How to Draw the Human Figure (Watson-Guptill Artist's Library)

Rating:
Summary: I respect Parramon, wish I could rate it even higher
Review: Jose Parramon's book, "How to draw the human figure" in my opinion, barely missed defining the genre of "figure drawing" texts for beginners. He covers fundaments of anatomy well, and yet leaves me wanting for some illustrations of specific muscles in master drawings such as Robert Beverly Hale uses. Parramon also uses simple block figures in a variety of poses and dynamic motion, which every beginner needs, but he could have included just a couple more pages of illustration also. I guess this is where I take exception to Parramon's text, for I find myself strangely wishing he had done more in nearly every chapter.

One added bonus in this book, is on page 24, where a reproduction of Luca Cambiaso's block figure drawing is shown. I haven't found that on the internet. This demonstrates the method the Renaissance masters used to learn figure drawing, and is the singular key omitted from the faddish and gimmick drawing books ("Drawing On the Right Side of the Brain" etc) on the market today.

The pages containing a pattern for a cutout figure, referred to as the "articulated doll" seemed entirely unnecessary, unless one is so poor as to be unable to afford a wooden articulated artist's model for $10.00. It's a disappointment to feel that an author is personally masterful of his craft, but somehow produces a book that yields only a glimmer of his brilliance. I am happy to have one in my library, just the same.

Rating:
Summary: Draw like this !
Review: See those figure drawings on the back cover? If you can make those, you understand the basics of figure drawing. They show a feel for the figure, in a general sense, the basic proportions and how things relate to each other. These exercises teach the basic shapes and positions. You will solidify your understanding of how the body moves and carries itself, to create more natural and flowing sketches.

Rating:
Summary: Typical
Review: Typical but with many repeated drawings as seen in other art instruction books.