Animal Anatomy for Artists: The Elements of Form

Rating:
Summary: Essential for Serious Animal Artists
Review: Having loved Goldfinger's book on human anatomy for years, I purchased his book on animal anatomy as soon as I found out it was available. I was not disappointed. The word "essential" gets used a lot on this site and for that reason I hesitated to use it, but this book truly deserves it.

Ellenberger's book is, to my knowledge, the only one that even compares to this one. Goldfinger's illustrations are not as utterly gorgeous as Ellenberger's, but the are very fine nonetheless, and his conceptual approach is much, much clearer and richer. Also, the range of species covered is much greater. It even has a portion devoted to the artistic anatomy of rhinos (Rhinos even!).

In reading the reviews for his work on human anatomy, I noticed that a few reviewers called even that rather massive work insufficiently thorough. Truth is, of course, that no single book can possibly cover all that is useful and interesting about even human artistic anatomy, let alone the rest of the animal kingdom. This book does a better job than any I'm aware of, and also contains an excellent bibliography for further research.

The most important thing in learning to draw animals well is lots of time in the studio and, above everything else, lots of time sketching in the field. Good references are a very close second, however, and I can think of no better reference than this.