Figure Drawing: A Complete Guide

Fantastic value for money. Giovanni always delivers with such detail and focus and offers tips and advice to achieve skill in drawing figures. A great resource for any artist with numerous examples of work. Includes anatomical drawing, form, hatching, proportion, structure, perspective, foreshortening, poses, drapery, parts of the body and step-by-step examples. The format is small, the type is small, everything is in black and white and the contents are superb.

* YarnsandFabrics.co.uk *

I’m not normally a fan of smaller-format bind-ups. The original books were the way they were for a reason and smaller pages and thick spines can make for difficult reading. All too often, they look like the sort of bumper value nonsense someone else would buy for you and which just sits on the shelf taking up space.

So, it’s a pleasure to be able to welcome this one. The Giovanni Civardi drawing books are a valuable resource, and there are a lot of them. This compilation includes seven, which would cost you the wrong side of sixty quid to buy individually. £12.99 for a bulk deal is a real bargain, especially as the result is actually usable. I’d like to say that Search Press have taken my previous criticisms of this kind of thing on board, but it’s probably more to do with the happenstance of production. What seems to have happened is that thinner paper and cover card have been used, meaning that the book falls open easily and isn’t too heavy to hold. It’ll even, more or less, lay flat by itself without breaking the spine. The smaller format also adds to the manageability: 440 A4 pages would make for a coffee table book, which this emphatically isn’t.

So, what do you get? Well, not Giovanni’s complete output, for sure. However, the selection is nicely thought-out and makes for a book that lives up to its own billing of being the complete guide. Drawing Techniques is a useful introduction.  Further chapters are Understanding Human Form & Structure, The Nude, Sketching People, Heads & Faces, Drawing Hands & Feet and Clothing on Figures. It’s worth a complete list to show just how nicely this progresses.

If you haven’t already got an extensive collection of the separate volumes, and you’re looking for a good primer on figure drawing, buy this. It’s very reasonably priced and so practical as to be ridiculously good value.

* Artbookreview.net *

Wow, what more can I say? This is the definitive guide to have with you at all times, regardless of what level you are at in your life drawing/figure drawing career. With hundreds of fantastic images by the artist, illustrating each point he makes-and rather excitingly I thought, there's a complete anatomical drawing section at the beginning of the book-detailing skeletal structure, muscule striations and even naming the areas and showing their thickness beneath the skin! As a former scientist and current art student, I found this blend of anatomy and drawing techniques to be incredibl pleasing. I've only had this book a few days but I have a feeling that I will be using this book again and again throughout my artistic life.

I was impressed overall by the reader friendly writing, and the advice given throughout-I could hear my tutors at uni speaking as I read the words '' Get into the habit of always carring a pencil and small sketchbook around". I would recommend this book to other students and artists and anone who has an interest in form or anatomy.

* Rachel Kelly *

 can honestly say, hand on heart, that this is one of the best, if not THE best book, I have ever read on figure drawing. I have just begun a fine art degree, and a big part of the course is figure drawing. Our tutors  recommended some books for us to look up, but none of them were as good as this. This book is truly fascinating, it starts with the skeleton, and builds layer upon layer. It covers everything from the skeleton, to muscles, balance, hands and feet, it also has a section on heads and faces and the clothed figure too.

With 100`s of illustrations, this book is cram packed with everything you need to know about drawing the human figure. There is a large section on drawing materials, and the different marks you can make using different mediums. This book is very informative, and very easy to understand. I would highly recommend it to anyone.

* Sharon Dougl