Bridgman's Complete Guide to Drawing from Life

Solid approach towards drawing human anatomy... nothing more to say, not great, but solid enough for any beginner to comprehend.

I would rate this ten stars if I could. Speaking as someone who has gone to some school and trying to complete my portfolio through books and tutorials, this book is absolutely indispensable. Its a little hard to understand as navarro states earlier. But once you actually work through an exercise, any exercise, his method clicks very quickly and easily. I am amazed by the amount I learn and skill I gain with every page of this book. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in any area of art.

I was very put off by this book initially for reasons that I see in some of the other reviews: very rough drawings, and somewhat inconsistent labeling. However, with my professor's repeated encouragement, I stuck with this book, and I'm glad I did. It outlines a method of machine-like construction that I have found invaluable for illustration, life drawing, and animation. The idea of breaking down the human figure into simple forms for construction is not new - most good figure books I've come across outline methods of doing this. (One of the other reviews suggests Andrew Loomis, for example, which everyone should definitely check out.) What makes this book unique, though, is that it takes the principle a deeper extreme - you learn how to construct not only the basic masses (rib cage, legs, head, etc) but the individual bone and muscle groups that they are made out of. Solid drawing taken to a new level. The loose, simplified style of the illustrations is necessary, I think - they capture the bare essense without any distracting detail. They also demonstrate how dynamic a drawing becomes when it is not overworked. On the other hand, they can be hard to "read" if you have no idea what you're looking at, so I think a companion book is necessary as a counterpoint for beginners like myself. My recommendation would be Dr. Paul Richer's "Artistic Anatomy," whose diagrams are the exact opposite of Bridgman's - exhaustive in detail and clarity. Usually, I have the two books open side by side - Bridgman for construction, Richer for clarification. Andrew Loomis is another must - very clear, very accessible. His system of construction is simpler, but as a result it is great for gesture drawing. Bottom line, this book can be challenging in places, but it is well worth it to puzzle through them.

I own several drawing books including: Drawing A Contemporary Approach (Betti / Sale), Figure Drawing (Goldstein), The Craft of Drawing (Wood), Gray's Anatomy, Drawing on The Right Side of The Brain (Edwards). BRIDGMAN'S is bar the best purchase, and possibly the only drawing book you need to teach yourself to draw. Let me preface that by saying, Betty Edwards book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain I also give five stars, primarially as a fantastic tool for teaching drawing, and for those beginners who are not right-brain dominant but want to draw. Open to almost any page in Bridgman's and you'll see several illustrations to begin working from if you choose. Or, read from the beginning the simple text that helps break down the figure, and the figure's components, into shapes and go from there. This book is brimming with accurate and easy to read text and anatomical poses to learn from.I guarantee you, if you draw as you see in the Bridgman's book, or if you even copy every drawing in the Bridgman's book, you will draw the figure, and everything else, like a professional. This book should be on every teacher and professor's course syllabus for all drawing levels. Great tips, great tools, great reminders. Enjoy drawing!

This book is excellent for those artists who need practice drawing the human figure because the book has so many progressive pictures to look at and utilize. The section for "hands" is very good showing the artist, by example, how to go about starting each finger and on to the thumb and how to attach them to the hand. Each of the sections on the figure is self contained with several sketches with varying views (top, side,etc.) I have a hard time with specific components of the figure and this book has made everything very clear and helpful.