Artists looking to supplement a live model class or hone their skills from the comfort of home are provided with a solid pictorial guide to the human form in this detailed reference. Nearly 200 crisp photographs portray a diverse group of male and female models from a variety of angles in 52 classically inspired poses. Precise lighting reveals otherwise hidden areas of the models and illustrates rich shadowing and tone, while an anatomical study, inspired by da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, presents detailed proportional references for each model. The accompanying CD-ROM contains nearly 1,500 high-resolution, full-color images, allowing artists to zoom in on challenging areas such as the hands, feet, and face, or project the photos to life-size proportions. Nine poses with overhead views are also exclusively available on the CD-ROM.
nice reference This book is full of great reference. But don't do what I did...there are two versions, one that comes with the extra cd of poses, and one without. Double check and make sure you know which one you are ordering, I didn't realize that I ordered the book without the companion disk until it arrived.
Excellent Tool For Artists! This Book/CD combo is excellent. The interactive web site is also excellent, and greatly extends the book/CD. The poses in this package are from, "classic inspiration." This package is as close to having an actual model in your studio as you could ever hope to achieve. Using the photos on the CD has some advantages over a live model: you won't get slapped for getting too close.
The quality of the book is good. It is thin, hardbound, and lays flat. The pages are gloss stock and hold the ink well. The photos in the book are large enough to use from the book, but the primary purpose of the book is to index the photo sets on the CD. Only four angles of each pose are included in the book. The printed photos are somewhat darker than the photos on the CD. All of the photos on the CD are in standard JFIF (JPG) format, 400 - 600 MB each. The CD includes a copy of the book, with lower resolution photos, in Portable Document Format (PDF). The book includes a proportional reference grid for two of the models, for use by digital artists.
The photography is very good. The photos are sharp, high resolution, highly detailed, well lighted, from the standard 10 o'clock position. The lighting and detail is consistent throughout all of the camera angles. In one photo set, a strong shadow is cast to the model's right, which is somewhat distracting. The shadow doesn't diminish the detail clarity of the photos, however.
The photo sets of each pose on the CD, (24 photos each), are taken at 15 degree intervals, throughout 360 degrees. Kudos to the models for being able to hold some of those difficult poses so consistently! And kudos to the authors for choosing not to airbrush or blur any of these wonderful photographs.
The models are attractive, well groomed, relaxed, and comfortable. Only the elder gentleman has slightly imperfect extremities, consistent with his age.
A lot of thought and effort went into the creation of this package to make it as useful to an artist as possible, and it very well implemented. I am VERY impressed with this package!
uninspired poses and high price mar good intentions There are so few worthy art model books out there. Every-time a new one appears, it is destined to be purchased through shear lack of competition. Unfortunately, that will be the primary reason to buy this one.
Good art modeling is not limited to being willing to remove your clothing. Good art models are students of body language and motion, no less than a great dancer or actor. Unfortunately, what we have here is a series of static naked people.
On the positive side, the photography is well done which sets this above the dreadful "Pose File" books with their tiny, toneless snapshots.
helpful book I purchased this for my partner who is an artist. The book has a lot of clear photographs that are very helpful. Good lighting and clarity in the photos. Many different positions and types of bodies. I purchased the book with the CD ROM which shows even more angles of the different poses.
cheaper than hiring a live model Since getting this book, I've done several charcoal drawings and it seems to be working out really well. The poses are varied, and easy to mask only a portion of a model (head, upper body, hands, etc). My only suggestion for future books would be to use a spiral binding.
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