Figure Drawing for All It's Worth (2025)

Alien Citizen

56 reviews33 followers

June 18, 2008

This is awesome. Okay, it's from the 50s, includes its share of -isms from the day and some of that overexburance of mine comes from the fact that this is available free of charge online (and what's better for a wanna-be struggling artist?). But the mathematician in me is also just bowled over by the attention to proportion ratios and visual guides for such (is it a freudian slip that I kept accidentally writing the letter k instead of h in the word such?). I am quite sure that there are many other books that will delve into the fine details of ratios and proportions and tell you the magic numbers you need to make you hero look...heroic and everyone else dumpy, fashionable or whatever fits your fancy. However, I stopped looking for a basic art textbook after I found this. My characters may not all need to look like the 50s pin-up women or Arian comic book men, but as long as you have a great foundation, you can go anywhere/draw anything. Afterall, no book is going to teach you to be creative and think outide the box/book.

Jaime Guzman

414 reviews1 follower

March 9, 2018

Comic book & animation proffesionals seem to bring up the same names when they recommend books that are essential for an artist's library and those names are George Bridgeman, Burne Hogarth, & Andrew Loomis.
Alex Ross was made famous for his life like paintings depicting iconic comic book heroes and has stated that Andrew Loomis was his biggest influence in art. The influence on Alex Ross was so much that not only is he an alumni of the art school in which Loomis was once an instructor he was also involved in adding text, producing, and printing Andrew Loomis' unfinished 5th and final book "I'd Love to Draw".
"Drawing For All It's Worth" is filled with beautiful drawings and detailed instruction on both the male and female form which include mannequin frames, proportions, foreshortening, movement, bones & muscles, light & shadow, weight & balance and clothing & drapery.
Highly recommended.

Michelle Curie

950 reviews440 followers

August 23, 2020

"Everything about your pictures is, and should be, a little of you. They will be a reflection of your knowledge, your experience, your observation, and your thinking."

Considered a classic in the field of figure drawing, this was a great and exciting thing to lay my hands on. Andrew Loomis was an American illustrator who is still considered relevant amongst artists even today, as the knowledge he shared in his instructional books is outstanding.

Figure Drawing for All It's Worth (4)

What Loomis postulates above anything else is the understanding of the human figure. You can't draw what you don't know, so it's essential to take your time to actually study your subject. Where are the muscles, why do certain body parts move the way they do? What do shadows look like and how does it affect the figure if you change perspectives?

Figure Drawing for All It's Worth (5)

The book covers a variety of subjects related to the human figure, from basic anatomy to perspective (briefly) from the reclining and moving figure to specific body parts like eyes and hands. The chapters are all introduced with explanatory texts and the drawings themselves, with which the reader is encouraged to practice, are annotated. I thoroughly enjoyed Loomis's approach and how though this book he encouraged paying attention above anything else.

The book is directed at people who work in the creative field and want to make a living off art and while Loomis's does give insights into the industry, these have been long outdated. As someone who works as an illustrator, this was fun to read, as it made me realise how much has actually changed over the course of the last few decades, especially through digitalisation, but it was still enjoyable reading the according passages, even though they now feel more like history lessons than actual industry insight.

As with any skill, the more time you spend practicing and nourishing it, the better you will get. Reading this alone won't make you a master of the subject, but picking up a pencil alongside will at least be a start. This book was, surprisingly, motivating as well as helpful. I will keep this one close.

    art coffee-table-books

Sam

343 reviews15 followers

April 11, 2019

Andrew Loomis. If you've ever looked into studying how to draw or improve your skills, odds are, this name came up, and for good reason. This guy is one of the masters, and it's a privilege to be able to be instructed by him, albeit, indirectly, but still, I'm grateful that he opted to share his knowledge.

To that end, I would argue that this book is not necessarily for beginners, but be mindful I'm quite biased as to where one should start with art. If you've NEVER drawn before, never picked up a pencil, never created anything art related, this book isn't for you. However, if you've dabbled a bit, found an interest in the figure, and want to expand that knowledge, then this book could be great for you!

Important note: this is NOT a "how to draw" book in the sense of step-by-step instruction. Rather, this is a REFERENCE book, for the purpose of study. (Just another reason why this isn't a 'beginner' book.)

Some of the content, for me at least, are addressing things I might know, but with a new perspective or wording, or perhaps work as great reminders. Other things in this book are new and fantastic to study. He really does break things down, and I appreciate the level of detail he goes into.

With that said, however, there are things lacking in this book. In more complicated sections, he doesn't give as much information as I'd like. I feel a little left hanging at parts, but luckily that was rather rare. (To be fair, again, my prior knowledge might bias me here.)

And, do I really need to say it for a book that came out in the 1920s? It's...kind of sexist. You, as the artist he addresses in this book, and the general "artist", is always referred to as a male. The entire book is also based around the stereotypical Western ideal of what a man and woman should look like. Men are all super fit, tall, etc. And he goes out of his way to state that when drawing women, to always make sure the they are shorter than the men. (And in almost all of the examples of women drawn, they are wearing high heels!, which affects their height, muscles, posture, and how they are drawn. Men are barefoot, to compare.) Little nit-picks, for sure, but still irk-some.

Along with the ideal body types, that's basically all that's shown in this book. No variation in body weights, race, heights, musculature, etc. The same male and female throughout the entire book. (There are bits at the end with one or two age variations, but no detailed instruction like the ideal forms.) Don't get me wrong, you can certainly apply what you learned to other forms, but it does still leave you feeling restricted, especially for newer artists, who might not have a greater understanding of how to do that.

Granted, he is aware of that issue:

Slimness in figure drawing has become almost a cult. What the artists of the Middle Ages considered voluptuous appeal would be plain fat today. Nothing will kill a sale so quickly as fatness or shortness. [...] If my figures seem absurdly tall, remember that I am giving you the conception accepted as a standard.

While he mentions other body types, it's quite clear he designed this book to go for what best sold at the time of publication. In fact, he does toss in some information of the business end for the time period (which, of course, is less relevant for nowadays). Even still, I would've appreciated at least a single depiction of something different. :/

Another nit-pick of mine was the ratio of male to female artworks. There were a large number more female figures in this than male, and as an artist who enjoys drawing both, it was unfortunate to see fewer more completed/finished studies/figures of men.

All-in-all, this book is easily accessible, so for sure it's an easy addition to your collection, and despite these complaints, one worth getting. (Plus, if you combine this book with other resources, I think it's a really valuable asset.) Having gone through this book, I can definitely say that my art has improved because of it, so I definitely advocate getting your hands on it!

The term "talent" needs clarifying. To any[one] who has slaved to acquire skill in [their] art, it is most irritating to have [their] ability referred to as a "gift." Perhaps there is one genius in a hundred years or more who can achieve perfection by "divine inspiration." I have never met such a [person], and I do not know any successful artist who did not get there by the sweat of [their] brow. Again, I do not know of a single successful artist who does not continue to work hard.

[...] Talent, in its underclothes, is a capacity for a certain kind of learning. Talent is an urge, an insatiable desire to excel, coupled with idefatigable powers of concentration and production. Talent and ability are like sunlight and a truck garden. The sun must be there to begin with, but, added to it, there must be plowing, planting, weeding, howing, destroying of parasites--all have to be done before your garden will yield produce.


Preach.

    4-star art-related nonfiction

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Nathalia

19 reviews

December 10, 2021

This is awesome. Okay, it's from the 50s, includes its share of -isms from the day and some of that overexburance of mine comes from the fact that this is available free of charge online (and what's better for a wanna-be struggling artist?). But the mathematician in me is also just bowled over by the attention to proportion ratios and visual guides for such (is it a freudian slip that I kept accidentally writing the letter k instead of h in the word such?). I am quite sure that there are many other books that will delve into the fine details of ratios and proportions and tell you the magic numbers you need to make you hero look...heroic and everyone else dumpy, fashionable or whatever fits your fancy. However, I stopped looking for a basic art textbook after I found this. My characters may not all need to look like the 50s pin-up women or Arian comic book men, but as long as you have a great foundation, you can go anywhere/draw anything. Afterall, no book is going to teach you to be creative and think outide the box/book.

Figure Drawing for All It's Worth (2025)
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