3 stars. I'm not sure When i looked at this book, i thought it was cool and it could teach me a lots of things. But when i received it, i notice its kinda for advanced students. I'm a beginner and trying to study the anatomy of the body. I'm not sure if its good or bad, but if you are a advanced student you should know it. I'm still keeping it.
Great for any thought process When I was trying to learn how to draw when I was in high school, this was the book to finally explain muscles and human structure to me in a way that I could easily draw from memory.
I am an amateur artist, and I don't draw very often. So when I do get bitten by the creative bug, I find my skills have dramatically declined. I use this book the most to get my brain back into the technical aspects quickly. He has a lot of different ways to think of the human form, plane (my favorite), mechanical equivalent, muscular, and skeletal, all of which quickly get me back to where I was years ago.
However, the number of examples is lacking, so I would recommend having a few other sources around.
I have other anatomy books, and I never use them, sometimes I try, thinking that I better get my money's worth out of them, and inevitably I go back to Bridgman's work because it concisely tells the artist all the essentials, so that we can quit studying and start creating.
Never Equaled This was the second drawing book I'd ever bought, after Buscema's "How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way" -- which is where I first stumbled across Bridgeman's name. Buscema's book, which is fine for beginners, did well to point toward Bridgeman, for further study.
Bridgeman's books are a wealth of information on classical drawing, giving the student an understanding of the mechanics of the figure, necessary whether drawing from life, or imagination. Artists of all sorts can apply the principles Bridgeman teaches. Bridgeman doesn't show us pretty drawings, but instead, the underlying anatomy and basic shapes that give a good drawing it's substance and weight.
I bought this book back when I was in junior high school and now am considerably older and a published artist. I still find this and other Bridgeman books continuously rewarding of further study.
The only drawing books I would rate nearly as high, are those of Andrew Loomis, though personally, I think Bridgeman is better on structure, while Loomis' books cover more of the practicalities of illustration and focus more on surface drawing (though both teacher/authors are miles above others in showing the strong fundamentals of drawing) -- unfortunately very little of Loomis' teachings remain in print -- probably due to some misguided notion that they're "dated". Bridgeman escapes this by adhering to the classical and timeless.
Buy the book, already.
The QUALITY is here, but the QUANTITY of illustrations is missing. "Bridgman's Life Drawing"--by George B. Bridgman
Beginning books on figure drawing are published every year, almost as though there was, by some insane principle, a national shortage of art instruction. Many of these books have fantastical claims by reviewers, like: "MUST BUY"...or ...."GREATEST BOOK EVER"....and similar remarks, many of which are supported by ....maybe two sentences to justify the glowing comments. Some readers will give a book glowing reviews because they have bought the book, without a comparison to other works on the same subject. I've always found it better to study the longer reviews carefully to see if there's something worthwhile to know about the book.
There are some books published nearly 50 years ago that are better than any published since. Bridgeman's book I one that was once one of the best in the CLASSICAL TRADITION.
Bridgman's book is available as a reprint of an original 1924 edition, so it needs to be noted that the book is "dated". It is a good book, by 1924 standards, and it is not expensive in it's paperback editions, so if you can afford it, buy it anyway.
It is important to compare the illustrations inside with some of the books offered today. Thus we may observe that newer books are not always better, and in fact, today the student must fight through an insane abundance of mediocre drawing books. That is why considering Bridgeman is a good idea.
There many good "human puppet" illustrations in the CLASSICAL TRADITION of block figures and so on, and his illustrations are instructive; but I've looked at older books, and generally, 75 years ago, the publishers were selfish when it came to putting lots of illustrations in the books. Whatever the reason, Bridgeman's book does not contain the abundance of illustrations that one can find in some other drawing books.
I'm happy to own my Bridgman, and it's a good asset if you've not looked at drawing books published before the computer era.
What can I say? Everythings been said. Get this book, copy the drawings, look back at it whenever you're having a problem.
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