Freehand Figure Drawing for Illustrators: Mastering the Art of Drawing from Memory - Book Review

Admittedly, I have not read this whole book, but I have flipped through it and have begun reading it.  From what I have seen and read, I believe this will be quite a helpful book to me as an aspiring illustrator (I have partially illustrated a book before, my mom's Hebrew alphabet book entitled Hebrew: Beginning Your Journey). However, to be a first-rate illustrator, I greatly desire to be able to come up with poses and drawings without having to meticulously copy a photograph.

That's where this book comes in.  It's true that the majority of the poses in the book are dramatic, such as the cover shows, but the proportions, angles, and shapes should help.

The book begins with two and three-point perspective, something which I have never understood well or mastered.  I still need to practice it and reread this section.

Then it moves on to the "glass mannequin," which is, as on the cover, a basically see-through shell of the body.  This is helpful because it allows you to think better about where, say, the arm will come out if partially hidden behind the body.

Then there are the high and low-angle drawings, which are more commonly used in movies or comic books, but could perhaps be useful in a regular book.  I practiced one of them, here, after reading how to draw in the four sections, etc.

It is certainly not perfect, but better than I could have done without this quick book training, and I'm sure would get better with practice and after reading the rest of the book.

There are a few pictures in the book which are quite sensual in nature, showing more than necessary, so I covered them over.

Overall, I'm glad I got this book, though at first I worried that it would be only applicable to those going into animation art or comic books.

A big thank you to bloggingforbooks.com for a review copy of this book!  I was not required to give a positive review.