40 Days of Art: Life Drawing Books
The TRINITY of LIFE DRAWING LITERATURE
According to Tealin
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards
This book will probably teach you more than any other single book how to think about drawing on a fundamental level. Basically, it teaches you how to see. It trains your brain. And as I hope I've demonstrated in at least a few posts, it's all in your brain! The author takes the stance that anyone who can write letters can draw, which includes nearly everyone. There are exercises. They are dull, as exercises are wont to be. DO THEM. You can thank me later.
Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist by Stephen Peck
Pretty much everything you need to know about what's going on under the skin, so you can understand what all those bumps mean. Mostly bones and muscle - the digestive system doesn't come into play much when you're life drawing - but super clear, useful diagrams and the like.
Force: Life Drawing for Animators by Mike Mattesi
Once you've learned from Ms Edwards how to put on paper what you see, Mr Mattesi will teach you how to think about what you are drawing and take it to the max. By which I mean make it more dynamic, really get to the core of what's going on in the figure, how to express the rhythms and motion in your lines, capture not just what a pose looks like but how it feels, etc. This book changed not only how I approached life drawing but pretty much all drawing I do, reprogramming the way I draw right down to how I put a line on the page. Cannot recommend highly enough. In fact, I should probably give it another read-through myself ...
According to Tealin
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards
This book will probably teach you more than any other single book how to think about drawing on a fundamental level. Basically, it teaches you how to see. It trains your brain. And as I hope I've demonstrated in at least a few posts, it's all in your brain! The author takes the stance that anyone who can write letters can draw, which includes nearly everyone. There are exercises. They are dull, as exercises are wont to be. DO THEM. You can thank me later.
Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist by Stephen Peck
Pretty much everything you need to know about what's going on under the skin, so you can understand what all those bumps mean. Mostly bones and muscle - the digestive system doesn't come into play much when you're life drawing - but super clear, useful diagrams and the like.
Force: Life Drawing for Animators by Mike Mattesi
Once you've learned from Ms Edwards how to put on paper what you see, Mr Mattesi will teach you how to think about what you are drawing and take it to the max. By which I mean make it more dynamic, really get to the core of what's going on in the figure, how to express the rhythms and motion in your lines, capture not just what a pose looks like but how it feels, etc. This book changed not only how I approached life drawing but pretty much all drawing I do, reprogramming the way I draw right down to how I put a line on the page. Cannot recommend highly enough. In fact, I should probably give it another read-through myself ...