Rating: 
Summary: A VERY BAD POOR INTRODUCTION TO FIGURE DRAWING.
Review: Sorry, but this book is a mess from the get go: third rate text and seventh rate drawings do not a good book make.I've been a life drawing instructor for several years and one of my biggest gripes has been the over abundance of crap art how too books. A colleague gave me this book as a joke after one of my tirades. So I read it and was stunned by its awfulness!The text is the usual boiler plate of basic techniques that is available in tons of other, better, beginning figure drawing books. The writing is repetitious, murky and imprecise. But this defect is surmounted by Kraayvanger's abysmal drawing examples. Never mind having a "spot the mistake" section, every drawing provides ample opportunity to locate howlers of mis-drawn figures.No doubt this sad book may be of assistance to the hopeless perpetual amateur. You know, the kind of dolt who after 5 years of drawing from the figure finds it a revelation that when drawing a figure they should work from general to specific or simplify the lighting by dividing the figure into mass light and mass shade while ignoring details.Please, if you want to learn how to do life drawings find a good teacher and buy any book on the subject other than this one because it is the worst that there is and it won't help any SERIOUS student. Its example drawings aren't "visual poetry", they're, as another reviewer pointed out, HACKWORK!
Rating:
Summary: A VERY BAD POOR INTRODUCTION TO FIGURE DRAWING.
Review: Sorry, but this book is a mess from the get go: third rate text and seventh rate drawings do not a good book make.I've been a life drawing instructor for several years and one of my biggest gripes has been the over abundance of crap art how too books. A colleague gave me this book as a joke after one of my tirades. So I read it and was stunned by its awfulness!The text is the usual boiler plate of basic techniques that is available in tons of other, better, beginning figure drawing books. The writing is repetitious, murky and imprecise. But this defect is surmounted by Kraayvanger's abysmal drawing examples. Never mind having a "spot the mistake" section, every drawing provides ample opportunity to locate howlers of mis-drawn figures.No doubt this sad book may be of assistance to the hopeless perpetual amateur. You know, the kind of dolt who after 5 years of drawing from the figure finds it a revelation that when drawing a figure they should work from general to specific or simplify the lighting by dividing the figure into mass light and mass shade while ignoring details.Please, if you want to learn how to do life drawings find a good teacher and buy any book on the subject other than this one because it is the worst that there is and it won't help any SERIOUS student. Its example drawings aren't "visual poetry", they're, as another reviewer pointed out, HACKWORK!
Rating: 
Summary: Thoughts on Figure Drawing Workshop
Review: The study of figure drawing can be broken down into two parts: the mechanical and the aesthetic. They cannot be separated in the finished product, but they can, and should be separated during early study. The mechanical part can be analyzed, measured, judged, and taught. The aesthetic part cannot be truly analyzed, measured, or judged, and since there are many legitimate opinions on what constitutes good or bad art, it ultimately comes down to personal taste, and that changes. Because of this, the aesthetic component probably cannot even be taught, only fed and encouraged.Recognizing this, the author has chosen to stick with the teachable component in this book to avoid the almost insurmountable problems that are caused by exposing embryo artists to the confusing realm of aesthetics before they are ready for it. The early (and often exclusive) focus on style and technique by teachers can interfere with a students ability to see clearly, impartially, and logically. Carried to the extreme, this creates carbon copies of the teacher's own personal preferences and leaves the student without the tools to express their own artistic visions clearly. This is especially true for the many young artists who wish to express themselves realistically. Since the aesthetic component contains your personal style, I believe that it should be left to grow by exposure to other good examples with as little influence from a teacher's personal opinions as possible during the early stages of training. This view will undoubtedly get this book some lively, if not outright hostile reviews from the more insecure teachers, and, of course there will always be those who feel they can intelligently critique a book without actually reading it, but I stand by it. We have all seen the results of both ways of teaching. This book is directed mainly at beginners and those who missed getting their true basics earlier. You'll find drawings scanned straight out of the authors sketchbooks, giving an honest example of what to expect as you work under the conditions you find in figure drawing workshops. You will find no brilliant examples of twenty hour drawings, or stylistic, overmuscled anatomical renderings that might confuse the message. You will find it necessary to actually read the text and study the drawings carefully, thoughtfully, and with an open mind if you are to get the most from it. Unless you are perfectly satisfied with your own work, there will be something here for you, simply read it, and approach it with an open mind.
Rating: 
Summary: Finally, A figure drawing book for beginners
Review: Though I would have to agree with some of what the previous reviewer said (Somewhat poor
drawings, lot of info in other books, etc.) I feel that this book really helped me to understand the basics of figure drawing. It has some excellent tips and a few other nuances that make it worthwhile. But if you are already a skilled at figure drawing, you might want to look somewhere else. I recommend Ron Tiners, figure drawing w/o a model.
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