the best I've seen (male and female) and anyone looking for real model reference would be doing themselves a favour by getting this book. Hell even the sketches add something to the book and make it even better.

Buy from amazon either to the left in the sidebar or click Here.