Anatomy for Artists: A New Approach to Discovering, Learning and Remembering the Body

When I first heard that my friend Tony Apesos was writing a book on art anatomy, I was skeptical. After all, there are so many books out there for artists on anatomy. What new could he have to say? Well, I was surprised. I loved this book. In a new and utterly unforgettable way, it imparts fundamental knowledge about our bodies' fundamental structures. At the same time, this book opens up at every point to the goal of making art about the body that embodies a key insight: our bodies are among the most expressive `things' we can picture, sculpt or just plain look at -- in life no less than in art. The open secret to how the book accomplishes this is the novel way it teaches about the body's functions and movements. We learn to use our own bodies as reference guides that are both perfectly reliable and always available. This `lesson' is built into the book's structure, which in some sense imitates the body, but more importantly, which models a way to think about the body. After a tasty introduction, the book begins with the hands and works its way towards the torso; the book's second half begins with the feet and moves towards accounts of the same zone `from the bottom up'. The body in parts and as a unitary, expressive whole thus comes into view. This organization blends beautifully with the expression- and function-oriented approach of the prose and its delightful pen and ink illustrations. These drawings are insightful, succinct and always conveniently reproduced with the pertinent text. Into the text Apesos has integrated evocative points about evolution, beauty, and art; some of these insights -- Apesos tells us in asides -- began to develop during discussions with one of our era's preeminent Michelangelo scholars. I would think that even if you're a beginner to the topic, you'd sometimes get the feeling that you're among peers in a master class. The book resists a temptation into which some anatomy books fall, books proud of their `comprehensiveness.' In my experience that's seldom an advantage. Many finer points of the body just don't register on the body's surface, so a book crammed with layer upon layer of data quickly reaches a point of diminishing returns. To learn about and appreciate the body's grand, elemental structures, an author can't bring in every term, every minute anatomical part. Less can be more, and Apesos knows that. Which brings me to the last virtue of this book I'll mention. There's a gentle authority that Apesos brings to writing. You know you're in the hands of a sure guide, one who's thought and taught about depicting the body. Every page shows the wisdom of an expert teacher, while the book's structure shows an awareness of how we learn: at key points it's punctuated with observations that help keep `the big picture' to the fore. In short, when it comes to books on art and anatomy, there's no other I recommend more highly.

Anthony Apesos's book teaches anatomy in a way that normal people--not doctors!--can use. He shows painters and other artists how to draw the body by referring to their own bodies, looking at themselves to see how muscles and bones work in relationship to one another. This leads to art that reflects real movement and real physicality, rather than some textbook idea of what the body ought to look like--in other words, bodies in motion that look, and feel, real. Not only teachers and students can get a lot out of this approach, but weekend artists as well. Thank you for making something that seemed impossible so much easier to understand, and to do!

They are plenty of different approaches to understanding human anatomy for artistic purposes. That instruction usually falls in the "proportion and landmark" type notable in books by the likes of Byrne Hogarth and Robert Beverly Hale. Their books are far more useful for artists than the usual scads of medical-grade anatomy plates. "Anatomy for Artists" on the other had, takes that more medical approaches and makes it work. Author Anthony Apesos focuses less on names and more on function to help you understand all the body's many parts. The very first lesson involves dissecting a lamb shank. (and later cooking it for dinner) As unconventional as it seems, this little biology lesson makes you aware of how muscles, tendons, ligaments & bones work in general in order to prepare you for learning about specific parts later on. The remainder of the book cover all the various functions of how the body moves. You're encouraged to find each mentioned muscle on your body to learn how it ties to your bones and moves them around. The landmarks of the body make more sense when you realize they're usually there to give a tendon a place to insert into. Anatomy is one of the hardest aspects of art, and the best way understand it is to approach it from as many different angles as possible. "Anatomy for Artists" is a great way to get a better grip on anatomy and supplement the fine books already out there.

The author and illustrator have successfully given beginning students of artistic anatomy a 'user-friendly' and easy to apply method for coming to grips (literally) with the body's skeletal and muscular functions. By following the instructions I have made sense of what had previously been technical names of muscles, which I forgot or failed to recognize from another angle. This approach has helped me see the broad picture and it has helped me make more sense of other anatomy books - which the authors recommend via a bibliography.

Clear and readable, each chapter details an area of the body with illustrations and text perfectly matched to give just enough detail to understand the form, function and limits of each working group of muscles, bones, ligaments and tendons. The hand, forearm, movement of the elbow, movement of the upper arm, rib cage and shoulder girdle, foot, lower leg, thigh and pelvis, abdomen, and head and neck are each given their own chapters. You are shown how to see and feel for yourself how all the elements of the body work together, changing relationship, shape and tension. The approach is so logical that I found myself following the instructions to move, feel, observe, and saying, "Fascinating!" over and over again, and being amazed by what I didn't know about my own body and the way bodies work. The end result is that I gained and retained an understanding of where all the body's bits are, how they function and why. This information is not just useful to artists working in still media but of great use to everyone who needs an introduction to the hows and whys of the way the body moves: new athletes and coaches, animators, dancers and choreographers will benefit from Anthony Apesos's approach to learning anatomy.