Posted April 22, 2009 by jwebster45206
Following up on my post from several months ago on Fun with a Pencil, I’d like to present the quintessential Andrew Loomis book, Figure Drawing for All It’s Worth. It’s hard to describe how good this book really is. I went to art school, and studied design drawing, fashion drawing, and fine art figure drawing, and I don’t think any instructor taught me as much as I learned from this book. (True, I still have a lot of room for improvement, but that’s another post someday.)
It’s a near-perfect explanation of all the key concepts you need to master to illustrate the human form. He starts with the basics of proportion, then he provides a great explanation of anatomy as it relates to art. Later in the book, he shows you how to light the figure, how to construct poses, and how to deal with balance and movement.
He also provides a great selection of samples of finished drawings, many in the pinup style.
If you only read one figure drawing book, this is the one to read.
Posted October 18, 2008 by jwebster45206
I was looking through my drawing books earlier this week, and I came across a really old book that was handed down to me by a relative. I remember when I was in school I thought it was a great resource, so I started looking through it again. It’s called Figure Drawing for All It’s Worth by Andrew Loomis. I looked at it again, and it’s still awesome. It shows an author with a talent for teaching drawing without the pretentiousness that I remember from instructors in art school. His work also shows an appreciation for the classic pinup, and that attracts me.
So I started digging around online and discovered that Loomis wrote a total of 6 books. All are out of print, considered rare, and usually sell for $80+. But the good news is that they have been out of print for so long, that they are considered public domain. So I looked a little deeper and found that I could download them as e-books, although some were difficult to find. I thought I would clean up the pdf’s and re-post here along with some short reviews.
The first of Loomis’s books is called Fun with a Pencil. And it lives up to its name. It’s written in a light, approachable tone, and it’s a short and relatively easy read. But when you dig in and start looking in detail at all the sample illustrations and measurements, you’ll see that this is really detailed stuff. He covers all the basics needed for good drawing, and he makes it easy to understand.
Whether you are working digitally or with traditional media, in 2d or 3d, a solid understanding of art theory will go a long way to helping you make the most of your abilities. I can’t imagine a better basic resource than this book.
I’ll be posting more of Loomis’s books in the coming weeks, so stay tuned. For now, click the link below to download:
