Anatomy Lessons from the Great Masters: 100 Great Figure Drawings Analyzed

I took an art class at the junior college and the instructor suggested copying the masters to improve drawing skills. I bought this book and copied every picture. Not only did it familiarize me with many artists I had not heard of but, over time my drawing skills improved dramatically. I am now buying collections of drawings of other artists and copying. I highly recommend the book not only as a reference but also to be used to improve skills. I have an engineering background, not art and this helped immensely.

I teach human anatomy, and I draw and paint the human figure. Not until I took up studying artistic anatomy through Hale's book, especially this one, did my drawing skills and drawings and paintings zoom ahead in quality. Well worth the money, will provide hours, indeed years of reference for study.

This is the best book you can find if you want to learn about how to sketch the human figure. Buy it and start copying the sketches inside. Over and over again! Imitating the old masters will teach you things you never dreamed of and will rub off on you when you do your own work. This book has excellent reproductions of 100 super drawings. Each drawing even has accompanying commentary. By the time you're done, you will understand like never before why the drawings work, and you will be able to look at other drawings and understand them better, as well. Stop wasting time reading this review...BUY THE BOOK!

As an art student having problems in my life drawing class, finding this book in the school's library was a great discovery for me. Not only did I buy it later on, but I also recommend it to art students, or the amateur artist.