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Drawing Cutting Edge Anatomy: The Ultimate Reference for Comic Book Artists
This drawing tutorial from best-selling author Christopher Hart shows artists how to draw exaggerated musculature of super-sized figures in action poses.
144 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
43 people are currently reading
136 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Hart
155 books204 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
I started drawing character designs and storyboards for a small animation studio in while in High School. Cartooning and animation was a magical experience to me. I try to bring that experience, as well as art tips, to my readers. Their enthusiasm also motivates me.
Early in my career, my cartoon work got noticed by Watson-Guptill, a premier publisher of art books. They asked me to do a book for them on drawing cartoons. It sold 200,000 copies, which is a healthy number. So we kept going. I discovered that I enjoyed the art of creating books, which has its own special requirements. I also worked as an author for Random House, Quarto and Soho Publishing. In total, I have had 8 million books sold, and have been translated into 20 languages.
My book, "The Master Guide to Drawing Anime: How to Draw Original Characters from Simple Templates" has sold over half a million copies to date and is still very actively in print. An earlier book of mine, "Manga Mania: How to Draw Japanese Comics:" reached the number one art book in the country, according to Bookscan.
I've also been a cover story on the industry trade magazine, "Publisher's Weekly." And if you've read this far into my Bio, then I'm more impressed with you than you are with me!
Thank you so very much for letting me offer some inspiration to you in your art adventures.
Christopher Hart
I started drawing character designs and storyboards for a small animation studio in while in High School. Cartooning and animation was a magical experience to me. I try to bring that experience, as well as art tips, to my readers. Their enthusiasm also motivates me.
Early in my career, my cartoon work got noticed by Watson-Guptill, a premier publisher of art books. They asked me to do a book for them on drawing cartoons. It sold 200,000 copies, which is a healthy number. So we kept going. I discovered that I enjoyed the art of creating books, which has its own special requirements. I also worked as an author for Random House, Quarto and Soho Publishing. In total, I have had 8 million books sold, and have been translated into 20 languages.
My book, "The Master Guide to Drawing Anime: How to Draw Original Characters from Simple Templates" has sold over half a million copies to date and is still very actively in print. An earlier book of mine, "Manga Mania: How to Draw Japanese Comics:" reached the number one art book in the country, according to Bookscan.
I've also been a cover story on the industry trade magazine, "Publisher's Weekly." And if you've read this far into my Bio, then I'm more impressed with you than you are with me!
Thank you so very much for letting me offer some inspiration to you in your art adventures.
Christopher Hart
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
December 1, 2007
Hart's writing style approaches something like the failed humor of a pot-smoking uncle trying to 'cut the jive and vibe on your level'. He does not have an understanding of the methods of either teaching or art in order to aid any up-and-coming artists. Stick with Loomis and Hogarth and just steal your style from your favorite comic artist. There are a number of good artists (and some quite poor) who Hart tapped for this book, but if you just want to copy styles, you'd learn more copying from your average monthly title, because at least the art will be professional quality.
My Suggested Readings in Comics
My Suggested Readings in Comics
April 19, 2019
Hart is definitely trying. The book is not bad as a pose reference for those that like superhero comics. But, overall, for a book published in 2004 it sure feels dated. The very first page of "foundation" skills breaks down the skeletal structure and the female skeleton (over a female figure) is show with exaggerated curves and a thigh gap! I know many people will not be bothered by this but for me it automatically made me wary.
Over and over throughout the manual female sexiness is stressed when talking about poses, anatomy, or face shape. As an example, there is a two-page spread on how to do "drop-dead gorgeous head tilts" which ends with this tidbit on designing a supervillianess, "the badder she is, the sexier she must look." (pg47) Later, in the introduction of the arms and hands section Hart notes, "Arm muscles are the showpiece for heroes and brutes. On women they must be athletic, yet long and attractive." (pg84) For me it was incredibly off-putting.
Terrible female anatomy and the constant stressing of sexiness as the defining female trait were enough to turn me off. But I should not that there is also no diversity of character design. These are cookie cutter silver age comic book character designs. He doesn't discuss how ethnicity effects facial structure or go into how to draw any male characters beyond the Superman overtly buff type. Maybe once he mentions the existence of fat males and twice uses skinny males as examples of "cowardly" or "villainous" looks. There are much better anatomy books out there!
Over and over throughout the manual female sexiness is stressed when talking about poses, anatomy, or face shape. As an example, there is a two-page spread on how to do "drop-dead gorgeous head tilts" which ends with this tidbit on designing a supervillianess, "the badder she is, the sexier she must look." (pg47) Later, in the introduction of the arms and hands section Hart notes, "Arm muscles are the showpiece for heroes and brutes. On women they must be athletic, yet long and attractive." (pg84) For me it was incredibly off-putting.
Terrible female anatomy and the constant stressing of sexiness as the defining female trait were enough to turn me off. But I should not that there is also no diversity of character design. These are cookie cutter silver age comic book character designs. He doesn't discuss how ethnicity effects facial structure or go into how to draw any male characters beyond the Superman overtly buff type. Maybe once he mentions the existence of fat males and twice uses skinny males as examples of "cowardly" or "villainous" looks. There are much better anatomy books out there!
January 21, 2021
Really shows how to draw the anatomy. The muscles are exaggerated since it's for comics, but that's to be expected for comic book style. I think it will be beneficial to go through this again and spend some time and draw all the examples.
August 30, 2024
Has some good tips on poses in general but some extremely weird/gross commentary around men's and women's bodies. It's not even presented informationally or that there are stereotypes, but that these are concrete, written-in-stone and good rules.
pp. 16-17 has these comments on male/female height - "You're not going to see a five-foot-tall hero in comics. Not gonna happen." and then "Female characters start at 6.5 to 7 heads tall. They can be exaggerated up to 12 heads tall, but this is not to add a sense of raw power so much as to promote a sense of long-legged sex appeal, grace and a commanding presence".
Then p. 19
"With male comics characters, you can mold their bodies into many different shapes, producing a wide range of cool characters.
It's not so easy with women. Women in comics are, by and large, attractive-even the villains.
Especially the villains! The Voluptuous Vixen and the Villainess are much more attractive in
cutting-edge comics. So, you have less latitude in altering the body. You can't draw brutish women or you'll lose the attractiveness. Therefore, the changes rely less on body types and more on pose, costume and attitude".
This was written in 2004 and no wonder it's still difficult for female comic book artists (or anyone that wants to do something slightly different) to break into the industry.
I started by giving this 2 stars but the more I looked at it, I dropped this down to one. I'd hate to think of someone picking this up and believing what it says. Artists - including comic book artists - should be striving to learn creativity and how to create interesting stories with images. Not just thinking with their dicks.
pp. 16-17 has these comments on male/female height - "You're not going to see a five-foot-tall hero in comics. Not gonna happen." and then "Female characters start at 6.5 to 7 heads tall. They can be exaggerated up to 12 heads tall, but this is not to add a sense of raw power so much as to promote a sense of long-legged sex appeal, grace and a commanding presence".
Then p. 19
"With male comics characters, you can mold their bodies into many different shapes, producing a wide range of cool characters.
It's not so easy with women. Women in comics are, by and large, attractive-even the villains.
Especially the villains! The Voluptuous Vixen and the Villainess are much more attractive in
cutting-edge comics. So, you have less latitude in altering the body. You can't draw brutish women or you'll lose the attractiveness. Therefore, the changes rely less on body types and more on pose, costume and attitude".
This was written in 2004 and no wonder it's still difficult for female comic book artists (or anyone that wants to do something slightly different) to break into the industry.
I started by giving this 2 stars but the more I looked at it, I dropped this down to one. I'd hate to think of someone picking this up and believing what it says. Artists - including comic book artists - should be striving to learn creativity and how to create interesting stories with images. Not just thinking with their dicks.
March 24, 2018
It was fun to read this book because it had a lot of drawings and had some useful tips. I will have to practice my drawing. I particularly enjoyed the end of the book when he talked about career opportunities for artists. It made me want to before a comic book artist.
October 6, 2023
This book was actually a very helpful reference for anatomical drawings, it really helped me get a grip on the muscles without any inappropriate pictures included. Very well designed!
November 27, 2013
This is a really great book on drawing comic book people. It goes through each part of the body and gives you several examples of different ways to draw them.
January 8, 2009
Decent reference book for comic artists.
September 1, 2011
I like this book. I actually use it a lot as reference for my sketches and paintings.
December 16, 2015
Could be better. Maybe, my expectations were high. At least it's easy to read but i can not say it helped me a lot.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews