The human machine where is my book?,,, i never reviced. or Tell to me, where can i call or send a email, to ask about it.
Helpful but Constructive Anatomy is much better I've been a fan of George Bridgman's books ever since I bought Constructive Anatomy, and followed it with the 100 hands book. I found the Human Machine and ordered it because I wanted to see more references in regards to how the body movies. I'm not severely disappointed but I suppose I was expecting a bit more. I was hoping for more full body references which would separate the book from Constructive Anatomy. Unfortunately it didn't deliver.
I did find the information in this book highly useful, but I have to agree that the print quality of the illustrations can be frustrating for some people. I am not bothered by it because I want something that is loose and interpretive, but explanatory. The problem with many art books is that they get so detailed in anatomy an artist trying to learn life drawing isn't learning to interpret the information but simply copies it.
You need illustrations like this to help your juices flow and act more creatively. If everything is drawn out for you in explicit detail how do you learn to fill in the gaps and experiment? That is why I found Bridgman's books more valuable to me than the super detailed anatomy books. His methods of construction have helped me out greatly in learning to flesh out my figures from stick forms.
The other value of this book is it's price. Why waste 30 dollars or more when these books are usually 10 dollars or less? My other book is becoming worn from extreme use, but at least I know I can easily replace the book at a low cost!
Its what I expected In reality, this book didn't teach me anything I didn't know already. The illustrations may be handy for someone who hasn't had much experience with body-mechanics, bending, joints, etc. This book was neither outstanding nor worthless, thus my bland 3 star review...
Bridgman's The Human Machine is *exceedingly* ambitious in its scope, and could have been exceedingly successful to match, were it not for its *one* pretty obviously glaring problem: these drawings are exceedingly sketchy!
Originally published in 1939, Bridgman passed away in 1943. He was approximately 75 when he made this- possibly a factor in the lack of clarity throughout. If only he had made this at the height of his career(!)- This book is a perfect example of 'what could have been'.
Many people revere this work in spite of all this. It may not compare at 1st glance with the slick, computer-aided & enhanced books of today, but if you're willing to get past the obvious sketchiness here you'll find a veritable gold mine of visual information. Take the overall layout & structure for example. In my opinion, this book's presentation easily rivals that of his more polished & refined work- Constructive Anatomy, which has a more awkward interplay between its words & pictures. The Human Machine moves rapidly & logically, building the figure with simple lines first, then showing how bones & muscles interact with eachother & with the figure's simplified outline, to give an impression of the whole figure & its parts, all at once in a few detailed pages. It's this *overall* conception of the human figure that appeals to the many who give this work a chance. Bridgman applies all this to the figure's actions & mechanisms as well- it's not just about bones & muscles here, like so many anatomy books tend to be. And Bridgman's lines, though sketchy here, still tend to be an accurate record of the figure, worthy of study. He *usually* chooses his lines with the precision & beauty we've come to expect. But the overall lack of visual clarity here hurts; leaving this genius idea still somewhat unrealized.
Overall: The basic *point* of Bridgman's Human Machine is to help people to draw figures more convincingly, and from memory. To a great degree, at least in my opinion, this book still succeeds in a very effective way...
P.S. This book is definitely *not* for beginners! Only *Intermediate-level* artists need apply.
Poor Drawings, Poor Printing, Save Your Money I bought 16 different Anatomy Drawing books and this is the only one that I actually felt compelled to give away. When the other people say the drawings are faded and sketchy that is an understatement. This is not a good book to learn by and it was not very effective in the design approach. Your much better off with some Dynamic Figure Drawing, Dynamic Hands, Dynamic Wrinkles, Artistic Anatomy, Anatomy for Artists, An Atlas of Anatomy For Artists, etc etc etc. Some of the other books I listed are almost the same price and are 10 times better. Its night and day between this book and the other Anatomy Drawing books.
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