Dynamic Figure Drawing
by Burne Hogarth
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Book Summary Information
Author: Burne HogarthBrand: Watson Guptill
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1996-08-01
ISBN: 0823015777
Number of pages: 176
Publisher: Watson-Guptill
Book Reviews of Dynamic Figure Drawing
Book Review: Overrated
Summary: 2 Stars
I can not believe anyone has ever learned to draw the human figure from this book. Even people who give it good reviews generally mention that they've had some prior class experience or say that the book is an advanced work. I'll go further and say that this is the very worst book any beginner could possibly pick up. Bottom line is that the explanatory text and the content of the instructional material itself make this book of limited value to an intermediate artist and utterly useless to the beginner.
As others have mentioned, Hogarth writes in pretentious academese which is impenetrable to English speakers. Heck, let's just call a spade a spade and say that he's a lousy writer. I read this book before taking any art classes and was so baffled by it that I thought Hogarth must be explaining some really advanced stuff -the holy of holies of figure drawing technique. No, actually, it's just the same material you'd learn by attending any figure drawing 101 class or by reading any of the other probably several dozen books on the subject. Looking through the book again, some years into my art classes, I found that it made sense, but only because I already knew most of what he was trying to explain. It was of little use to me then because I already had my own way of doing it at that point. I almost wonder, looking at all the 5 stars reviews, if Hogarth's hideous writing doesn't impart his books with some sort of esoteric mystique to these people.
Other reviewers have pointed out that Hogarth does not present a structured method of learning to draw the human figure,and that the book's content is presented as random tips which fall under the topic of a given chapter's title. This by itself disqualifies the book for beginner use. Essentially, the only factor in figure drawing that Hogarth seriously discusses is foreshortening, but his scattershot treatment and poor presentation detract from the book's usefulness here, also. Anatomy comes in the form of a few random tips. Hogarth treats the human body as a lump of connected muscles with little discussion of underlying structure. Nowhere in the book does he even show the actual construction of the skull much less the friggin hipbone. Formal perspective is left alone. There's no way a reader would know how to correctly scale two characters standing at different distances in his drawing. Likewise, there's hardly a word about light and shade. I see little mention of line quality or draping clothing over the figure. Hogarth covers some of these topics in his other books, but Loomis, to name one author, gives a serious treatment of all of the above in almost the same number of pages as this book in his figure drawing book.
Summing up:
This book is written in an atrocious style and is useless to beginners or anyone who is not specifically looking for help with foreshortening. 2 stars for Hogarth's impressive, grotesque drawings and the said discussion on foreshortening. I'd personally recommend Robert Hale's "Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters" in lieu of this title. It gives you a good overview of the most important aspects of drawing plus an education in art history. Hale's analysis and instructional commentary is a pleasure to read. Though it's out of print, the Loomis book I mentioned earlier, "Figure Drawing for All It's Worth" is an excellent gem of a book that covers all the angles of figure drawing and a lot more besides in a concise, simple way. Copies of it are floating around on the internet but, tellingly, there are still plenty of people willing to fork over wads of cash for a second hand copy.
Summary of Dynamic Figure Drawing
This powerful book offers a systematic approach to rendering action figures that seem to leap off the page.Figure Drawing Books
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