Product Description

In Anatomy for the Artist, acclaimed artist and teacher Sarah Simblet unveils the extraordinary construction of the human body, and celebrates its continual prominence in Western Art.

The transparent body. Using superb, specially commissioned photographs of male and female models, together with historical and contemporary works of art, and her own illustrations, Sarah shows us how to see inside the human frame, to map its muscle groups, skeletal strength, balance, poise, and grace. Selected drawing superimposed over photographs reveal fascinating relationships between external appearance and internal structure.

Drawing from life. Six drawing classes guide the reader to see the human body afresh, offering techniques and attitudes that imaginatively show how to view and draw the skeleton, head, ribcage, pelvis, hands, and feet.

Dissecting the Masters. By investigating ten Masterworks, the author demonstrates different artist's ideas and knowledge across time, ranging from Holbein's Christ Entombed, to Edward Hopper's Hotel Room. Each Masterclass presents a photographed model set in the same pose, so that anatomical comparisons can be made. Understanding anatomy is often the key to an artist's understanding and interpretation of the body. This imaginative modern reference book will enhance the drawing and painting techniques of artists at every level.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17016 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Amazon.com Review
Anatomy for the Artist is like having your own life-drawing studio in the privacy of your home. Carefully constructed photographs of the human form allow you to see the structure and function of the skeleton and main muscle groups. Six imaginative drawing lessons, each supported with photography, show how to portray the bones, head, rib cage, pelvis, hands, and feet in perspective, from different angles, both in still poses and in movement.

About the Author
Sarah Simblet teaches at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford University, and at the Royal College of Art in London. She has studied and worked extensively in Europe, and her drawings are in many national and private collections, and she has had three solo shows of her large-scale works. Sarah has also acted as a consultant for several radio and television programs, including the Discovery Channel.

Photographer John Davis is renowned for his beautifully lit, strong images. He contributed to the acclaimed book Atlanta Dream, a collection of nude portraits of Olympic athletes.

Customer Reviews

Excellent photography. Average content.
This is an interesting book in that the photography is excellent. Do you like nude bodies that are in very good shape? This one has it in excess. As one who has studied artistic anatomy for over twenty years I own just about every book written on the subject. One of the things I appreciate are sources showing surface anatomy; with models that have muscle definition. The odd thing about this book is how much could have been done with it. There are about 7 or 8 transparencys that over lay the photos. All but one of these show the skeletal detail over a photo. When I am looking at the surface anatomy of a figure and trying to determine which muscles are which, I would rather have an overlay of the muscles than of the skeleton. This must have been the decision of an editor. The drawings depicting the muscles are good, no better than what has been done. Goldfinger's Human Anatomy for Artists or Richer's Artistic Anatomy are very hard to beat. The other odd note about this book is the bibliography. It's as though the items chosen were selected for their quirky nature and not their value as a source of information. Five stars for the photography, negative two stars for the anatomical content.

A worthwhile anatomy book
This book doesn't try to contain all the knowledge there is related to anatomy and drawing the human figure. That would take several volumes or more. It just does a few important things well. I think the main strength of this book is that it gives you an intuitive feeling for the human body's structure. It does a lot more than just list parts. It tells you how the body works, how the parts work together, and the nature of those parts. She gives you more scientific and historical information than other books generally do. The second strength is the large number of well-lit photographs of fit, lean, muscular models in many informative, useful poses. The models are pretty good for seeing the contours of muscles, bones, and connective tissues. I think the inclusuion of a few body builders might've been good too. The latter chapters of the book deal with poses and the body in motion. They include many photographs of models. I appreciated this, and it's something not a lot of anatomy books have.
As for the overlays, I didn't think they were all that important. As for the drawings of the muscles and bones, they were useful and good, but they could've been better. I would've prefered some sort of smoothly shaded renderings instead of scratchy pen & ink drawings. It would also have been nice to have the muscles in different colors so they'd be easier to differentiate. Although vellum is nice, it tends to warp from humidity and it's not transparent enough. Therefore it would've been better to make the overlays out of plastic.
While this isn't the be-all, end-all of anatomy books, I think it is one of the better books to include in your anatomy library. I have several other great anatomy books besides this one.

a excellent general reference
this is really a coffee table anatomy book, as it is centered on john davis's spectacular color photographs of physically pleasing young models, artsy anatomical illustrations of bones and muscle groups, a gallery of studio poses, and kewl design touches. (the translucent muscle diagrams are especially neat: they fold over matching full color photographs of head, limbs and torso, though the book bindery doesn't always line up the two exactly.) a bonus is the unique and interesting introductory history of anatomical studies. the coverage is broad stroke -- focusing on large muscle groups, or anatomical units such as the hand, not on individual bones or muscles. my disappointments include the appallingly skimpy treatment of facial emotions, the breezy anatomical descriptions (one gets a poor idea of individual muscle form and action), the narrow sampling of model physical types (all are gorgeous), and the fatuous gallery of simblet sketches, who likes to draw bodies piled on top of each other. for practical work, i much prefer eliot goldfinger's masterful "encyclopedia" of human anatomy for the artist, but simblet's book is easier to use as a quick or general reference and also makes a provocative browse for your dinner guests. best is to own both, and go to goldfinger if your question requires authoritative, in depth information.