www.artist-reference.com

I should begin by confessing that as a co-owner of the website under review you might feel that I’m biased and incentivized to present the site in the best possible way regardless of its real quality. However, as an artists myself I helped set up and choose the content for this site that I knew I needed and thought was lacking on the net before. I’ll try to be as objective as possible and I hope you find these remarks useful to you in your career as a student and artist of human anatomy.

My Review:

Again, this is basically a sister site of female-anatomy-for-artist.com.  The major difference is that this one focuses on male muscles and figures while also providing poses including groups, some of which have women. The main idea  is to provide a big database of male anatomical photos in various poses shot from various angles. It makes you feel like  you have your own live studio model at home to base your drawings on. I believe this is a great way to learn to draw the human body as well as a source of royalty free photos for art creation.

There are currently about  62,000 (sixty-two thousand) photos on the Website. About 80% of the models are nude (the rest are clothed in a wide range of formal and casual attire). There are male models of all ages and body types. Old men, bodybuilders, skinny and fat models. You can find all types of poses of daily activities from making a call to fantasy and sci-fi fighting poses with various weapons and classical figure drawing and statue poses. Each pose has 8 angle shots which is the best way to see muscles from different angles and helps enormously with statue and clay modeling.

Quality:

Most of the photos are 3000×4000 pixels, thats about 12Mpx. The most recent updates I found are 3744×5616 pixels (21Mpx). This is roughly twice the full HD resolution so more than enough to study anatomical form as well as to use in art as, for example, the fantasy illustrations by Dave Seeley. Be sure to save the photos in our gallery so you can see the full resolution. Click on the thumbnail and then right click on the full screen picture and choose “save as”.

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

Price:

There are several price options, starting from 23 EUR per month for a hobby membership. There is a download limit of 250 photos per day so you will get 250×30 = 7500 photos for this price. That’s about 326 photos per 1 EUR. A good deal if you ask me J

License:

The hobby license allows you to download and use the photos for your personal use, for example studying, non-commercial art creation, etc. You are allowed to showcase your works but not to sell them. The commercial membership license allows you to use photos according to a royalty free stock license, which basically means for any purpose commercial or non-commercial except for reselling the original photo references. You can use it for commercial illustration, art, etc. and sell your artworks. The commercial membership starts at 38 EUR per month.

Short summary:

+ the biggest and best priced photo database of male anatomy photos in the world

- great software for rotating the models in 3D is part of the more expensive premium membership

My opinion:

Great value.. 

You can buy membership here:

www.human-anatomy-for-artist.com

Popularity: 86% [?]

Dynamic Anatomy Book Cover

Burne Hogart’s Dynamic Anatomy was my first anatomy book. I got it 20 years ago, at the age of 13. Since that time I have collected many more anatomy books and “how to” books, however when I recently decided to finally start drawing I chose this one.

The reason is that this book has the cleanest and easiest to read illustrations together with enough detail to draw perfect comic heroes. That’s probably the reason the latest updated edition has high praise from such comic artists as Todd McFarlane, the creator of Spawn.

It has 256 pages and 400 illustrations. The new version also has some previously unpublished pictures and several illustrations are re-done in color, which doesn’t really change anything but it looks nice

Overall I believe this is the best anatomy book to start with if not the absolute best in general if you want to learn male anatomy. On the other hand avoid it if your goal is to learn how to draw women. The few illustrations he has are not very flattering and kind of vague. Another con would be the 52 pages at the beginning about the art history of the human form. Its just my personal opinion but it’s a waste of paper. If I wanted to know something about history I would buy an art history book.

BTW: I am practicing my anatomy skills 2 hours per day and I started with this book. You are welcome to join me on CGtalk.com

Short summary:

+ probably the best anatomy book for comic book artists wanting to draw superheroes

- get another book if you want to learn how to draw women

My opinion:

Fantastic, highly recommended. 

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

You can buy this book on Amazon.com:

www.amazon.com/Dynamic-Anatomy-Expanded-Burne-Hogarth/dp/0823015521

Last time I checked it cost $16.47

Product Description

Praised by critics and teachers alike for more than 40 years, Burne Hogarth’s Dynamic Anatomy is recognized worldwide as the classic, indispensable text on artistic anatomy. Now revised, expanded, and completely redesigned with 75 never-before-published drawings from the Hogarth archives and 24 pages of new material, this award-winning reference explores the expressive structure of the human form from the artist’s point of view.

The 400 remarkable illustrations explain the anatomical details of male and female figures in motion and at rest, always stressing the human form in space. Meticulous diagrams and fascinating action studies examine the rhythmic relationship of muscles and their effect upon surface forms. The captivating text is further enhanced by the magnificent figure drawings of such masters as Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Rodin, Picasso, and other great artists.

Dynamic Anatomy presents a comprehensive, detailed study of the human figure as artistic anatomy. This time-honored book goes far beyond the factual elements of anatomy, providing generations of new artists with the tools they need to make the human figure come alive on paper.

About the Author

Burne Hogarth’s (1911–1996) remarkable career spanned over 60 years. He wore many hats in the worlds of fine art, art education, and art publishing. He is most famous for his internationally syndicated Sunday newspaper color page feature “Tarzan” (1937–1950) and for his illustrated adaptations of the Edgar Rice Burroughs novels Tarzan of the Apes and Jungle Tales of Tarzan. A co-founder of the School of Visual Arts in New York City, Hogarth remains one of the most influential figures in art education today.

Popularity: 46% [?]