Figure Drawing For Dummies

by Kensuke Okabayashi

Figure Drawing For Dummies appeals to both new art students and veteran artists who find it difficult to proportionally draw the human form. The illustrations and examples in Figure Drawing For Dummies are designed to help readers capture this elusive figure.

Genres: Art, Drawing, Nonfiction, Reference

386 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 9, 2009

Reviews

[Ralf Zimmermann]

I wanted to learn to draw comic book characters so I started working through the book. I did not have much time first so I only did a little bid. But I went back later and took on more of the chapters. If an instructor is academically skilled and a good practitioner than it works well to start learning and practicing a new subject. I started the subject of being a comic book artist with this book and I can simply say only one thing 'It works'. The author has also a second book that refers to the subject that I consumed in big portions as well. Besides that the reading was fun, illustrative and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to get hands on experience in drawing comics.

[Parka · Rating 3 out of 5]

(More pictures at parkablogs.com)

There are four parts to this book. The first part isn't really on figure drawing and introduces the basics of drawing and the stuff you need. As a Dummies series book, this one really assumes the reader has absolutely no knowledge on drawing.

The second and third part are on drawing the head and body. The last part is about other related stuff like clothing, composition, perspective, etc.

This book has a lot of text compared to other figure drawing books. The instructions are easy enough to follow. However, the illustrated examples aren't as nice as other figure drawing books.

I can't believe I'll see the missing-forehead problem in a figure drawing book but it's there on some of the heads. Maybe the author is going for a stylised look? I don't know. The other problem of this book is the lack of examples of posing figures other that the ones in front, side and back views. It's might be a bit difficult to visualise the form and volume of the body, muscles and how they are affected when the body is in different position.

This book might be very affordable, but there are other better ones.

[Daniel Te · Rating 4 out of 5]

Props for making figure drawing pretty accessible. It's not the huge load that most anatomy composition books are, but it gets all of the individual muscles and bones that you would ever want to know. Then again, I'm not exactly a masterful artist, but I could tell that I could probably make it pretty far with all of the info presented here. Like most paperback For Dummies books, it's also pretty lightweight.

I always appreciate the For Dummies series for exploring topics in depth and in accessible manners, and this book is no different.

[eli_renx · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gute Basics

[Michaell Cavllaro · Rating 5 out of 5]

A VERY GOOD BOOK FOR BEGINNERS

If your just starting out in your figure drawing journey, read this book first. This books provides a very good foundation which you can build on.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a Dummies Guide, and is true to form: not intended for dummies, but for anybody who can stomach so much material. I worked in a bookstore, and when recomending books (of almost any kind, but especially manuals) I always told evertyone: "If you need to be an expert on the subject, take the Dummies Guide, otherwise browse until you find something that you can keep open beside you and work from." And that's still my advice. This book has all sorts of technical tidbits, probably all of the information you'd ever need. I didn't give it five stars because it's not a portable book that you can quickly or easily refer back to in a pinch. The author works hard to keep these miles of information readable and cute and funny, but it still kinda reads like a coursebook. I'd recomend it, but not for a beginner.

[Karin · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's got a few of the basics down but I did not like this book very much. I was happy that it didn't focus on the naked figure like most figure books do. It didn't cover everything I wanted to know thought and it spent far too much time talking about the head and hair. I was just looking for the body. I good but partial foundation to start on. I wouldn't recommend it.