Essential Reading

From FC - http://www.spacylittlecowgirl.net/:

Useful books

Hi all. Haven't posted much to these boards mostly due to lack of time, but I figured I'd provide something useful while I was at it.

I've accumulated a lot of useful books over the years and was reviewing my latest find when it was suggested to me that I might post info on it as a resource. A few of these are for drawing, a couple are for those looking at getting in to the industry of graphic design and illustration.

Note: No book can ever teach you all the aspects of drawing, nor can any one book tell you exactly how to draw - everyone interprets what they see differently and as a result, everyone has their own methods for drawing. This list of books is intended as a resource for individuals who are looking for collections of realistic anatomy and suggested methods on how to draw, and is in no way presented as definitive.

Drawing the Human Body by Giovanni Civardi

167 - B/W, illustrated analytical presentation on anatomy and expression, concerned mainly with morphology of these parts as the body changes position.

This is a clinically illustrated book that clearly and concisely points out anatomy and morphology, as well as the differences for both between male and female bodies. The black and white pencil illustrations show up clearly and are complimented by numbered indications of body parts and their interaction with other body parts. Civardi is clear in both illustration and explanation, and presents a realistic (though generalized) view of the human male and female figure.

The book doesn't delve too deeply in to anatomy on the skeletal or superficial muscular level - it does touch on each briefly with the use of anatomical charts for each, but the morphology illustrations are all presented with skin overlying the musculature. The book also only illustrates the very general, classical human form. Artists looking for information on ethnical or age differences will not find them here.

Supplemental Resources:

Figure Drawing for All Its Worth - Andrew Loomis - oldschool, tried and true. Great resource for superficial musculature from various angles.

Atlas of Human Anatomy for Artists (Stephen Peck) - also pretty old, but good resource for anatomy, analysis of different body types, different ethnicities.

Anatomy for the Artist - Sarah Simblet - relatively new. Not cheap, but includes full colour photos of the models, with vellum overlay drawings of skeletal and muscular structure.

Facial Expressions by Mark Simon

253 pages of photographs featuring 54 models of a variety of ages displaying a variety of emotions from many angles, and continues to be a useful resource by providing photos for sequential expressions (sneezing, heads turning, laughing), kissing, phonemes (shape of the mouth for specific speech sounds), hats and other headgear (sports headgear, ethnic headgear, caps, casual hats, safety headgear, work hats).

This book is quite useful in concept in that it presents people of various age, ethnicity, male or female displaying a wide range of emotions from many angles. Some of these expressions have been criticized as being overly comical, and I agree some may be a bit over the top. I have, however, seen a few comical friends pull most of these off in normal conversation, so I wouldn't say they are completely outside of the human ability to express.

There are three things with this book I find a problem though - first of all, the book displays only expressions from adult faces - ranging from age 20-83. I would have much preferred to see some representation from the infant, child and adolescent age groups. Second - The expressions are arranged based on age and not expression - there is no way to see the same expression from all the age groups together. Thirdly - while most of the photos are quite clear, the black and white halftone reproduction overall sometimes leads to fuzzy photos that make for ambiguous readings of the expression. Colour printing could have helped in this regard, or perhaps a cd-rom of screen resolution images artists could refer to that would not be hampered with the poor reproduction via bw halftone.

Comic Artist's Photo Reference: People and Poses by Buddy Scalera

Book: 141 full colour pages of photos and demos featuring four models of diverse ethnicity. Poses mostly aimed towards the comic artist audience (solo poses with gun, sword, flying, fist-fighting, poses with cape), though there are other, more mundane poses such as lifting, sitting cross-legged, smoking, drinking, etc. Comes with Mac/PC compatible CD-ROM.

Buddy Scalera has put out books like this before, the PoseFile series, previously released by Antarctic Press. Some included CD-ROMs, others did not. These books are also useful, but like the Mark Simon book, seriously suffer from low quality black and white half-tone reproduction. People and Poses, on the other hand, takes advantage of full colour reproduction and provides artists with a much better reference for muscles and posing. I really appreciate the fight and action poses - while it's possible the others could be referenced after much googling, these particular photos are very clear and would otherwise be difficult to reference without extraneous clothing interfering with a clear reading of the pose. The $32.99 CDN purchase is all the much sweeter as one has a chance to check out the cd-rom, which contains all of the photos from the book plus all of the photos from the photo shoots that didn't make it to the book but are still useful, additional photos featuring the close up handling of handguns, a few basic martial arts poses, etc. The book contains somewhere in the range of about 500 photos - the CD-ROM contains at least twice that.

People and Poses isn't without its faults - one thing I enjoyed about Scalera's Pose File series was that it featured each pose from a set number of angles. While the photos in People and Poses are often dynamic, they do not show off the pose from each angle as much as his previous books did. Additionally, while the male models are featured in form-fitting shorts that allow for clear visual reading of the poses, the female models wear form fitting shorts and tank tops (as opposed to sports/atheletic bra), which covers up much of the abdominal area - so abdominal musculature for the women is few and far between.

Perspective! For Comic Book Artists by David Chelsea

174 page, black and white presentation, with occasional red highlights.

The book takes the reader through the basics of 1, 2 and 3 point perspective, and is presented in a comicbook format similar to Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics. In graphic format, the author takes his pupil 'Mugg' along on a lesson on the technical aspects as well as many applications of perspective.

Chelsea's book is extensive in its depth, and read as a comic book makes much sense. His demonstrations are accurate and explanations are quite accessible from a reader's point of view.

However, I feel the book suffers in that it is a comic book and no longer a reference book, even though it is split up in to chapters. Because the entire book is in a graphic format, there is no immediate visual hierarchy that a reader might be able to pick up on if they were just flipping through and needed a quick reference. Chelsea's book does wonders for the understanding of perspective, but is not the best perspective book out there for quick reference.

Graphic Artist's Guild Pricing and Ethical Guidelines Handbook

317 pages, black and white. Mostly textual information about common practices within the illustration and graphic design industry, whether freelance or work for hire. Includes sample contracts, pricing information based on various industries, copyright considerations, etc.

Last published in 2003, this book is a tad out of date, but still presents information pertinent for most artists and designers. In particular, if you live in the USA, it has information on almost all the situations you are liable to come across from a copyright/moral rights standpoint, suggests working policies, explains industry standards and common practices.

The book could use an update - while it does touch on some electronic publishing, the bulk of the book is concerned with graphic design and illustration for the print market. While the print market is still significant, it is also important to note that electronic media is becoming more and more important, and the book doesn't touch very much on the topic except to suggest some basic entry level pricing. From a comics point of view, the book also doesn't say very much except to mention the fact that most work in the industry is on a work-for-hire basis (which is not completely true). I've also found the size and thickness of the book rather cumbersome - it's rather tall and narrow, but pretty thick page-wise, making for awkward reading.

Supplimentary Reading:

Starting Your Career as a Freelance Illustrator or Graphic Designer... - A much smaller volume that focuses on the actual logistics of entering the industry. Contains useful info on setting up a portfolio, making contacts, setting up financial plans, pricing, marketing, etc.

Hopefully this is of use to someone. Please feel free to respond or add to this list as necessary.