Jeff Mellem

Perfect for beginners and those getting frustrated and overwhelmed with other books about firgure drawing

The simplicity of the title got my attention right away. As a self-taught artist in process, I went online to search for the "best books to learn figure drawing" and bought a couple of them. I have that big book of figure drawing by Andrew Loomis, beautiful yet daunting. Truth is, what I really needed was a book to take me by the hand and play the part of the teacher with homework/ exercises. I didn't know that, but while checking this book I realized that this title could have avoided me a lot of frustration when trying to tackle figure drawing for the first time (and maybe I could have started drawing people years ago instead of avoiding the subject altogether)

What makes this book special is that it starts from the simplest representation possible: the stick figure. It then adds just a small amount of complexity to it, enough to get you on the path of improving but not that much that you might feel overwhelmed or "omg, there is no way I can draw THAT from the get go". The other great thing about this book is that it gives you exercises right after each lesson. These rather simple exercise boxes are really useful for self-taught students. They make it easy to know when to stop reading and start practicing. They also tell you what to notice and focus on while practicing.

The simple lessons are grouped in "levels": Armature, Simplified Skeleton, Simplified Volumes, Major Anatomy and Putting it Together. At the end of each chapter (level) there's a checklist with things you should be able to achieve before you can jump to the next level. I found this self assessment extremely helpful for avoiding frustrations and to be more aware of my progress. Most definitely recommended for beginners, self-learners and for those who have tried popular books only to end up feeling overwhelmed and incapable of drawing people (like me). I requested my eArc from NetGalley… (altro)