Human Anatomy Made Amazingly Easy

Rating:
Summary: This book will be good for you if...
Review: ...You are an artist who is looking to draw more realistic human figures. I've only recently purchased this book, but already I can tell that it's a wonderful resource for someone like me. I've been drawing for years, but have never studied human anatomy or figure drawing. I was looking for a way to make my human figures more life-like and realistic, and I think this book is the key.

The author assumes that you already know how to draw, at least as far as making lines and shading. His examples are all done in pencil, though I intend to convert his lessons to a digital medium, which I think will translate nicely. It is really more of a quick resource book, with a lot of examples, breakdowns, and illustrations to help you visualize your figure. There's not a lot of text that bogs it down, just illustrations with simple explanations.

The only criticism I have is that Hart uses the male figure, especially the face, throughout most of the book. It would have been nice to see more female faces divided into steps, just for reference.

But all in all, 'Human Anatomy Made Amazingly Easy' is perfect for the intermediate artist who doesn't have the patience to wade through pages and pages of traditional anatomy, and is looking for a way to enhance what they already know about the human figure, though even beginners will find useful information on the building of the human body in two dimensions.

Rating:
Summary: A great resource
Review: Chris Hart"s book HUMAN ANATOMY MADE AMAZINGLY EASY is a invaluable resource to artists who need to know anatomical landmarks. Chris provides great illustrations and guidelines to strengthen one's knowledge of anatomy without over complication. Applying this helpful guide to any individual's study of anatomy can only strengthen the rendering of the figure and enhance individual style and expression. A great book.

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Summary: I wish I had had this book in childhood!
Review: Christopher Hart's book can be an incredibly good way to begin one's study of anatomy. He describes everything VERY simply...for example the difference in the curvature of the male & female forehead, and the relative thickness of the knuckle parts of the hand. I do not think that this book is meant to be used as the be-all, end-all of one's study of anatomy. But it is extremely readable and makes many significant points that stick in your mind very quickly.

I REALLY wish I had had it in childhood, when I drew & drew & was wishing for instruction. I think that once one has absorbed this book, one is better primed for taking on other, more extensive anatomy books without becoming overwhelmed.

But ultimately, it comes down to your own personal learning style. Some people would prefer to start right away with a very artful and extremely detailed approach. This book is more shorthand, but actually covers many essentials. And for me, this is the book that makes further study accessible. Remember that one could always go deeper & deeper into the study of anatomy, many artists spent their lives on it.

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Summary: Does the job admirably
Review: First, I would like to say that this book is aimed at the non-professional, amateur artist who needs to learn correct anatomy. Otherwise, it wouldn't be a 'how to' book. As an amateur artist myself, I have looked for a book that would help me understand the basic anatomy of the human body.

With 520 muscles in the body, it seemed a little overkill to have descriptions of all of them - even the ones no one sees. Despite what some other reviewers have said, I personally have found Mr. Hart's book very useful and educational. There is nothing in the book that would cause anyone to pursue any particular style. There are no 'style' teachings in the book. Merely good depictions of musculature, skeletal structure and close-ups of problem areas for the average artist struggling with anatomy. I have reviewed quite a few anatomy books, some of them quite in-depth, and decided on this one for its ease of use and practicality.

The drawings are very useful and the order in which the material is presented is well thought out. Granted, Mr. Hart is a cartoonist by trade, but he does know his anatomy. This book is easy to understand and makes anatomy a joy.

If you want something more in-depth, buy 'Gray's Anatomy'. If you want something that will teach you the basics of anatomy without anatomical overload, do yourself a favor and buy a copy of 'Human Anatomy Made Amazingly Easy'

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Summary: An excellent and concise anatomy primer
Review: Hart omits a lot of the detail found in many other anatomy texts. But If you've found other artists' anatomy books to be too technical or light on practical advice then give this book a read. It strips human anatomy down to what's truly relevant for figure drawing and throws in many useful nuggets for checking your work. The result is very accessible and useful for budding figure artists.

I almost didn't pick this book up because I haven't got much out of the (few) other Christopher Hart books I've read. I'm glad I gave it a chance. In fact, if I had a friend that wanted to learn figure drawing I would recommend this book as a first pick-up.

Rating:
Summary: A good study on the human body
Review: Human Anatomy Made Amazingly Easy is a very good exposition of human anatomy for the illustrator. It includes sections on skeletal structure, musculature, flexation, and how various poses are affect the illustrating of a human figure. This is not a book on how to draw a likeness of someone in particular but a good study on the human body and a foundation of its structure and illustration. If you are looking to draw a likeness then it is still valuable as a basic understanding of anatomy but there are better book choices. While the book is filled with illustrations that are very helpful they often fall just a little short of being as useful as they could be. For example, when drawing the human face it has some good metrics such as noting that when drawing the eyes the distance from one side of the head to the other is approximately the same as five times the width of the eyes, the eyes are approximately in the middle of the head and similar items. Yet it fails to not other very basic items. While it shows that the head is not circular it does not provide any metric for how tall it is in relation to width. Other books note that it is generally about 1.5 times taller than wide. In short it does a good job with what it has in it but just isn't quite as complete as it should be. Still, the book is a good buy for those who are interested in learning underlying anatomy in order to create accurate and detailed illustrations.

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Summary: It would help if the author could actually draw well.
Review: I am sorry to be so harsh, but the first illustrations I noticed in this book were of the face. And they were BAD.

Awkward and amatuerish.

There was one detailed illustration of an eye (showcased because I assume the author was proud of the drawing) and it was *wretched*. The eye was creepy-looking, the iris looked loopy, the pupil was lopsided and not round. (Irises and pupils are supposed to be *round*.) Come on. There is no excuse for an author of a drawing book to not understand this basic thing about the human eye. There's *especially* no excuse when this artist is writing a BOOK about drawing people! Give me a break. The other drawings of the face were also pretty horrid. Oh, I suppose they are marginally OK if you want to draw comic books, but *not* OK if you want to understand the actual anatomy and structure of the head.

I don't doubt that there is some useful information about anatomy in this book. But I was completely turned off by the BAD drawings. So, only one star from me.

There are plenty of other good anatomy books out there, written by artists who actually can draw well. (Burne Hogarth, George Bridgman, or Louis Gordon, for starters.) Try one of their books instead.

Rating:
Summary: Good reference for the body
Review: I found this book to be a very good reference for everything below the neck. There are a few places where the drawing look a bit off, and also where the figures look very geometric from Hart's shading. The feet section wasn't particularly helpful. I learned more drawing my own foot, than trying to understand what he was teaching.

The head section, although containing helpful hints, seemed rather complex, compared to what I've been taught in life drawing classes. Also, I don't think there was enough time spent on drawing the head at an angle upwards or downwards, or even tilted to one side. There were a few drawings, which weren't very well done, and some unhelpful tips, but nothing of any value.

Overall, I'd give the head section a three, and the section on the body a five, but it's also not the most fabulous book on artistic anatomy. It is a valuable reference, but don't let it be your only one.

Rating:
Summary: Just ok
Review: I found this book to be rather disappointing. It focuses on comic book style illustration which isn't bad in itself, but the book teaches almost nothing usefull about propotions, muscles, the skeletal struture, or how these affect what you draw.

If your looking for an anatomy book along the same lines as this one(comic book style), I would recommend "How To Draw Manga: Bodies and Anatomy".

Rating:
Summary: A bellow average anatomy book
Review: I have no idea why I bot this book. I thought it was going to be a good anatomy book at the least. Basically it's very cartoony, think Titan A.E. This person can't draw so well either, A normal Figure drawer is better. He seams to draw some people too stubby on the legs and the crotch area too low on women. He can't draw manga style either, he draws them to cheap or to stiff. The artist needs to go back to school and do some studies on human anatomy. It also looks like he needs some art lessons too. I would have given this book 2 stars and a half but I decided to round down. Basically as a figure drawer I would be embarrassed to draw like this person, I think he should study lighting, photography, Animation(So his characters wont be so stiff), and figure drawing. Basically if you want a real anatomy book I suggest you buy "Dynamic Anatomy" by Burne Hogarth and don't make the mistake like I did on buying this book.